Google Drive might seem obscure to some real estate agents. You might be hesitant to try it out, thinking it’s just another cloud storage service. It offers a host of other services, however, and can be really useful for the on-the-go real estate consultant. Sure, it’s a file-syncing and cloud storage service, but it also offers an office productivity suite and collaborative editing functions.
The Basics
The Google Drive office suite mimics Microsoft Office and consists of Docs, Sheets, and Slides. These are similar to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Google Drive also contains Drawings, Forms, and Google My Maps. In addition, you can connect tons of third-party apps to Google Drive.
To connect third-party apps, go to ‘New’ > ‘More’ > ‘Connect more apps’.
15GB of free cloud storage is available on Google Drive. It’s compatible with popular file formats (including Microsoft Word), and it has built-in OCR (optical character recognition).
Offline and Across Devices
You can use Google Drive on your smart phone, tablet, PC, or Mac. With its file-syncing capability, you have access to all of your files across devices.
Download the latest Google Drive version to your desktop here
If you don’t have an internet connection, but need to view or work on files, you can access them offline. In order to activate offline use, however, you’ll have to be online to download the files. To access files offline, follow the steps listed below.
Steps to Access a File Offline
- On your desktop computer, launch Chrome (prerequisite browser for Google Drive)
- Click on the gear icon. Open ‘Settings’ and check the box next to ‘Offline’.
- Smart phones and tablets have limited storage space, so you’ll have to download each file you want to work on individually.
- While connected to the internet, go to the file you need to access offline and hit the grey ‘i’ next to it. In the result panel, go to ‘keep on device’ and switch ‘off’ to ‘on’. This will allow you to download the file.
Important Note: While you can download files this way, if you want to edit files from a smart phone or tablet, you’ll need to go to your Android or IOS app store on your phone and download the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps separately.
How to Save Directly from the Internet to Google Drive
If you’re unaware of what an extension to a web browser is, it basically lets you personalise and customise a browser, such as Chrome, based on your needs. You can download an extension for Chrome called ‘Save to Google Drive’. This allows you to save documents, links, audio, and video directly to Google Drive. By using the extension, you save a lot of time and duplication. To install this extension, follow the steps listed below.
Steps to Install ‘Save to Google Drive’
- Click on the gear icon and open ‘Settings’.
- Select ‘Extensions’.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on ‘Get more extensions’.
- Type ‘Save to Google Drive’ in the search box on the top left side of the screen.
- Click on ‘+Add to Chrome’ to install.
Once you’ve installed the extension, the next time you save content to the Drive, right-click and select ‘save to Google Drive’.
Converting Images to Text
Google Drive allows you to convert text on an image (PNG, Gif, or JPG) or pdf into editable text. Simply upload the files and Google Drive will do the work. Higher resolution images with good contrast come out better, and the images should be oriented correctly (i.e. not at angles or upside down). Take note that the files cannot be larger than 2MB and only the first 10 pages of a PDF are converted to editable text. So, in order to convert a 100 page pdf, you’ll have to break it up and upload it piece by piece.
Track Previous Versions of a File
You can go back to previous edits on a file, because Google Drive saves 30 days of previous versions. This is an excellent tool for collaborative work. To access previous versions, simply click on ‘file’ and ‘see revisions history’. Next, select the time stamp of the version you want to view. You’ll also be able to see the people who’ve worked on the file.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Save time when you work in Google Drive by memorizing some of these keyboard shortcuts. You can view the entire list of shortcuts by clicking on the gear icon and then selecting ‘keyboard shortcuts’ on the drop down.
While in Google Drive, you can also use ctrl and ‘/’ in Windows or ‘⌘’ and ‘/’ in Mac to get the full list.
The most useful shortcuts to remember are:
Search Drive = /
Create New Document = Shift + t
Create New Spreadsheet = Shift + s
Create New Presentation = Shift + p
Create New Folder = Shift + f
Rename Selected Item = n
Share Selected Item = . (dot)
Move Selected Item to New Folder = z
Add Selected Item to Existing Folder = Shift + z