The Google Drive platform is not only useful for storing photos and videos online (like any other cloud service), but it can become a real complete office suite, operating online, offline and collaboratively. To this we add that everything is offered for free, thus making it a practical solution for those who do not want to pay money to take advantage of the Microsoft platform, that is Office 365. In this guide we have collected all the tricks from experts to better use Google Drive and Google Docs in their most hidden and least used functions. The platform may not yet be a full replacement for Microsoft Office, but it has improved so much that it can be used in the production sector without particular sacrifices. The guide will be divided into two parts: in one we will collect all the tips and tricks for Google Drive, in the other the tips from experts to use Google Docs .
Article Index
- Cheats for Google Drive
- Cheats for Google Docs
- Conclusions
Cheats for Google Drive
In this part of the guide we will show you the most useful tips for using the Google Drive cloud platform as a true professional, focusing on file sharing, file publishing and other collaborative aspects of the platform.Share a file or folder
Once the file or folder is uploaded to the cloud, we can share it with our friends and colleagues. To share on Google Drive simply open the personal cloud page, right click on the file or folder then click Share . From the window that will open, enter the email addresses of our colleagues and friends, so that they can access the file to read it, edit it or download it (based on the permissions we will provide).
Search by file types
By opening Google Drive, in the main interface of the site, we click on the arrowhead inside the search box at the top to make the search very specific, so as to choose whether to display only the files of a certain type, their permissions and their online visibility.Sort the files
On the right side of the Google Drive website interface we find the button to change the display of the files, so that you can order them from the most recent or the heaviest or the last modified using the specific columns (above the files).To order specific files we can also use the menus on the left side of the interface: My Drive, Computer, Shared with me, Recent, Specials and Trash (where we find the deleted files).
Multiple previews
Without opening each file we can preview multiple files simultaneously, simply by pressing the right button on the file or folder and using the Preview button (the eye symbol). By using the cursor keys or the arrows on the sides, we can thus navigate the content without having to open or download it.Add Google Drive to your PC desktop
If we use Google Drive a lot, we can make sure that the files created or saved online are also available on the PC in a synchronized way. The Google Drive client can be downloaded from the official page, taking care to select the Backup and synchronization installer.The Google Drive desktop application also allows you to use the platform as an online backup service for local files.
You can choose specific folders to sync while document files are displayed as web links, as long as you don't choose to convert them to Office documents.
Attachment management
With Drive we can manage Gmail attachments, so as to save them directly in the cloud without having to download them to the PC in use. This is very useful if we temporarily access a corporate or public PC and don't want to leave important attachments around. Once back home we will find the attachment of the email inside our Google Drive, both on smartphone and on PC.Google Drive apps
Google Drive not only allows you to upload files from your computer, but you can also create new ones from scratch. As mentioned, you can create documents with Google Docs apps or even other using external applications that integrate into Google Drive. For example, you can create an HTML code file, a video, a drawing, a plain text sheet, a fax or whatever you want. Many of these applications are available in the Chrome Web Store or can be added by pressing the settings button on the right in the main interface.In another article, we saw the best applications for Google Drive which, it must be remembered, only work using Chrome as a browser.
Cheats for Google Docs
In this part of the guide we will instead show you the tricks to better use the Google Docs features within the Drive platform. Many of the commands shown can also be used on Drive, since in the end they are part of the same platform (in fact Docs is an extension of Drive to manage office documents within the cloud).Google Docs offline
As already written in the past you can use Google Docs apps even without internet connection by installing them as Chrome applications on our PC, so that we can replace Microsoft Office for free in the management of DOC, XLS and PTT files.To find out how to do it, please read our guide Google Drive Offline to open documents without internet .
Scan documents from mobile phone
The Google Drive app allows you to transform paper documents into digital documents, thanks to the special OCR function. To activate it, simply press the + button and choose to create a New document from a photo .If you want to explore this topic further, we recommend that you read the guide to scanning documents by transforming them into PDF using the camera of your mobile phone .
Vocal writing
If we intend to write a document by dictating words with the voice, we can use the voice writing functionality, by clicking on the top of Tools and then on Voice typing .
Obviously, in order to function, the presence of a microphone is required (the one included in the webcam is fine, but we will have to place ourselves near the camera).
Handwriting
As in Gmail, Google Drive can also be written by hand with the mouse, installing a particular extension on Google Chrome.This feature can be very useful for signing documents without having to print and scan them every time, but requires some manual skills with the mouse (it is not easy to sign simply by moving the mouse).
Use the OCR function in the text
With Google Drive, you can use optical character recognition (OCR) to analyze text in PDF files and images to convert them into an editable standard document.This way you can, for example, scan a book and then copy it into a document that you can edit.
To learn more about this functionality, please refer to our guide on how to extract text from a PDF or image with Google Docs.
Copy Format key
The Copy Format button is present on the toolbar in all the main Google Docs applications and can be used to copy the format of one block of text to another.This is one of the most important functions in Microsoft Office that could not be missing in a suite of programs to create documents.
Set default text styles
This is also a basic function of Word, now also included in Google Docs, with a drop-down menu where you can choose the predefined font styles and an options menu to modify them and save new styles other than the default.Look for the link
If you have to write a document with hypertext links, highlight the word such as "Navigaweb", click with the right button and click on Link to add the link to the right site, automatically searched by the application.Drag and drop images
To add an image inside a document, you just need to drag it with the mouse from a folder or from another website to the web interface of the Google Drive application.Translate documents
You can take advantage of the power of Google Translate and get documents translated quickly through the menu option Tools -> Translate document, which allows you to translate 46 different languages bidirectionally.Change the themes for the slides
The presentation themes are very similar to those of Microsoft Powerpoint, to immediately create the layout for the right presentation. The possibility to modify the current theme from the Slide menu is very recent.Layout tables
The Google Docs app lacks the most advanced design tools, but tables can be used to create different types of layouts. From the Table menu you can create an invisible network of cells in which to write to format the text differently.Conditional formatting in worksheets
The capabilities and scope of Google Docs web applications are increasingly extended thanks also to the Format menu which in the Worksheets app, the equivalent of Excel, allows you to create a conditional format in order to color the text in the cells differently depending on the value they have.Publish files to a website with embedding
This unique feature of Google Docs allows you to embed a document within a website or web page only by copying the Embed code, as you would with Youtube videos. The code can be obtained from the menu File -> Publish on the web .Conclusions
In this quick guide we have shown you all the expert functions available on Google Drive and Google Docs, so you can start using the platform offered by Google as it should be. Maybe it won't completely replace Office, but we can use it to edit and read documents on the fly.If we are fans of streaming music, we can also use Drive as a warehouse for our files, so that we can play them from smartphones or other PCs, as explained in our guide on How to listen to music saved on Drive .
If, on the other hand, we need to integrate the notes saved in Google Keep into Google Docs or Drive, we can use the steps described in the guide on How to integrate Google Keep with Google Docs to succeed.
