While it is true, cloud storage tools have gained remarkable power over time and nowadays, they have a large number of users worldwide. However, although there are a variety of such tools, the truth is that Google Drive is considered the most famous of all .
Thus, Drive emerged at the beginning of 2012 as a file hosting service that was introduced by Google. Since then, it is estimated as one of the applications of said American company best received among its users and especially, for the excellent functions and tools offered to store documents and digital files , in order to have access to them from any device with the Internet.
But, although it has many users, not everyone knows how to manage this storage service in the best way. Therefore, we believe it is necessary to point out the most optimal tricks to get the most out of Google Drive and so, then, we indicate a list with all these. Also including, its advantages and tools .
Index:
Why use Google Drive to store your documents in the cloud ? Advantages
To start this post, it is very important to detail what are the main and best benefits you can enjoy when using Google Drive . Since, since it is one of the services of this type most chosen by the public when saving documents in the cloud, guarantees excellent advantages and here we detail what they are:
- It’s a totally free tool : Both Google Drive and all its integrated tools are free and thanks to that, you won’t have to pay anything to take advantage of all its available functions.
- This is a cross-platform service : Luckily, this tool works with all platforms, thanks to the fact that it is based on the network. Then, you only need to have an Internet connection on your device to work on your documents from wherever you want.
- Provides automatic saving : Another of the biggest advantages of Drive is that it has The ability to save all your work automatically. Because of this, you will not have to worry about losing what you have done in case the computer or mobile phone crashes, for example.
- Send large files : Yes You need to share files of a considerable size, Google Drive is the best tool you can go to send them to your family, friends or colleagues. Which is often complicated if you do it from your email account.
- Support collaboration between several users : Fortunately, through this service you have the possibility of Work on the same document with several people, simultaneously. That is to say, it facilitates the fact of collaborating with each other and inserting comments.
- It provides a very efficient built-in search engine : Google Drive contains an added search engine that gives you It facilitates the location of different types of files, such as: folders, images, videos and Word documents. Additionally, you can start the search from keywords.
- It is ideal to open and edit several types of documents : In case you are using a computer that does not contain software specific from which to open a certain type of file, Google Drive solves this for you. Well, regardless of the device, the service has the ability to open any existing file (Word documents, spreadsheets, Adobe files, etc.).
- It has optical character recognition : It works as an optical character recognition technology with the competence to scan the search for the word or a specific name, through documents stored by other users. If you are conducting research on a historical issue, Drive can be very useful for that.
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What are all the Google Drive tools?
With respect to the tools that you get in this service, it is appropriate to delimit from which are treated and what each one consists of . Those that, as we already indicated, you can also use for free and Drive allows you to access them very easily, from the same application. That way, we detail all the Google Drive tools, below:
Google Docs
Basically, it refers to a word or word processing tool , where you have the opportunity to create text documents with total simplicity and online , by you don’t have to install any software for it.
In this sense, it is an option similar to the recognized Microsoft Word. It is necessary to distinguish that in Google Docs you can create your text files from scratch using a blank page or also using different templates that you will find there.
Google Slides
It is considered an alternative tool to services such as PowerPoint or Prezi, since it offers the possibility of creating documents in the form of presentations . That is, through it, you can make a slide show and in these, expose various concepts and ideas in a precise and graphic way , at the same time.
Google Sheets
When you use this tool, in addition to create and edit text documents as in Google Docs, you can also create spreadsheets and different templates , without any type of complication With this, it stands out as a fully effective and essential Drive tool for users who work with formulas, numbers and are usually organized.
Google Forms
This can be defined as a Google Drive tool that simplifies the creation of different types of finds or forms . So, it is a very useful option when collecting information through the Internet to later use it in order to perform an analysis of the data obtained.
Google Drawing
You also have at hand this Google Drive tool that consists of an application with the necessary functions to create various types of graphics and draw drawings with different shapes or even, freehand. It is appropriate to note that, Google Drawing is very similar to the Windows Paint application.
Finally, depending on the tools offered by this Google storage service, it is important to highlight that you can add more, in case these basic tools are not enough for you . That is, the service allows you to get an experience with much more level and make this a super multifunctional tool.
In this sense, you can visit the applications and tools explorer that contains Google Drive, from the following procedure: Access “My Drive”, click on “More” and then click on “Connect more apps ”. With this, you will locate countless options to add to your virtual disk, such as: video editors, audio editors, design tools, PDF creators, note applications and online reminders, among others.
List of tricks to get the most out of Google Drive
Now, we have reached the section of the post where you can know the best tricks there are, to this day, to manage in the most optimal way all your files hosted on Google Drive and well, achieve make the most of this cloud storage service .
That said, let’s start:
Move and manage the files as if they were on your computer
You might not know it, but in Google Drive you have the ability to move and manage all your folders and documents just as if you did it from the file explorer of your operating system, that is, with the same gestures .
That way, you can press and hold the left click to select several files and these will not open immediately, it is also possible to press the right click to display the context menu or double click to open any stored file . It will also be possible to use the keyboard to delete the selected folders and well, everything will be managed the same as you do on your computer.
To share a document, easily, with the number of people you want; You can make use of this trick. Which, is based on generate a code with which you will share the document and send it to the users you want, the process to follow is:
- Go to Google Drive and find the file to be shared .
- Once you have located the file in question, right click on it and a pop-up menu will appear, Among all the options shown, click on the one that says “Get link to share” , which is in the fourth position.
- Now, a window will appear with the link that you will have to share with others to see the document. Which, you can copy it and redirect it wherever you want to send it.
In case you want to get some privacy from the link you have already shared, it is possible to adjust the extent to which the document in question is managed . So, it will be possible to define if you want the person who received the link to only see, comment or edit it.
Next, what you should do to specify those parameters according to your preferences :
Additionally, you can also use the selections found in the drop-down menu “Any user with the link can”; in order to define who has the right to:
- Edit.
- Comment.
- Ver.
- If you click on “More …” you will have the possibility check the “Disable” option so that the link does not work for users who are already invited.
Change the color of your folders
Whenever you create a new folder in Drive, you have the possibility to customize it to your liking through colors . Since, at the time of creating it, it will appear in gray automatically. Then, to modify the color of each of them and apply a color code to improve the organization of the content you save in the service, you will have to do the following:
- Locate the folder to which you want to change the color and right click on it .
- Then, press the option that indicates ” Change color ”.
- To conclude, select the color you want from the list you see and immediately, that color will be displayed.
- Located in the Google Drive search box, press the date down that is displayed when you hover over that box, where “Search options is indicated ”.
- After that, a new window will open that belongs to the advanced search menu.
- Then you can start search for a specific file through certain parameters , such as: type, owner, location, modification date, name, keywords, shared with or tracked.
- Once you fill in the fields you need, just click on the “Search” button and voila. If you want to start a new search quickly, you can click on clearlyRestorecer.
- Search for the file in question within the service and access it .
- Followed, when you are inside the document, click on the “File” section in the top options bar.
- Now, among all the options that show you, click where it says “Publish to the Web …” and to make the document public, simply click on accounPublicar.
- Then, to share the document, go to the “Link” tab and select the “Insert” option to get the embed code to add to your web page.
- First of all, select a text in the article in question.
- Then, an icon will be displayed through which you can insert a comment ; just to the right of the writing sheet.
- Once you write the comment you want, just click on the “Comment” button.
- Locate the PDF file or image uploaded to Drive and right click on it .
- Next, they show you a pop-up menu where you have to press the option “Open with” . Then, choose the option that says “Google Documents” .
- Now, the Google Docs tool will start recognizing the content of the image or PDF and will convert it to your text format .
- Find the document in question and right click on it, to click on the “View details” option in the drop-down menu.
- Once done, the details window will open in a column located on the right hand side of the screen.
- Finally, in that details window, click on “Details” to observe the history of modifications.
Use Google Drive searches 
While it is true, the Drive interface has a search bar at the top, from which you can find documents or folders, quickly, by indicating its name or even a keyword. But, apart from that, you can also make use of the advanced search engine for this service .
Thus, you can vitamin your searches in this application by using the advanced search engine that allows you to save much more time when you try to locate any file hosted there.
What you have to do to be able to use it is:
Create a public document and insert it into a website
In case you still didn’t know, with Google Drive you can create public documents and simultaneously, insert them into your web . This, by generating an “embed” code that you have to paste into it, which is achieved from within the same document. It should be noted that this type of public link is also useful for sharing documents easily.
Now, the step by step to follow for this, try :
It is appropriate to indicate that this is done in conjunction with the Drive tool called “Google Docs” , that is, with the service’s word processor.
Leave comments and chat while collaborating 
This trick is considered a great advantage that the service offers when there are several people connected in the same document and they are editing it. Thanks to that, the application has enabled a chat window and an option that allows you to leave comments in the document and even at certain points of the text to be more specific.
In this sense, said chat will be shown in the upper right hand corner , with an icon of a speech bubble and well, it only appears when several users are connected at the same time. On the other hand, with respect to the comments, you can do them wherever you want and even, in documents not shared and to make them, the procedure consists of:
Convert PDF and images to text
Many users take the tedious task of using a third-party application to pass a PDF file to text, but making effective use of Google Drive is not necessary. Since, the cloud storage service shows the ability to do file conversions , easily and quickly; due to its automatic character recognition . Which also makes them with the images.
If you want to try this trick, do the following:
However, in some cases, some frames or aspects of the original document may be lost .
See the history of editions of a given document
Like most Google services, Drive also keeps an activity history where you can see all the dates on which a document stored on the platform has been edited or modified. Even in that history, you can also see when other options have been used such as sharing the document, for example.
For your part, you will wonder how you can get to that history and fortunately, it is very easy through the following steps :
Search for the document that a specific user has shared for you
Another of the most useful tricks to execute in Drive, is to quickly find the document that a certain person has shared. Which is managed from the “Shared with me” folder that contains the Google service in question and in case you collaborate with many projects, it can be saturated.
Well, not to waste so much time doing this search, Google has added an effective search engine there. So, when using it, you can locate documents or folders by the name of the same and in case you don’t remember it, you can do it directly with the name or email of the person who shared it . Thus, simply insert some of these data and voila.