What does Google Drive do, and how do I navigate it?
Click on the image above to view a video on Google Drive.
Google Drive Homepage Overview
Our Google Drive Can be Accessed from the PALCSchool Lobby.
1. Search Drive: Enter your search text and click on the Search icon to find your files. Select the folder first if you would like to search within a specific folder.
2. Create & Upload: Click Create and choose from the list of documents, presentations, or spreadsheets you can create using Google Drive. Click the Upload icon to upload and store up to 5 GB of files.
3. My Drive: The section of Google Drive on the web that syncs to your computer. Any time you modify a file or fold-er in My Drive, these changes will be mirrored in the local version of your Google Drive folder.
4. Navigation Panel: Links to your starred items and trash. Shared with me lets you view files, folders, and Google Docs that others have shared with you.
5. Details Pane: Here you can see a preview of the selected file, when it was last modified and by whom, update the file’s sharing settings, and organize it into folders.
Upload Files and Folders into Google Drive
You can upload and convert existing Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, StarOffice, RTF (.rtf), HTML, or plain text (.txt) documents into Google Drive for online editing and sharing. Documents converted into the Google Documents format cannot exceed 2MB in size.
To Upload Files:
1. From your Google Drive homepage, click the Upload button at the top sidebar and select Files from the drop-down menu.
2. Select one or more files to upload and click Open.
3. If you wish to convert your documents into Google Docs format so that you can edit them online, make sure to check Convert documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and drawings to the corresponding Google Docs format.
4. Click Start Upload. The uploaded files appear under My Drive.
To Upload Folders:
1. From your Google Drive homepage, click the Upload button at the top sidebar and select Enable folder upload from the drop-down menu.
2. Click Install applet. When the applet is installed successfully, you will see the message Java Applet installed at the top of the page.
3. From your Google Drive homepage, click the Upload button at the top sidebar and select Folder from the drop-down menu.
4. Select a folder and click Open.
5. If you wish to convert your documents into Google Docs format so that you can edit them online, make sure to check Convert documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and drawings to the corresponding Google Docs format.
6. Click Start Upload. All sub-folders and files within that folder will be uploaded to My Drive.
Download a Local Copy to Your Computer
Google Drive is an application that requires you to be online and signed-in, but you can download a local copy of your documents to your computer and work on them offline. To do this, open your document, click File and select Download as from the drop down menu. Select from one of these file types: HTML, RTF, Word, Open Office, PDF, and plain text and click OK to download the document to your computer.
Revision History
Every time Google Drive saves a document, a revision history is kept so that you can revert to an earlier version. To revert a document to an earlier version, do the following:1. Open your document, click File and select See revision history.2. A list of your document's revisions is displayed on the right. Changes are color-coded based on each collaborator.3. Locate the version you’d like to revert to and click Restore this revision.
Create New Documents
1. From your Drive homepage, click Create new and select Document.
2. A new untitled document will appear in your browser. Click Untitled document at the top to rename the document. Now it is ready for editing.
Organize Your Files
Folders allow you to organize your files and documents in a meaningful way. To create a Folder, do the following:
- From your Google Drive homepage, click Create and select Folder from the drop-down menu.
- Enter a name for your folder and click OK. The folder you created now appears under the My Drive section.
Share Your Documents
One of the best feature offered by Google Drive is the ability to share your documents with others. Collaborators can then edit the same document at the same time. To share your documents, open the document you wish to share and click the Share button in the top right corner of the document to bring up the Sharing settings window. From here, you have the following options:
Share with Individuals or Google Groups:
Under Add people, enter the name of the people you want to share the document with and choose their level of access. Here are the settings:
- Can edit: Invitees can add and edit content in your document.
- Can comment: Invitees can view and add comments without being able to edit the content.
- Can view: People can access a read-only version of the document. They can print the document but cannot make any changes.
Share with Everyone:You can share your documents with a large group of people by changing their visibility settings. Click on the Change link under Per-missions and select from one of five visibility options (see left screenshot) that best suits your need. Make sure the check-box is checked under Edit access if you would like to grant editing access. Once you have shared your document, you will see a URL at the top of window that you can share with others.
Collaborate on Your Documents
Google Drive enables multiple people in different locations to work on the same document simultaneously. All changes made to the document are in real-time, so all of the collaborators can see them and respond to them immediately. Before collaborators can work on a document together, all collaborators need to have editing access to the document.To start collaborating on a document together, just open the same document from each individual's Google Drive. Keep these three features in mind as you are collaborating on a document with others.
- When you and another collaborator are viewing or editing the same document at the same time, a box with the name of the collaborators appears at the top of the screen.
- When a collaborator make changes to the document, you will be able to see their edits in real-time.
- Use the built-in chat window to communicate with your collaborators in real-time
Basic Formatting
Insert Headers and Footer:
1. Click Insert and select Header or Footer from the drop-down menu.
2. Type your text within the header or footer dotted-lines area.
Insert Images:
1. Click Insert and select Image from the drop-down menu.
2. Select from one of the following:
Upload: Click Browse to select an image from your computer.
- Take a snapshot: Take an image of yourself.
- By URL: Paste an image URL you have found on the web.
- Your Albums: Select an image from your web album.
- Search: Search for an image on the web.
Adding Comments:
1. Highlight the text that you wish to comment on.
2. Click Insert and select Comment from the drop-down menu.
3. Enter you comment in the box that appears and click Comment.
Insert Links:
1. Click anywhere in your document where you want the link to appear.
2. Click Insert and select Link from the drop-down menu. Enter the text that you would like to be displayed as the link.
3. Select either Web address or Email address.
4. Enter a URL or an e-mail address and click OK.
Add Drawings:
1. Click Insert and select Drawing from the drop-down menu.
2. The Google drawing window appears. Create you drawing using the available lines and shapes from the toolbar.
3. To add the image to your document, click Save and Close.
Page Margins, Orientation, and Color:
Adjust these settings by clicking
File and selecting Page setup from the drop down menu. Printing: Click
File and select Print. A PDF opens up ready for printing. Click Insert
and select Page number to insert page numbers.