Gemini Canvas: Create Docs, Dashboards, and Web Apps

This workshop is designed for anyone who wants to move from asking an AI questions to building things with it, using Canvas as a creative and analytical workspace inside the Gemini app. It covers the full range of what Canvas can produce, working from the simplest outputs to the most advanced.

Participants begin with text drafting and editing, then progress through FAQs, infographics, and interactive dashboards, and finish by generating web apps and working with dynamic, data-driven views that update as their numbers change. Along the way, participants learn how the "Create" workflow transforms Deep Research reports into finished deliverables, and how to iterate on any Canvas output through conversation. The workshop includes hands-on activities and live Canvas builds throughout.

Who This Is For
This course is designed for:
- Program Managers -- who need dashboards, trackers, and status pages built quickly without a developer
- Communications and Marketing Staff -- who produce infographics, FAQs, and campaign web pages on tight timelines
- Business and Data Analysts -- who want to turn spreadsheet data into interactive, shareable views
- Administrative Professionals -- who assemble documents, reference materials, and team resources
- Instructional Designers and Trainers -- who build quizzes, study aids, and interactive learning materials

It will also benefit anyone who works with information and wants to produce professional, interactive deliverables from a plain-language description.
 

Learning Objectives
Participants will have an opportunity to:
1. Navigate the Gemini Canvas workspace and distinguish it from a standard chat conversation.
2. Create and refine written documents, including drafts, FAQs, and reference content, using iterative editing.
3. Generate infographics that organize complex information into structured, visual formats.
4. Build interactive dashboards that surface key metrics, filters, and trends from data they provide.
5. Create web apps, prototypes, quizzes, and other interactive content from a single prompt.
6. Apply the "Create" workflow to convert Deep Research reports into web pages, infographics, and quizzes.
7. Describe how dynamic data keeps a Canvas current, including the live two-way sync offered by Sheets Canvas.
8. Evaluate which Canvas output type best fits a given communication or analysis goal.
 

Topic Outline
Introduction to Canvas
- What Canvas is and where it lives in the Gemini app
- Canvas versus standard chat: when to switch modes
- The two faces of "Canvas": the Gemini app workspace and the newer Sheets Canvas layer
- The prompt-to-prototype workflow at a glance

Text and Documents
- Drafting, rewriting, and refining written content
- Adjusting tone, length, and structure through conversation
- Building FAQs and structured reference documents

Infographics and Visual Explainers
- Turning text and data into structured infographics
- Adjusting color, layout, and data points iteratively
- Choosing an infographic over a document

Dashboards and Data Visualization
- Building interactive dashboards from raw data (CSV and pasted data)
- Adding filters, key metrics, and trend views
- Animated and comparative visualizations

Web Apps, Quizzes, and Interactive Builds
- Generating functional web apps and prototypes from a description
- Creating interactive quizzes and study aids
- Exploring games, 3D models, and interactive simulations
- Exporting, sharing, and refining a build

From Research to Deliverable
- Using the "Create" button on a Deep Research report
- Converting reports into web pages, infographics, and quizzes
- Uploading your own files and images as sources

Connecting Live Data with Sheets Canvas
- How Sheets Canvas overlays an interactive layer on a spreadsheet
- Building a mini-app or dashboard from a Sheet with a single prompt
- Two-way, real-time sync between Canvas and the source data
- Where Sheets Canvas fits alongside BI tools

Access note: This segment is instructor-demonstrated; Sheets Canvas requires Gemini for Sheets and may not be enabled on every account

Collaborative Problem-Solving and Q&A

Special Features
This workshop will include hands-on exercises in which participants build each Gemini-app Canvas output type live -- a document, an infographic, a data-driven dashboard, a quiz, and a web app. The live two-way sync of Sheets Canvas is shown through an instructor-led demonstration, with guidance on how to check whether it is available on your own account.