How to use Google Drive for collaboration

                          

Many people think about Google Drive as cloud storage and adjust service, and it's that — however, it additionally encompasses a set of online workplace apps that are comparable Microsoft workplace. Google Docs (the word processor), Google Sheets (the computer program app) and Google Slides (the presentation app) will import, export, or natively edit Microsoft workplace files, and you'll be able to use them to figure in conjunction with colleagues on a document, computer program or presentation, in real time if you would like.

With a Google Account, people get free use of Docs, Sheets and Slides and up to 15GB of free Google Drive storage. those that want a lot of storage will upgrade to a Google One arrange to begin at $2 per month.
Businesses will choose Drive Enterprise, that additionally includes Docs, Sheets, and Slides furthermore as business-friendly options together with shared drives, enterprise-grade security, and integration with third-party tools like Slack and Salesforce. Drive Enterprise prices $8 per active user per month, plus $.04 per GB used.

Finally, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides are a part of the company's G Suite workplace suite, together with varied alternative communications tools together with Gmail, Google Calendar, Hangouts Meet, and Hangouts Chat, and security and administration tools. G Suite setups vary from $6/user/month for the fundamental set up with 30GB of storage to $25/user/month for the Enterprise plan with unlimited storage and advanced administration, security and e-discovery tools.

The G Suite and Drive Enterprise versions of Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides are largely clones of their free counterparts however with a couple of additional options for the business atmosphere. Whichever version you are victimization, here are the necessities to grasp so as to effectively use Drive and its connected apps to collaborate.


Most of this text is regarding sharing and collaborating via My Drive, the drive controlled by individual users whether or not they use Google Drive through a private Google account, G Suite account or a Drive Enterprise account. an area at the tip covers Team Drives, shared drives that square measure offered solely through Drive Enterprise and G Suite Business, Enterprise and Education accounts.

Sharing and access choices

Google Drive offers you fine-tuned management over the World Health Organization will see your files and what they'll do with them.

Public vs. personal sharing

There square measure 2 ways in which you'll be able to share a Google Drive document, computer program or presentation with others. (For simplicity’s sake we’ll simply say “document” from currently on, however, identical steps apply to spreadsheets and shows.)

Publicly: Anyone will access your document by clicking a link thereto. No sign-in is needed. you'll be able to offer out this link to anyone or publish the link on an internet site or message board.

Privately: You enter the associate degree email address for every collaborator. Google Drive can email every person a link. solely the people that receive the e-mail will click the link to access your document.

To edit or inquire into a personal document, your collaborators should have a Google account. If any of your collaborators already features a Gmail account, then they will directly collaborate as long as they’re signed into their account. Anyone WHO doesn’t can ought to register for a user account employing a current email address, which does not get to be a Gmail one.

Viewing vs. commenting vs. editing
Regardless of whether or not you in public or in private share a document, {you will|you'll|you'll be able to} opt for one in all 3 ways on however others can move with it.

View: Others can solely be ready to scroll through and skim your document.

Comment: Others are ready to add comments however not amendment the body of the document.
Edit: Others are ready to really edit the document (change text, add images, etc.) and share the file with others.

You can mix the sharing and interaction choices any manner you decide on — for example, you'll be able to share a document in public and grant read permissions solely, otherwise, you will share it in private and grant comment permissions. With non-public sharing, you'll be able to provide some folks read permissions and let others comment or edit the document.

Less common eventualities ar public sharing with commenting or writing enabled. Why would you ever wish to in public share a document and let anyone touch upon it? perhaps, as an example, you would like to collect opinions a couple of rough draft of a presentation. therefore you share a public link to that on a message board for colleagues in your line of labor, tantalizing them to comment.

As for why you'd permit public writing access, a plausible state of affairs may well be if a collaborator you recognize doesn’t want to register their email address with Google for a few reasons. while not a Google account, they can’t be granted non-public access. beneath this circumstance, you ought to solely change public access to edit at the time once this person is online to edit your document. As presently as they're finished, you ought to disable public access with edit capabilities.

How to share with Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides mobile apps

To share a record from the mobile app model of Google Drive, faucet the three dots to the best of the file name. From the panel that slides up, you'll be able to faucet “Share” to share privately; that brings up a screen the place you'll be able to ship electronic mail invitations and set enhancing permissions simply as with the Google Drive internet app.

For public sharing, when the three-dot menu slides up, faucet “Link-sharing” (in Android) or “Link-sharing off” (in iOS) to activate link sharing for the record. When you accomplish that, a web-based link on your record is copied on your phone’s reminiscence; you'll be able to paste it into an electronic mail, as an example, to share it with others.
When you are on the home display screen within the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides cell apps, the sharing steps are mainly similar as within the Google Drive app. When you have a report, spreadsheet or presentation open in its respective cell app, the “Share” icon for personal sharing is positioned at the upper-right. To share as a public link, tap the three-dot icon within the upper-right corner, and faucet “Share & export” from the panel that looks.

Sharing status

When a report on your My Drive web page is ready as shared, it is going to have an icon of two silhouetted heads to the best of its document title to indicate this status.
(An oversight on the part of the Google Drive builders: If you've got your My Drive web page set to grid view, which displays your files and folders as thumbnails, this icon gained’t seem over the thumbnail of a shared document.)

What for those who’re on the receiving finish: Someone has shared a report with you to collaborate on? Along the left aspect of your My Drive web page, clicking “Shared with me” will show you a listing of files that others have shared with you.

The cellular apps use the same silhouetted heads icon to indicate a shared document and the same “Shared with me” link to turn you files others have shared with you.

How to collaborate on a report

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides be offering a few other ways for other folks to paintings together: comments, direct edits, and instructed edits, with a few extras thrown in for real-time collaboration.

To add and evaluate comments

Anyone who’s been granted comment or edit permissions can add comments to a report. Set the cursor within the report where you need to insert a comment. Alternately, you'll spotlight textual content or a picture. Then, click on the black conversation icon on the toolbar above the report.


A panel will open at the lower-right corner, within which you'll be able to sort your remark.

Comment playing cards created by way of you and your collaborators appear alongside the proper aspect of the report.

Clicking the grey Comments button at the upper-right corner will open a panelist all of the feedback made by way of you and your collaborators. You can scroll through them, and you and your collaborators can reply to each one with a brief message.

The cell apps additionally permit you to add and assessment feedback. With a report open, click on the pencil icon in the lower-right corner. Put your cursor the place you need to insert the remark, tap the + icon on the toolbar at the most sensible of the display screen and choose Comment from the panel that slides up. Type to your remark, then, in Android, tap the Comment button to insert it; in iOS, tap the check mark to insert it. To assessment, all of the feedback in a report, tap the grey Comments icon.

To make direct edits

Anyone who’s been granted edit permissions can directly edit the record. As you’d be expecting, you can merely insert your cursor, then upload or revise textual content, insert pictures and so forth. (In the cell apps, tap the pencil icon within the lower-right nook to go into enhancing mode.)

With multiple other folks enhancing the same file, on the other hand, it may be tricky to keep observe of who’s completed what. That’s where model history comes in. If you’re away when a collaborator makes adjustments for your record, the next time you open it, a standing line above the toolbar will inform you how long ago the last edit was made and by whom.
If you click this standing sentence, you will be taken to a display screen showing a listing (at the appropriate aspect of the display screen) of older variations of your record. The access for each model states the date and time when the revision was made and through which collaborator. The textual content or pictures that a collaborator added can be highlighted in a color that matches the color next to their title on this access.



You can also get right of entry to this archive of older versions from the primary report viewing window by way of clicking File > Version historical past > See model historical past.


Click some of the dates, and the model of your report that was saved at that marked time will show in the primary window. (If you wish to have to provide an older model a novel identity, click on its date. You’ll be prompted to type in words to exchange the date.)

To repair an older model so it becomes the one that you and your collaborators will work on together, click the big, blue “Restore this model” button on the best of the display. (The final model you had been running on will then be indexed on the best of the “Version historical past” record.)