Introduction to Google DriveA two hour lesson on the basic utilisation of Google’s web based office suite

Prepared for SeniorNet West AucklandBy Alex Bartley Catt

23/07/2015

Table of Contents

Table of ContentsObjectiveRequirementsIntroductionWhat is…?

Google DriveMy DriveGoogle DocsGmail

How to…Access Google DriveCreate a DocUpload and Manage FilesCopy and Share FilesAdd ImagesInsert Comments

AdvancedInformation PanelShared with meSearch barFolder commands

Class outline:

Pages 1-3 20 minutes discussion and presentationPages 4-20 90 minutes step by step tutorial

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ObjectiveThis class aims to outline the basic functions of the Google Drive web-based office suite. This class will guide you through features such as word processing, managing files and photos, collaboration, and basic navigation of the suite.

RequirementsTo get the most out of this class, a user should have a basic understanding of word processing and internet browser use, along with the ability to use a mouse and keyboard. Google Drive is web based so an internet connection will be required. Like most web based tools, the best way to learn is through experimentation. This class does not cover the full range of features offered by Google Drive, so it is up to you to explore further, if you wish to get the most out of Google Drive.

IntroductionGoogle Drive is a web based office suite which allows you to edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. This online application also acts as an online storage for documents and photos, with the added ability of online collaboration.Google offers Drive services for free, but is not as powerful as microsoft office and other office suite applications. It is the web based features and ease of use that puts Google Drive ahead of the rest.

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What is…?Google Drive

Google Drive is an web based office software that allows users to create and edit many types of documents online. Offered as a free service, you must have a google account to use the application. Much like Microsoft Office, you can create and edit documents that can be stored for later use. The key benefits of Google Drive include the ability to share and collaboratively edit documents from any location or device. This is because the office suite is based online, not on your personal computer or device.

My Drive

‘My Drive’ is the basis of your Google Drive use. My Drive is an online storage platform that allows you to store manage your digital files. Anything you upload to, or create on, Google Drive will be stored in ‘My Drive’.

Google Docs

Google Docs is Google Drive’s equivalent to Microsoft Word. The use of Google Docs will make the focus of our lesson as it is a highly effective tool for word processing online. You can make professional quality documents, much like this manual with the use of Docs. Doc is just a nickname for a text document created in Google Drive.

Gmail

Gmail is Google’s free email service. Having access to a Gmail account will make accessing Google Drive much easier. If you do not have a Gmail account, then you will need your current email address and password to make a Google account instead.

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How to… Access Google Drive

1. To gain access to Google Drive you must first open your web browser (make sure you are connected to the internet). Google Drive works best with Google Chrome.

2. Once your browser window is open, use your URL bar to navigate to www.google.com/drive/

3. You should see the following page. Click on ‘Go to Google Drive’.

4. If this page does not appear, then you will likely be on the webpage below.

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5. This is the sign in page. Have your Gmail account address and password handy. 6. Enter your email address first and click ‘Next’.7. You will then be prompted to input your password, click ‘Next’ again.

8. You should now be at the Google Drive home screen, see page 7.9. If you do have a Gmail email account, then click the ‘Create account’ text in blue. 10. You will need to either create a Gmail account or use your current email address to

make a Google account. 11. Have your current email address and password handy.

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12. You should now see the following page in which you can fill in the required details to gain access to Google Drive.

13. Make sure select the blue text reading “I prefer to use my current email address” if you do not want to make a Gmail account.

14. I am going to continue with making a Gmail account as this is the best way to get the most out of Google Drive.

15. Once you have completed inputting your details, click ‘Next Step’ in blue. 16. You should be prompted with a new web page confirming your account creation and a

blue button ‘Back to Google Docs’.

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17. Click this button and you will be directed to the following page. This is your Drive homepage and main screen.

18. The panel on the left of the web page is the navigation panel. From here you can access your stored files or create new documents.

19. Any files you create will show up on the center screen.

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Create a Doc

20. Before we create a doc, it is worth creating a folder to help keep your Drive tidy. 21. From the Drive homepage, click the red ‘New’ button at the top left of the screen. 22. You will be prompted with a dropdown menu as seen below.

23. Click once on ‘Folder’.24. You will be prompted with a new window, asking you to name the folder. 25. Name the folder and click ‘Enter’. 26. Your new folder will now appear in the centre panel of the web page.27. To create your first doc click the red ‘New’ button again.28. Select ‘Google Docs’ from the drop down list. 29. This will open a new tab in your browser, displaying the new, untitled document.

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30. The first thing to do is rename the document. 31. At the top left of the screen you can see the text “Untitled document” in grey. 32. Click this once to rename the document as you see fit. This is important for managing

your documents as they save automatically. I’ve named mine ‘SeniorNet Doc’.

33. You can now start typing on the document, or take a look at the settings and formatting options at the top of the page.

34. Single click your mouse over each of the drop down menu categories e.g File, Edit, View, to get an idea of what you can do.

35. Click the menu category name again to close the drop down menu. 36. Also notice the grey text beside the ‘Help’ menu. This tells you either when the last edit

was made or updates to say your document is saved. Regardless, your document saves automatically as long as you are connected to the internet.

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37. Once again, hover your mouse over the ‘File’ menu button. 38. The following drop down menu will appear.

39. You can see here, that you can do numerous things with your text document such as moving it to a folder, deleting it, emailing it, and printing it.

40. Firstly, we will download the file, just in case you want to edit your document with Microsoft Word or have it saved on your computer.

41. Hover your mouse over ‘Download As’.42. The drop down menu will give you a range of format options from Microsoft Word (.docx)

to PDF (.pdf). 43. For best results and compatibility with Word, we will download our document in .docx

format. 44. Note that your document formatting may change slightly when downloading it as a

different format. 45. Clicking on ‘Microsoft Word (.docx)’ will prompt you with a window asking to select a

download location. 46. You also now have the chance to rename the document. 47. Save the document by clicking ‘Save’.48. Once you have downloaded the document to your computer, close the first doc you have

created by closing the tab. 49. You should now be back at your Google Drive home screen.

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Upload and Manage Files

50. From the homepage, you should now be able to see two documents and one folder. 51. Click and drag your created document into the folder you made earlier. 52. Double click on the folder to open it up. 53. You should now be able to see your created document again. 54. We are going to also put your downloaded document in this same folder. 55. To do so, click the red ‘New’ button and select ‘File Upload’.56. A new window will appear in which you can locate your downloaded document and

select it. 57. Click ‘Open’ to upload the .docx file. 58. Wait a minute for the file to upload to your Drive. 59. You should now see the following.

60. Note the left hand panel, you can see the ‘SeniorNet’ folder text coloured red to let you know which folder you are viewing within ‘My Drive’.

61. You also now have two documents, one in Google Doc format, one in Word .docx format.

62. If you double click the Word .docx file you will be able to view it but not edit it. 63. If you wish to edit it, right click the file.64. A drop down menu will appear in which you can hover your mouse over ‘Open with’.65. Select ‘Google Docs’.66. This will create a copy of the Word .docx file and reformat it as a Google Doc. This

reformatted file will now open in a new tab for your access.

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67. You can now close your document tab and return back to your Google Drive folder view. 68. You should now see three files which are all created from the same initial file. 69. Notice the little icon below each file to the left of the file name. This icon represents the

documents format. 70. Although two of the files have the same name, you can see one is a Word .docx and one

is a Google Doc. 71. You can delete the first doc you created and delete the Word .docx file too. 72. To do this, click the document you wish to delete once, you will see a trash can icon

appear in the toolbar at the top right of the screen. 73. Click the trash can icon as seen below.

74. Your file will be deleted. If you need to recover it, you can click on the ‘Trash’ option on the left hand panel. This will take you to a new screen in which you can choose to ‘Restore’ files or ‘Delete forever’.

75. Delete your other unnecessary files and you should now be left with your most recent document.

76. Note that you can easily delete folders and documents by clicking and dragging them to the trash icon on the left hand panel.

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Copy and Share Files

77. The great thing about Google Drive is the ability to share and work on the same documents simultaneously. To do this, you need a file you want to share, and the email address of someone who knows how to use Google Drive.

78. First click once on the file you wish to share.79. Now you can click on the icon of a person’s head and shoulders with a plus sign next to

them. This is located on the toolbar at the top right of the page. This is the ‘Share’ button.

80. Clicking the ‘Share’ button will open a small window as seen below.

81. The text box in the centre of this window allows you to input the email addresses of those you want to share your document with.

82. Type in an email address and hit the ‘enter’ key to select that person. 83. You can now use the drop down menu on the right to set permissions for the person(s)

you are sharing with. If you need them to edit the document then be sure to leave their permission as ‘Can edit’.

84. Note the ‘Get shareable like’ button at the top right corner of the window. You can click this option to be given a link that allows anyone with the link to access the document.

85. For now, enter the email address of one person you want to share the document with, hit the ‘enter’ key, and select ‘Done’.

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86. Your document is now shared with that person, which means they can do anything they want to your document, other than delete it.

87. To view who has access to your document, click the document once and click the share button again.

88. Once the window opens up, click the ‘Advanced’ button at the bottom right of the window. You should see the same window as below.

89. As you can see, there are only two people that have access to the document, both of which are my email addresses. Note the way I am listed as the document owner.

90. At this screen, you can change permissions or give more people access to the document. Of course, you can also remove permissions by clicking the little grey ‘x’ next to the right of someone's name.

91. There are also two key options you can select at the bottom of the window. One limits the ability of collaborators so they can not share the document with others. The other option stops collaborators with ‘view only’ permissions from copying or downloading the file.

92. Select ‘Done’ to return to your Drive home screen.

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Add Images

93. Google Drive is also perfect for storing photos and images that you can use in creating documents and presentations.

94. From your Drive home screen, create a new file named ‘Images’ (or whatever is appropriate).

95. Open up the new folder and click the red ‘NEW’ button to select ‘File upload’.96. You can now navigate the new window to find your images on your computer, select the

appropriate image and click ‘Open’.97. Your image should only take a few seconds to upload and should now be locate in your

‘Images’ folder on your drive. 98. Close the upload progress box in the bottom right hand corner by clicking the small

cross ‘x’. 99. Having a folder for your images is good practise, but in this case, we actually want to

move the image to the first folder you created. 100. Do this by clicking and dragging the image into the folder on the right side panel.

101. Click on the folder that now holds the location of your document and image. 102. Open your text document by double clicking it. 103. You should now be in a new tab viewing your text document. We are going to

insert your uploaded image into your text document.

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104. Click the ‘Insert’ menu heading at the top of the page. 105. Then click ‘Image’ from the drop down menu. 106. You will be prompted by a new window in which you can upload images directly

from your computer. 107. We are going to select the ‘Google Drive’ option at the top right of the window.

You should see the below window.

108. Double click on the folder that holds your uploaded image. 109. Once you have found your image, click it once to select it, then click ‘Select’.110. You will be taken back to your document and your image should be added. 111. Clicking the image once gives you the option to change the formatting of the

image. 112. Select ‘Wrap Text’ for best results. See below. 113. You can move the image by

clicking and dragging it around the document.

114. You can also delete it by clicking it once and pressing the ‘Delete’ key.

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Insert Comments

115. When you are editing or viewing a document, you have the ability to make comments on the document without making any changes.

116. To do this, select the ‘Insert Comments’ button as seen here.

117. This will open a text box to the right side of the page with your username on it. There may also be highlighting on the document text to give other collaborators an idea of what you are specifically commenting on. See Below.

118. By default, your comment will highlight the last thing you have edited or typed. 119. Once you have written your comment,

click ‘Comment’ to post it. This is what your comment will look like once posted.

120. You can click the ‘Resolve’ button to remove the comment.

121. Clicking the three-point icon to the right of the ‘Resolve’ button allows you to ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ the comment.

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122. Comments are a great way to give your thoughts on someone else’s document without having to make an edit.

123. To be more precise with your comments, first highlight the necessary document text, then click the ‘Insert comments’ button.

124. You can also view all comments and see their history by clicking once on the ‘Comments’ button at the top right of the page. See below.

125. As you can see above, opening the comments thread allows you to reply to other people’s comments and see any other comment history.

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AdvancedInformation Panel

126. This panel is opened by clicking the black circle icon that has an ‘i’ within it. Located at the top right of the Drive home screen in the toolbar.

127. The panel will open on the right side of the page.

128. Clicking once on any file or folder with the info panel open will give you all the details you need regarding that file.

129. You can also click in the ‘Activity’ option (see image) to view who last edited the selected document and when they did it.

130. You can scroll down this panel to see more information.

131. Click the grey ‘x’ in the top right corner to close the information panel. I often leave mine open as it is a handy tool, especially with more than one person working on a single document.

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Shared with me

132. Back at the Google Drive home screen you can see an option named ‘Shared with me’ on the left side panel.

133. Clicking this will bring you to a new page that is the location for all documents that have been shared with you but created by other people.

134. If there is a file shared with you that you want in your own drive then it is as simple as clicking that file and dragging it into ‘My Drive’.

135. The document will now be available in your drive for easy access.

Search bar

136. Once have started to use Drive regularly, your number of files will start to increase.

137. The search bar at the top of the Drive home screen allows you to search your entire Drive for a file you have either uploaded, created, or had shared with you.

138. Input keywords in the search bar and click the blue search button to start a search.

139. I do not often use the search bar as it is very easy to manage folder structures on Drive anyway.

Folder commands

140. To keep your Drive folders sorted and tidy, there are two tools that can help you.

141. Right clicking on any folder or file will give you a drop down menu as seen here.

142. You can hover your mouse over ‘Change colour’ to bring up a selection of colours to choose from.

143. Clicking on a colour will recolour your folder, making it easier to find when navigating your Drive.

144. You can also use ‘Add star’ to help identify important files and folder. 145. Starred files will automatically be accessible through the ‘Starred’ section on the

left panel of the drive home screen.

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