Announcing Unlisted Access

We are pleased to announce a new feature for our subscribers – unlisted access! This allows you to create a binder anyone with a link can access, but it won’t be included in search results on the LiveBinders site, Google, or other search engines.

This new feature gives our subscribers the ability to create a private shelf of binders where people won’t need to type in an access key for each binder. This feature works very similar to the Google Doc access setting called “Anyone with a link.”

One note, files marked as “private” inside the binder will not be visible in an unlisted binder.

Hide the URL Above the Content in Your Binder

We have had many requests from people who wanted to create a cleaner look for their binders by removing the url link that appears above the content. This feature is now available to our premium subscribers!

To use this feature, just go into your binder in edit mode and click on Settings > Layout. Use the selection box titled Hide URL above content, then click on Save. You will have an option to remove the link completely or have a little icon replace the link.

Here is a screenshot of the page with an icon instead of a link:

One note, even if you hide the link completely, the icon will show up on mobile devices. The reason for this is that many mobile devices require you to open pdfs outside the binder, so we needed to provide people with an opportunity to still open the pdf on their mobile device.

Do you have a feature that you would like to see added to LiveBinders? Please comment on this post!

Embedded Google Docs Error

Google has been migrating everyone from http: to https: to access web content. This is a good thing as https is a more secure protocol.

But, if you see the following error in your binder:

Go up into your browser url and type or copy/paste the following:
https://www.livebinders.com

Please change any bookmarks that you have to LiveBinders to be https://www.livebinders.com

Shorter URLs for Binders and Shelves

You can now user shorter urls for your binders and shelves. When you click on the “Share” option, you will now see a URL something like this: https://www.livebinders.com/b/1524306 for a binder and this: https://www.livebinders.com/s/548 for a shelf.

We hope that makes your life with LiveBinders just a little easier! But please leave us a comment to let us know what else would make your life with LiveBinders better.

How to add an overview or table of contents page to your LiveBinder

I was looking at some great binders this morning and realized how the overview page and the table of contents page both really helped give people an introduction to and a bit of context around the binder. So I thought I would do a quick video on how to add those pages.

Please note that those pages only show up in “view” or “play” mode, so you won’t see them in the editor.

Here is my video:

Navigating the #NotatISTE18 LiveBinder

We didn’t go to ISTE this year (the largest, most fun edtech event ever) but we have made it our mission for the last few years to help collect resources that were tweeted out during the conference. @pgeorge and @shighley helped us build an amazing binder of resources. In fact there are so many hundreds of resources in this binder I thought I would write a blog post on different ways to navigate it.

You could spend all summer combing through this binder!

If you are looking for some of the recordings from the live Periscope, please go here.

Here are some tips for navigating the binder:

• The LiveBinder is organized by the format of the resources. The table of contents is a great place to start to get a feel for everything that is in there.
• Use the search bar at the top to search for a certain subject such as “inclusion” or “maker.”
• If you are really in a browsing mood, head over to the “Presentation Documents Shared” tab, as it houses hundreds of presentations from the event. There are some real gems there!
• One of my favorite tabs is the “Videos/Podcasts and Other Channels” because there is a lot of inspiration in there.

ISTE is over, but we are still working through the feed and adding great things to the binder.

A big thanks to Peggy George and Susie Highley for all the help! We welcome any feedback on what we can do better next  year.

Create a Beautiful Guest Packet

We have seen some great uses of LiveBinders over the years. One of my favorites is creating a beautiful package of local information for your guests. Imagine if you booked an Airbnb and then were sent a nice on-line packet of fun things to do and great local restaurants. Another great example is this cool binder on Day Trips for Exchange Students:

Day Trips for Exchange Students/Visitors

Here is a quick video on how to package information for guests:

 

 This is the binder that I used in the video:

2016 Educators’ Job Fair – Employers

LiveBinders an Alternative to Wikispaces

We were sad to hear that Wikispaces is shutting down, but we hope you will consider LiveBinders as an alternative. LiveBinders lets you,

• Quickly build an on-line binder of resources
• Share publicly or privately
• Easily host a library of binders on your website

And is free for your first five binders!

Want to see a nice binder example? Take a look at this great collaborative binder where multiple authors added content for an event:

From the Dashboard to the Desk

Groups of binders can also be added to a website to create virtual libraries.  These educators made their resources easily accessible regardless of where the website is hosted:

Google sites example:

Arkansas’s SEARK Literacy PD site hosts all of their content in binders on a shelf they embed here:

SEARK website binder library

Hosted website example:

USF’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Support website hosts multiple shelves of binders resources here:

USFPBIS website binder library

 

 

 

We now have auto-embed for Quizlet

Quizlets make great additions to your binders. You can now use “LiveBinder It” to add any Quizlet to your binders. You can also just copy/paste the url. We do the auto-embed part so that you will see the Quizlet in the tab.

Show an updated date on your embedded shelf

We have a new option on the shelf embed code that will let you show an updated date on your binders. If you use this in combination with sort by “Most Recent” people will be able to quickly glance at the shelf to see which binders have been recently updated.

We now have auto-embed for Piktochart and Sway

If you are using Piktochart to create an infographic or Sway for your presentations, you no longer have to find embed codes and then copy paste them. You can just use the url for your chart or presentation (or click on “LiveBinder It” while viewing your chart or presentation) and we do the rest of the work so that it shows up beautifully in your binder.

#NotAtISTE?

I occasionally talk to teachers who don’t even know what ISTE is. ISTE is the biggest edtech conference in the country and it is a blast. There is so much to be learned and so much to be shared at ISTE. But even if you are not in San Antonio this year, you can catch some of the amazing information sharing by following the #NotAtISTE17 hashtag on Twitter.

Even if you don’t have time to follow the hashtag, or if you find it too overwhelming, you can check out the #NotAtISTE17 LiveBinder. Peggy George and myself have collaborated on this for the last couple of years. We gather all the fun things from the hashtag and many of the presentations from ISTE and organize them in a binder so that you can browse it at your leisure. Peggy has also created a Participate collection for all the shared resources.

“LiveBinder It” – New features including save to multiple binders

“LiveBinder It” is our handy bookmarklet that lets you add web pages to your binder while you browse. But it can also be used to add multiple files to LiveBinders and to copy tabs from one LiveBinder to another. “LiveBinder It” just got a major update and the new features include:

• Adding files/links to multiple binders at once – teachers have often asked if they can upload a file to multiple student binders and now they can!
• Adding files/links to base tabs -before, you had to add files or links to main or sub tabs and then move them to base tabs, but now you can add them directly to base tabs
• A simplified interface for all these powerful features

New “LiveBinder It” Look

Easily Add Content To Multiple Binders

Add Content to Base Tabs

LiveBinders Google Integration

In case you missed some of our announcements on LiveBinders Google integration, here are all the ways that we now integrate with Google:

1. Google sign up and login – Save time by using your Google account to sign up for or log into LiveBinders
2. Auto embed of Google docs, presentations, spreadsheets, and Drive folders – Your LiveBinder looks great with all your Google content in it, use “LiveBinder It” to add Google content to your binders, you can even add Google Drive folders to your binder
3. Add Google content from inside the binder – Another time saver is to add content from Google while you are editing your binder. Use the Drive option from the + Content menu inside the binder to add content from your Google Drive
4. Share to Google Classroom – Quickly and easily add your binder to Google Classroom by selecting Classroom from the Share menu in your binder