Google Drive doesn’t get nearly enough attention and credit for being one of the most easily accessible Cloud storage options. Giving those with a Google account 15GB of free storage, Google Drive is a perfect storage solution for both business people and anyone wanting to store documents and photos for personal reasons. And once you get going with your Drive, and learn a couple of quick tips on how to improve the experience, you will never think about using another storage programme ever again.
But first, here’s how to get to your Drive
If you have never used Google Drive before, your first step is to know how to access it. You will need to create a Google Account (if you haven’t already), and after that, you can either access your Drive folder by running a Google search for it or by going to your apps from your account and clicking on your Drive Icon.
On your phone, if you have the various Google apps like Youtube, Chrome, Gmail, and Maps, you will also have an icon for Drive, and if you don’t you can download it from the relevant store.
You can upload just about any type of file to your Drive, and you can upload from almost any type of device.
Tips For Making The Most Of Your Drive
Google Drive is so simple to use, and that is what makes it so popular. And if you want to take your experience to the next level, you can use these tips and tricks.
- Access files offline
Having access to your files even if you are not online is something we can all agree is really important. There is a way that you can setup your Drive account so that you will be able to get your documents even when you are not online. The easiest way to do this is to download a Chrome extension called Google Docs Offline. After you have that downloaded, you can go into your Drive settings and click on the offline option.
- Sync your files
If you are working across a number of different devices, you should definitely opt to sync your files. This will allow you to gain access to your documents no matter where you are working. Syncing is also fantastic because it acts as a really reliable backup for your files.
- Customise your Drive
Colour coding and sorting documents into files is a must if you want to keep everything in order, especially if you are juggling various projects or a range of clients. To make it easy to access things at a glance, you can make use of the colour coding and organisation options available to help with your navigation. You can do this by right clicking on each file or folder and selecting a colour.
- Send documents via Gmail
Because it is a Google programme, you can send documents from your Drive using your Gmail account. Gmail email attachments can be as big as 25MB and this is bigger than most conventional email accounts that won’t allow you to send such large files.
You can also share files directly to other Google account holders straight from the Drive. When sharing this way, you can send up to 10GB of data.
- Use search
You can search for documents within the Drive by using the handy search feature. Using search is great because it allows you to easily find the files you are looking for even if you have hundreds stored on your Drive. The search feature is found right at the top of the Drive page.
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