Out of the world’s best cloud storage services, Google Drive is more than a storage service which offers a massive ecosystem of tools and apps to users around the whole worldwide.
Through this write-up, I will now share with you the best of reasons as why you should move to the Google Drive!
Before exploring some handy tips and hacks to use Google Drive flawlessly, here are few awesome reasons you need to know before using Google Drive like a pro.
Google Drive offers a fantastic value proposition you cannot even believe.
Did you know that you can share large files without any Email attachments or preview docs before sharing?
But, wait! This is not all that it only provides.
For accessing helpful and surprising features of a Google Drive, you have to create a free account on Google first, if you don’t have one. Once you create an account, you will be surprised to know that it gives a free storage space of 5GB.
If you have more space requirements, you can also increase and upgrade your Drive’s storage to 100GB by paying Rs 130 per month.
Note that Google offers different storage plans at the minimum monthly price points. You can access free storage across Drive, Gmail, and Photos. Know more about Google Drive storage plans.
Let’s learn why moving on to the Google Drive brings a lot more value to you.
You might like to bookmark our list of unknown Google Docs features.
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Google Drive: Benefits
Before explaining more about the advantages, let’s find out what is Google Drive and what you can do with it.
Google Drive is a web-based online storage service that comes from the Google family. If you already have an account on Google, you can create online docs, sheets, slides, forms and drawings directly via your Google Drive.
Also, you can change the access rights of particular files and can give access to view a file and suggest changes by adding comments, tagging people, and get quick notifications on a doc or via an Email.
Moreover, you can authorize a particular person to do a real-time editing and to work more collaboratively; you can share files with your team and the business clients.
Moving on to the Google Drive lets you experience a user-friendly interface, excessive storage space and easier accessibility on any device.
In addition, you need not worry about losing your files and folders because Google’s servers are much powerful to support you with the automatic backups.
Furthermore, you can connect more apps and even third-party tools to create presentable text documents, slides, and forms.
Check out the top reasons why should move on to Google Drive!CLICK TO TWEET
Features
#1 Send large files
Via an Email, you cannot send more than 25MB of data to your business clients. So, what’s the best way out to share huge files? Don’t fret!
Google Drive lets you send large files through a shareable link that can be downloaded anytime, anywhere and helps in saving a lot of your time.
If you’re a Gmail user, click on compose, a new message window will appear. Now, click on the Drive Icon, it will show a message Insert files using Drive.
When you click on it, you will see your Drive, where you can select a file or a folder and click on insert.
After that, your folder link will appear in your compose message and then you are ready to send your email.
Just in case, you want to upload files directly via your computer, click on the Drive Icon in a new Gmail message, another window will open, now you have to click on ‘Upload,’ it will now ask you to either ‘Drag Files Here’ or select files from your computer.
As per your preference, you can select the desired option and you can either upload or drag a file in your composed email.
#2 Drag & drop files
Via a drag & drop option, you can upload the already downloaded files and folders by dropping it instantly into your Drive from your computer.
When you take this action by selecting files and dropping it into your Drive, you will be able to upload a file in a folder.
In just a few seconds, a file quickly uploads directly in the Drive. The greatest part is that you don’t need to download the files again and again.
#3 Get an offline access to Google Drive
Even if you are not connected to the internet, you can still edit your files by getting an offline access to your Drive.
To get an offline access to your Drive, you need to click on in front of the “Offline option” first. If it shows “Not recommended on public or shared computers,” Click on learn more and check out this link to get offline access to your Google Drive.
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#4 Share link of files & folders
Instead of sending files in an attachment via Email, share a link to your files and folders by changing the access rights to edit, suggest or just view a file.
There are two ways to share a link to a file or a folder:
At first, you can share a file while working on a document. Go to the “Share Icon” in any of the document that you are using.
After clicking on it, a small window will open, where you can change the sharing settings for specific people who can edit, comment or view your file.
You can always customize the sharing settings, add as many people you want, add a note and click on send to share the file directly.
Besides that, you can also click on “Advanced” to change more settings and invite other people for working together on a similar document.
The other way is that you can share a particular file or folder directly via your Drive. Click right on a file or folder once, and another tab will open.
Now you can click on ‘Share.’ After following this way, a similar window will open out where you can enter people’s names or email addresses and change the access settings. Once you are through, you can click on Done.
The file will be shared with the people you selected and whatever changes they do, you will get the notifications via an email.
#5 Customize your Drive’s view
As per your choice, drive lets you change the display settings from a list to a grid view.
Whichever view you find comfortable, you always have the option to change as you like.
#6 View activity in a Drive
Did you know that you can see your day, week or month’s activity in your Drive? You can view that by clicking on the “activity icon” on the upper right corner of the drive which is placed between the view type icon and setting icon.
#7 Move files into folders
For quickly moving a file into a specific folder, select the file from a Drive that you want to move. Click right, and a small window will pop out and just click once on “Move to” option.
Subsequent to selecting “Move To” option, another pop-up window will appear where you can select a folder, you want to move the file.
After selecting the “Move option,” you will get a notification at the bottom of your desktop or a laptop screen. Suppose, by mistake you’ve moved a file to a wrong folder, you can “Undo” the action by clicking on Undo.
#8 Organize folders in a Drive
You can declutter your Drive by giving colors and adding stars to the important files and folders. For changing the color, you can select the folder, click right, a new pop-up window will come out.
Then click on “Change Color,” a list of color options will show up and lastly, pick the color you want to give to the folder.
For providing a “Star to files and folders,” you can select the file or a folder, click right and add a star to it. If you click on a Starred option below on the left-hand side of your Drive, you will see starred folders.
Here’s how you can view your starred folders.
[tweet] Check out the terrific benefits, features & learn quick tricks of a Google Drive! [tweet]
#9 View files before sharing
If you are sharing a file via Drive, you can preview a file before sharing with others.
Choose a file you want to preview, click right on the mouse and a small window comes out, where you can click on “Preview” to skim through the file before sharing.
#10 Search anything a Drive
Have you lost any of your important document or a folder and unable to find it?
Don’t worry as Google Drive let you search PDFs, text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, drawing, audios, videos, and images.
You can also use “More search tools” by applying filters in the various mentioned options and click on ‘Search button’ to do a unified search.
#11 Connect Apps to Drive
You might not be knowing, but you can enhance your docs, sheets, slides, forms, and drawings by connecting third-party tools and apps.
For “connecting more Apps to your Google Drive,” go to your Drive, click on the “Settings Icon” in the upper right corner. Subsequently, another window will appear, and there you can click on ‘Connect more apps.’
You will find out that another window appears in front of your screen, and you can add as many free+powerful apps that you may like.
In case, you want to connect a particular app in your Drive; you can select the app that you want and read the reviews given by other users and see star ratings.
#Bonus Tip: Apart from Apps, you can also make the best use of third-party tools to enhance your documents, sheets, slides and forms via an Add-ons option and create remarkable content for your end-customers.
#12 Navigate across Drive via shortcut keys
For viewing keyboard shortcuts in a Drive, type a URL addresshttps://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive and click on the settings icon first. After clicking on it once, you will see three options in a small pop-up: Settings, Keyboard shortcuts, and Help.
After that, you have to click on keyboard shortcuts once, and you will see another small window, where you can see new shortcuts.
You can either find out a relevant shortcut by just scrolling down or just type your requirement in a search box.
#Tip: Do you want to use Google Drive to its full potential? Must read @vinayp10 blog post onGoogle Drive Tips
Conclusion
In short, I would like to say that Google Drive offers a power packed bouquet of services to the users of all age groups.
And, I think that you can still do much more via your Google Drive, and if there are any more reasons you think I may have missed then share your insights as your valuable comments.
By Amanpreet Kaur| Last Updated : October 6th, 2016|Categories: Google Apps|Tags: Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Forms, Google Sheets, Google Slides|0 Comments
About the Author: Amanpreet Kaur
Amanpreet Kaur is a versatile writer with 9+ years of experience in business writing. She has diverse experience in researching, writing, editing and implementing content strategies for news, press releases, blogs, and articles.
