I made the switch from Dropbox to Google Drive and never looked back. Once you live in Drive every day, you start finding features most people never touch, and a few of them quietly change how you work.
Below is the running list of Google Drive tips and tricks I actually use, including the AI features Google has folded in that most users have not caught up to yet.
1. Work with your team in real time
Google Drive got its early breaks in the market by being far superior at collaborating with others than any other tool out there. This still holds true today. You can have a ton of people working on a document simultaneously and things will still run smoothly.
One main advantage of this is that you can always see exactly what everyone is doing in real time, no matter what device they’re on. Activity is also logged so that you can review changes at your leisure, and you can always know who edited or deleted an element and when they did so.
Up to 100 people can edit a document at the same time, and you can share it with hundreds more. For 99% of teams, that is more than enough.
2. Publicly share documents
Not only can you share and collaborate with people you invite, but you can also make documents public to avoid the hassle of handling individual user permissions. By setting your work to be public, you can allow anyone and everyone the ability to view or edit it, and even allow Google to use it in its search results.
I have seen some cool examples of public documents being used, like Pieter Levels who used it to source the initial list for Nomad List.
3. Control access levels for security
Just because you want to share and work with others, that doesn’t mean you necessarily want people messing with your stuff. Because of that, Google lets you control permissions on documents.
The document itself can be set to be available for specific people you give access to, anyone in your organization, or anyone on the web. You can also decide whether to allow Google to show the document in search results or only allow those with the link, and whether users should be able to view, view and comment, or straight-up edit your work.
4. Chat while collaborating
To give collaboration a further kick, you can even have conversations around particular documents and spreadsheets. Just click the speech bubble icon on the top right to open a chat window.
Anyone who is working on the spreadsheet can participate, which makes these conversations great for document-centric discussions. This way you can work on a document and chat all in real time, but all without leaving the page.
5. Search by person
When you use Google Drive a lot you can have a bunch of incoming documents being shared with you in quick succession. Sometimes it’s hard to remember exactly what the name of the document was. Don’t worry, there is a solution for this too.
First, you can check out the “Shared with me” folder for a list of documents that have been shared with you. If that list is too long, just do a search for the person’s name or email address and it will bring up a list of all the documents you are working on with them. Easy!
6. Enhance your experience with add-ons
If you’re looking for a functionality boost to your documents, take a look at the add-ons. There is a huge range to try for both documents and spreadsheets, all of which can really give their usability a good boost.
Browse the Google Workspace Marketplace for tools that handle mail merges, citations, diagrams, e-signatures, and more, right inside your documents.
7. Link apps to streamline your workflow
There is also a whole directory of apps that work directly with Google Drive, all of which can help you make the most of your documents and data without so much hard work.
To get you started, however, try Cloudconvert for converting files and DocuSign for signing documents. Google Drive apps are not to be confused with Google Workspace, the paid productivity suite formerly known as G Suite.
8. Use drag and drop to upload
Although Google Drive has a button to select a file or folder to upload, you don’t have to go through the steps of clicking it and finding the thing you want to put on there. Instead, you can drag and drop files from Windows Explorer or the MacOS Finder right into Google Drive and they’ll auto-upload.
9. Use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to turn images/PDFs into text
One of my favorite aspects of Evernote is its ability to do OCR on images and PDFs then make them searchable. Google Drive also has this feature, allowing you to OCR your images and PDFs.
To do this, upload your image or PDF to Google Drive, then right click it and select “Open with Google Docs”. Click here for more guidelines.
10. Use the mobile app to scan and OCR
Using the same method as converting your images to text, you can use the Google Drive mobile app to take pictures of documents, signs, business cards etc and then open them in Google Docs to convert them into text and make them searchable.
While Evernote also does this feature very well, Drive’s OCR ability is nothing to be sniffed at.
11. Use bookmark links for quick creation
You can create a new file the instant you have an idea, without hunting through any menu. Type a shortcut straight into your browser address bar and the right app opens with a blank file ready to go.
The shortcuts are easy to remember: docs.new for a document, sheets.new for a spreadsheet, slides.new for a presentation, and form.new for a form. Bookmark the ones you reach for most. Cutting a few clicks off every new file you create adds up fast.
12. Use Drive on your desktop with Drive for desktop
You can use Google Drive in the same way as Dropbox, as a local folder that syncs to the cloud, with Drive for desktop. Stream your files so they live in the cloud without filling your hard disk, or mirror a folder for full offline access.
Drive also keeps a version history of every file. Right click an uploaded file, open its version history, and you can restore an earlier copy in one click, so a bad edit or a wrong overwrite is never permanent. Consolidate your documents, spreadsheets, and files into one place and you get syncing and backup in a single tool.
13. Use offline mode to access your documents on the go
Not only can you access your files offline using the Dropbox-esque desktop app, you can also allow offline access through your Chrome browser. Come rain or shine, internet or no connection, you’ll be able to access and edit your documents.
14. Clip web pages to Drive like Evernote
I love Evernote and use it daily as my infinite shoe-box. However, if you haven’t got on the Evernote train yet or you just like the idea of everything being in the same place, you can use the Chrome Extension called Save to Google Drive.
This acts as a kind of sub-standard Evernote Web Clipper, allowing you to save pages and articles directly to Drive. You can’t just copy out the text part, however, as it will save the whole site as a PNG, the HTML source code or transform it to a single document, thus killing the formatting. It’s not very useful if you already use Evernote but still an option.
15. Supercharge your emails with Drive
Another huge reason to switch to Google Drive is if you are heavy Gmail user. The first big benefit is when attaching files. You can add files directly from Drive without needing to wait for them to upload, plus you can send much larger files – try 10GB instead of the standard 25mb.
And because the file lives in Drive rather than the message, the recipient always opens the current version.
16. Search Drive directly from Gmail
It’s incredibly handy to be able to use the search bar in Gmail to search through Drive, letting you find what you need without having to leave your inbox. Admittedly, though, this is something you would expect from the world’s leader in search.
17. Easily edit documents and spreadsheets with dedicated mobile apps
Another cool addition to the Google Drive feature list is standalone apps for Docs and Sheets. This is great if, for example, you spend a lot of time in spreadsheets and want a dedicated, fast app specifically for editing and managing them.
What more could you need? Well, keep reading to find out.
18. Automatically convert to Google Docs format
You can upload Microsoft Word and Excel documents to Drive and convert them into the Google Docs format, which makes them easy to collaborate around and edit from your phone. Conversion has come a long way and now preserves most formatting.
Drive can also edit Office files directly without converting them, so you can open a .docx or .xlsx, make changes, and hand it back in its original format. Pick conversion when you want full collaboration, and direct editing when you need to keep the Office file intact.
19. View any document straight from your browser
Google Drive continues to impress me with it ability to open almost any format file in the browser. You can even open things like an Adobe Illustrator file to view without booting up another app.
Basically any type of document, image, spreadsheet, PDF, video, audio file, and more can be opened in the browser version of Drive. While there may be some exceptions, I can’t think of a single instance where this feature has failed me.
20. Use forms to collect data
There are a bunch of form builders out there, but Google is completely free with Google Drive for unlimited use. Plus it integrates very nicely with spreadsheets. Each form entry can be added as a row in a spreadsheet and you can then pull that data into other tabs/sheets and manipulate it automatically. Pretty cool.
21. Quickly create images with the in-built drawing tool
If you want a quick and easy way to add images to your documents, try the built in Drawing tool. Go to the Insert menu in Docs, Sheets, or Slides and select Drawing. You’ll get a scaled back version of the Drawing app that makes it a breeze to include your art. It’s no Photoshop, but it will work just fine for the basics.
22. Let Gemini do the heavy lifting in Drive and Docs
This is the biggest shift in Google Drive in years, and most people have not switched it on yet. Gemini, Google’s AI, is now built directly into Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Ask it to summarize a long document, draft a first version from a prompt, rewrite a paragraph in your own style, or build a table in Sheets from a plain request.
In Drive itself you can ask a question about your files and get an answer pulled from across your documents, with the source files cited so you can check the work. It does in seconds what used to mean opening file after file by hand. If you adopt one new habit from this list, make it this one.
23. Make research a breeze with the Explore function
Use the “Explore” function (in Docs only) in the bottom right of your page to do a Google search from inside the document, saving you from searching manually and getting distracted by all that clickbait. You can even pull information from the search and have Google create an auto footnote citation in your document.
24. Auto-generate your Table of Contents
You can use this feature to automatically create your ToC, but first you need to format your headings correctly. Make sure that you’ve set used H1s, H2s, and H3s to correctly segment your work (just as a book would with parts and chapters), then click “Insert” and “Table of Contents”.
25. View every single keyboard shortcut
If you want to become a power user of any piece of software you have to master the keyboard shortcuts. Google Drive is no different, but thankfully there is a handy guide that they provide to help you towards that goal. Access a list of all the shortcuts by hitting Ctrl+/.
26. Manage your storage and free up space
Every Google Account comes with 15GB of storage shared across Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, so it pays to know what is eating it. Open your storage view at one.google.com/storage to see exactly which files and which products are taking up room.
From there you can sort by size, clear out the largest files you no longer need, empty the trash, and decide whether to upgrade to Google One for more space. A few minutes of cleanup beats hitting a wall mid-upload.
27. Use Shared Drives so files belong to the team, not a person
Files in My Drive belong to whoever created them, which becomes a problem the day that person leaves and their files leave with them. Shared Drives fix this. Files in a Shared Drive are owned by the team, so they stay put through every reorg and departure.
Set one up per department or project, assign roles so the right people can manage, contribute, or just view, and stop worrying about who owns the folder. For any growing organization, this is the most important habit for keeping work from walking out the door.
28. Filter your searches within Drive
It’s great to have well categorized folders, but sometimes we want to bring up the one document we need straight away.
I say sometimes, for me it’s always. I would much rather be able to simply type within the search box and have the exact document I’m looking for appear in front of me. Fortunately, within Drive that is as easy as could be.
At the top of your screen you will see the search box. As you probably already know, you can start typing in there and it will suggest the files you’re looking for as you type. This is a useful feature in and of itself. But what if I told you it got better than even that?
There’s a little dropdown arrow at the far right of the search box which brings up a series of filters. With this dropdown, you can search for documents with specific owners, documents which have been starred or moved to trash, or documents from within a particular timeframe. If you are a Drive power user with heaps of content to trawl through, this powerful search functionality is a godsend.
29. Dictation helps you work hands free
If you’re typing in Google Docs, it’s worth considering factoring their dictation functionalities into your workflow.
Often, I’ll find myself wanting to source a book or some other offline resource and include a quote. It has made it very easy for me to simply switch dictation on as I lean back and read out loud the sections I want to record. Google Docs then does the hard work for me and types it all up real time.
The quality of the software is high, but it can make mistakes. Fortunately, these are very easy to correct and I feel I still receive a net gain in terms of time from the dictation feature. There are a lot of options on the market for dictation software, but Google Docs certainly should be checked out!
30. Add links to documents really quickly
When I’m writing, I often find myself wanting to link a word to a webpage to provide a little more information. Often it will be a link to a company page or a Wikipedia page. Or even an article I know well and think will be relevant in the text. This is where I love the Google Docs feature that does rapid linking.
If you highlight a word and click to insert a hyperlink, Google will search the web for that term and suggest to you the top two results. If it is a brand name or a Wikipedia article I want to add, this makes the process as easy as possible. If it is an article I know, I can just begin typing the title into the text field and Google automatically brings it up.
A great little shortcut for my workflow.
31. Integrate with other apps to create automations
At Process Street, the Compliance Operations Platform, we are big fans of automating busywork so your team can focus on the work that actually matters. The same idea sits at the heart of how we think about document workflows: turn your critical procedures into automated, AI-enforced workflows across Docs for governed policies, Ops for execution, and Cora, our AI compliance agent, that watches the work and flags risk before it becomes a problem.
Process Street has direct, universal integrations to more than 5,000 systems, and when you need one that does not exist yet, an AI agent builds it on the fly. Tools like Zapier can connect Drive to thousands of apps as well, so a new form response or a signed document can kick off the next step on its own. For the full breakdown, read our guide to business process automation with Zapier.
Love using Typeform to gather survey results? Hook it up to a Google sheet to record all your data. You could even connect that Google sheet to Slack and have each response automatically posted into a Slack channel so you can be updated on it in real time.
The possibilities are endless.
32. Create text shortcuts to manage repeated phrases
In Google Docs, you can create shortcuts based on what you type into the documents.
For example, you might be a project manager who regularly types “needs more information” or some other key phrase. With this autofill text function you can set it to auto write the phrase when you type a shortcut like “nme”. So any point in the text you can type “nme” and it will autocorrect to “needs more information”.
You can do this with multiple other examples; the value proposition for your startup, for example. The possibilities are endless. Simply go into Tools then Preferences then play with your automatic substitution settings.
And that’s it for my list of Google Drive tips, if you know any I missed out please leave them in the comments.