Google Drive 101
What is Google Drive?
Watch this five-minute movie to get a quick overview of Google Drive and some of the Drive apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings.
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Google Drive Definitions
- Google Workplace/Google Apps: the overall group of applications Google offers
- Google Drive: the space where all your Google Docs, Sheets & Presentations are housed; like “My Documents” on your PC
- Google Docs: like Microsoft Word; these are word processing documents
- Google Sheets: like Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
- Google Presentations: like PowerPoint
- Owner: the person who created a document; this person ALWAYS has full rights (editing, can delete the document, can share it)
- Collaborator: a person who has been invited to collaborate on the document.
- Sharing Permissions: 3 different levels with Google - view only, edit, or comment. (Note: If you have editing rights, you have commenting rights too.)
Logging into Your Google Drive
- Navigate to http://drive.google.com
- Type in your username and click Next.
- Enter your password and click Sign in.
Google Drive Structure
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Creating a Google Doc
From Google Drive, click on the large, red “New” button and select Google Docs.
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You can also create a new Google Doc by navigating to http://docs.google.com and clicking on the blue plus sign to create a blank document or one of the templates to start with a pre-formatted document.
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By default, any new Doc (or other Google product) will be named “Untitled” and placed in the “My Drive” folder.
Give your document a name by clicking where it says “Untitled Document” and typing in a name. You can also change the name by clicking on the current name or going to File and selecting Rename.
Give your document a name by clicking where it says “Untitled Document” and typing in a name. You can also change the name by clicking on the current name or going to File and selecting Rename.
You do not save Google docs manually. Google automatically saves your work every 2-3 seconds.