Google Sheets
Who Has Access?
The Google Sheets have been shared with the email addresses you originally provided. If you would like to give access to more users, simply click the 'Share' button at the top and add their email address there.
Adding New Content
- Select the sheet you wish to edit using the tabs at the bottom of the page.
- Each sheet is made up of columns and rows. The columns have been titled by information type. Each row acts as one entry.
- In the example below for department news, there are 7 columns: Title, Description, Location, Applies To, Date Posted, Expiration Date, Posted By.
- To add a news post, go to the next available row and add your content in each corresponding column.
- In the example, we added a news post in row 4 and entered the following in each column: New Engine on the Way, Station 81 is going to be getting a new Engine. Scheduled to be delivered by the end of the year., All Personnel, 8/1/2019, 8/30/2019, Chief Doe.
- To remove an entry, simply delete the all of the content in a single row.
Formatting Date/Time
- In order to sort your entries or highlight them based on update or post time, date columns must be in the Date or Date time format.
- You can make sure this is the case by highlighting the column and selecting Format > Number > Date or Date time.
Drop Downs
- If a cell in your sheet has an arrow on the right side, it contains a drop down list of available entries.
- Click the arrow and select one of the entries.
- These options can be changed if needed, just be sure to let us know if there is associated conditional formatting so it won’t be lost with the change (see conditional formatting explanation below).
Conditional Formatting
- We are able to add conditional formatting, or rules, based on certain scenarios.
- For example, when an apparatus is ‘In Service’, we can highlight that text in green; or when it is out of service, we can highlight ‘OOS’ in red.
- We will need to create these rules for you on the backend. Any formatting done in the Google Sheet such as bullet points, colors, and font size will not show up on your dashboard.
Changes to Google Sheets
- If you need a new Google sheet tab, email us and describe the content you wish to display.
- If you already know the data you need, you’re welcome to create a new tab with the columns and any sample data, otherwise we can create a template for you.
- Adding a new tab will not automatically create a new section in your dashboard. We will need to add it in the back end when it’s ready to go live.
- To change the columns in a sheet, let us know what you need added or removed. New columns will not automatically populate and removing a column could affect how the current data is being displayed.
Google Slides
Who Has Access?
The Google Slides have been shared with the email addresses you originally provided. If you would like to give access to more users, send us their email address at dashboards@firstarriving.com.
Content
- Google Slides are treated just like PowerPoint. Unlike Google Sheets, there are no rules for formatting content with Google Sheets. Whatever is on the slide will appear exactly as is on the screen.
- The example below is a slide created for new members at the station.
Timing
- By default, the slides will rotate at 10 seconds per slide and show the images and/or text as they are formatted.
- The total slide time is fixed usually at 60 seconds (a maximum of 6 slides).
- When there are fewer slides they will cycle back to the begin until the entire page time is up.
- We can change both the total slideshow time as well as individual slide times if needed.
Have Questions?
Don’t hesitate to email us at dashboards@firstarriving.com with any questions!