You can open various types of existing document files in Explain Everything to use them as a reference, annotate and highlight them, or base your project on an existing slide presentation.
Document basics and tips
- You can immediately start a project by importing a document via New Project > Files.
- You can import all sorts of document file types: presentations, spreadsheets, and text files. Check out the full list of supported documents.
- You can import one document at a time.
- Move, rotate, and scale added documents with the Hand Tool.
- You can annotate documents with the Draw Tool or the Highlighter. Annotations stick to the underlying documents by default.
- Pages of the document you add to a single slide will be grouped. Only the Stacked layout doesn't follow this rule.
- To quickly straighten the document on Apple, Android, and Chromebook devices, select Hand Tool from the Toolbar and tap the document on the canvas with two fingers.
- To quickly straighten a document on the Web version, select the object with the Hand Tool and double-select the rotate handle.
Note: Once added, documents, spreadsheet, and presentation files can't be edited directly and will not import with animations and transitions (e.g. you won't be able to resolve a suggestion made in an imported Google Doc).
Add a document to your project
- While in a project, select Add Media from the toolbar.
- From the menu, choose File.
- Navigate to the location where your document is stored.
- Select a document you’d like to import. If necessary, select Import once it loads.
- If a document you import is more than one page long, select the pages you'd like to import. Use Select all and Deselect all for quick selection.
- Choose the document layout. You can import a document to Separate slides, or to a single slide in one of the following layouts: Grid, Stacked, Horizontal, and Vertical.
- Choose the Page locking options: select Rotation if you’d like to lock the ability to rotate pages, Scale — to lock the ability to scale pages, Horizontal — to lock the ability to move pages horizontally, Vertical — to lock the ability to move pages vertically. If you’d like to lock all the features, select All Attributes. You can unlock them later using the Context Menu.
- When you’re ready, select Insert.
Tip: You can send a document to Explain Everything using the iOS Share option in other apps. To do that, select the Share icon and from the list of apps select Copy to Explain Everything. If you don't see Explain Everything on the list but have it on your device, select More and make sure you have enabled Explain Everything in the menu. If it's still not there, this means the file type is not supported.
- While in a project, select Add Media from the toolbar.
- From the menu, choose File.
- Navigate to the location where your document is stored.
- Select a document you’d like to import. If necessary, select Import once it loads.
- If a document you import is more than one page long, select the pages you'd like to import. Use Select all and Deselect all for quick selection.
- Choose the document layout. You can import a document to Separate slides, or to a single slide in one of the following layouts: Grid, Stacked, Horizontal, and Vertical.
- Toggle Lock pages to lock the inserted document in place so you don't accidentally move it with the Hand Tool. You can unlock them later using the Context Menu.
- When you’re ready, select Insert.
Tip: You can send a document to Explain Everything using the Open with... option in other apps. If Explain Everything is not on the list of available apps but you have it installed on your device, this means the file type is not supported.
- While in a project, select Add Media from the toolbar.
- From the menu, choose File.
- Navigate to the location where your document is stored.
- Select a document you’d like to import. If necessary, select Import once it loads.
- If a document you import is one page long, it will be imported to your canvas right away. If it’s more than one page long, you can select the pages you'd like to import. Use Select all if you’d like all pages of the document to be imported.
- Choose the document layout. You can import a document to Separate slides, or to a single slide in one of the following layouts: Grid, Stacked, Horizontal, and Vertical.
- Toggle Lock pages to lock inserted document in place so you don't accidentally move it with the Hand Tool. You can unlock them later using the Context Menu.
- When you’re ready, select Insert.
Tip: For a quick import, drag and drop the document to your project.