Google Drive, is a web-based cloud storage platform. This allows you to use a small portion of Google's servers to manage files that are not on your physical computer. Drive is used via the website so no software installations are required. If you're logged into gmail, you should see a small set of nine boxes in a grid toward the upper right side. This is the Google Applications menu. Select drive, and you'll get a new tab with the contents of your google drive account. The two categories that files fall under, are "My Drive", and "Shared with me". Shared files will be gone over in a subsequent article, as it's a large subject. "My Drive" is a listing of files and folders that you have either uploaded, or created within drive. There are several file types that can be stored in Google drive.
- Documents
- Spreadsheets
- Images/pictures
- PDF documents
- videos
There are four primary types of documents that can be created from within Google Drive
- Documents (Docs)
- Spreadsheets (Sheets)
- Presentations (Slides)
- Forms (Forms)
Google Drive's benefits to you; is that the files you create, are accessable across any machine that you sign into. All work gets backed up, six seconds after the last change. Drive also works on any computer that has a modern web browser.