6HIDDEN HACKSFOR GOOGLE DRIVEImprove your file management in minutes

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.

Introduction

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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.

Enable offline access

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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.

[CTRL]+[/] = accurate keyboard shortcuts

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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.

Make GDrive your default

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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.

Keep infinite file versions

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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.

Upload files to mobile

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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.

Defy Gmail Regulation

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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.

Conclusion

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