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Tips to access and find your files

Google Workspace productivity guide

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Work with Microsoft Office files

In Google Workspace, you can still work with Microsoft Office files, even if you don't have Office installed.

You can:

  • Add Office files to Google Drive.
  • Keep your files in Microsoft format, even if you no longer have Office.
  • Convert Office documents and Adobe PDF files to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
  • Work in Office and save changes to Drive.
  • Comment on Office files in Drive preview.
  • Email copies of Docs, Sheets, or Slides files in a Microsoft format.
  • Preview or download Office files that are embedded within other Office files.

 

 

Add labels to files in Drive

Labels help you organize, find, and apply policies to items in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. You can apply up to 5 labels to each file.

 

 

Check the sync status of a file

You can access your documents in Google Drive wherever you go—on your computer, phone, or tablet. When you finish making your changes, Drive automatically syncs the latest changes. So if you open the same document from another device, all the changes you made appear.

 

 

Mark & prioritize important files

To keep important or frequently used files at your fingertips, you can:

  • Add files to a workspace in Drive
  • Star files
  • Color-code folders

Note: Adding files to a workspace does not remove them from anywhere else or change permissions. It just puts them in one place so you can quickly find them.

 

 

Find files and folders with shortcuts

Shortcuts can make it easier for you and your team to find and organize files and folders in Google Drive. A shortcut is a link that references another file or folder. You can use them in My Drive or a shared drive.

Anyone with access to the file, folder, or shared drive can see a shortcut, but it doesn’t mean they can open it. You need to give people access to the original file, not the shortcut.

  • If a file or folder that you use frequently is several levels down in a hierarchy, create a shortcut and put it at a top level in Drive to access it quickly.
  • If your team works in different folders and you want to access the same file from several folders, create a shortcut to the file in the folders.

 

 

Search for image files by description

Search for images you've stored in Google Drive by describing or naming what's in them. You can also search for text in PDFs and images you've stored in Drive.

For example, searching for "Mount Everest" in Drive shows all of your stored Mount Everest photos and any documents that contain text about Mount Everest. The file name doesn't even have to match the image.

 

 

Set up offline access for files in Drive

Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers only

If you want to view and edit files when you're not connected to the internet, set up offline access. You need to do this before you go offline or lose internet access.

  • Work on the go, even if you don’t have internet access.
  • Edit Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and more during internet outages.
  • Work during long flights without Wi-Fi.

 

 

Set an expiration date for file access

When you’re working with people outside of your organization, you might want to restrict their access to certain files in Google Drive when your projects are complete. For files in My Drive, you can set an expiration date to limit or end access to that file in the file sharing flow. To set an expiration date for files in shared drives, you must use the Drive API.

How access roles work with setting an expiration

When you set an expiration date, access roles are affected in the following ways:

  • For files, you can add an expiration date for viewers, commenters, editors, and published viewers if the file supports Published viewer.
  • For folders, you can set expiration dates for viewers and commenters. If you set an expiration date for an editor on a folder, their role changes to Viewer. However, you can still change their role to Commenter and retain the expiration date.


Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

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