autoCrat your life!

Find the autoCrat add-on in the Chrome web store or the add-on market directly in a Google Sheet.

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I have written about the autoCrat add-on before in my "What Google Sheets and add-ons can do for you..." post, but I really wanted to spend some time diving into the great ways myself and my district are using this versatile add-on to help automate, streamline, and uniform how we format and share information from our Google Apps for Education (GAFE) with our staff. The process of autoCrat is really just a version of a mail-merge tool, but with the added power of GAFE, (specifically Forms, Sheets, and Classroom) you are really able to create and maintain a workflow that better helps the transfer of information between everyone.

I have used it many times with my co-integrator, Anita Moose (@amooseIT), in order to create and share certificates of completion for our technology-based professional development with our staff. This process has allowed us to use an existing roster of participants collected from a Google Form registration and create custom certificates that serve as record of participation, completion, and in-district credit. We also then have a spreadsheet containing all the relevant data and links to the certificates to share with HR in order to qualify staff for salary advancement and keep their records digital and searchable.

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Collecting information via a Google Form is a great way to get all the important details in a spreadsheet that you can run autoCrat on to send form letters or certificates.

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Using the response sheet from a Google Form, you can run autoCrat to pull the specific information you want and insert it on a Google doc template.

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Here is an example of a Google Doc template created to insert Form/Sheet info on. Using carets (<<>>) to tag the text you want to replace cues autoCrat to pull that info from the Sheet and insert it into the Doc.

This is a completed autoCrat document filled in with information from a registration form. These can then be individually emailed to the recipient with their custom information.

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Here is an example of a Google Doc template created to serve as a certificate of completion for our in-district workshops

This is the completed autoCrat certificate with the participants registration from a registration Form/Sheet. That Sheet can then be shared with HR to provide a easily searched record.

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Anita has used autoCrat to create progress reports for middle school students as they self-evaluate on a rubric designed to evaluate character using Google forms. Grades 5th-8th are enrolled in a Google Classroom per grade-level and expected to complete the self-evaluation each quarter The results are then pushed to a running progress report that is printed and included in report card envelopes sent home at the end of each quarter to help students see their progression throughout the year.

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AMS students fill out this Form each quarter to evaluate themselves on a character rubric promoting positive school culture.

This Google Doc template is used four times a year with the response sheet to the Culture of Character Form. Each quarter autoCrat is run and fills out the next column of the template providing a running record of each students self-evaluation.

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Our district has started to move several of their processes to a digital/GAFE format and we again found great use for autoCrat. With the large amount of professional development opportunities our staff take advantage of during the school year and summer, we wanted to streamline the process of approving relevant PD and keeping track of completion. All approvals are now done through Google forms as well as completion certificate submissions. This makes record keeping for our District office much easier and a quicker turn-around for teachers and staff to have the information they need.

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This is a district-wide template of a PD approval confirmation that teachers receive once administration has given the "ok".

Here is a completed autoCrat PD approval form that includes important information from the teacher submission about the course and additional approval info from building and district administration. This greatly improves the workflow from traditional paper forms.

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When a staff member runs an in-district PD, they are given a copy of this sheet to customize for their own attendance and record keeping. They can then run autoCrat to personalize completion certificates and turn in a copy of the Sheet to HR for district records.

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So now you can see how much autoCrat can improve your workflow. If you are a Google school you need to start taking advantage of this FREE add-on and become far more efficient with how you can collect, format, and share information. There are lots of great tutorials out there, but below you will find one that walks through the latest version of autoCrat by Brent Coley that is well done. Please don't hesitate to contact me for help getting started with autoCrat and feel free to comment below on great ways you have found to use this amazing tool!

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