Google Drive: Docs, Slides, & Sheets

Carly Addison

West Boca Branch Library

Google Drive: Docs, Slides, & SheetsWhat is Google Drive?

• Google Drive is a cloud-based document storage and synchronization app provided for free by Google with the creation of a Google Mail account.

• You can store documents, pictures, videos, and pretty much anything else you can upload as long as you stay within your allotted storage limit of 15 GB.

• Larger storage capacity may be purchased.

What comes with Google Drive?

• Google Docs is Google’s word processing program. It has many features similar to Microsoft Word.

• Google Slides is Google’s presentation creation program. Much like Microsoft PowerPoint, you can create slide shows to share at presentations and meetings.

• Google Sheets is a spreadsheet program provided by Google. It functions similarly to Microsoft Excel.

What cloud-based document storage can do for you:

• Google Drive’s cloud-based service means that the files can be accessed on any device with internet.

• The files can also be shared, edited, and sent back very easily.

• The files may also be edited simultaneously by multiple people in different places.

Accessing Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

• Google Docs: http://docs.google.com/document

• Google Sheets: http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets

• Google Slides: http://docs.google.com/presentation

Google Drive: Getting Started

Accessing Google DriveGoogle Drive: http://drive.google.comFind all of the files you have created in one place (including Docs, Sheets, Slides, and files you have uploaded to Drive). You can also create new blank documents, spreadsheets, or slideshows from the Google Drive page.

Navigation PaneThe navigation pane allows you to organize and locate files you have created or uploaded to your Google Drive. You can arrange files within folders, easily find files that were shared with you from other people’s Drive accounts, recently-opened files, or files you have starred for quick and easy access, view your Google Photos, or look at items in your trash (files you have deleted).

The New button allows you to perform simple tasks from within the main Drive window. You can make new folders within your Drive, upload a file or folder from your computer, or create a new Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file.

Google Docs: Menus & Toolbars

Title

• Displays the name of the document. Click on the title to change it.

Toolbar

• The toolbar has buttons that help you format text and change the look of your document.

Status

• The status indicates when the document is finished saving (all documents save automatically as you work) or when it was last edited.

Menus

• The menus contain all of the commands that help you work with your document:• File: Open or create new documents, download as Word document, page setup,

print

• Edit: Undo/redo, copy/paste, find in page

• View: Change what is shown on your screen, make the window full screen

• Insert: Add images, tables, special characters, special sections like header/footer

• Format: Change the appearance of text or images in your document

• Tools: Check spelling, word count, translate into another language

• Table: Create and work with tables inserted into your document

• Add-ons: Manage optional extensions you can add to your Docs services

Help

• Search for help topics, view keyboard shortcut list

Share your file

• The sharing tools allow you to share your documents with other people, make comments in the margins, and work collaboratively with others on the same document.

Google Docs: Using & Uploading

Uploading Files

You can upload files from your computer to Google Drive by clicking the New button and selecting either File upload or Folder upload (for an entire folder full of files at once). This will pop up a menu that allows you to browse your computer and identify the files you wish to upload. You can also upload files by dragging and dropping them from your computer’s file explorer into the main Google Drive window.

Get a link to that file that you can send

A new set of buttons will appear in the toolbar when you select a file.Many of these functions can also be achieved by right-clicking the file in your Drive. Manage sharing

Preview the file

Delete the file

Converting FilesMicrosoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents cannot be edited in Google Drive unless you convert them to a Google format. Select the Open with button from the preview window, right-click menu, or button in the toolbar. This will create a new version of the file in an editable format

Google Docs: Using & Uploading

Entering text

Typing will enter text at the flashing cursor. You can format the text using the toolbars at the top (go back two pages for a more detailed description of what’s on the toolbars).

If there is another person in the document, a colored marker will show where they are working. Look for the green marker in the picture below.

Document Outline

Google Sheets: Menus & Toolbars

Document title

• Displays the name of the document. Click on the title to rename.

Toolbar

• The toolbar has buttons that help you format text and change the look of your document.

• It also has buttons to help you format the data in your cells

Status

• The status indicates when the document is finished saving (all documents save automatically as you work) or when it was last edited.

Menus

• The menus contain all of the commands that help you work with your document:

• File: Open or create new documents, download as Word document, page setup, print

• Edit: Undo/redo, copy/paste, find in page

• View: Change what is shown on your screen, make the window full screen

• Insert: Add images, tables, special characters, special sections like header/footer

• Format: Change the appearance of text in your document

• Data: Organize and format the data that you’ve input

• Tools: Check spelling, word count, translate into another language

• Add-ons: Manage optional extensions you can add to your Docs services

Share your file

• The sharing tools allow you to share your documents with other people, make comments in the margins, and work collaboratively with others on the same document.

Google Sheets: Inputting Data

• The formula bar is the text field at the top where you type to insert data into the selected cell.

• Vertical columns are designated by letters of the alphabet.

• Horizontal rows are designated by numbers.

• Cells are the intersection of a column and a row.

• Cells are identified by their location— always column (letter) first, then row (number), i.e. cell B6 or A12.

• Cells are where you enter date. Data is information entered into the spreadsheet. It can be text, values (numbers), or special functions.

• Sheets are indicated by the tabs at the bottom of the window. Each sheet has its own data and formatting.

Google Sheets: Inputting Data

Entering text

To enter data, click on the cell you want. After clicking, a blue outline will appear, like on cell D3 in the picture above, marking it as the active cell. To make Sheets accept the data entered in a cell, you must either press the Enter key (to move to the next cell down), the Tab key (to move to the next cell over), or click on a cell other than the one into which you are entering data.

To change the data in a cell, select it. If you wish to completely replace what is currently in the cell, just start typing. If you want to edit the existing text without deleting it, you must click in the formula bar or press the Enter key first. To delete all data in a cell, click on it, then press the Backspace key.

If there is another person in the document, a colored marker will show where they are working. In the picture above, the other collaborator is in cell A5, marked by a green box.

Active cell data is also displayed in the formula bar above the sheet and can be edited there as well.

Formula Bar

Google Sheets: Inputting Data

Selecting cells

If you wish to change the formatting of one or more cells, you must first select them. Select a single cell by clicking on it. Select multiple cells by either:

• clicking one corner of the group you wish to select, then holding down the mouse button while dragging to the opposite corner of that group (all the cells will then be highlighted), or

• clicking the row or column letter at the edge to select that entire row or column (click and drag to select multiple rows/columns), or

• holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the cells you want.

Inserting & deleting columns or rows

To insert a new row or column of cells between two existing rows or columns, right-click (two-finger click on trackpads) on one of the row or column labels adjacent to where you want the new one. A pop-up menu will give you the option to Insert 1 left or Insert 1 right (for columns) or Insert 1 above or Insert 1 below (for rows). To delete an entire row or column, right-click on its label, and select Delete row or column.

Google Sheets: Inputting Data

Resizing Columns and Rows

• To make a row taller/shorter or make a column wider/narrower, put your mouse pointer over the line at the edge of it until the pointer looks like into two connected arrows pointing in opposite directions (see below). Then click and drag to change the size.

• You can also do this by right clicking the row or column you want to resize, clicking “Resize row” or “Resize column and then inputting the height that you want the row or column to be.

Merging cells

• To connect two or more cells to each other while leaving the adjacent rows and columns unaffected, you can merge them. Select the cells you want to merge (they must be beside or above/below each other), then click the Merge button (seen above). Note: if you have text in more than one of the cells, only the first cell’s text will remain after merging.

Google Slides: Menus & Toolbars

The layout of the Google Sheets editing window will look somewhat familiar to you after working with Docs. You can create a new presentation from the Slides main page, and you’ll be able to identify the menu and toolbars that are similar to those in Docs. Slides is meant for creating presentations, so the window has additional options.

Slides menus

While many of the menus in Slides should be familiar, there are some new menus and tools to consider:

• The View menu lets you view your presentation as a slideshow and modify the transition animations between slides.

• The Insert menu has more options, including video, text boxes, and shapes.

• The Slide menu lets you create new slides, duplicate existing slides, delete slides, and modify the layout and themes of your slides.

• The Arrange menu helps you make your slides look visually appealing by allowing you to group items, center them, and put certain things in front of or behind others.

Google Slides: Making your slides

Areas of the slide editing window

• List of slides are the slides you’ve created for your presentation. You can click to view the slides, or drag and drop the slides to rearrange them

• Your Current Slide is the slide you’re editing.

• Themes can make your presentation more visually interesting

• Notes down at the bottom can be used to remind yourself of key points to mention during your presentation.

• The Present button will begin your slideshow, making it full screen for your audience to view. When you are ready to present, click the triangle beside the Present button and select the Present with speaker notes option. A window will pop up that allows you to view your notes and control the slideshow, while the main window can be shown on a projector (how to do this varies by projector and computer).

Google Slides: Making your slides

To add more slides, click the new slide button. Clicking the + will add another slide like the one you’re working on. Clicking the triangle beside it will show a menu with different layouts of slides you can choose from.

The Background button lets you select a color or an image for the background of the slide you’re working on. Layout will give you preset options for where text boxes, titles, and images appear. Theme pops up a sidebar with different options for themes that can make your slideshow look more professional.

You can easily insert text boxes, images, shapes, or lines to your slide with buttons on the toolbar. Once you have inserted an object, click on it to pull up extra options in the toolbar to modify it, or click and drag to move it around the page.

The Transition button allows you to customize how your presentation looks when you are showing it. You can change the animations that happen when you are changing from slide to slide (and the duration of these transitions). If you click on an object on a slide, you can also manage its animation in the same side window, making it fade in after that slide opens, appear when you click on the slide, and more.

Downloading and Emailing Your Files

Downloading your document

Since documents save to Google Drive automatically, you don’t have to worry about losing them when you exit. However, you can also download your document in Microsoft Office formats (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) or .pdf (an uneditableformat that is more like an image of your document) to view offline, save to a flash drive, or upload to a website.

To download, click the File menu and select Download as, which will pop out a sub-menu giving you file format options. The file will then download to your computer (files in Chrome automatically save to your Downloads folder). You can open the downloaded file by clicking on the button at the bottom of the screen, or view it in its folder by clicking the small arrow to the right of that button.

Emailing documents as attachments

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are integrated with Gmail, so you can send documents as file attachments from inside the editing windows. Click the File menu and select Email as attachment, and a window will pop up allowing you to select what format to send the file in, and enter the email address, subject, and message just like a regular email.

Sharing your filesSharing your files

You can also share your documents with others so that they can view and/or edit them online with Google Drive. Clicking the blue Share button in the top right corner of the window will open your sharing options. Enter the email address of the person/people you want to share with, select the level of permission you want them to have (editing, commenting only, or viewing only), and click the blue Done button.

If you want to create a shareable link you can give people to allow them to access the document, click Get link, which creates a link you can copy and paste elsewhere, and lets you select the permission level for people who have the link (remember to only give editing permissions to people you trust!). Click the “Change” button at the bottom left of the “Get link” window to modify permissions.

Collaborating on your filesCommenting

Once you share your document with someone, they can edit it and add comments if you’ve given them that permission. To add a comment, right click, select “comment,” and then type your comment to send to the other person. Comments are usually used to point out errors or make suggestions. You can see all comments made on a document by clicking “Open comment history” next to the Share button.

Collaborators

The icons of the people you are collaborating with will appear at the top of your screen next to the Share and Comment History buttons. If they are not signed into a Google account, they will appear as “Anonymous [insert noun here].” Below, see an example of someone who is signed in on the left and someone who is not signed in on the right. Remember to only give editing permissions to people you trust!

More ResourcesGoogle Workspace Learning Center: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/10005650?visit_id=637043690382956541-2400917570&hl=en&rd=1

Google Drive: The 2021 Definitive Guide: https://www.dragapp.com/blog/google-drive-definitive-guide/

How To Use Google Drive: A Tutorial For Teachers:

https://www.teachthought.com/technology/how-to-create-a-google-drive-classroom/

Thank you for attending!In accordance with the provisions of the ADA, this document may be requested in an alternate format.

Created 4/11/21