Vroom vroom. Let's get behind the wheel and get more out of Google Drive.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress at the same time. In today's video, we are looking at Google Drive, one of my favorite applications. Why? Because I can store, work with, and collaborate on almost any type of file.
Today, I want to share with you five of my favorite ways to get the most out of Drive. But before we begin, I'd like to thank today's sponsor, PDF Element by Wondershare.
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Convert Text from an Image
The first tip I want to share with you today has to do with converting text from an image into a working document. How many times have you been given an image of something, or maybe you've taken a picture while you're out with your smartphone, and you thought, "I'd like to use that text. I'd like to be able to edit that text in my own Google document."
Here you see I have an image that is just a picture, although it contains mostly text. I can't actually grab this text at this point in time, but you can do something very easy in order to work with this text.
Simply right-click on the image and select "Open with Google Docs." Depending on the size of the image and how much text it contains, it may take a few seconds, but in just a few moments, you will see that I now have a new Google document.
At the top, I have that image again, but here is the real win—it's what's happening down below that image. It has converted all of the text within this image into editable text. It's even trying to recreate the color. I think it chose yellow because I had white text in the original image. Let's fix that by selecting the text and easily changing the color.
Now I can go ahead and edit this any way I want. It's done a very good job—no spelling errors, no punctuation errors as we see it here.
Let's try it one more time. This time, I have a picture from a section within a textbook. Again, I'll right-click and select "Open with Google Docs." It might take a few seconds if you're using multiple pages or a file with lots of text, but in less than 10 seconds, here I have the original image above and the text below, ready to be edited.
Make use of Google Drive's OCR technology.
Find Further Information
The next tip I want to share with you has to do with finding further information for a document that you may be working on. Of course, you could always open a new tab in your browser and do a Google search, but Google Drive makes it so much easier.
In the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, you will see a little star icon called the Explore icon. If I select this, it will do a quick scan of all the information in my document and suggest topics, images, and related searches.
This essentially works like a miniature version of Google search. At the top, I can select further search terms if I want, or I can dive deeper into the suggested topics. I can search the web, browse certain images, and even bring them directly into my document.
If you are looking for a quicker and easier way to bring in information or do research while working within Drive, make use of the Explore icon. You can also find this under Tools, where you can select the Explore option.
Save to Google Drive
Speaking of research, let's next take a look at how we can get images and other components of a website into Google Drive even when we're casually browsing the web. Often, as I'm browsing through articles and other websites, I may want to grab images or other components of that website and save them to my Drive account.
There is a Google Chrome extension that makes this so much easier, and it's called Save to Google Drive. Once you have this extension installed in your browser, all you need to do is right-click on an image and select "Save Image to Google Drive." You will get a new dialog telling you that it's been saved to your Drive account.
If I go back, you can see that the image is now saved in my Drive account.
There is another way you can use the Save to Google Drive extension. Let's say I'd like to take a snapshot of this entire web page—something that's not always easy to do. If I select the extension in the browser, it will take a few seconds to scan and capture images of the entire web page.
When it's complete, you'll get a dialog box in the top left corner of your screen, telling you that it's been saved to your Google Drive account. It may take a few moments, depending on the size of the web page you've scanned, but in just a few seconds, it's done.
I'm going to close that and go back to my Google Drive account. Here, you see I now have a full-page screenshot of this web page. I can zoom in if I want to read or take parts of the web page. This is handy when you want to see the layout of an entire web page or multiple pages on a particular website.
That extension is Save to Google Drive. I'll leave a link in the description below.
The next tip on this list might just be my favorite because I love automating processes. Within Google Drive, you can share virtually any file, whether it's a native Google file or something you've uploaded. One of the great things about sharing is that you can set certain limits on what others can see and do.
You're probably already familiar with the dropdown that allows people to edit, comment, or view, depending on the access you want to give. But if you select the Advanced link, you get additional options. Not only can you see everyone that the file is shared with, but if you hover over a name, you'll see a little set expiration icon.
If you click this icon, you can determine how long they have access to the file. For example, if I'm sharing a video file and I just want someone's approval or feedback, I might not want to give them full access indefinitely. I can choose to give them access for seven days or thirty days—those are the defaults, but you can also select a custom date range.
When those days are up, the individual will no longer have access to the file. You can always come back and cancel the expiration if needed. This feature is very powerful, especially if you're dealing with sensitive information that you only want others to see for a short period.
Once you click on the Advanced tab in the sharing dialog, you can hover over names and select the set expiration icon.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The last tip I have for you is all about saving time. You probably already know the benefits of knowing some shortcut keys in your favorite application, but sometimes it's hard to remember all those shortcuts.
No matter where you are in Google Drive, all you need to do is select Control + forward slash, and you'll get a full menu of all the keyboard shortcuts available. What I love about this menu is that not only can you browse through it on the left, where shortcuts are broken into sections, but you can also search for specific shortcuts at the top.
For example, if I'm editing something and want to insert a link, I can search "insert link" and find that Control + K is the shortcut I need. Depending on the application—Docs, Sheets, or Slides—these shortcuts may differ, so try Control + forward slash in the different apps you're using.
I'd love to hear from you next. What are some of your favorite tips for working with Google Drive, or which of these five tips do you find most useful?
Be sure to leave a comment for me down below. If you haven't yet subscribed to the Simpletivity YouTube channel, I hope you do so, and be sure to give this video a thumbs up.
Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
