Google App Rescue

My coworkers came to me with a problem: We needed to host four webinars for school principals but had limited space in each.  Could I find a way (with minimal work and communication to leaders) to limit registration?  Google apps came to my rescue, or rather I went to Google apps for my rescue-I was in the driver seat after all.

The first thing I did was create a Google doc explaining the process to sign up and showing the dates and times for the webinars to choose from:

Then I created a separate Google form for each date and time.  I used the copy feature to save time in producing four of them.  On the Google doc I linked to the corresponding form:

Back on the Google forms I installed the add-on “Form Limiter”.  On the Form Limiter I set the number of attendees I would allow in each webinar.  When the form/registration was full the person would receive a message referring them back to the Google doc to choose another date and time.  I was also notified when the limit was reached and I went back to the Google doc and eliminated that choice for future responders.

Voila!  It worked pretty well.  I just hope the add-on is there the next time I need it.  I’ve seen add-ons come and go on Google apps.

Would this solution work for you?  Are there other ways to solve this problem in the future?  Let me know via comments.  I’d love to hear from you.

Gifs in a Jiffy

To support an upcoming streaming event I needed to create a gif. (Let’s not digress into a debate on how to pronounce gif.)  Denver Public Schools has a commitment box that is made available at all large culture-building events.  Since this upcoming event will be solely online I came up with an idea to make a virtual commitment box to interact with.

First, I needed to create a gif showing someone dropping a commitment card into the box.  I searched for gif creators that could do the job for free and with the least amount of hassle.  I tried giphy.com, Imgflip and gifmaker.me  with the latter winning out for ease of use.  I shot a four photo sequence of my coworker, Anna, dropping a commitment card into the box.  When I uploaded the images to gifmaker.me the interface was intuitive and simple.   Although all I had to do was upload and reorder the images, there were multiple choices available to me: resizing, animation speed, repeats, and even the option to add music. In about a minute total working time, I had my gif downloaded.

My next task was to create the Google form and add it to the top.  Google forms is becoming more and more open to customization.  I chose a blank form, changed the color to match the card Anna holds in the animation and then uploaded the gif to the description area of the form.  You can take a look at the finished product here:

I think this is going to work out pretty well for the event.  What do you think?  What is your favorite gif maker?