Google Drive Tips and Tricks

Not just another cloud storage service, it also offers a host of other functions

Have you ever taken Google Drive for a spin? Other than being part file-syncing and cloud storage service and part office productivity suite, it also offers some neat collaborative editing functions. The office suite primarily comprises Docs (word processing), Sheets (spreadsheets), and Slides (presentations). Then, besides Drawings, Forms and Google My Maps, you can connect scores of third party apps to Drive as well. (You’ll find these under New > More > Connect more apps.) Drive offers 15GB of free cloud storage, compatibility with popular file formats (including Microsoft Office), and built-in OCR (optical character recognition) technology. If you’re well versed with this, use these tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your Drive.

Across devices and offline too

You can use Google Drive on your PC/Mac, tablet, or smartphone (or all three) and keep your files synced and accessible on each device. You’ll find the appropriate versions at http://bit.ly/gogdrive. You don’t need to be connected to the Internet to use Drive. However, to activate offline use you need to be online to download files initially.

On a desktop, launch Chrome (the browser is a prerequisite), click on the Gear icon, open “Settings” and check the box next to “Offline”. Since smartphones and tablets have limited storage, you need to download the files you need individually. While the device is connected to the Internet, go to the file you need accessible offline and press the grey “i” next to it. In the resultant panel go to “keep on device” and switch “off” to “on” to download the file. Now while this will make the files viewable on mobile devices, to edit them you need the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps separately from Android and iOS app stores.

Save directly from Web to Google drive

Maybe you know this or maybe you don’t, but extensions are bits of code that add unifunctional superpowers to web browsers beefing up their feature set. Easy to install, extensions let you to personalise and customise a browser as per your needs. An extension called "Save to Google Drive" for Chrome allows you add documents, images, links, and HTML5 audio and video files to directly to Google Drive--thereby saving a lot of back-and-forth effort. To install it, click on “Settings” in Chrome and select “Extensions”. Scroll to the bottom of the webpage and and click on “Get more extensions”. In the Search box on the top left, type “Save to Google Drive” to locate the extension and then click on “+ Add to Chrome” to install it. Next time you want to save some web content to Drive, right-click on the item and select "Save to Google Drive."

Converting images to text

Google Drive has OCR prowess built right into it. If you want to convert text on an image (JPG, GIF or PNG) or in a PDF into editable document text, it will do it for you. All you need to do is upload the relevant files and let Drive’s algorithms do their job. Obviously, higher resolution, sharper images with a good contrast will fetch better results. And remember to keep the images oriented correctly, not at right angles or upside down. Caveats? The files should not be more than 2MB and only the first 10 pages of a PDF are culled for text conversion. So, a 100-page PDF will have to be broken up and fed piecemeal.

Track previous file versions

Google Drive saves 30 days worth of versions of a document, presentation, slideshow, or drawing so you can go back to previous edits. This is very useful if you are working on a file collaboratively with other people. All you need to do is, click on “file” and then “see revisions history”. Here, select the timestamp of version you want to go to it. In case of a collaborative edit, you’ll find the names of the persons who’ve worked on it along with an assigned colour code .

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are great timesavers. And Google Drive packs loads of these. Click on the Gear icon on Drive’s main screen and select “Keyboard shortcuts” from the dropdown while you’re online to behold ‘em. You can also pop up this list by hitting “Ctrl” and “/” in Windows and “⌘” and “/” on Macs. The prime shortcuts to remember are:

/ = Search Drive

Shift + t = Create new document

Shift + s = Create new spreadsheet

Shift + p = Create new presentation

Shift + f = Create new folder

n = Rename selected item

. (dot) = Share selected items

z = Move selected items to new folder

Shift + z = Add selected items to existing folder zz

Source | http://www.mydigitalfc.com/