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This is Martin Shervington, and in this video I'm going to show you just about everything
you need to know about Google Drive. To understand the real benefits of Google
Drive, we're going to look at four areas. The first is how Google Drive acts as cloud
storage. The second, how it allows you to create documents,
spreadsheets, forms, and presentations, within that online environment.
The third is how it enables collaboration so people can work together on particular
projects. And the fourth is about communication. To begin, you'll want to access Drive. Now
if you search for Google Drive in Google Search, it's likely you'll be able to access it straight
from the search results. But if you've set up your Google+ account and if you have Gmail,
you'll find the same there. And on the top, you can come to Drive and click, and that
will take you directly into Google Drive. Looking at the first element, the cloud storage,
if you go to upload and click, you'll be able to find either files or folders that are on
your computer. And you can upload those into the cloud.
Once you have content in Drive, if you click next to My Drive, you'll see folders that
you have that are stored. A little further down, you'll see files or folders that are
shared with you, which ones are starred, and your recent activity.
Looking now at the upper left, if you click the dropdown for stored, you can then choose
one of the options. You can view and change view by switching between grid and list. And
the grid view can be a very attractive way of for instance displaying your images.
If you look at settings, which is indicated by the cog, and you click, you can change
the way things are displayed. And you have other options there when you get used to them.
Because you're using the cloud to store your files and your folders, you'll want easy access.
There's a search box on Google Drive that will allow you to do just that. If you put
in keywords and then click search, it will bring up the files related to those keywords.
If you click on the dropdown for advanced search options, you can also search by type.
And using the example of pdf files, if you click that, it will then bring up all of the
pdf files. And you can then search a little deeper by adding a keyword and then pressing
search to refine it. Within the advanced options, you also have the ability to filter by visibility
and by ownership. Staying with the element of the cloud storage
for a little longer, if you click on new folder, that will add a new folder to drive. And from
there, you could click and drag a file into that folder, organizing your own drive. Simply
by clicking on that folder you'll be taken into that folder where you can see your files.
If you want to remove a file from a folder, you can drag it to your drive and that will
remove it. From the main screen in Google Drive, if you
check a folder or a file, you'll see options appear. If you want to move a folder or a
file, you click move to and you then have the options of which folders to move them
to. If you select multiple folders or files, and then choose move to, you have the same
option. And if you click to select all, you can move all that are in Drive, or this principle
will apply when you are in a folder itself. And you can select all of the contents from
that folder and then move them to another folder.
If you select a folder or a file and you hover over the bin, you can click to remove. Once
you've removed, you'll find that that item appears in trash. If you click on the dropdown
next to more, you'll have many options including the ability to change the color of that particular
folder. You can also add stars, or you could do this
directly next to the file. And you can share. Share is something that we'll be discussing
when we reach the collaboration and communication point of this tour of Google Drive.
If you want to open a file at any time, you just click to open, or you can go to the dropdown
and click open with and then choose an application. If I want to preview, I can select a file,
in this case a presentation, and click on preview, which will bring it up into a light
box. The same principle applies in grid view. If you select several images by checking the
box in the upper left and then click preview, it will bring them up into the light box.
You can then navigate using the arrow to the right to move right and the arrow to the left
to move backward. Once you choose a selection of files, you
can click and drag them across into a folder. Moving now to the second element of Google
Drive called creation. To create, you press the button create and you have the choice
to create a folder, a document, a presentation, spreadsheet, form, or a drawing. You also
have the option to connect more apps. Choosing the example of a document, a document
will appear, and the first thing I can do is click to set the title. Once I click okay,
I've then created that document. If you click file in any of the documents, you won't see
an option to save. The reason being is with Google Drive, everything is saved automatically.
Also I should point out that if you look at download as, you'll see the options that you
can download this file to your computer. This is a way of taking the content out of Drive
back onto your computer. Now we're going to move on to our third element,
the element of collaboration. This is one of the greatest aspects of Google Drive. No
longer do you have to pass by email files back and forth between individuals. You can
all work on them together from within the Drive environment.
Not only can you keep track of changes and comments, you'll also be able to translate
the document into whatever language you choose. To enable collaboration on any document, if
you go to share, and you click, you'll see who has access to that document currently.
The first way to have people collaborate with you is to enter a name, email address, or
a group, and then choose whether they can edit or comment or just view. And if you want
them to collaborate in an editing fashion, choose edit, and then add a message, if you
want to explain what the project is that you're including them in.
Once you've chosen the people, you can decide whether to send a copy of the message to yourself
and whether the item is to be pasted within the email. And when you're set, just click
share and save. This way of collaborating is private. There
are, however, other options. If you click on change you'll see that you could if you
wanted to have this document available publicly on the web. Or you could decide to go for
anyone with the link. And then change the options from can view, can comment, to again,
as the example, can edit. So anyone that receives the link will then be able to edit and collaborate
within that document. Once I'm ready, I click save. This is now
where collaboration, the third element, and the fourth element of communication start
to work together. If for instance, you have a circle set up on Google+ of a team of people
that you'd like to have access to that document so they can edit or view or just comment,
click on the Google+ icon and that link will be brought into the share box.
Through there, you can decide with whom to share it. If you wanted to share it publicly,
then anybody with that link is going to be able to edit or view or comment, depending
on the setting that you had earlier. If you only want, for instance, a small group
of people that you've set up as a circle, to be able to edit in this case, you would
choose them. You would then put in a message and a comment at the top, and then you can
decide whether to send them an email to notify them by email that you're looking to collaborate.
And when you're ready, click share. One of the really cool things about collaboration
using Google Drive is how the individuals will appear as icons in this section. You'll
also be able to see them actively editing during the process of collaborating.
Staying with the element of collaboration just a little longer, looking now at Google
Hangouts, if you bring in the Google Drive app, which you'll either find already on the
sidebar, or if you hover over the 3 small dots, you'll find it in the list. And once
you've clicked, you'll be able to see your Google Drive documents and the files are then
brought into the Google Hangout. This will enable the individuals that you
bring into the Google Hangout to collaborate with you as if you were in the same room working
on the same document, which is pretty incredible. Let's now move to the fourth element. And
the fourth element is communication. Any time you see the icon of a little man with a +
sign, you're going to be able to share that file. And that will appear in the more dropdown,
as well as if you right click next to a file and see it next to share. Also, when a folder
has been shared, you'll see the icon appear within that grey section of the folder.
Once I've clicked on share, having chosen a file, it will bring up the box when we're
talking about collaboration. The difference now with communication is how you can share
your content to other social networks and to anyone who has the link or publicly on
the web, that this time you're not looking for them to collaborate, so you won't them
to comment or to be able to edit, only to be able to view.
If you click on the Facebook or Twitter icons, it will bring up the file into any connected
account, and you can send it. If you click on the Gmail icon, it will send it as an email
to the recipients that you choose. And if you click on the Google+ icon, which is probably
the most interesting one to explore, because we used a presentation, that presentation
becomes embedded within the message. And once it's sent to the individuals - and
it could be public, it could be your circles, or it could be specific individuals - when
they receive it, they'll be able to click the presentation, or if it's a Google form,
or a spreadsheet, or a document, or a drawing, and they'll be able to view that document
directly from the Google+ post. Once you've added your comment and decided
upon your audience, in this case public, you click share.
The same principle would apply to images. If you click on an image within Google Drive,
and then you click share, it will bring up the familiar box. From there you will decide
on the audience. And here we have anyone with the link, and then click save.
Then you choose a social network. Choose Google+. And that will embed that image straight into
a Google+ post. And you can then choose the audience. And this time you might well send
it just to a community. And I can do that straight from Google Drive. And once I've
chosen a category, I can then send it. There's another really useful aspect to the
element of communication using Google Drive. If you look at a file and go to the tab file
and click before going to publish to the web, you'll be given to the option to publish that
file to the web. Click start publishing to do so. Once you've
clicked okay, you'll then see you could, for instance, embed the code of that particular
file into a website. You can also choose the size of presentation that will appear, even
customizing it for your own site, and how the presentation will be displayed. For instance,
changing slides every 3 seconds, or from the options within that menu.
If for any reason, you want to stop publishing, you can return to the same file and once you've
selected the publish to the web option, you click stop publishing.
That was a complete introduction to Google Drive. And the four elements of cloud, which
is storage; of creation; of collaboration; and of communication.
This is Martin Shervington. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for a lot more handy
hints, tips, and tricks.