Monday, January 9, 2017

DriveSlides


DriveSlides is a new extension (created by Matt Miller and Alice Keeler) that allows you to create a Google Slides presentation from a folder of images located on your Google Drive.

In Drive, create a new folder that contains images - they must be image types that work on the web (JPG, PNG, or GIF). Click on the DriveSlides icon in your extension gallery and choose Options. You must set and save the maximum amount of images you want in your presentation. Then go to your Google Drive and open the folder you want to use. Make sure it has some images in it.  Once you have the folder open, the extension will light up (it is grayed out until that point). That means you can use Drive Slides here. Click on the button and all the images in your folder will be dumped into a slide presentation.

A new Slides presentation is created in that same images folder. Once it is finished it will open and you will see all the images in the presentation. Any non-image file in the folder will be ignored.

So, what is this extension good for? Well, you can easily dump images from an event and have an instant presentation. Perhaps you are doing a unit and want images related to the content you are teaching? Easy deal there. Want it to automatically advance and loop so it is constantly playing? Not an issue in Slides!

DriveSlides is an extremely easy way to import a large number of images into a presentation. Once in there, you are free to edit, move, change slide order, etc. I see this as being a huge time saver.  Let's face it - many of us detest the normal slide presentations created from bulleted lists with a standard template. I'd always much rather use images to get my point across and then vocalize my talking points.