Google Drawings: Basics

The following Drawings Basics lessons will prepare you with a fundamental understanding of
Google Drawings, its key features, and general benefits in the classroom. With a basic
understanding of Drawings, you can enhance the effectiveness of any Docs, Sheets and Slides
you create.
You will learn how to:

Create drawings using Drawings

Edit and format your drawing

Use Drawings to explain a concept visually

Use Drawings with Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Slides

To start, review the Basic lessons below and conduct all activities. It is recommended you
have another browser or computer screen available to practice the step-by-step exercises.
Lesson 1
Introduction to Google Drawings (5 mins)
With Google Drawings, you can create and collaborate on flow charts, design diagrams, and
work on many types of drawings. You can also chat with other editors from within Google
Drawings, publish your Google Drawings as images for use in other documents, and store
images to Google Drive for later use. Review the samples below and brainstorm some of your
own.
Graphic organizer:

Labeling Activity:

Timeline:

Lesson 2
Creating Images in Google Drawings (30 mins)

Create a new drawing

To get started on a new drawing go to My Drive, click New > More > Google Drawings.

Alternately, you can begin a new drawing from inside an existing document by going to File
> New > Drawings.

You can also find user submitted templates for drawings in the public Template Gallery or the
Template Gallery for your school domain if your domain administrator has enabled the
feature. From Google Drive, click New > More > From template or from within a Google
Docs file, click File > New > From template.
For more information on Templates, check out the Support Center.

Add images to your drawing

To insert an image into your drawing:

1. Click Insert > Image..., or click the Image button in the toolbar.

2. In the window that appears, you can choose one of these options:
o

Click Upload > Drag an image here or Choose an image to upload > and
navigate to the image

Click Take a snapshot to use your webcam to take a picture and insert it into
the drawing

Click By URL and paste the web address of the image you would like to insert

Click Your albums to access image files you have uploaded to Picasa Web
Albums and Google+; check out more in the Support Center

Click Google Drive and the subfolders to insert an image from your Google
Drive documents

Click Search
o

Search Google images by keyword and click an image to select it

Click Life to search a Life magazine image archive

Click Stock images to search for images in a free, stock photo archive

Note: Keep in mind that there are specific usage rights that apply to
using images and select only images that you have confirmed you can
use legally in your intended context. Make sure you include
appropriate attribution if necessary.

3. Click Select.
Tip: If you are using the latest version of Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, you also have the option
of dragging an image from your desktop and drop it directly in the drawing canvas.
After inserting the image into your drawing, you can add scribbles, shapes, lines, arrows, and
text boxes on top of the image, as well as move objects forwards and backwards, and front to
back by clicking Arrange >Order.
Polylines
Polylines are continuous lines composed of multiple segments. To create them, click the
Polyline button from your drawings toolbar, to the left of the Shapes button.

After drawing a segment of your polyline, click to end the segment and begin your next
segment. If you want to cancel the last segment and go back to selection mode, press Escape
on your keyboard. When you have finished, connect the endpoint of your last line segment
with the origin point of your polyline to create an enclosed shape. Alternatively, double-click
the endpoint of your last line segment to complete the shape.
When you are done drawing the polyline, you remain in polyline mode so you can
immediately draw another one. Press Escape to return to selection mode.

Lines, arrows, and scribbles

Lines, arrows, and scribbles are continuous lines composed of one segment. To create them,
click the Line button to the left of the Shapes button.

Position your mouse and click in the drawing canvas where you would like your line, arrow
or scribble to begin. Move your mouse to draw, and then, click to end the segment.

After you have finished drawing, you can click in the canvas again to start drawing another
line of that type. If you are done, you can press the Esc key or select another tool to deselect
your object.
When you have a line, arrow, or scribble selected, three buttons appear toward the end of the
toolbar that allow you to change the style of the line or the endpoints. Click the buttons and
select an option from the drop-down menus to apply that style to your object.

Scribble and Arcs

Click to choose your start point, and drag to create the scribble. It will be automatically
smoothed out once you have finished.

You can also create arc lines in your drawing by selecting Insert > Shape > Shapes
>Arc and then drawing your points. Like the other types of lines, the weight and color can be
increased or changed.
Keyboard modifiers

If you love shortcuts, then you will love the keyboard modifiers in Drawings. There are many
useful features available if you use keyboard modifiers when performing other actions.
Resize
Preserve an object's aspect ratio while resizing; hold the Shift key while resizing an object.
Rotate
Rotate in 15 degree increments; hold the Shift key while rotating an object.
Line connectors
Connectors are special lines that stay glued toshapes as well as images. When you move or
rotate shapes that have connectors between them, the lines attached will move and stretch
with them so the shapes stay connected.
1. Click on the shape tool or go to Insert > Shape to select an object to insert into your
drawing.
2. If you want to use two of the same shape, select the shape, right-click + Copy, rightclick + Paste it into your drawing.
3. Click on Insert > Line.
4. Choose a type of connection:Line or Arrow.
5. Hover your cursor over a shape, and connection points will appear.

6. Click on the connection point that you want your line to connect, and drag your cursor
to another connection point on a second shape before releasing.
Move, resize and rotate objects
To move, resize and rotate an object, simply click the object you would like to change. You
will see a rotate handle, resize handles, and adjustment handles.
Move objects
Click any object to select it, then drag it with your mouse or arrow keys. You can hold the
Shift key while dragging to constrain the movement to the nearest horizontal or vertical axis.
You can hold the Shift key while moving with the keyboard to move the object by one pixel.

Resize objects
Drag one of the resize handles, and the object will expand and contract with your cursor's
movement.

Objects can be resized to scale by holding the Shift key while dragging a corner resize
handle.To flip an object, drag a resize handle to the opposite side.
Reshape objects
Objects that can be reshaped will include handles. Drag the adjustment handle(s) to change
the appearance of your object.

Rotate objects
Drag the rotate handle to rotate the object. Hold the Shift key while rotating to constrain the
rotation to 15 degree increments. Right-click an object and select Rotate to rotate objects at
90 degree increments and flip them horizontally or vertically.
To move, resize or rotate multiple objects at the same time, hold down the Shift key while
you click each object. You can also drag your mouse in the drawing background to select
multiple shapes.
If you are in the process of manipulating an object and change your mind, you can cancel any
action by pressing the Escape key prior to releasing the mouse button.

Lesson 3
Formatting and Customizing Images in Google Drawings (20 mins)
Format your drawings
After inserting shapes, you can format them using the buttons in the toolbar. When you select
a shape, the Fill color, Line color, Line width, and Dashes buttons appear.

Here are some ways to format your drawings:

Adjust the color of a shape: Select item you want to fill > the Fill color button

and choose the color you would like to use

Increase or decrease transparency: Select the Fill color > Custom color and drag the
opacity selector at the far right of the menu; dragging down increases an object's
transparency, while dragging up decreases transparency

Adjust the background color of your drawing: Without selecting an object, right-click
your canvas > Select Background > Choose your color

Change the color of a shape's border: Click the Line color button

; you can also

change the thickness of a shape's border by clicking the Line width button

Modify the style of a shape's border: Click the Dashes button

and select the style
of border you would like; you can hide the border altogether by selecting Line
Color and making the border Transparent

Using text in Drawings

There are three ways to insert text in your drawings: as a text box, or inside a shape, or as
word art.
To insert text boxes:
1. Click the Text box button in the toolbar or select Insert > Text box.
2. Click in the canvas to create a default size text box, or drag the text box to resize it.

3. Type your text, press enter, and the text appears in the text box. You can modify the
text by double-clicking the shape or by right-clicking and selecting Edit text...

You can format text boxes like you would any other shape.Check out more ideas here.
To add text within shapes:
1. Double-click theshape or right-click it and select Edit text...
2. Type your text. Click outside the shape and the text appears in the shape. You can
modify the text by double-clicking the shape or by right-clicking and selecting Edit
text...
To add word art:
1. Click Insert and then select Word Art.
2. Type your text and press enter. Your word art will be added to the drawing canvas and
you can format it like you would any other shape.
Note: To cancel your changes and you are typing your text, you can press the Escape key or
just click the X in the corner of the text field. If you would like to create a new line of text,
just press Shift+ Enter.
Format text in text boxes and shapes
When you select a text box or shape with text in it, the Bold, Italic, Text color, Align, and
Font size toolbar items appear. You can apply these styles to the entire text within the shape.

Format word art

When you select a word art shape, the Bold, Italic, and Font toolbar items appear. You can
apply these styles to the entire shape, as well as use the standard shape formatting options to
set fill and border styles.

Change the size of your shape by resizing it directly, and keep in mind that pressing Shift
while resizing will preserve the texts aspect ratio.
Paint format tool
Google Drawings lets you copy the formatting you have applied to specific object to another
object using the Paint Format tool. With the Paint Format tool, you can copy a shape or
objects background and line style. With a text box, you can use the Paint Format tool to
replicate the text formatting. This is a useful feature that can be used to make sure text and
objects in a lesson are formatted similarly.
To paint a format to a specific shape, line, or text box:
1. Select the source object from which you would like to copy the formatting.

2. Next, select the Paint Format icon from the Drawings toolbar. After you have
pressed the icon button, your drawing will remain in Paint Format mode until you
click the icon button again or finish copying over an objects formatting.

3. Last, select the target object, and notice the formatting adjust to match the source
object.

Use the Research tool in Google Drawings

The Research tool makes it easy to add information from the web to your documents and
presentations.

To access the tool:

Select the Research option from the Tools menu

Use the keyboard shortcut(Ctrl + Cmd + I on Mac, Ctrl + Alt + I on PC)

Right-click on a specific word and select Research

Lesson 4
Sharing and Collaborating in Google Drawings (5 mins)
Comments let you have a conversation about something you are working on. Comment
threads, called discussions, help you keep track of comments, address your comments to
specific people, and respond to and follow comments from your email inbox.
To add a comment:
1. Highlight or select the text, object, or shape you would like to comment on.
2. Click Insert > Comment. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + M
(Cmd + Option + M on a Mac) to insert a comment. You can also right-click on a

shape or text box and then select Comment.

3. Type your comment in the box that appears to the right of the document.
If you would like to address your comment to a specific person, type a plus sign followed by
their email address, like this: [email protected]. That person will receive an email with
your comment.
To learn more about the Comments feature, check out the Google Docs suite lessons in the
Learning Center.
Lesson 5
Using Google Drawings with Docs, Sheets, and Slides (5 mins)
Google Drawings images can be inserted into Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Slides. For example,
Google Drawings can be used to enhance an existing presentation by adding interactive
graphical elements into a slide. By inserting Google Drawings objects, you can turn a slide
into an interactive whiteboard file as shown in the image below. To copy an image created in
Google Drawings to another Google Doc, you have to use theWeb clipboard in the Edit
menu.
To copy an image from Drawings to a Google Doc:
1. Click Insert.
2. Click Image or Shape.
3. When the drawing is ready, click Edit.
4. Click Web clipboard.
5. Click Copy shape to web clipboard.
6. Go the Docs, Sheets, or Slides file where you want to copy the drawing.

7. Click Edit.
8. Click Web clipboard.
9. Select the web clipboard item you want to paste. Press enter.