Google Workspace: Drive

Google Drive or Drive is the main storage space for your documents. You can access this from anywhere in the world by logging in with your username and password at drive.google.com.

In this section we will be going through the basics of Storage Space, Files, Views, Sharing, Team Drives, File Stream and Scan to Google Drive.

Storage Space

On the college file servers each person, staff or student, has 5GB of file space assigned to them, if you study subjects like IT, Graphics, Media or Photography this space runs out pretty quick. Meaning you’ll get hit with error messages stopping you from being able to save any more files.

Google Drive gives you almost unlimited storage while you’re a member of the college, and you can access it easily at home so you can do some work in lesson then carry on where you left off as soon as you get home. Just save your work back on to Google Drive and it will be there ready for you.

Files

Google Drive allows you to store any file, even files it doesn’t know what to do with. Some files can be used in Drive such as audio, photo, PDF or video files which can all be opened in Drive without having to download them.

One of the best things with Drive and it’s file support is that if you’ve got loads of files that have previously been made in the Microsoft Office suite you can just upload them into Google Drive and if you want it to, it can automatically and quickly convert them into Google Workspace documents. All your Word documents will change in to Google Docs, Powerpoints in to Slides and Excel files in to Sheets docs. If for any reason you might need to, you can also export Docs, Sheets or Slide documents in to their respective Microsoft Office version too.

When you create a new file in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites or Jamboard then the files are automatically saved to Drive. Google saves your work in Docs, Sheets & Slides as soon as you do something so there isn’t a risk of you doing a load of work and losing it if the computer dies for example.

Views

There are two ways to view your files on the Google Drive website, firstly there is List View which simply displays your documents in a list. Secondly there is Grid View which shows your files in a grid, giving a thumbnail preview of that file. Each person will have a different preference but you can easily change what view you have in the top right corner of Google Drive by looking for one of the below icons.

Sharing

The default sharing settings for each file in your own drive is that it is private to you. You can give someone shared access to a specific file or a folder but you can’t give someone access to your whole drive space.

If you right click on a file or folder and click Share, you can then set options for sharing that item. If it is an editable file you can click the little icon of a pen and set it so the other person can either edit the file too or they can only view it and not make any changes.

Once you have shared the file with someone, in the List View it will show a little two person icon like in the example below to signify that it is a shared file. Files don’t show the sharing icon when in Grid View. Folders on the other hand do have a little icon of a person in the folder in both views.

When in the Sharing settings screen, if you click the Advanced button in the bottom right corner of the screen you then have the option to copy a link to the file instead of sending out invites. You’ll then need to make sure the Who has access option is set to ‘Anyone with the link’ or something similar.

Web Addresses

Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can store their files and guarantee that every member has the most up-to-date information, no matter the time or place. They are great for collaboration, especially in departments.

• Every person and group added to a Team Drive gets instant access to that team’s documents

• Designed to store the team’s work collectively, so if a document’s creator moves off of the team that document doesn’t go with them

• Team members prevented from accidentally removing or deleting files that others need

To find your Team Drives, open Google Drive and look on the left, there will be a Team Drives button.

To create a new Team Drive click the Team Drives button and then click New on the left of the screen. Then simply add teammates and files to your new drive. Make sure you name it something that makes sense though, something that all the members of your team will understand.