Using Google Products in a Microsoft School

Picture this: it’s Friday afternoon. You’re exhausted from another long week of teaching. You bring home your “teacher bag” full of unmarked papers, lesson plans, to-do lists, and other tasks you swear you’ll do on the weekend. Thanks to online teaching, the load is physically lighter so the bag might actually make its way inside the house from your car… but that’s about it.

Come Sunday night when the scaries finally set in, you frantically search the internet for ready-made resources for Monday morning’s lesson only to discover a drawback: this otherwise perfect product you found is made for Google. What’s the problem? Well, you teach in a Microsoft for Education building, so you can’t possibly make it work… or can you?

Most teaching resources and learning management platforms are designed to be Google-friendly. They’ve been created with Google Classroom integration in mind. If you’re a Microsoft user, you’re probably feeling left out and miserable thinking about having to reinvent the wheel. However, that’s not entirely true! You can make many Google products work on the Microsoft platform and Teams interface. Here’s how:

Google Slides to Microsoft PowerPoint

1. Log in to your Google account and open your Google Drive. Select the Google Slides file you wish to open.
2. From the Slides menu, go to File >> Download as >> Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx). You will then need to download the file to your computer desktop or Microsoft OneDrive (my personal preference).
3. Open your Microsoft OneDrive. Create a folder for your new digital resource. While not necessary, I highly recommend putting your activities into folders to keep you and your students organized.
4. From the menu, select Upload >> Files. Select the downloaded pptx file and upload it. Your digital Google resource is now ready to be shared with your Microsoft students. It’s a good idea to open the file and make sure it is in proper working order before presenting it to your students. It is rare, but some animations or text boxes can be altered during the conversion process.
5. Follow your normal steps for sharing the file with your students.

Google Sheets to Microsoft Excel

1. Log in to your Google account and open your Google Drive. Select the Google Sheets file you wish to open.
2. From the Sheets menu, go to File >> Download as >> Microsoft Excel (.xlsx). You will then need to download the file to your computer desktop or Microsoft OneDrive (my personal preference).
3. Open your Microsoft OneDrive. Create a folder for your new digital resource. While not necessary, I highly recommend putting your activities into folders to keep you and your students organized.
4. From the menu, select Upload >> Files. Select the downloaded xlsx file and upload it. Your digital Google resource is now ready to be shared with your Microsoft students. It’s a good idea to open the file and make sure it is in proper working order before presenting it to your students. It is rare, but some animations or text boxes can be altered during the conversion process.
5. Follow your normal steps for sharing the file with your students.

Google Docs to Microsoft Word

1. Log in to your Google account and open your Google Drive. Select the Google Docs file you wish to open.
2. From the Slides menu, go to File >> Download as >> Microsoft Word (.docx). You will then need to download the file to your computer desktop or Microsoft OneDrive (my personal preference).
3. Open your Microsoft OneDrive. Create a folder for your new digital resource. While not necessary, I highly recommend putting your activities into folders to keep you and your students organized.
4. From the menu, select Upload >> Files. Select the downloaded docx file and upload it. Your digital Google resource is now ready to be shared with your Microsoft students. It’s a good idea to open the file and make sure it is in proper working order before presenting it to your students. It is rare, but some animations or text boxes can be altered during the conversion process.
5. Follow your normal steps for sharing the file with your students.

Google Forms to Microsoft Forms

Okay, so at the time of this blog post, you should know there is no way to easily download and convert Google Forms to Microsoft Forms. I know, I’m crying, too. You essentially have to recreate the Google Form in Microsoft. Personally, I don’t have time for that, not this year anyway. My workaround is providing Microsoft students with the Google link. You’ll have to change some permissions, though:

1. Log in to your Google account and open your Google Drive. Select the Google Forms file you wish to open.
2. From the settings button (clog), uncheck the box that reads “Limit to 1 response.” When checked, respondents will be required to sign in to Google. Since your students have Microsoft emails/accounts, you don’t want this!
3. Click the preview button (eyeball) to view the form. Copy the URL and provide it to your Microsoft students. They will be able to fill out the Form and you’ll be able to check responses with your Google account.