Hey friends!
I’m Tasia and this video will help you save time in Google Drive.
There are so many great Google Drive Features, that they can’t all fit into one video.
We’d be here all day!
So, I’ve got some other videos highlighting the best google drive features that I’ll
link to below.
Remember, if you love Drive as much as I do, be sure to hit subscribe, and let’s dive
back into Drive.
So if you’re new to Drive and you’re looking for a tutorial on how to use Google Drive,
I have a video walking you through all of that and I’ll be sure to link to it below
and again at the end of this video.
Be sure to explore the links below if you want to become a Google Drive power user!
Alright, enough blabbing, let’s explore some must-know Google Drive tips.
First up, convert images to text.
This is actually one of my favorite features, so here’s what I mean.
I’ve taken this screenshot of a cookie recipe - really good cookies by the way.
But, while I can comment on this image, I can’t actually grab the text to copy and
paste it over into a doc.
I don’t want to waste time and re-write out this recipe from this scratch - I just
want to use the text I see in this picture.
So, I’ll close out of the full-screen preview and right-click on the image to select open
with, Google Docs.
So this opens a brand new Google Docs tab and you’ll have the image file at the top
of the doc, but scroll down below that, and oh, hello!
Would you look at that?
All the text from the image is right here in an editable format.
How cool is that?
This time-saving trick will work with any photo that has text because Google is using
optical character recognition or OCR technology.
Okay next up, did you know you can create a new file from any tab when browsing the
web?
It’s true!
So let’s say you’re easily distracted like me, or you’re browsing the web and
you come across something that reminds you of that document you’re supposed to be working
on, you can just head to your browser bar and type in doc.new, and blamo whamo, a brand
new doc is instantly opened for you.
By the way, this works with sheets and slides and forms too.
So, for sheets, you’d type sheets.new into the browser bar, or deck.new for a new slide
deck, or forms.new for a new Google Form.
Talk about a time-saver, wowza!
This next tip is more of an organizational tip to save time in Google Drive and that’s
to color-code your Google Drive folders!
This will act as a nice visual cue that can help save you time, kind of like if you were
calendar blocking your Google Calendar, with color codes.
So first, here is an example of my calendar, and I have specific clients blocked off with
certain colors.
This way I can easily tell from one glance, what is what.
So, why not do the same with your Google Drive folders?
So, back in Drive, it all kind of blends together with the default grey folder color.
Let’s change that by selecting the folder we want to change, and we’ll right-click
on that folder and select change color.
Then, just select the color you want and voila!
The folder color is changed, giving you a quick visual cue.
Fourth on the list of must-know Google Drive tips is to search using the Explore tool.
Now I don’t mean just search within your Drive.
I mean search within Drive, Images, and the Web - all from your file in Drive.
So when you’re working in a file, like I am here with this Doc, there’s this symbol
in the bottom right corner of the file.
This is the explore feature.
Click on Explore and a tab on the right-hand side of your file will open up.
At the top here, enter in the search term for something you’re trying to find.
So, let’s say I’m writing about Google Drive, so I want to find related Google Drive
content here.
I’ll type in Google Drive in the search field.
Now look at this.
Here we have web results, image results and Drive results.
So, under web here, you’ll have all kinds of web search results, and cooler yet, if
you hover over them, you actually have the option to cite that web result as a footnote
- all without leaving drive.
Now, click on images, and from here you can simply drag and drop an image right into your
file.
Such a time-saver!
But wait, there’s more!
Click on Drive, in your Explore tab and any files you’ve created that contain that search
term will be brought up here.
It’s as easy as that.
This next tip to save time in Google Drive is to find and insert links without leaving
the file you’re working in!
Ya, you can do that too!
So you may already know how to highlight or right-click on a word or phrase to hyperlink
it, but there are some cool features in there that will allow you to do so without leaving
the doc to go find the link you want to put in.
Using a website as an example, I’ll highlight it and right-click and select link.
Right here in the results is their website - I don’t even have to leave my doc to go
to their site and copy and paste it in.
Now, don’t worry if the exact site doesn’t come up because there’s a way to get to
it right from here too.
So this time I’ll use my name as an example and highlight and right-click and let’s
see what comes up.
So, my Instagram comes up in the suggestions, but I want to link to my website.
So, in this link box, I’m going to type in my website which is my name, and look,
I can now link to my site directly from here.
And now we have come to our final tip, before a bonus one, number 6 on the list: use voice
typing to dictate your message directly to drive.
If you’re a slow typer - you’ll want to take advantage of this voice to text feature.
From your file, place your cursor where you want to start.
Now, head up to tools and select voice typing.
Here on the left, you can adjust the language if necessary, and then when you’re ready
to dictate, click the microphone and start speaking.
Listen to this!
Everything I’m saying is being typed in my doc in real-time, much quicker than I could
manually type it.
So, as promised, I have a bonus tip for you!
We just talked about how you can adjust the language when you’re using the voice typing
tool.
Well, also found in the tools section of your file, is the ability to translate that file.
Very helpful if you’re working with teams across the world.
Well that’s how to save time in Google Drive.
What do you think of my must-know Google Drive tips?
Let everyone know in the comments below.
As always, thank you guys so much for watching, and if you liked this video, I want to know
so give it a like, a share or leave that comment below.
You can click right about here to subscribe to my channel and up here and here for more
Google Drive features.
See ya next time!