Google Drawings Basics Day 4- Working with Images in Drawings & Slides
Day 4 – Inserting Images
When creating a new project using Google Drawings, it is highly likely that an image will need to be inserted into the Drawing. The good news is that many of the tools necessary to work with images can be applied from the “Background & Working With Shapes” lesson on Day 1- Resize, Rotate and Flip. Working with images adds a few more necessary functions like cropping, arranging in layers and more detailed “Format Options”.
In this post, we will go over the common steps kids will need to add images to their Drawings or Slides since they both function basically the same, with very few exceptions. This is where my kids get excited and may be tempted to open up a new tab to find a random image out on the “Wild West” of a raw Google Search without regard for Copyright Laws or Fair Use consideration. Needless to say, I discourage my kids from doing this and spend a few days reviewing how to find images without copyright restrictions.
Copyright & Fair Use
It would be well worth your time and effort to teach kids about this very important topic of finding safe images for them to use in their work. Here is a link to a complete set of Slides that I use to teach my students. Working With Images- By Robin Limpert
Adding Images: Insert, Edit, Crop, Rotate, Flip, Arrange
Below is a 5-minute Step-by-step video demonstrating exactly how to add and edit basic images in Google Drawings and Slides. (If the video will not play on your mobile device, please view from your favorite browser) Remind your kids that they should always try to use the Insert or Explore tabs within the app since Google automatically filters images that are safe for them to use. At least when they are new to using G Suite since this process simplifies any image search. In my “Google Basics- Working With Images” link above, I go into greater detail on how to use other sources to find images.
In my next post, Google Drawings Basics Day 5 – Creating a Transparent Background, I will talk about the option to create a transparent background for your images using Google Drawings. This is a convenient option when inserting an image into a Doc or Slide and you prefer to not have a colored box around your image. Creating an image in Google Drawings with a transparent background is a function unique to Drawings that cannot be done in Docs or Slides.
Subscribe To Access Your Free Set of Slides
At the end of this series, I will offer you my complete set of Google Drawings Slides (Still in Progress) to teach your kids how to creatively use Google Drawings. My Slides break procedures down into bite-sized pieces, offering you kid-friendly language and all the links and images you see throughout this series so that you may easily use my Slides in class.
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