Teach Yourself VISUALLY Google Workspace. Guy Hart-Davis

you have sent or received as attachments in Gmail also occupy Google Drive storage, even though you cannot access these files directly from Google Drive.

      Documents stored in Google apps formats, such as documents in Google Docs format or presentations in Google Slides format, do not count against your storage usage. But if you export such a document to a non-Google format and save the exported document in Google Drive, it will count against your storage.

      Any media files you store in Google Photos on the Original Quality setting will also use Google Drive storage.

The Google Workspace apps are built on the Google Drive platform and automatically use Google Drive for storing files. Google Drive is the backbone for sharing and collaborating on Google Workspace documents with people both inside and outside your Google Workspace organization.

      If you need to work with files on Google Drive as if they were on your Windows PC or Mac, you can use Google Drive for Desktop to integrate Google Drive into File Explorer on Windows or the Finder on macOS. See the section “Using Google Drive for Desktop” in Chapter 6, “Share and Collaborate on Files,” for information on Google Drive for Desktop.

      The shared drives appear.

      

Click Expand ().

      Note: You can also double-click the shared drive () to expand its contents.

      The top-level folders in the shared drive appear.

       Click the appropriate folder.

       The folder’s contents appear.

       Click Shared with me ().

      The Shared with Me category appears, showing folders and documents that others have shared with you.

       The Quick Access box gives quick access to files that have been shared with you recently and shared files that have been edited recently.

       You can right-click a file to display the contextual menu, which includes other actions you can take with the file — for example, renaming the file or downloading it.

       You can click Add to Starred () to add the file to the Starred category — for example, because the file is important.

Click Recent ().

      The Recent category appears, showing files that have been saved recently.

       The list of files is sorted by reverse data, starting with the Today section.

       Click Starred ().

      The Starred category appears, showing the files you have marked as Starred.

       Double-click the file you want to open.

      The file opens in the default app for that file type. For example, if you double-click a Google Docs document, it opens in the Google Docs app.

      TIP

      What does the Storage category on Google Drive do?

      Click Storage () to display the Storage category, which shows you a list of all the files you have stored on Google Drive and the amount of space each file is taking up. The list is sorted in descending order by default, so the largest files appear at the top, helping you see what is occupying most space.

Create a Folder and Add Files

To organize your files on Google Drive, you will likely want to create various folders and subfolders. For example, you might choose to create a folder for each major project and, inside that folder, a subfolder for each of the project’s components. If needed, you could then create subfolders inside those subfolders.

      Once you have created the folders you need, you can copy or move existing files into the folders or create new files in them.

      Create a Folder and Add Files

      

In Google Drive, navigate to the category in which you want to create a folder.

      Note: If you do not currently have Google Drive open, click Google apps () in a browser tab, and then click Drive () on the Google Apps panel.

       For example, you might double-click My Drive () to display the My Drive category and the folders it contains.

      

If you want to create the new folder inside an existing folder, click that folder.

      The folder’s contents appear.

      

Click New ().

      The New pop-up menu opens.