You are probably a teacher, parent or student, and you are finding this whole Google classroom PDF and document file editing a bit confusing, and you need more guides, then you are in the right place. Stay Informed Group have put together this article to help you better understand more about how to make a PDF file editable in Google Classroom for assignment, and other functions in some simple steps. Information about how to use editable documents for assignment in Google Classroom, were also included to help broaden your horizon.
Google Classroom is a saver of life for educational institutions trying to stick with their curriculum amid the latest social distancing protocols. The web app allows teachers to greatly customize their classroom activities, from creating their quiz to evaluating homework – all in Google Classroom.
PDFs, or portable document formats, are a type of file format created for read-only files. This means that a PDF document cannot be edited as easily as a DOC or a simple text file.
However, various online educational resources distribute their material in PDF format. Fortunately, there is a way to convert a PDF file into editable documents and use them in your google classroom.
Also Read: Best Google Classroom Tips: Use Google Classroom with Ease
How to enable PDF editing in Google Classroom
Making PDF editable in Google classroom is important, as teachers can use the Classwork tab in Google classroom to create homework and assignments for their students. If you want to use a PDF file or document for assignment in your classwork, you must select the “assignment” option when creating a new classwork piece in Google classroom.
Click the “Add” button and select “File” (for your local storage) or “Google Drive” depending on the location of the file.
After the file is downloaded, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the file. Here you can choose whether all students should edit the same file or whether each student should edit their copy of the file.
If you wish students to be able to edit and implement changes to the file, make sure that “Students can view the file” is not checked or selected.
After you’ve enabled editing of a PDF file, you can use the two methods listed below to make PDF file editable in Google classroom: using Google Drive and Google Slides. Let’s look at these two methods.
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How to make it editable with Google Drive
Using this method to make a PDF file editable in Google classroom depends on the age and understanding of your students, you can allow them to edit a PDF as they see fit. In that case, the first thing you need to do is convert the PDF to an editable Google Doc. Then, using the instructions above, upload the PDF document and allow the students to edit the file as they wish.
Go to your Google Drive web Application and sign in. In the top right corner of the app, click the Settings icon and choose Settings.
Check the box beside ‘Convert Upload’ on the General tab and click Done.
Now upload your PDF file to your Google Drive. The file becomes an editable Google Doc.
Go to your google class and create a new task. Select “Google Drive” to add the newly downloaded PDF file. Find the PDF on your Google Drive and hit Enter. Make sure you can edit the document using the instructions above.
Students will now receive a notification when they open the document and are asked if they want to open it in Google Docs.
If you select this option, you can edit the PDF document like any other text document. However, it should be noted that after editing it, they need to send the document by creating a link to the Google Doc. Since it is a bit complicated, the following method is better for younger students.
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How to Make it editable with Google Slides
You can use this method to make a PDF file and other documents editable in Google classroom if your students are unable to add information to the PDF themselves when doing an assignment or something else and you want to provide them with writing areas, the method outlined above may not be the most appropriate.
Google Slides allows you to convert PDF to an image file first and then upload it to Google Slide. On a google slide, you can indicate the fields that should be filled out in the PDF.
Start converting PDF to PNG in presentations
PNG is a portable image format that is vastly used in many Apps because of its lossless properties during compression. To convert a PDF to image format in the classroom, first open the PDF.
With Microsoft Window we will now take a screenshot of the page. Select the page you want to make an editable copy of and open the Windows Screen Snip app. This app is located in the notification area of the taskbar. You can also press the Windows key and search for “Screensnip”.
Click and drag the pointer over the PDF and select the part you want to copy. Once you let go of the slider, the cropped part will appear in the Screen Clipping app.
Just click “Save” and you will get a PNG image of the PDF document page. Create as many image files as you need from the PDF document. Make sure to scroll through the document before taking a screenghort.
Convert a google slide to PDF
After you have an image file of the PDF, go to Google Slides and create a new presentation. If you want the image to be vertical, change the slide layout accordingly. If the screenshot is wider horizontally, there is no need to change the layout.
Since the document should fit like a normal PDF, we change the layout of the slide. To do this, go to File> Page Setup.
From here, click the drop-down arrow and select “Custom”. You want to make the page 8.5 “by 11”. Make sure that the measurements are in inches, not “cm”. Of course, depending on the PDF file, you can change the dimensions of the slide to better fit the image.
After the page is ready, click “Background> Select Image> Download”. Find the picture on your device and click “Upload”.
You should see the entire PDF as the background for the slide. If you want to allow students to add text to PDF, add a text box in the area. You can add instructions such as “put text here” to indicate where you want students to fill out the form.
Personalize the text field by adding an elegant border or changing the colour of the field. it’s entirely up to you. Create a new slide for each page of the PDF. You now have a PDF document to edit and also add text!
When adding the file to your assignment in Google classroom, be sure to add the newly created slides and not the original PDF or all of your work will be wasted.
The added benefit of using PDF files is that students cannot edit what is already on the page. A problem teachers encounter when using Google Slides as it is easy for students to claim they just deleted a question.
We hope this article helped you in making your PDF and other documents editable in Google classroom. You can leave us a comment, or check out our How-to Page for more information.
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