5 Tips to Becoming a Google Drive Expert

Posted on by

Google Drive has many features and options for advanced editing/sharing across document types. Some of these features are lesser known than others, but are useful to enhance the productivity when working on projects. Here are just 5 tips to becoming a Google Drive power user:

1. Work offline

Google Drive’s offline mode lets you create and edit files in your browser even without an internet connection. As soon as you connect to the web again, it will sync your changes. To set it up, click the gear icon in Google Drive, choose Settings, and then check the offline access box.

2. Copy Formats

One of the most useful tools inside Docs, Sheets, and Slides is a little button that looks like a paint roller, called Paint format. Select some text, click this button on the toolbar, and you can paste the text format (not the text itself) anywhere in your document as needed.

3. Search within Images and PDFs

You might not have realized it, but Google Drive scans through all the images and PDFs you upload. This makes the text within them searchable. Try searching for a phrase that you know is inside a picture or PDF. The feature isn’t perfect yet, but it’s still helpful.

4. Sync your Files across Computers and other Devices

You can download Google Drive for Windows and mac OS that will sync your files between computers/devices you access Drive from. The desktop client will create a Google Drive folder on the computer – drop any file into that folder, and the file will get uploaded to the web and synced with the Google Drive folders on your other devices.

5. Tag People in Comments

Google Drive is great for working on documents (and spreadsheets and presentations) with other people. If you need to grab a collaborator’s attention, you can do it in a comment… just start typing out a collaborator’s name and then choose the right entry from the list that pops up.