Google Drive is a truly excellent service, which does not end with uploading files online to synchronize with your computer. To explore the most hidden and useful features of Google Drive we see 10 tricks to exploit its potential, for free .
For those unfamiliar with it, Google Drive is an online service to upload files to the internet to keep them available from every computer or mobile phone.
Some of these tricks can therefore also be applied to other storage services such as Dropbox, Microsoft's SkyDrive, Box or others that provide a magic folder on the computer that automatically synchronizes files on the Internet
Google Drive, however, is unique in the web landscape in that, in addition to providing a freely usable web space, it also has Office applications for writing documents, tables and presentations .
1) Upload attachments to Google Drive to be sent with Gmail
One of the best things about Google Drive is its integration with other Google products.
From the composition window of a message in Gmail you can also attach files up to 10GB using Google Drive.
The recipient can simply download the file from the link received.
2) Add to the Windows context menu (by pressing the right mouse button on a file) the ' Send to Drive ' option to upload the file quickly on the internet .
To have this option, simply copy the link to the Google Drive icon folder, open Windows Explorer and paste this link into the folder: % appdata%> Microsoft> Windows> SendTo, and paste the Google Drive link.
For each file you can then press the right button, go to Send to and then click on Google Drive.
In another article the guide to Send files on SkyDrive or Google Drive with the right button
3) Recover deleted files
Just as when you delete a file from your computer you can always recover it from the recycle bin, files deleted from Google Drive can be recovered from a recycle bin folder that is present in the web interface of the drive.google.com/ website.
Expand the folder tree on the left by pressing on More to find the recycle bin and all previously deleted files.
4) Shortcut keys
Like any Google application, the Drive also has its keyboard shortcuts:
Shift + A = Select all
Shift + N = Deselect all
Shift + S = New spreadsheet
Shift + D = new drawing
Shift + F = New folder
Shift + T = New document
Shift + P = New presentation
Ctrl + Alt + G = Change history of a file
Down / Up arrow = Select previous / next item in the list
Shift + Up / down arrow = select previous / next item in the list
J or K = Go to the previous or next item in the list without selecting it
X = Select / deselect a highlighted item
S = Mark the highlighted element as special (with the star).
5) File Review
In Google Drive, you can view the revision history of a file by pressing the key combination Ctrl + Alt + G.
Previous versions of a modified file can be restored through Google Docs.
Select a file, go to Other and click Manage revisions from where you can restore previous stored versions.
6) Install external applications for:
- edit and edit Videos with Video Pixorial: this is an ideal plug-in that installs on Google Chrome and allows you to view Google Drive videos online, to make changes, cuts, edits and mixes.
- Add effects to photos with Pixlr Editor.
- Edit and share PDf with PDFZen
These and other plugins have already been listed on the page of the best applications for Google Drive on Chrome .
7) As already written in a recent post, you can use Google Drive as a free hosting where to upload for web pages and html
8) Download files and web pages to Google Drive on Chrome
9) Open Google Drive documents and files even without internet connection
10) Assign tags or labels to files
As in Google Docs, you can mark a file with a tag or more to create separate file folders in which to organize the data.
