5 Ways Google Drive Helps You Do Your Best Work

Clearbridge helps businesses with more than just using Google Drive. We help by leading your digital strategy efforts through investments in technology. Connect with us to learn more about how Clearbridge can help your business by clicking here. Talk soon!

 

WHAT IS GOOGLE DRIVE?

Google Drive allows you to upload and store just about any type of file you can think of! This in turn makes them accessible to you wherever you have internet connection. 

We use Google Drive every day. In fact, we regularly set our customers up on G-Suite so they can also take advantage of the Google platform and ecosystem.  

We truly believe that using Google Drive sets us—and our customers—up for success which in turn helps us work better every day. 

Here are the top FIVE reasons Google Drive helps you work better.

#1: Upload & Store Any File

Google Drive allows you to upload and store any type of file, making them accessible to you wherever you have internet connection. 
 
Not only that, Google Drive also allows you to upload Microsoft Office files like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, EDIT them, and then SAVE them in their original form.

Clearbridge customers don’t have to worry about storage limits, but a standard ‘free’ user will be limited to 10GB., which is still quite a bit! Having said that, Drive files like Docs, Sheets and Slides don’t count towards your storage! 

 

#2: Your Work Saves—Automatically

Have you ever worked on a project for a long period of time and then at the 11th hour your computer crashes on you?

You start it back up but to your utter horror, you open up to a blank document with all your hard work and effort—GONE.

With Google Drive, any file you work on saves as you type. 

And since Google documents saves with every single character you type, you don’t have to worry about any crashing programs or computers. 

Everything gets saved on the cloud as you go. 

Another fantastic option built-in to Google Drive is that it allows you to work ‘offline’. All you have to do is…

  1. Open your Google Drive settings
  2. Check the box beside ‘Offline’
  3. Select ‘Done’ to close the window
  4. Right-click on the document you want to edit offline
  5. Toggle the ‘Available offline’ switch on

#3: Share, Collaborate & Communicate in Real Time

Just when you thought auto-saved documents were peak performance, Google Drive comes at you with more.

Group projects and collaborations NEED to happen on Google Drive! What with their sharing, permissions, and real-time collaboration features

Why? 

Not only can everyone work on the same project simultaneously, you can also view edits and changes, view and revert to previous versions of a file, and share docs with set permission levels! That way only the people who should be editing a file are able to.

You can also create Shared Drives for each department or project to keep things more organized. This makes finding specific files easier, and not dependent on one person for access. 

Google Drive allows you to communicate on documents with your team. You can mark up documents with suggestions and tag your teammates in a comment to ensure they are notified, making collaborating that much simpler!

#4: Access Your Files ANYWHERE

File access in this day and age is crucially important.

Having all your important files stored on your computer at the office or on a physical server isn’t very helpful, especially if you need remote access. 

Google Drive’s files are accessible anywhere you have internet access so you can work on them remotely.

You can even access them from your smartphone—all you need is the Google Drive app and you’re set.

Your Drive files are even accessible without opening up a web browser—with a simple app download.

Once you’ve downloaded Google Drive for desktop, you can open your Google Drive files in your Windows Explorer right from your desktop!

#5: The Google Ecosystem

Google Drive is the hub of the Google ecosystem. Google has built out a robust suite of email, personal organization, and file creation & storage. 

And all of these pieces work together—seamlessly—allowing you to get the most out of one platform and ONE login.  

You can easily upload Drive files to Gmail, or save Gmail attachments right to your Google Drive. 

You can add Drive files to Google Calendar meetings or simply view your Calendar while editing a file right from the sidebar.

Gmail and Google Calendar work great on their own, but your experience is enhanced ten-fold when you add Google Drive into the mix. These programs were made to work together so it only makes sense to make the most of the functionality! 

WRAPPING UP

Alright, this list includes our five favourite features of Google Drive and how it helps us work better everyday—AND how we believe it will help YOU do your best work. 

But this isn’t an exhaustive list! 

These are just a few of the many ways Google Drive can help you work better. Want to learn more about Google Drive and how we use it to help our customers do their best work? Click the button below and let’s chat!

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