Tips and Tricks to get the most out of Google Drive

Type with your Voice

You can give your fingers a day off as you can create/write Google docs in Google drive with the help of Google's in-built speech to text system, similar to what you must have seen on your Android smartphone. To type using your voice:

• Open a Google document
• Click on Tools
• Click on ‘Voice Typing' or press Ctrl+Shift+S to switch on the voice feature.
• Google's speech recognition tool in Google docs works quite well. It understands what you are saying without any struggle and is more than just a straight dictation tool. For instance, you can you can use the speech commands to correct and stylize written text, say ‘newline' and ‘period' to create a new line or to insert a period or simply command the voice feature to select or delete a word. There's just one drawback, the feature doesn't work on Safari browser.

 

Create editable documents from image or PDF file with the in-built OCR feature

Google Drive also allows you to create editable text documents from image or PFD files. The in-built OCR feature in Google Drive can recognize the text inside an image or a PDF file and convert it into plain text. To use the feature:

• Upload an image or a PDF file on Google Drive
• Right click on the file and select ‘Open in Google Docs'
• That's it; Google Drive will now examine the file and will convert the image/PDF into an editable text-only file.

Save images and links directly to Google Drive

Many a times we come across an image or a link that we would want to save on our PC, so that it can be easily accessible later. With Google Drive, you can instantly save images, documents, HTML5 audio and even videos to your Google Drive. You just need to install the Save to Google Drive Chrome extension to get the job done.

Once you install the extension, right click on a link or an image to save the file on directly to your Google Drive.

Watch and edit videos right inside the Google Drive

You will be delighted to know that with a simple app, you can watch and edit videos directly in Google Drive. For this you need to download and install Pixorial, which syncs with your Google Drive's video library and offers a slew of video editing and viewing features.

The videos you store on Google Drive will be visible in your Pixorial Library. You can then edit videos with the app's in-built tools, add effects, filters, animations and can also save your Pixorial videos to your Google Drive.

Access Google Drive on Multiple device and Platforms

You can access data stored on your Google Drive account from multiple devices running on different platforms. Google Drive is available on Windows, iOS, Android and on your computer's browser. You just need to login from one Gmail account to access all your documents on Google Drive's cloud storage.

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Save Emails and attachments directly to Google Drive

How about downloading email messages and file attachments from Gmail to Google Drive automatically? Yes, you can do it with the help of this free plug-in- ‘Save Emails and Attachments'. The email threads will be converted into high-quality print-ready PDF files while the file attachments you save will stay in their original format in Google Drive.

Nifty Keyboard shortcuts

Google Drive also supports a variety of keyboard shortcuts. On your Google Drive web app, click on the settings icon placed at the top right corner. Click on Keyboard shortcuts to find the entire list of shortcuts that you can use in Google Drive app.

Analyze your Google Drive storage

You can also find how much space your files are taking on Google Drive by simply hovering the cursor on ‘Upgrade Storage' tab positioned on the left of the Google Drive web app interface.

Besides the above mentioned tips and tricks, you can simply add the Google Drive app in your PC's windows ‘File Explorer' to access Google Drive in a jiffy. Simply drag and drop the Google Drive folder to file explorer icon on your PC's taskbar.

Let us know in comments if you find these tips and tricks helpful in using Google Drive in everyday usage.