One Display to Inform Them All

I am lucky enough to have two large digital display screens in my library. I run a set of library information slides on them when I’m not teaching a class. This slide deck includes what our month’s book themes are, library rules, and other information about the library. This is on pretty much all the time, so students wandering through get information about the library all day long. 

Welcome to the Library! How can we help you?

I will always choose to run slides fullscreen when I have the option. The problem with doing this in the library is that it covers the system clock in the display. Our library’s one (analog) clock is tucked away in the far back corner of the space. Not only is it hard to see, but students have difficulty reading it. So I frequently had students asking, “What time is it?” 

Enter Slides Timer! 

What Is Slides Timer?

Slides Timer by ClayCodes.org is a Google Chrome extension. There are both free and paid options; and while the paid option offers some neat extras, I have found the free option does exactly what I need. 

Once you install the Slides Timer extension in your browser, you can open any slide deck, insert some “placeholders” for the date and/or the time, and then start up your slides. Voila! The current date and time will display in your presentation! 

How to Set Up Slides Timer 

First, add the Slides Timer add-on. 

1. Add the Slides Timer extension to your browser. Be sure it’s the ClayCodes.org “Slides Timer” - there’s more than one “Slides Timer” out there, and some used similar styling. The extension must be added to the browser that will display the slides - so if you make the slides in your account, but someone else displays them, they’ll have to add the extension in their browser for the time/date to appear.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: The extension has to be added to the browser the slides will display on. So although I have the add-on on the computer powering my library’s digital displays, if I share the slides with someone else, the date and time won’t appear – unless they also add Slides Timer to their browser. 

Next, add your date and time placeholders. Slides Timer uses double angle brackets to create placeholders. I edit the slide deck theme and add my placeholders there, which automatically puts them on every slide in the deck. Alternatively, you could also add the placeholders individually to specific slides. 

2. Navigate to “Edit theme”. This will let you put the time/date on ALL your slides at once.

 

The placeholders are just the words “time” and “date” surrounded by double angle brackets. I also add highlighting so they will be easily visible on every slide. 

3. Add the <<time>> and/or <<date>> placeholders. On the primary theme slide, add a text box and your placeholder(s). <<time>> = current time <<date>> = current date Format as you wish.

Displaying the Date and Time

The very first time you install Slides Timer, you have to refresh your slide deck for Slides Timer to recognize the placeholders. Every time after the first time, they’ll be automatically recognized. 

4. Refresh your slides. The extension only kicks in after the slide deck has been either closed and re-opened, or refreshed.

Then it’s just a matter of starting up your presentation! I set my library slides to loop with a five second delay. They usually run all day long. 

5. Start the slideshow! The time / date placeholders only become active when the slideshow is running - you won’t see the actual time/date if you are in editing mode. NOTE: You may have to fiddle with formatting to get it to look the way you want - the placeholders say where the time and date will START, but they don’t set a length or specific END.

One thing I’ve found is that I had to play with the formatting I used on the placeholders. The actual date and time displayed take up as much space as they need, which is often longer than the placeholders themselves. I ended up adding some spaces after the placeholders that contained the highlighting to make sure the entire date and time was highlighted in the playing presentation. 

It’s That Easy!

This was one of the easiest library improvements I was able to make. I now have clocks on three walls, two of them digital and as large as I want them to be. You can view all the above slides, and use their clickable links, by going to this presentation: 

Slides Timer by ClayCodes.org - Add a clock to your slides! bit.ly/AddClockToSlides Want this? (arrow points to time and date displayed on slide) Read on!

I also frequently add a clock placeholder on lesson slides, so I can easily see what time it is as I’m teaching. It’s super-handy and super-simple. 

I hope you’ll share your tech tips in the comments!