8 Creative Uses of Google Drawings You Shouldn't Ignore

Have you ever clicked on the bright red? “New” button inside your Google Drive?

Google Drawings is not at the forefront of tools. The spotlight is reserved for documents, sheets, and slides. But let's do a wake-up of sorts and click More go to the “neglected” brothers We have seen the usefulness of Google Forms Track the key areas of your life in 1 minute with Google Forms Track the key areas of your life in 1 minute with Google Forms It is amazing what you can learn about yourself when you take the time to pay attention to your everyday habits and behaviors. Use versatile Google Forms to track your progress with important goals. Read more . Time to appreciate the versatility of Google Drawings.

Google Drawings is the latest among all Google Drive tools. Not a full featured image editor like MS Paint How to Edit and Enhance Screenshots in MS Paint How to Edit and Enhance Screenshots in MS Paint Read more. But the graphical editor is more powerful for a simple fact:it is a collaborative application in real time. In its most basic form, it's an online whiteboard. In his most advanced form, he can be more if he allows Joshua Pomeroy to change his mind about the limits of him..

That's just one. Find more inspiration on their YouTube playlist.

Now that we've removed the limitations of Google Drawings, let's look at some more creative uses. Because not all of us are blessed with Joshua's abilities.

Use for collaborative post-it notes

Think of Google Drawings as a universal whiteboard for post-it notes. When you start, you don't even need to be a collaborative project. Start on your own and then share your thoughts with others using a URL. The virtual note above was created in 5 minutes using Shapes , Google Fonts , and an image search For the "pin". All within Google drawings.

When you can't be in the same place, a quick fix of Google Drawings coupled with a Hangouts chat is an easy fix. Anyone on the team can add comments and other Post-It notes to the virtual office wall.

Create your own graphic organizers

Graphic organizers are diagrams that help organize information visually. Some of the varieties are called concept maps, entity relationship charts, and mind maps. With the help of one, you can get a bird's eye view of your thoughts. For example, a spider diagram can be used to group ideas, a flowchart can be useful for sequencing a process, and a fishbone diagram can be used to show cause and effect.

Use the template library to grab a shortcut (for example, a flowchart template) or create your own from scratch. Google Drawings has the shapes, colors, and fonts to help you quickly create memorable spatial structures. The diagram above is a simple spider diagram that illustrates the shortcuts you can use to create a graphic organizer.

This webinar from Eric Curts walks you through the options you can explore in Google Drawings for your custom needs.

Design an infographic

You may not believe the following viral infographic. 10 of the best tools to create infographics. 10 of the best tools to create infographics. The history of this visual science (or art) tells us that infographics is by no means an invention of digital culture. The only difference between then and now is the amount of information... Read More But if you have an idea and the data to back it up, you're on your way to impressing your boss. These two key ingredients can be supported with shapes, images, text, charts, graphs, charts, and colors to create the visual impact. Link your data to external resources to create a more dynamic infographic. Here are the basic first steps.

1. Start by researching the data to be included in the infographic.
2. Resize the Drawings canvas to a long rectangle as they are usually oriented vertically. Alternatively, go to File> Page Prepare and enter the dimensions.
3. Use a background color or search for free textures 10 Websites to Find Free Photoshop Textures 10 Websites to Find Free Photoshop Textures Textures are crucial in everything from graphic design to web design, from graphic art to architectural visualizations, from 3D animations to computer games. This is where you can find some free textures to use! Read More Go Insert> Image to upload the texture file. Resize the texture to fit the background. You can also set a background color (Right Click> Background ).
4. Create your graphics by combining different shapes and grouping them. You can create the shapes off stage and then drag them onto the canvas. Grouped charts can be customized to color with a single click.

Note: Google Drawings includes Snap to Grid and Snap to Guides . Align objects and draw them at the same size with better precision. Go to View> Snap to> Grids/Guides .

Step-by-step instructions on how to create infographics are beyond the scope of this article, but here's a starter video for guidance.

Create custom charts for Google Docs, Sheets or Slides

This is perhaps the most obvious use of Google Drawings. As a brother, it is the most accessible tool to insert custom graphics into your Google Drive documents via Web Clipboard. Here are some creative ways you can use Drawings:

Create your own clip art library. Make your own reusable batch of clip art. Source the images with Google Search and modify them in Google Drawings.

Create your own image bullets.. Create unique bullets with vector shapes. The “Light Bulb” bullet below was made by combining shapes and a prompt. You can also wrap a minimal raster image and use it as a bullet.

Create a custom signature. Personalize your digital signature in Google Drawings. Group all the elements in a single graphic and use it in Drive documents or Gmail.

Note: Copying a drawing to a different file creates a copy of the original drawing. Modifications made to the original or the copy are not automatically applied to the others.

Screen layout with wireframes

Wireframes What is a Wireframe website and how can it help you develop your website? What is a website wireframe and how can it help you develop your website? On a technical level, a modern website is not just one thing. It's a complex mix of interactive technologies, like HTML (the markup you see on the page), JavaScript (the language that runs in your browser,... Read More no color or embellishments help designers focus on how content will be laid out or how a prototype design will work there are dimes and a dozen wireframe tools 10 Quick and Easy Online Mockup Tools to Help You Imagine Anything 10 Quick and Easy Online Mockup Tools to Help You Imagine Anything Make the best use of instant creation technologies with your own mockup designs Mockups help you evaluate, correct flaws, and tweak designs before you create them Design almost anything with these tools Read More . Google Drive offers you a few ready-made wireframe templates.

You can easily create your own wiring kit with Google Drawings. The Wire Building Kit can be made up of the basic starting blocks you need for any design. Leave elements in the gutter (the space to the side of the canvas) for quick reuse in any new projects.

This 15-minute video gives you an idea of ​​the process:

Understanding relationships with database schemas

Using google drawings to plot database schemas is not my original idea. The Web Development Group demonstrates this simple trick. Database schemas are a logical grouping of objects, such as tables, views, stored procedures, etc. Describes how a database is structured and the relationships between the objects it contains.

Google drawings can be used to show relationships between entities. Combine that with real-time collaboration and you have a handy tool for creating schematics.

Annotating Screenshots

Image annotations help describe what an image is about. In an age where everything is so graphic, annotation also works as a tool for visualization. "storytelling." Once again, you can choose from a plethora of web annotation tools. Google Drawings is one that is close by for any image comments.

Annotating an image in Google Drawings is simple with the variety of tools on offer.

1. Use Print Screen to take a screenshot (or upload an image directly to Google Drawings).
2. Use the Crop tool (Format> Crop Image) on the toolbar to isolate the section you want to show.
3. Use the Shape and Line tools to highlight the points in the image.
4. Google Drawings has a variety of shapes and arrowheads to help you style your annotations.
5. Insert text annotations (with the Text box ) and formatting with font style and size. Also try Forms> Calls .
6. Go Format> Image Options for any color correction.
7. Go File> Download as for the finished PNG or JPEG file. You can also share the annotated image via Google Drive.

Create hotspots on images

Think of a world map. Clicking on each country takes you to the Wikipedia page with all the details.

Think of an idea. Explain it better by breaking down the idea and linking your part to more external data.

With the help of an image map or hotspots, you can convey a lot of information with a single photo or drawing. Guess what! Google Drawings helps you easily create neat image maps without any knowledge of HTML. And fast too.

Insert or draw an image on a blank Google Drawings canvas.

1. Go Insert> Line> Polyline . Use the Polyline tool to draw around the clickable area.
2. Go Insert> Link (or Ctrl + K) and add the external web page or other Google Drive document to the hyperlink box.
3. Make the bounding polygonal area disappear by setting Shape and Line color to transparent.
4. Share the drawing, embed it on your blog or download it as a PDF file.

See Chris Betcher use a Google drawing for a team image map of him :

A canvas for your ideas

Like any other drawing tool, only your ideas can explore the limits of Google Drawings. From explaining multi-step processes to collaborative brainstorming, the neglected Google Drive family member could be your favorite soldier for everyday tasks. Tools like Microsoft Visio might be more convenient for more complex graphics creation jobs, but few tools can beat Google Drawings in its most unique selling points:real-time collaboration and fantastic free pricing. Q>

As a chess lover, I can't help but think:Is it possible to create a real-time chess game with Google Drawings? Or an interactive visual resume How to Make a Visual Resume With PowerPoint in 3 Steps How to Make a Visual Resume With PowerPoint in 3 Steps Read More Look where my wild thinking got me!

Then tell me yours. Do you use Google Drawings? What are the creative uses you can think of to put Google's new tool into?