Extensions: Create a Photo Journal in Google Docs

Many journals are intended for private thoughts and reflections that you want to keep for yourself.

But journals also can be fun to share with others, such as a friend, classmate, or teacher.

Some photo journals you might want to share include a record of experiments you conducted to prepare for a science fair, reflections on current events in your community or the world, or creative writing about places you’ve traveled.

In this extension, you will update the permissions settings in your photo journal.

Then, you will share your journal with your teacher or a classmate.

Before sharing your journal, make sure the content is appropriate for sharing with others and that you feel comfortable doing so.

To start, create a new tab in your browser, then open Drive.

Find your photo journal in your documents, and open it.

To update the sharing settings, add the email address of your teacher or classmate.

Then, choose what type of permission you’d like to give.

Can edit means that your teacher will be able to make changes directly to your document.

Can comment means that your teacher will be able to add comments or type suggestions, but you’ll have to approve them.

Can view means your teacher will only be able to read and make a copy of your journal, not make changes or comments.

Select can comment.

Your teacher or classmate will be able to give you feedback on your journal’s organization, design, and content.

Next, add a note to explain what your photo journal is about.

And share your document.

When your teacher makes comments on your journal, you will be notified by email.

Finally, decide which suggestions to implement, and resolve comments, so you can continue writing in the future.

Great work! If you’d like to continue using your journal after your assignment has been completed, or if you ever want to make your journal private, you can remove sharing permissions, so your teacher or classmate no longer has access.

Now, it’s your turn.

Share your journal with your teacher or classmate.

Change the sharing settings.

Read and resolve comments, and remove sharing permissions if you’d like.

A digital version of your journal is useful when you want to share it with others, add many photos easily, and access your journal from any location.

However, sometimes you want to have a physical copy of your journal.

You might want to hand in a printed version for your teacher to grade, bind a finished journal for a keepsake or a gift, or turn your journal into a multimedia art project with drawings and collages.

In this extension, you will create a printed version of your photo journal.

You will add page numbers, update your table of contents, and print a copy.

To start, open your journal from Drive.

Then, make a copy.

Because you are making changes that you might not want in your digital version, a new copy keeps the original intact.

Change the title of your new copy to reflect the purpose of this version.

To change your table of contents to the type with page numbers, delete your current table of contents.

Insert a new table of contents with page numbers.

Great! Now the page number for each of your journal entries is listed in the Table of Contents, just like a reference book or magazine.

The headings in your digital version are still linked as well.

Next, add page numbers to your document, so it’s easy to reference the correct page when it’s printed.

Page numbers can be added to the top or bottom of the document.

Your cover page is considered page one, but you may not want a page number appearing on that page.

Select the option for a different header/footer on the first page.

Now the page one notation is removed, but the rest of your page numbers are still displayed.

Finally, print your photo journal.

Open the print menu.

Select the destination.

Choose a printer connected to your computer.

If you include colorful photos in your journal, try to find a printer that uses colored ink, or use a black and white printer.

If you do not have a printer available, save your photo journal as a PDF.

A PDF is a type of document that is easy to print or attach in an email to be printed later.

Nice work! Now, it’s your turn.

Make a copy of your photo journal, and give it a name.

Change the Table of Contents to show page numbers.

Add page numbers to your document.

Remove the header or footer from your cover page, and print your journal, or save it as a PDF.

In the main lesson, you created a photo journal to tell a story about your life.

In this extension, you will create a new photo journal while pretending to be someone else! Imagine you are a character in a book or a historical figure telling a story about your life or an experience you had.

What kind of details would you write about?

Which photos would you share?

Making a photo journal as another person is a fun creative writing exercise.

It’s a useful way to prove your literary or historical knowledge, and it’s a creative way to give a book report.

To begin, start a blank document, and give it a title.

Then, follow the steps you learned in the main lesson to create your cover page.

Add the title, a subtitle, and an image, with an attribution.

Insert a page break, and then create a heading for your first journal entry.

If you’re not sure what image you’d like to use, start by writing your journal entry.

With your character in mind, think about an experience or event from their point of view.

If you’re writing as a book character, recall a plot point from the story.

Write about what happened to the character, how the character reacted, and how the character felt about the experience.

If you’re writing about a historical figure, follow the same steps.

You may have to guess how the character felt, but make sure your descriptions of specific events are historically accurate.

Since this is a personal journal, use the first person.

The first person means that you are the subject of the writing, so use words like I and me.

Then, add an image that illustrates the events in your writing.

Repeat those steps for additional journal entries if you’d like.

Otherwise, add headings for the entries to be completed later.

Next, insert a page break after your cover page, and add your table of contents.

Finally, share your journal with your teacher.

Nice work! Now, it’s your turn.

Choose a literary character or historical figure for your photo journal.

Create a new document, and title it.

Create a cover page, 1-3 journal entries with images, and a table of contents, and share your journal with your teacher.

If you want others to see your photo journal, you can share your document with friends or family.

You can also publish your journal as a website.

You might not want to share your personal journal with details about your experiences with your friends and family on a website.

Remember that websites can be viewed by anyone, even people you don’t know.

But a website is a great place to share thoughts and ideas on other topics, such as movies, books, or even your science experiments.

In this extension, you will create a Google Site.

You will add photos and journal entries to pages on the site.

Then, you will publish it for a specific audience.

To start, open a new tab, and go to Google Sites.

Create a new site, and give it a title.

Then, use the cover page to create your homepage.

The homepage is the main page of a website.

Add your website’s theme or subject.

Then, add your first image.

If you have your images stored in Drive, you can access your files right from your website.

Otherwise, copy the source from your cover page image, and paste it into the search field.

Select and insert your image.

Resize your image.

Then, drag it to the center of the page.

Then, add a text box.

Copy and paste the image’s source information into the box, and adjust the formatting.

Next, create your first journal entry.

Add a new page to your website.

Name it with the same title as your first journal entry, or create a title for your new topic.

Follow the same steps you used on the homepage to add your image to the new page.

Then create a textbox for the source.

Copy the text from your document.

Then paste it into the new textbox.

Change the layout of the page, if you’d like, by dragging the text or the image to a new location.

Repeat this process to create a new page for additional journal entries, or just create blank pages with the titles to complete later.

Great work! You’ve created a website.

To make your site more reflective of your personality or the topic, change the theme.

Then, update the font style, colors, header image, and navigation mode if you’d like.

Finally, publish your website.

Give it a descriptive name.

Change the share settings, so only the people who you give the URL to can access your website.

This keeps your personal information more private.

Keep in mind, though, if someone who has access to your URL shares it, then your journal may be seen by people you don’t know.

You can unpublish your website at any time.

Now, it’s your turn.

Create a new site in Google Sites.

Add a title, image, and text box to the homepage.

Add more pages with titles, images, and text.

Adjust the layout and formatting.

Update the theme, font style, color, and header image, and publish your site, so it’s only available to people with the URL.

In the main lesson, you added images to your photo journal by searching the web or inserting images from Drive.

Another way to add images is by using Google Photos.

If you have a smartphone, you might have a lot of photos saved on it.

The Google Photos app automatically collects all of the pictures on your phone and stores them online, so you can access them from any device.

When you open Google Photos on a computer, the photos stored on your phone are also available there.

Even if you lose your phone, your photos are still safely stored online.

To begin using Google Photos, open a new tab in your browser.

Use the menu to access the app.

After you have synced the photos from your phone, create an album.

An album is a collection of photos about a specific topic or saved for a specific use.

Organize photos in an album to make them easy to access or quick to link to.

Add any photos to your album that you might want to share in your journal.

Name your album My Photo Journal or another name that is recognizable to you for your photo journal project.

Next, open your photo journal.

To insert a photo from Google Photos, follow the same steps you used when adding images from other locations.

Then, find your new album to locate the photos you selected for your photo journal, or link to a photo or an entire album.

Add the text you want to link.

Then, open the sharing settings.

Copy the link to the album.

Add a link to your text, and paste the link to your album.

Now, it’s your turn.

Open Google Photos, and sync it with your smartphone’s photos.

Create an album of photos for your journal.

Open your photo journal.

Insert an image from Google Photos, or link to your album

In the main lesson, you created a photo journal to tell a story about an event in your life or to demonstrate knowledge of a topic.

In this extension, you will add more elements to your journal to personalize it further and provide more details.

You will link text, and add more fonts to the default list.

To start, open your photo journal.

If you wrote about a business, place, famous person, or event, you can link to a website or image about the topic.

Links contain additional context, background, or reference material to give the reader more details on the subject of your writing.

Open a new tab in your browser, and go to google dot com.

Use keywords to search for your topic, and choose the best link.

Copy the website’s URL by clicking into the address bar.

Select the URL, and copy it.

Select the word or words you want to link in your journal, and paste the URL into the link field.

You could paste URL directly in your journal, but linking specific words tells the reader the content of the link.

Next, change the font in your journal.

Different fonts provide a different tone or feeling for your journal.

They also can make a document easier or harder to read.

A readable font is a smart choice when you’re sharing your journal with others.

Choose the font that best suits the subject you’re writing about, or just choose something you like.

You can use the fonts already included in the font list for Google Docs, or you can add more fonts to the list of options.

Review all of the optional fonts, or filter and sort your list.

Select the font or fonts you’d like to add to your list.

Then select the text you’d like to change to your new font.

Find it in the list.

Great work! Now, it’s your turn.

Search for a website to link to in your journal, and add the link to your text.

Add more fonts to your default list, and update your text with the new font.