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Google Drive offers numerous benefits. It’s a cloud-based storage service, an online office suite, and a connective tissue that brings various Google services under one umbrella. |
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But, there’s more to Drive than you can see. If you have the right combination of tools, settings, and know-how, it’s possible to turn your Google Drive into a productivity machine that offers time-saving techniques and much more.
1. Go offline
Though Google Drive is cloud-based, but with a simple two-minute setup, it’s possible to view and edit your documents even when you don’t have an active connection. For this, you just need to use Chrome browser of Google.
• In Chrome, first install the official Drive app.
• Next, go to drive.google.com, and click the "More" option in the left-hand menu
• Next, select "Offline."
• Click the button to enable offline access for your PC, you’re all set!
2. Add Drive to your hard drive
Other than offline document management, it’s possible to enable complete Drive-to-PC syncing, which will enable you to access any files you've saved in Google Drive on your local machine. You can easily drag and drop files between Drive and your PC.
3. Crank up your sync
The official Drive sync program allocates Drive files on the hard drive of your computer, but it won’t be of much help with documents and spreadsheets created in Google Docs. These files are stored in the proprietary Docs format and thus can be opened with a local word processor such as Microsoft Word.
Enter SyncDocs, which establishes a two-way sync between a local folder and your drive account. It converts Docs files into your choice of Word or Open Office format.
4. Drag and drop files
Do you know you can directly drag files from your computer onto the Drive website? Drive will start with an upload and put it into your storage. You need not perform any further steps.
5. Insert images easily
While editing a Google Docs document, use the command bar displayed at the top of the screen to insert an image! Not just this, you can also drag the image from your pc into the Google Docs document.
6. Search for links
You can save good amount of time while looking for a link by searching right within Google Docs. To add a link into a document press Ctrl-K or use the toolbar at the top of the screen. You just need to type regular text into the box that gets displayed.
7. Keep track of changes
Though Google Docs lacks the Track Changes features as provided by Microsoft Word, but it’s possible to view the detailed edits by opening the Docs' Revision History feature. You can either find it in the File menu or press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-G.
8. Take some shortcuts
Google Drive is full of keyboard shortcuts. You can display a complete list by holding Ctrl and pressing the forward-slash key.
9. Focus, damn it! Focus
So, you are looking for a full-screen document editing experience minus distractions, go for the "Full screen" command displayed under Docs' View menu. You can return to a regular view by hitting the Esc key.
10. Get organized
Do you know that Google Drive allows you to create folders and even nested folders? Another thing, it also allows you to color-code your folders for organization? All you need to do is right-click any folder in your Drive and select the "Change color" command from the menu that gets displayed.
11. Start sharing
Google Drive offers numerous ways to share your content. It is possible to invite other users to work on a document with you. They can also make edits and/or comments and users can also email a document or file directly from Docs in the format of your choice. To display and use these options, right-click on any file in Google Drive or look in the File menu while editing a document.
12. Push the envelope
Though Google Docs lacks its own native tool for generating correctly formatted envelopes, but it’s using a third-party Chrome app called Envelopes for Google Docs. You first need to install the app and then run it in the Chrome New Tab page. The app inquire about the envelope dimensions and then you can create a new document that'll print at exactly the right size.
13. Get a new view
It is possible to customize appearance of the drive to make it work better for you. Click the button at the top-right on the main drive with four small boxes to change from the default list view to a more visual grid arrangement. Next, you need to click the button displayed next to it to switch back.
14. Consider conversion
On uploading a lot of text-heavy PDFs or images, the conversion capability of Google Drive will surely work for you. The Drive can scan and identify text in PDFs and images and place it into an editable document. The option is visible in the form of a gear icon at the top-right of the main Drive screen and under "Upload settings."
15. Don't get lost in translation
You can now translate Google Docs into another language for you. To edit a document, click on the Tools menu at the top of the screen and select "Translate document."
16. Do your homework
When you are working on a document, you can try the Google Docs Research feature. To display this, click the Tools menu and select "Research" -- or hit Ctrl-Alt-Shift-I for those, looking for a keyboard shortcut.
17. Turn Drive into a fax machine
Drive has a plug-in called HelloFax, which can serve as your own personal fax machine. Using this service, you can fax around 50 free pages per month.
18. Let Drive sign on the dotted line
Those, who need to sign numerous electronic documents, can go for a Drive-connected app called HelloSign. This is made by the same people who made HelloFax. After, you've installed the HelloSign Chrome app and uploaded a signature, you just need to right-click any file in Drive and select to open it with HelloSign.
19. Create documents quickly
It’s possible to save time by putting a create button for Google Docs in your browser. Just get the free Google Docs Quick Create extension for Chrome to add a button into the toolbar of your browser with one-click commands. You can immediately start a new spreadsheet, document, and presentation.
20. Simplify saving
If you save a lot of Internet-based content to your Google Drive account, you can use a free Chrome extension called Save to Google Drive. The app adds right-click "Save to Drive" commands directly into your browser and lets the user to grab images, documents, screenshots of entire Web pages, and even audio and video files from the Internet and save them directly into Google Drive.
21. Search outside of Drive
If you're signed into Google, it’s possible to look for the Drive content even when you aren't in Drive itself. You can enter queries like "my tax documents" or "my income spreadsheets" into Google Search to show the desired results.
22. Tell Drive to collect data
You can use Drive to create public forms to collect and organize survey-style data: Click on the Tools menu within a Google Docs spreadsheet and select "Create a form. Next, follow the prompts to get started.
23. Turn Drive into a coding machine
Google Docs is good for general document editing jobs. However, a free Chrome app called Drive Notepad may be better for those working with a code. Drive Notepad allows you to view and edit plain-text documents in your browser as well as save them to your Drive account. It even offers syntax highlighting for different scripting and programming languages, such as HTML, Python, Perl, Ruby, and JSON.
24. Shift your company's scheduling into Google Drive
Gantter for Google Drive refers to a Chrome app that allows you enterprise-level project scheduling right into your Drive account.
25. Turn Google Drive into a cross-platform cloud hub
A free Chrome app called Wappwolf Automator allows you to easily connect your Drive account to other online services and establish cross-platform syncing.
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