Recent Searches

No recent searches

    Popular Articles

      Articles
      View all
        Topics
        View all
          Tickets
          View all
            no results

            Sorry! nothing found for

            Tips to access and find your files

            Modified on Wed, 9 Jul at 4:54 PM

            On this page

            • Work with Microsoft Office files
            • Add labels to Drive files
            • Check the sync status of a file
            • Mark & prioritize important files
            • Find files and folders with shortcuts
            • Search for image files by description
            • Set up offline access for files in Drive
            • Set an expiration date for file access

            Work with Microsoft Office files

            Add Office files to Drive

            Save and access your Office files from Drive.

            1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
            2. At the top left, click New and then File upload. 
            3. Choose the file you want to upload. 

            Work in Office and sync files to Drive (Office required)

            After you move your Office files to Drive, you can still work on them in Office and save your changes to Drive.

            1. If you haven't already, install Google Drive for desktop on your computer. This adds your Google Drive folder to your computer.
            2. On your computer, add your Office file to your Google Drive folder.
            3. In Office, click Fileand thenOpen and find your Google Drive folder.
            4. Click your Office file and click Open.
            5. Edit your file.

              Any changes you make to your file in Office sync in Drive.

            Share a copy of a file in an Office format

            If you're sharing a Google file with people who only have Office, you can attach a Microsoft copy to an email.
            1. In Docs, Sheets, or Slides, open the file.
            2. Click Fileand thenEmail as attachment.

            3. Under Attach as, choose Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint.

            4. Enter the email address, subject, and message.
            5. (Optional) Check the Send a copy to myself box.
            6. Click Send.

            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.

            Learn how:

            Apply a label from Drive

            1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
            2. Right click on a file or multiple files, and choose Labels and then Apply a label from the menu.
            3. Use the dialog to choose a label, and field values to apply to the file.

            Notes:

            • To remove a label from a file, find the label you want to remove and click Remove .
            • If you do not see the Labels section, it may be that your administrator has not yet enabled it for your account. Contact your administrator.

            Apply a label from Docs, Sheets, or Slides

            1. When viewing or editing a file in Docs, Sheets, or Slides, click the File menu and choose Labels.
            2. View existing labels and apply new labels in the side panel.

            Note: To remove a label from a file, find the label you want to remove and click Remove .

            See labels using the Drive App

            1. On your mobile device, open the Drive app (iOS, Android).
            2. Find the file you want to view labels for.
            3. Use the ellipsis button to open the context menu, and choose Details and activity.
            4. Choose Labels from the Details view.

            Note: Labels cannot be applied or modified in the mobile app at this time.

            Find files with labels

            Use Drive search options to find content with specific labels or fields.

            1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
            2. At the top, next to Search Drive, click the Down arrow .
            3. Next to Labels, select a label from the drop-down menu.
            4. Below the label you chose, you can optionally select a field from the drop down menu, and specify a value.
            5. Click Search.

            Check the sync status of a file

            Learn how:

            On the web

            When you see Upload complete, your files have uploaded successfully and can be accessed in any browser or device that has Drive installed.

            On your computer

            Dragging files to a folder in Google Drive for desktop automatically uploads them to Drive on the web (though it might take a moment for files to sync). For details, see Move files to folders.

            • Files with Sync  haven’t been uploaded to Drive yet.
            • Files with Done  have uploaded successfully and can be accessed from Drive in any browser or from any device with Drive installed.

            Pause syncing in Google Drive for Desktop

            If you pause synching in Drive for desktop, any changes to files are not uploaded. And, new versions of files made available offline won't be downloaded.

            1. Click the Drive for desktop Menu Drive File Stream.
            2. Click More More and then Pause syncing.

            To resume syncing, click More More and then Resume syncing.

            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
            Learn how:

            Create a workspace and add files

            1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
            2. On the left, click Workspaces and then Create Workspace.
              • Enter a name for the workspace and click Create.
            3. Click Add files.
            4. On the right, under Add to Workspace, choose where you want to add files from.
              • You can add from Recent, My Drive, and Shared Drives.
            5. Find the files you want to add and select them.
            6. Click Insert and then Done.

            Add a single file to a workspace

            1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
            2. Find the file you like to add.
            3. Right-click the file you like to add.
            4. Select Organize and then Add to Workspace and then Name of workspace.

            Star important files or folders

            1. Right-click a file or folder.
            2. Select Organizeand thenAdd to Starred.
            3. (Optional) To see all your starred files and folders, on the side, click Starred.

            Color-code a Drive folder

            1. Right-click a folder.
            2. Click Organize and choose a folder color. 

            Find files and folders with shortcuts

            Learn how:

            Create shortcuts

            1. On your computer, go to Google Drive.
            2. Right click on a file or folder.
            3.  Click Organize > Add shortcut .

            Notes:

            • If you create a shortcut in a folder that’s owned by someone else, you can’t delete the shortcut.
            • You can't create a shortcut of a shortcut, but you can make a copy of it.

            Delete shortcuts

            1. In your browser, go to Google Drive.
            2. Right click the shortcut you want to remove.
            3. Click Move to trash .
            4. To permanently remove the shortcut, delete it from your trash.
              1. On the left, click Trash.
              2. Right click the shortcut you want to delete and then  Delete forever  Trash.

            Note: Deleting a shortcut does not delete the original file or folder the shortcut is based on. The original file or folder can only be deleted by the owner.

            Fix broken shortcuts

            A shortcut will break if:

            • You don’t have permission to open the original file.
            • The original file is in the trash.
            • The original file is deleted.

            To fix the broken shortcut, try to restore the original file, or ask the owner for permission to open the file.

            Search for image files by description

            Learn how:

            Find image files or search for text inside PDFs and images

            In Drive, just type the text you want to search for in the search box.

            Set up offline access for files in Drive

            Learn how:

            Before you turn on offline access

            • You must be connected to the internet.
            • You must use the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser.
            • Don't use private browsing.
            • Install and turn on Google Docs Offline Chrome extension.
            • Make sure you have enough available space on your device to save your files.

            Turn on offline access to recent files

            1. Open Google Drive.
            2. At the top right, click Settings Settings and then Settings.
            3. Turn on Offline setting. 
              1. If you are using Microsoft Edge, you will be redirected to the Chrome Web Store to download the Google Docs Offline extension.
            4. To work offline, open Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. 

            Make specific files available for offline editing

            1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
            2. Right click the Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file you want to save offline.
            3. Click Make available offline Ready for offline.

            To save multiple files offline, press Shift or Command (Mac)/Ctrl (Windows) while you click other files.

            If you need access to many of your Drive files, you might want to set up Drive for desktop instead.

            What happens to my offline changes?

            If you edit a file offline:

            • Changes are implemented when you’re back online.
            • New changes overwrite previous changes.
            • You can find edits in the file’s version history.

            Set an expiration date for file access

            Learn how:

            Add, change, or delete an expiration date

            1. Open a file in Google Drive.
            2. Click Share.
            3. Find the user and next to the user's name, click the Down arrow Downand thenAdd expiration.
            4. To accept the 30-day expiration date, click Send.
            5. If you want to change the default expiration date, for Access expires, click Edit  and select the expiration date from the calendar.
            6. (Optional) To remove the expiration, click Remove expiration.
            7. Click Doneand thenSend.


            Was this article helpful?

            That’s Great!

            Thank you for your feedback

            Sorry! We couldn't be helpful

            Thank you for your feedback

            Let us know how can we improve this article!

            Select at least one of the reasons
            CAPTCHA verification is required.

            Feedback sent

            We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article

            Preview
            0 of 0