10 Lesser Known Google Drive Tips And Tricks To Increase Productivity November 2024

Google Drive is the cloud storage platform used in personal and professional spheres to share and store files and folders across systems. If you have come looking for Google Drive tips and tricks, it means you are looking to become a pro using the features provided by the platform.

Google Drive is available for mobile phones, tablets, and personal computers (PC). This means if you store a file on your mobile phone, the same file gets synced to all the devices where it has been used. Sharing and collaborating have never been easier and more accessible without Google Drive. 

Imagine yourself at a friend’s wedding where you have to share a large number of videos and pictures clicked on your phone as soon as possible. However, you don’t have your PC with you there. The Google Drive signed-in from your phone can be of great help. You simply need to create a separate file, add the pictures, and share it with all your friends. The pictures and video get shared without compromising the quality. 

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Similarly, understanding Google Drive tips and tricks can work a long way to increase productivity at the workplace too. Instead of relying on a long and tedious process followed by everyone else, you could be a competent worker! In general, Google Drive provides us with humungous features and tools that makes our life better and easier.

However, we are not well aware of it all. Understanding them in depth can reduce a workload multifold. Some tools offered by Google Drive as a part of Google Workspace: Docs, Sheets, Keep, Forms, Slides, Drive, Gmail, Meet, Calendar, and Chat. 

10 Google Drive tips and tricks that you should never miss

Here are ten handy Google Drive tips and tricks to increase your productivity by reducing manual work and making the task more enjoyable. 

1. Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts help perform functions efficiently with the stroke of a few button presses. Instead of doing the whole process through numerous clicks, it reduces the work significantly. For example, to select or unselect an item, you simply need to press Ctrl + Space. However, to get more expansive keyboard shortcuts and learn in detail about Google Drive tips, open Google Drive and press Ctrl and/ for Windows. For Mac, use Cmd and / to get the list like the one attached in the image. 

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2. Text from Image

Fetching images from text has become easier using Google Drive. What you need to do is add an image on your Google Drive > right-click on the image. From the menu list, select Open With > Google Docs. You will get the entire text from that image in the new document just below the original image. These Google Drive tips will come in handy, especially when you need to extract a large number of text from the main image. 

3. Offline works

Google Drive allows you to take work offline. Suppose you don’t have a good internet connection and want to update the existing files and folders. In such scenarios, navigate to the settings option in the top right corner of Google Drive. Scroll down, and you can find the Offline option. This allows you to create, open, and edit Google docs, sheets, and slides on the device, even in offline mode. You will receive a dialogue box from installing an extension that can help you download work offline. 

4. Searches

Google Drive comes with a very friendly advanced search that allows you to find files or folders depending on selected keywords or features. Go to the ‘Search in Drive’ option at the top of the Google Drive screen. Select the icon highlighted in the image above. If you created the file yourself or it has been created by someone, remembering a part or word of the title would not be that difficult. Use the options mentioned in the section to find a folder or file. 

PS: This is one of the Google Drive tips that is beneficial in cases where you need to navigate through large files and folders to search for it.

5. New files

You can create new files by typing the commands in the URL section of the Google Chrome web browser. For example, you want to create a doc file without going into Drive and following the process. So, you can type doc.new in the URL box and press enter. This will create a new doc. Similarly, for sheets, you can create new ones using sheets.new. This has made creating Google docs, sheets, and slides effortless. It won’t be surprising to know that you are learning these Google Drive tips for the first time! It’s one rare and easy-to-go-for method.

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6. Color Coding

The best feature of Google Drive is it allows you to organise folders based on colour. It is similar to how you used colourful sticky notes, where you divided the theme according to colour. This made the differentiation and identification of materials more accessible. To colour code folders on Google drive, right-click on the respective folder and hover the cursor over ‘Change colour.’ You will get an expansive set of menus, based on which you can colour-code the folders. 

Do remember that the colour coding can be done for folders only and not for the files.

7. Themes

Just like your mobile phones, Google Drive lets you change the theme for the shared drives. Besides the shared Drive, select the down arrow > change theme > pick from gallery or create custom theme > select. Adding this can help you differentiate the Drive you are accessing. 

PS: You will need Manager access for this kind of change. In the case of office drives, you can be able to do it only if your company’s administrator allows this. 

8. Restore Files and Folders

It can happen to almost anyone that a file or folder might get deleted accidentally. Like you can quickly recover a regular file and folder on our computer from Recycle Bin or Trash bin; you can do it with Google Drive too. Under the left-hand section, you will find Trash in the menu. Right-click on the file or folder you want to restore and choose the Restore option. You can now see the folder/file under the exact origin from where you deleted it. 

9. Commenting and Responding in the file

This is among those Google Drive tips that will work like magic when you need to understand your work better or get inputs from other teammates or your client. Suppose you create a Google Doc and after completing the work, you have a doubt or want final clearance to see if the job is correct. All you have to do is to select the text where you need clarification and tag the person concerned. This is done by choosing the ‘add comment’ icon on the right-hand side and tagging the person concerned using their email address. They will be notified via email and can even make changes to the file. 

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10. Check the version history

Suppose you have not made edits to the file or folder, but you see there have been a few changes in it. You can check the version history to see who has made the changes. Instead of panicking over the edits, all you can do is simply ask the person about the changes. This makes collaboration and teamwork extremely easy in a shared space like Google Drive. 

Final Words: Google Drive Tips To Increase Productivity

Google Drive is one such tool that provides us with many options to reduce the workload through interesting and shortcut methods. Generally, we don’t find much time to delve deep into every aspect and keep following the generic steps we have always used.

All the ten Google drive tips and tricks mentioned here will significantly assist in making your tasks simpler and more manageable in times to come. 

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