Webinar: Create a Big Answer Box in Google Sheets

Webinar Google Sheets Answer Boxes 2025 02 03 17 50 CST Recording – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGAmJ2pKsgA

Below is the AI transcript, spaced into paragraphs and with grammar and phrasing tidied up for easier reading. Timestamps are preserved for reference.

(00:02)
All right, so we are making a large answer box with Google Sheets today. The place to start, obviously, is with Google Sheets. If you’ll make a new Google Sheet—I just do Control+T and type “sheet.new” or “spreadsheet.new,” or go to Google Drive and make a spreadsheet—anyway, just get a spreadsheet going. We’re going to do this together, and we’re going to create something that looks like this. You’ll see I have lots of rows and columns in my spreadsheet, but then I have one big answer box. This is really my “magic sauce” for having students use Google Sheets.

(00:37)
When you type in a normal cell, it’s so small, and the text just spills into the next cell unless it gets cut off. I’ll demonstrate that in a second. These are really easy to create, and there are a lot of advantages to using Google Sheets.

I’m going to click here on my spreadsheet. I have the steps—I’m putting those away—and I’m going to go through them. We have a spreadsheet, and I’m going to add a sheet. The thing is, you can resize columns and rows. You can get in between the column headers to make them bigger or smaller. I can make a slightly bigger cell by increasing the width of the column and increasing the height. The problem is, that adjusts everything, which can really wreak havoc on how you’re designing your graphic organizer.

(01:14)
I’m going to create a new sheet. Another problem: “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” When you type into a cell, it spills over into the next cell unless the next cell has content, and then it

(01:55)
…gets cut off. Obviously, that’s a problem, and it doesn’t feel like a great way to create an answer box.

So here are the steps. If you have an empty spreadsheet (just all these cells), you can resize the rows and columns if you want to. You can make them smaller if you like—that’s up to you. You don’t have to. What I’d like you to do, though, is click any selection of cells (called a range). Honestly, it can be tricky if you’re using a trackpad, so if you are on a trackpad, you might just click anywhere once and hold down the Shift key. Then, when I hold down Shift and use the arrow keys, you can see how it selects a range of cells as I move around.

(02:32)
So, however big you want your set—thank you—however big you want it, just go ahead and pick something. Got that? Now here’s the trick: you’re looking at the toolbar. We’re looking for the “Merge cells” icon, which is near the paint can. You might not see it at all, depending on the width of your screen. If I shrink my screen…

(03:10)
…see how all the tools disappear?
“Yep.”
“Yeah.”

They’re hidden under the three-dot icon. I’m going to expand back out. If you don’t see it, look under the three dots. Highlight any of the cells you see highlighted, then click on the Merge icon. It creates a big, giant, white-filled cell.

Now, how do I get my student to put an answer in there—or I might do this for myself just because I want to put directions and need more room? That’s where I come over to the paint can. I like to be consistent: I personally use light blue for directions and yellow for “put your answer in here.” You can use whatever colors you want—maybe your school colors. Students then understand there’s information on the graphic organizer in one color, and they should fill in all the yellow spots. That’s a tip.

(03:44)
Okay, so I have a big, giant answer box, but I have a similar problem: when I type in it, the font is small and squished down in the corner. If I type even more words, it doesn’t wrap; it does the same thing.

(04:27)
So, my steps are: I highlight all the cells, click “Merge,” use the paint can, and then in the toolbar, I look for centering. We typically know what centering looks like from Word or Google Docs—it’s the horizontal alignment. It’s up to you if you want it centered horizontally. Sometimes I don’t, but usually, I do want it centered vertically as a personal preference. You click on that little arrow to the right, so I choose “Center horizontally.” Then,

(05:03)
…right next to it is “Center vertically.” I’m going to click on that, and it places the text right in the middle. I love having my cells be vertically aligned. In fact, I’m inclined to click the “awesome box” (the box to the left of column A and above row 1) which selects the entire sheet, and set everything to be vertically aligned so that it’s in the middle—nothing is sitting at the bottom. Sometimes I want text at the bottom, but not usually. Again, personal preference.

(05:36)
Then, next to those alignment options is “Wrap.” You definitely want to turn on word wrap. I’m going to turn on “Wrap.” That’s the third option. I’ll copy this text a few times (Control+C) just so you can see that it does indeed wrap. I’m probably also going to increase the font size or pick a handwriting font if I want students to write a response. Then I’ll delete that text, because this is how I want my answer box to look.

“Are you with me?”
“Yep.”

(06:14)
Right now, my answer box isn’t set as a reusable style. I’ll click once so you see the blue box around it. Then, go up to the toolbar—you see this paint roller? Have you ever used it?
“No.”
“Oh, your life’s about to change today,” because if I click on it, it copies the formatting (not the text, just the formatting). Now I can place these answer boxes everywhere.

For example, I can go to another sheet, come back, click on a box, use the format painter on a different sheet, and click somewhere—boom! When I type in it, it’s centered, in the handwriting font, all the things. The reason it’s so much wider now is because I made the column widths different in the other sheet. The format painter won’t change the column widths; it just applies to the formatting, number of columns, and number of rows.

Honestly, Lori, I’m just going to do this once. I’ll make the answer box I like, then click the tiny triangle on the tab and choose “Copy to an existing spreadsheet.” If you’re working on another lesson activity and want that box in there, you can have your template with the giant answer box and copy it over. Then you can use the format painter again to drop answer boxes wherever you want. So, you literally only have to make this once in theory.

(07:32)
“I’m so sorry, I don’t understand. I got to the part where I clicked the paint roller, and it selects that yellow box…”
“Yep.”
“…and then am I Control+V-ing to get more of them, or…?”
“No, not exactly. Once it’s selected, you go up to the toolbar and see the paint roller next to the printer icon, click on that, and then click anywhere else to paste the formatting. It only applies once. Excel has a sticky option that lets you do it repeatedly, and I miss that, but here’s how you do it in Sheets…”

So, when I click once and it’s there, then I go back and click the format painter again. You see in the toolbar, next to the printer, it’s blue and selected. Now if I click somewhere else, it’ll drop the formatting there, too.

(09:00)
“How about clicking on the tiny arrow, going to ‘Copy to,’ and sending it to a different spreadsheet? Does that copy the entire sheet?”
“Yes, it copies the entire sheet. What I suggest is that you keep a spreadsheet with your templates—like formatting templates. What I do is highlight some cells, make them light blue, merge them, center them, word wrap, maybe increase the font size for a title or directions. Then for the answer box below, I merge it, center it, word wrap, fill it yellow, maybe change it to a handwriting font. Once I like how it looks, I can copy the entire sheet to another spreadsheet.

If I’m in the same spreadsheet, I would just duplicate the sheet. But imagine you’re in a different spreadsheet—now that sheet is in there, and I can use the format painter as needed, so I don’t have to redo all the formatting.”

(11:13)
“I’ve never really used Sheets for kids to answer in directly. I’ve only used Forms, which then pulls their answers into my Sheet. What sort of things would you use this for?”
“Well, you know me, Lori—I like to say the answer is always a spreadsheet,” she laughs. “What I love is that I can organize tasks on different tabs: students do a small task on one tab, then the next step on another tab, and so on. Google Docs has a tab feature now, but in Sheets, you can use formulas, too.

For example, if I ask, ‘What is your name?’ the student types ‘Alice.’ Then on a different sheet, I can type = and click on the cell where they wrote ‘Alice,’ and it imports their name onto that second sheet. That means I can build on their answers in later sheets or remind them, ‘You said this on the first sheet—now reflect on it here on the second.’

I can also create an answer key by adding a sheet called ‘Answer Key’ and, in each cell, type = and click on each student’s answer box to pull all answers into one place. That way, everything is spaced out for the students, but consolidated for me.”

(13:14)
She demonstrates: “Let’s say I type =, then click M6, then on the other sheet, it shows whatever is in M6, right? So I’ll design the student’s spreadsheet so it displays some of their answers on subsequent sheets.

You can do the same for the answer key: add a sheet, double-click the tab to rename it ‘Answer Key.’ In each cell, type = and click the original sheet’s answer box, and it’ll import their response here. Then when they change their answer, it updates on the answer key in real time.”

(14:41)
Now, if a student changes their answer to “Cats are in my bed taking a nap,” you’ll see that appear on the answer key sheet automatically. Each tab can have its own little task, but all the answers feed into one place for easier grading and less student overwhelm.

(15:17)
Another possibility is locking them out of certain cells if you own the spreadsheet: highlight text, right-click, and select “Protect range,” so they can’t edit that. They only have access to certain cells. But if you go through Google Classroom, it makes them the owner of a copy, so that locking doesn’t transfer. I prefer to create copies myself and then share, so I have more control over how they interact. That’s a topic for another time.

(16:07)
Anyway, I know we wanted this to be quick, so to recap: you can make a big cell by using “Merge,” then use the paint can to color it, turn on wrap text, and center it both horizontally and vertically. Then use the format painter to replicate it so you only have to create it once.

“Do you feel successful with that?”
“Yeah, I get it, thank you so much!”
“You’re welcome. I’m going to go ahead and stop the recording.”

End of Transcript