Yes! Once you have access to Google Workspace, you will have access to Gmail for work mail and Google Calendar for your scheduling needs. You will also have access to Google Docs (Google’s equivalent to Microsoft Word), Google Sheets (Google’s answer to Microsoft Excel) and Google Slides (Google’s version of Microsoft Powerpoint). As part of our transition to Google we will offer training on Docs, Sheets and Slides so that you can gain hands-on experience with the real-time collaborative features and benefits of these tools.

We also encourage you to explore Google Docs, Sheets and Slides on your own. Our goal is to significantly reduce the number of Microsoft Office licenses in our environment.

If you look in the upper left corner of Drive, Shared Drives will be listed below My Drive.

To see a list of the most common file types that you can view in Google Drive (including information about limitations in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides), click here. (When accessing Google Support pages, please note that the link opens in a new tab. To return to the Going Google Site, return to this tab.)

No, if you go into settings and choose to automatically convert, you can upload directly to the Google version and bypass the Microsoft file in Drive.

From the email message, if you hover your mouse over the attachment, you'll see a few options 1) Edit in My Drive 2) Add to My Drive 3) Download. If you click directly on it, you'll get the preview. If you select Add to My Drive, it will add it to your Drive.

Google has done a great job with file conversions. Links, content, and data are all maintained when converting to Microsoft. There are some spreadsheet formulas that are different so definitely review complicated and nested formulas when converting back and forth. Click here if you'd like to learn more about converting files.

Changes you make to the documents are automatically saved. You will see that status at the top of your document; “All changes saved…”

Autosave is part of working in Google. You still have undo and redo buttons or the ability to restore past versions of a file.

Revision history is available to all editors. Editors have nearly co-ownership permissions. The only 2 things that an owner can do that an editor cannot is check a box to prevent editors from providing access to others or to prevent downloading and copying of the file.

If you want to share a single file, click on the file and “Share” either within the document or from the Drive file listing by clicking on the share icon. If you share with someone outside of our company, you can enter their email address and they will receive an email alert. If their address isn’t linked to a Google account, they will be prompted to enter a pin. More details can be found here.

As another option, from the Drive file listing, you can select the file, and click on the link icon to “Get shareable link”. This link can be sent to someone to access the file.

Once shared, you can remove any sharing you have enabled.

If a user has been given edit permissions, all of the same features will exist and all changes will be tracked.

If you use the @name feature and tag a collaborator, they will receive an email about your comment that will contain a direct link to open the file to the comment. If you do not tag someone with @name, they will only see the comment if they enter the file.

The person you shared a file with will receive an initial email. After that point, they can either do a Search in Drive or locate the file in the Shared with me folder in their Drive.

Yes, you can share a file or folder with a distribution list.

Yes. Another way to move a file is to drag and drop it into a folder. If you expand your left navigation to see the folder structure. You can also drag and drop the file into a folder in the Drive structure. If you are moving files to a Shared Drive, first check to make sure your permissions allow you to add content to the Shared Drive and that you are owner of the content you are trying to move.

When you select to "Add shortcut to Drive", there is still only 1 single source of truth and changes would be reflected regardless of how you access the file.

All files stored in a Shared Drive are owned by the company and therefore ownership does not need to be transferred if an employee's role changes.

For files that are created and owned in My Drive, there are 2 ways to transfer ownership of files. If someone is terminated or changes roles, an administrator can transfer multiple files and folders to a different employee. If you want to transfer ownership of just one file, the owner can do that. Where you have the ability to set the permission level - view, comment, or edit - there’s also an owner level that you can select.

To move content into a Shared Drive, first ensure that your Shared Drive permission allows you to add content to the Shared Drive. Second, you must be the owner of the file to be able to move it into Drive. To move the file either right click when viewing your files in list or grid view or drag and drop into your Shared Drive.