hidden hacks

6
HIDDEN HACKS
FOR GOOGLE DRIVE
Improve your file management in minutes
Introduction
Google Drive is arguably the most misunderstood
of the Google Apps suite, but there are hidden file
management features should keep it on your favorite
apps list. .
To clear up confusion, Google Drive used to be called
Google Docs (when it was a web-based competitor
to Word/Excel/PowerPoint). In 2012, Google renamed
it “Google Drive” and expanded the application into a
full-on Dropbox alternative while keeping the office
suite functionality. Google Docs is now a subset of
Google Drive, which is a file storage, sharing and
synchronization app.
Below, we outline six often overlooked features that
make Google Drive the premier online file manager
available today.
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Enable offline access
It’s surprising how many people don’t know they can
use Google Drive without an internet connection
-- so long as you enable Drive’s Offline features.
Google Drive can sync local copies of your Drive
files to your computer, and you can view this data
even when your PC is offline. In the case of Google
Docs and Google Spreadsheets, you can also edit
your files, and those changes will sync back up to
their online counterparts once you reconnect to the
internet. The procedure for activating Drive’s offline
capabilities requires using the Chrome browser,
often with the Google Drive Chrome Web app.
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[CTRL]+[/] = accurate
keyboard shortcuts
Everything is easier with keyboard shortcuts, but
Google is constantly rolling out new versions
of Google Drive that your Google Apps domain
administrator may not yet allow you to use -- and
your hotkeys will vary slightly from version to
version, or even in different areas of Google Drive.
Case in point, you can [SHIFT]+[?] to open the hotkey
list from GDrive’s file manager screen, but within
Google Docs that just types a question mark. To
bring up a complete list of Google Drive keyboard
shortcuts, simply enter [CTRL]+[/] on any Windows
PC (or [COMMAND]+[/] on a Mac) from anywhere in
any version of Google Drive.
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Make GDrive your default
For those of us that use a program other than
Google Drive to create and edit documents -- I’m
looking at you, MS Excel pivot table ninjas -- making
sure your files get saved to Google Drive is an easily
overlooked task. No worries: you can set Google
Drive as your default document location in Windows
and Mac OS X. Now, whenever you create a new
spreadsheet or document, your computer will
assume you want it saved safely to Google Drive -unless you tell it otherwise.
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Keep infinite file versions
6 SIX HIDDEN HACKS FOR GOOGLE DRIVE
Google Drive maintains a version history of files
you upload to or create within it -- but only to a
point. GDrive deletes file versions that are more than
30 days old, and only keeps the 100 most recent
versions of any file, regardless of age. If you have a
sales spreadsheet that is updated by multiple staffers
every day, you can easily lose a recent version in
short order. Fortunately, you can mark individual
Google Drive files to keep all the versions, no matter
how old it is. This, of course, will have an impact
on how much storage space the file takes up in
Google Drive, which is why you can’t make “keep
all revisions forever” a global Drive Setting. For
something like that, you need (ahem) a nice Google
Drive backup product.
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Upload files to mobile
Drive makes it fairly easy to get large amounts of
data available on your Android or iPhone. Just
install the Drive app and anything in Drive on your
desktop will also be available on your mobile device.
The extra little bit of awesome here is that Drive
allows you to download a local copy of any file in
Drive to your smartphone with the Keep On Device
setting. You can move any images, PDFs, Microsoft
Word documents, Excel Spreadsheets, PowerPoint
presentations or Google Slides to your device for
viewing, and you can view and edit Google Docs
and Google Sheets (provided that you also have the
Docs and Sheets standalone mobile apps). These
local copies are accessible even when you don’t
have a data connection. The only downside is that
you can’t bulk move multiple files at once to your
mobile device with GDrive, and you can’t yet move
video or music files.
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Defy Gmail Regulation
Gmail limits the file size of attachments to 25MB,
which rules out pretty much all video, audio or
complex image files. With Google Drive, you can
send files up to 15GB (slightly larger than three DVDs
worth of movies and special features) and, if you
max out your extended Drive storage, you can use
Gmail to send files of up to one TB via Drive (which
is more than 200 DVDs worth of data). Any service
that can let you email the entire original Star Wars
trilogy in video form is worth mentioning.
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Conclusion
Setting aside all the powerful content creation
and editing features of Google Docs, Sheets,
Slides, Forms and Drawings, Google Drive is an
exceptionally efficient way to maintain constant
access to your critical files, regardless of which
device you’re working on. Throw in the ability
to share files anytime and the 6 savvy features
mentioned above and you’ll be one satisfied
customer - within reach and in control of your data.
9 SIX HIDDEN HACKS FOR GOOGLE DRIVE
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