Hey friends!
I’m Tasia and welcome to your Google Drive 2020 Tutorial, where I’ll show you how to
use Google Drive and highlight some of the best Google Drive features.
So about a year ago I made a video on the best Google Drive features, and I’ll be
sure to link to that below and again at the end of this video.
But for this video, I want to give you guys a more in-depth tutorial on how to use Google
Drive.
And, since we’re about six months into 2020 - I know, how is that possible - I figure
now is a good time to go over some aesthetic and functionality changes and features that
have happened in the last year in Google Drive.
So, let’s dive into Drive.
If you’re new to Google Drive, let’s start with what is Google Drive.
Google Drive is a free cloud storage solution, that features file storing, syncing, and sharing
files across devices.
If you’ve ever created or read a Google Doc, for example, you’ve already used a
Google Drive feature.
So there are multiple ways to access Google Drive.
For me, I always access my drive from my Gmail or my GCal, but you can even access it from
your YouTube account.
So, it looks the same from either spot, so here we are in my Gcal, and if you click on
google apps in the top right - it’s this square made of dots - all your google apps
will pop up here, and you can click on Google Drive right from here.
Now, if you’re super new to the Google ecosystem, or you haven’t even setup Drive yet, you
can also head to drive.google.com.
Here, Google has provided a great overview for you on the benefits of Google Drive and
you can access Drive directly from here as well.
They have Drive for teams or individuals, so for this we are focusing on your personal
google account, so you can click ‘go to drive’ or you can download drive if you
prefer that option.
Once you click ‘go to drive’ you’ll either be brought directly to your Drive if
you’re already signed into your Google account, or you will see a page like this asking you
to sign into your Google account.
You can also create an account right from here too, if you don’t have a Google account
yet.
Once you’ve signed into your Google account, and you’ve opened Drive, your drive may
look a little different in this main section here depending on whether or not you have
created any files.
But, the basic layout with the options on the left will look the same regardless.
If your Drive layout still looks different than what I’m showing, you can adjust your
layout using the option in the top right here to switch to list view or grid view.
It's a personal preference.
Now something I want to point out right away, you might notice my drive shows 17GB of storage.
Yours may show 15GB of storage.
15Gigs is the standard free storage Google Drive provides.
I’ve gone over before in another video why I have 17gigs, so I won’t repeat it here.
But, if you’re interested on all the storage options for Google Drive, definitely check
out my other video in the link below this one.
So 15 gigs is standard and it’s a nice robust free cloud storage solution.
So let’s begin with how to create a new file in Google Drive.
As you might be able to guess, click on ‘new’ in the top left.
Here, you’ll have the option to create a new folder, upload a file or folder, you can
create a google doc, a sheet, or a slide, and then you’ll have more options underneath
that, where you can create fillable forms and more.
So, if you don’t have anything in your drive yet, a good place to start would be to create
a new folder.
Think of how you want to organize all of your files here.
So for example, I have a YouTube Vids folder.
This folder holds all of my YouTube scripts, and some other notes regarding my YouTube
Channel.
So go ahead and create your folder.
I’ll create a Client Outreach folder, and then hit create.
And bam, right here, under folders, you’ll have your new folder.
Now, if you are in list view, and I’ll toggle back to show you here, you will be able to
get a quick snapshot of the owner of the file, when it was last modified and by who, as well
as the file size.
I’m going to toggle back to my grid view.
So, if you want to upload a file that already exists on your computer, head back to ‘new’
and select file upload.
Then, just select the file you want to upload and it’ll be added to your drive.
Essentially any type of file can be uploaded, a video file, pdf, image file, photoshop file,
and on and on.
Plus you can upload multiple files at once by hitting control select or command select
on a mac.
Just like you can upload a file, you can upload an entire folder as well.
So now let's talk about how to create a file from scratch.
Let’s use creating a google doc as an example, now you can click on the google docs option,
or you can hover over the arrow to the right and you’ll have the option to create a blank
document or create a doc from a template.
So timeout.
Let's take a moment to talk about this awesome google drive feature.
I think templates are one of the best google drive features, hands down.
So, check this out.
Let’s click on the template option.
A new tab opens and you can scroll through a boatload of doc templates like resumes,
letters, different types of project proposals, sales templates, legal templates, contractor
agreements, and more!
So, if you’re working on a lesson plan, just click that template and voila, the template
is automatically opened for you to edit.
You can edit anything and everything, from the title to the text, to colors, layout and
more.
And by the way, templates are available for google sheets, google slides, and more.
Get in there, dig around, and use these templates to your advantage.
OK, Time in.
Back to creating a file.
We are using a doc as an example, so let’s create a new doc.
Again, you’ll notice a new tab is automatically opened.
Click in the title of the doc to rename it.
Any changes you make on any file in Drive will be auto saved for you.
So, once you’ve created a file, you’ll want to keep everything organized in drive.
So at the top near your title, click the little folder icon, select the folder you want to
move it to, so we’ll select the test folder I created, then click move.
Now back in my drive tab, I can open my folder and voila, there's the doc I created.
Another feature that allows for easy file retrieval, is the ability to star a file.
That’s right at the top near your file name as well.
Once you’ve starred something, it’ll be found in the starred section in your google
drive.
Now you don’t always have to open the file in order to move it or favorite it.
From your drive, you can right click on the file, and look at all these options you have.
You can share it or make a shareable link - which I’ll go over in more detail in a
bit, show file location, move or favorite it, rename the file, copy the file, download
it to your computer, delete it and more.
There are so many features available with just a right click.
Something else you might notice is the different icons for different files.
That’s a quick visual cue from Google showing you, without opening the file, whether it’s
a doc or a spreadsheet, a pdf, or whatever it may be.
So, I’ve gone over sharing settings in Google Drive in my other video, but let’s review
how to do that and set your desired sharing permissions.
Remember how Google provides you with a visual cue as to what you’re looking at.
Well, if you have a little icon with a person in it, that means it’s shared.
Now, there are multiple ways to share a file.
You can do it from the file itself when you’re creating it, or you can do it from your main
google drive.
So, like I showed you before, you can right click on any file in order to share it, or
if you click to select a file, on the top right of drive you’ll have a few options.
If you click the person icon with a plus symbol, a sharing popup appears where you can add
the email addresses of those you want to share with.
You can add multiple people if you want and to the right of the person you’re adding
you can set your sharing permissions here.
You can allow them viewing access only, the ability to comment, or the ability to edit
the document just as you can.
You can even write a little message for your collaborators too.
When you’re ready to share, just click send.
If you don’t want to add people directly, you can also create a shareable link so only
people with the link can view the file.
Back in your drive with the file selected, just click the link icon in the top right
and in this popup you can copy the link as well as adjust the link sharing permissions
here too.
So, if you’re new to sharing and collaborating with people, you’ll definitely want to check
out my other video because I show you all the cool features of collaborating within
google drive like viewing and tending to comments, and the ability to see a complete version
history of your file, so if someone made changes along the way you can see exactly where and
when.
Another feature I want to cover in this video though is your search feature.
Once you have a lot of files in your drive, you’ll want to easily pull up any.
So, at the top of your drive you have a search bar.
Type in whatever it is you’re looking for and voila it’ll appear.
I use this all the time since I have so many youtube scripts, sometimes I need to pull
an old one up quickly and this is my go to drive feature for doing that.
Well that’s my Google Drive 2020 tutorial for you, highlighting some of the best google
drive features.
Now I want to hear from you.
What do you love about Google Drive and what are some of your favorite features?
Let everyone know in the comments below.
You can click right about here to subscribe to my channel and up here for that other video
I did going more in depth on the best google drive features.
So, if you liked this video, I want to know so give it a like, a share or leave
a comment below.
See ya next time!