Google Drive: 4 tips and tricks you didn’t know you could do – Jenny’s Weekly Tip #39

iStock_000036667420MediumMost of us know that Google Drive makes working life a lot easier. Sharing, collaborating, uploading and saving files has never been so simple. Yet, while we know the basics of Google Drive, there are some tips and tricks that you might not be so familiar with that could really enhance your Google Drive experience and really help you save time.

With Google’s Drive constant updates and added hacks it can only be too easy to lose touch with some of its features. So let’s take a look at some of the great features you could be missing out on.

Fact Find

Ever read a document and thought, “where is that place?”, or created a document and wanted to add a quote or fact. Well instead of searching the web from a different tab, you can now find that perfect quote, definition or embed an image right here in Google Docs using the Research Pane.

The Research Pane opens with ease and is tucked away to the right of your document.

For more information check out my past post – Fact Find within your Google Document.

Access Drive Offline

Need to edit a document ASAP but have no internet connection? Don’t worry!

With Google Drive’s ability to work offline you are able to access and edit any Google Document, Sheet or Slide without an internet connection from any device. This means; no more unfinished documents, you can work on the go and you have less worry about internet connections.

Enabling this feature is quick and simple and can be disabled if it’s not for you.

For more information check out my past blog post – Accessing Google Drive Offline.

Revision History

Google Drive allows you to connect, collaborate and share documents anywhere on any device. As a result working together has never been so easy. With all this collaboration it can be tough to track all the changes made to your shared to-do lists, budgets and presentations.

To solve this problem, Google have added a new activity stream in Drive – an easy to view place to review all actions taken on your files and folders, by yourself and others who have access to them.

For more information check out my past blog post – What’s new Google Drive?

Add-ons

As more people are relying on Google’s office suit more extensively, Google are doing more to fill in the gaps that leave users looking elsewhere for document solutions. That is why Google have rolled out Add-ons support for Google Docs and Sheets.

Currently there are around 30 add-ons ranging from Avery Label Merge, which lets you merge data from Google Spreadsheets into Avery address labels to Hello Signs, which makes easy, secure and legally binding electronic signatures for your documents.

You can find add-ons in an opened Google Document or Sheet.

For more information check out my past blog post – Google Drive and the new Add-ons feature.

Oh and here is a little bonus for you. When you are next in Drive, hit Shift and ? to reveal a little secret to making your Google Drive that little more special.

If you would like more information on Google Apps and want to know if it is right for your business, visit Desynit’s Business Apps page, check out this article Why Google Business Apps or contact Desynit’s Shaun Holmes.

See you next week where I will be releasing more juice on Salesforce Chatter.

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