Thing 11: Doodle Polls

What's a Doodle Poll?

If you're a keen user of Google Calendar (and who isn't), you will know how easy it is to view other people's calendars and find the best time to invite them to a meeting.
The trouble is, if you're trying to find a suitable slot for a larger group of people, this method becomes unwieldy; this is where Doodle Polls come in.
A Doodle Poll allows you to set up a choice of different days and times, ask your potential attendees to indicate when they can make it, and helps you choose the best time. To make life even easier, although it's not a Google application, you can link Doodle to your Google account.

Why should I use it?

I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't want to use Doodle Poll if you needed to find out the best day/time for a group of people to attend an event. The other alternatives - for example emailing everyone and asking them to send you suitable times - are generally more clumsy.
If you come up with a better way, please let me know!
You could use it to find the best time...

• for a meeting involving several people
• to organise an event with input from a range of departments
• for a social event (if it involves eating chocolate, please include me)

How do I start using Doodle?

Although Doodle is an externally hosted scheduling service, the University has a branded version without adverts that can be linked to your Google account.
The other thing you need to do is link your Doodle account with your Google account and make sure you're not getting adverts.

Activity

You will need the University of York Doodle Link (new window tab) for this:

1. First sign up for a Doodle account (if you haven't already) following the Getting Started instructions on the IT Services Doodle Page (opens new window/tab). Use your university email address, but to maintain security please do not set up the account using the same password as for your York account.
2. You will need to activate your account from a sign-up email that is sent to you.
3. If you unwanted adverts are appearing, follow the Removing ads instructions.
4. Following the instructions on the same page, connect Doodle to your Google account.

Now you need some friends again. If you don't have any, feel free to treat Ned Potter, Tom Smith and me (Mike Dunn) as friends for now - you can always ditch us later.
Imagine you want to invite your friends to an event (let's assume for now it's a 2-hour Chocolate Tasting) but are not sure of the best time. Choose 3 or 4 possible days/times and set up a Doodle Poll. Here's the sequence:

1. First make sure you can see your friends' calendars in Google calendar - Doodle will need these.
2. Sign in to your Doodle Account using the Google option on the sign-in dialogue - you can do this after you've linked Doodle and Google.
3. Choose to Schedule an event (Create new poll) and enter at least a suitable title - location and description are optional, but probably necessary! Choose Next.
4. In the calendar view, select your friends' calendars from the list to make them visible.
5. Drag on the calendar to create the possible slots for the event - don't worry if some of them overlap some existing calendar events, but try to use 'gaps' if you can. Choose Next.
6. We'll skip the optional settings, but feel free to take a look at what's available. Choose Next for a Basic Poll, and enter the email addresses for your friends. As it's Google-enabled, auto-suggest should work.
7. Tick the box to receive your own invite, and as this is a learning activity, please ensure you add a suitable message so your friends aren't too confused. Actually, if you send an invite to me, I'm confused most of the time anyway :-o
8.  There's an extra ticky box that helps you track who has responded - if you leave this blank, you'll only see people listed in the poll after they have responded. Try ticking it to see the result.
9. Choose Send and finish. That's it for now, except it would be useful to look at the email invite you sent yourself and respond to the poll.
10. Take a look in your calendar: where you have responded 'Yes' to a date/time, the event is shown with [Doodle-tentative]. This means you know when you may have a commitment.

This what a poll looks like

 After your friends have had chance to respond...

1. Sign in to your Doodle account and view the Dashboard.
2. Towards the bottom of the page, the poll you set up will be listed. Choose the poll title.
3. The page consists of three tabs, but the most important are Table view, which lists the poll results, and Administration.
4. In Administration, take a look at Who is missing? - this information is the result of choosing to track who has responded.
5. Notice that you can email people you've invited, invite more people and even export results.
6. The Table view will show the most popular time. Choose Close poll, and Doodle will suggest the best time, but you can choose a different time instead. Notice if you track responses you'll have a Who is missing? link.
7. Select your time and choose Save. This will allow you to confirm the chosen slot with the participants by email, and will make the appropriate changes to the calendar events, removing surplus 'tentative' ones. Add a message and choose Send.

Doodle by itself is actually very good - Doodle with Google is even better!

Thing 10: Using Google Documents and Spreadsheets

What are they?

Every so often you'll come across an article that says something like, "90% of users only make use of 10% of the functionality of [insert name of application, eg MS Word]."You can argue with the percentages, but it's probably true that many of us produce most of our documents using a limited set of features.

The Google applications provide the essential functionality for producing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, and the feature set is increasing all the time, but their real strengths lie in that they:

• are accessible and editable online using any common browser on multiple devices (unlike MS Office)
• can be shared with others without creating multiple copies (unlike emailing attached documents)
• are supported by group/individual permissions for viewing and editing (unlike shared drives)
• support real-time collaborative editing (unlike MS Office)
• support real-time chat and commenting (unlike MS Office)

Would you want to use the Google word processor for all your documents? No.
Do they have a place in your workflow? Yes, most definitely, especially if you work as part of a team.
Drive, Documents and Sharing
Google documents are saved in Google Drive, allowing you to organise them into folders. Both folders and documents can be shared with Google Groups, or individuals. If you create and share a folder, all documents created within it will automatically be shared with the same people.

Why should I use them?

When working collaboratively, emailing attached documents is still incredibly common, yet it can be very inefficient; each individual invariably saves their own version. Even with shared work drives, you end up with multiple copies and versions with names like Plan_with_Mikes_comments.docx, absolutely_latest_version2.xlsx or donteditthisone!.docx.

Scenario 1: You need to work with others to produce an article/proposal/outline plan/costing/presentation etc... Create the content in a Google document, share, edit together, comment, chat, argue, discuss, agree. Then, if you need a 'formal' version, task one person to work on the presentation (this is good practice: thinking about presentation separately from content). This could mean downloading and editing in a desktop application if you need to use additional features.

Scenario 2: When you've finished working on a document (spreadsheet etc...) you know you will need to get comments from several people on its contents. Create it as a Google document initially, share it with them, and invite comments. After commenting, download and tidy up with MS Word if you need the additional features.

Knitting and photo by Clancy Ratliff
Source: Wikimedia COmmons

Scenario 3: You've been asked to plan a session on knitting for the Directorate Staff Festival, and you want to find out which aspects of the craft would be most popular. Create a Google form and make it available to the potential audience. When people fill in the form, their responses will be collected in a Google spreadsheet, allowing you to count, average, total etc.

When should I avoid them?

If I'm honest, and I do try to be, the functionality of Google docs has a long way to go to match the standard desktop applications. However, where the advantages of 'cloud' storage and editing make work more productive, I'll put up with these deficiencies while I'm working on content. When it's essential I also control presentation precisely, I'll switch to a desktop application to utilise the extended features.

Activity

There's a version of the first part of this post saved as a Google Document, and it's shared with you if you are a member of the 23 Things Group (see Thing 9). If you didn't join the group, refer back to Thing 9 and do the Join and Use a Group activity. Once you're a member open the shared document (this is a link to the document to save you having to search for it and it should open in a new window or tab). You will also need a friend.

1. You have edit permissions for this document so should be able to change it. Find a 23 Things friend (I know most of us have friends - if you have difficulty I'll be your friend temporarily - or even longer term if you're nice to me). Make sure your friend is also in the 23 Things Group, and try the following:
2. After both of you have opened the Thing 10 shared document, notice the indicators for multiple editors, top right. You may also have access to Google+ profiles here.
3. Both of you simultaneously add paragraphs at the bottom (below How I might use Google docs) describing how you might... (you get the idea). Notice how Google shows the editing taking place, and repeatedly saves the document automatically.
4. Use the 'Other Editors' indicator to 'chat' about the document with your friend.
5. Read through the document and add comments (highlight a word/phrase, right-click and choose Comment). You can also add other general comments about the document by selecting the Comment button top right.
6. The document has changed while you've been editing it. View the history by selecting File > See revision history. You can select any earlier version to see how it looked, then select the latest again.
7. While you still have a friend available, each of you create a new document (back in Drive, choose Create), add some brief content and share the document with your friend (Share top right, add them and choose to email a notification). Note that you sometimes cannot find a shared document in Shared with me (Drive) unless you have first opened it from the notification email.
8. Check your settings in the new Google document. Unless you have already changed it, the default size is US Letter paper, so choose File > Page setup..., change it to A4, edit the margins if you like and then choose Set as default so new documents will be A4.

Thing 9: Using Google Groups & Google Sites

What are they?

Groups and Sites are brilliant tools to help you work with your colleagues. They enable us to work collaboratively with much greater flexibility than you get just using plain email and shared file storage.

A Google Group is a collection of people, gathered for some common purpose - a project, a forum, a team, a department - which may be long term or short term. You can share resources and communicate with the group without needing to know exactly who is in it. When new people arrive, adding them to the group means they will automatically have access to all shared resources. It’s like this:

A Google Site is a collection of web pages, together with suitable navigation, that needs no special web skills to construct. A range of page types allow you to present information, upload files, receive comments and construct lists, and it’s quite easy to include Google calendars, Drive folders and other Google resources (such as YouTube videos. Best of all, you have control over who can view and contribute (edit) - a perfect use for groups.

Why use them?

In Google Mail you can set up mailing groups within contacts, but these are specific to your account. A Google Group, on the other hand, is available to everyone who is a member - and even those who are not, if that’s what you need. It has a web-page view that enables it to be used as a discussion forum or simple enquiry system, giving an altogether more flexible way of communicating with colleagues and beyond.

Many people already share Google resources (eg documents) with co-workers. Often it is done by configuring the share for each resource to each individual, but this is a very inefficient way of managing shares and can produce a lot of extra work. It’s better to use Groups to share resources.

What about Sites? We're all familiar with the concept of a ‘document’; this goes back to the days when everything was on paper, and the temptation is to assume all important information must be presented serially in A4-sized chunks. But information isn't like that; it is shorter, longer and connected like a web rather than a piece of string. Collections of interrelated pages let the reader map their own path, and are best implemented using web pages - a Google Site will do this brilliantly.

Activity

Join and use a Group

1. Open a browser and navigate to Google Groups (‘Welcome to the new Google Groups’).
2. In the search box at the top, search for ‘23 Things’. Several posts to the group will be listed, but at the top is the link to the web view of the group postings. Choose this link.
3. When you’ve reached the list of posts, choose the star just under the name ‘23 Things’ to add it to favourites - this makes it easier to find again (look on the left for the favourites list).
4. You will be able to read the current posts (that’s because the group is set up with very liberal permissions), but to take part you’ll need to join - choose the Join group control.
5. Read one of the posts by Tom or Mike (or someone else if you know them) and reply to it (you’ll see a Click here to Reply link below the posted message).
6. If you have something to say about 23 Things, post a new message of your own.
7. Open your Google mail and send an email message to the 23 Things Group - the address is: 23-things-group@york.ac.uk. 
8. Check again in the group (you may need to refresh the display) - your message should appear and will be sent to other group members.
9. It may be annoying to receive a lot of mail via the Group. From the My Settings control near the top right (next to the gear-wheel icon), choose Membership and email settings for this group. Configure this to receive a daily summary.

If you're not already using a group for a project or team, set one up and start using Groups.

Google Sites

Take a look at these simple Google Sites. The first was created to help show students how to download references into the EndNote reference management application. The second one is a collection of useful information on Blogging:

Reference Management (opens new window/tab)

Blogging At York (opens new window/tab)

There's a 23 Things Example site available for you to play with. Again it has very liberal sharing permissions, so you should be able to edit it to your hearts content:

https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/23-things-example-site/

If you’ve never edited a Google site before, take a few moments to read through the Home page, and then take a look at Creating and Editing Pages - this runs through the basics of creating and editing pages (as you’d expect by the page title).
And now:
Create a new page and have a play at editing.  

Please remember this is an open site, lots of people will be able to see it, so be good. 

If you make a mess it doesn’t matter - contact the 23 Things Group and we’ll tidy up anything that will prevent others from being able to join in the fun.
Things you might like to try doing:

• Enter text - use some headings and sub-headings
• Enter images
• Embed a YouTube video (Insert > Video > …)

Enjoy!