Guy Hart-Davis - Teach Yourself VISUALLY Google Workspace

You can access your Google Drive storage through your web browser on your PC, Mac, or Chromebook; Chrome OS devices also have direct access to Google Drive through the Files app. On Android and iOS, the Google Workspace mobile apps can work directly with your Google Drive files — meaning you do not need to use a browser; you can also install the Google Drive app on your device.

Open and Explore Google Drive

After signing in to your Google Workspace account, click Google apps( ).

The Google Apps panel opens.

Click Drive( ).

Note: If you open the Google Apps panel and click Drive( ) in a new tab, Google Drive opens in the same tab. But if you open the panel and click Drive( ) in a tab containing a Google app, Google Drive opens in a new tab.

Google Drive opens.

The My Drive category ( ) is selected at first.

The Quick Access section provides links to files you have used recently.

Click Priority( ).

The Priority category appears.

The Priority section shows documents you can open.

The Workspaces section shows different workspaces available to you.

You can click Createto create a new workspace.

Google Drive may suggest a workspace based on files you edit often. Click Save, which appears at the bottom of the Suggested Workspace box, if you want to save the workspace.

Note:See the section “ Streamline Your Work with Workspaces,” later in this chapter, for details on using workspaces.

Click Shared drives( ).

The Shared Drives category appears.

The Shared Drives list shows the shared drives available to you.

You can click Hidden shared drivesto display the Hidden Shared Drives list.

Click Expand( ).

Note: You can double-click Shared drives( ) to display the Shared Drives category and expand its contents to the level at which they were previously displayed.

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What uses my Google Drive storage space?

Any files you upload to Google Drive will use an amount of storage proportional to their size.

Files you have sent or received as attachments in Gmail also occupy Google Drive storage, even though you cannot access these files directly from Google Drive.

Documents stored in Google apps formats, such as documents in Google Docs format or presentations in Google Slides format, do not count against your storage usage. But if you export such a document to a non-Google format and save the exported document in Google Drive, it will count against your storage.

Any media files you store in Google Photos on the Original Quality setting will also use Google Drive storage.

The Google Workspace apps are built on the Google Drive platform and automatically use Google Drive for storing files. Google Drive is the backbone for sharing and collaborating on Google Workspace documents with people both inside and outside your Google Workspace organization.

If you need to work with files on Google Drive as if they were on your Windows PC or Mac, you can use Google Drive for Desktop to integrate Google Drive into File Explorer on Windows or the Finder on macOS. See the section “Using Google Drive for Desktop” in Chapter 6, “Share and Collaborate on Files,” for information on Google Drive for Desktop.

The shared drives appear.

Click Expand( ).