Google Drive

GoogleDrive allows you to create documents, presentations, and forms online so that you and collaborators can access them from anywhere. So it's a great tool for sharing work, but also an easy one to use when you're changing locations (school to home, for example). Documents can be edited simultaneously from multiple locations by multiple users. You'll see real-time changes, as well as notifications when someone is working on the document.

Using GoogleDrive is simple. It's very similar to Office. Follow the tips below.

To begin, click on Create New and choose either Docs (like Word), Slides (like PowerPoint) , Sheets (like Excel), Form (surveys and polls), or Folder.

Docs

The buttons on the toolbar are very similar to Word. Take a couple of minutes to become familiar with them. Some things that are different:

  1. The Insert option lets you insert many things, including formulas. This is much easier than in Word.
  2. If you View, Fixed Width Page you'll see how the document will look once printed.
  3. To work with someone else, click on Share, Invite Someone and type in their email address. Your invitee will then receive an invitation to view the document in their GoogleDocs account.

Slides

  1. In Format, Presentations, you can change the background.
  2. Look at the Insert option in the toolbar to insert images, video, charts, shapes, etc.
  3. To change slide order, just click and pull on slides in the left side toolbar to exchange places.
  4. To work with someone else, click on Share, Invite Someone and type in their email address. Your invitee will then receive an invitation to view the document in their GoogleDocs account.

20 Cool Tips About GooleDocs Every Student Should Know (courtesy of EdGalaxy.com)

Allow editing without signing in: If you’re sharing a document with classmates who don’t have a Google login, just make it available to edit without signing in.

Chat away: In Google Docs, you can see anyone who is currently editing the document, and if needed, send a message to chat with them.

Embed Docs anywhere: Get a link to your document or spreadsheet, and you can embed or publish it anywhere, including Facebook or a class blog.

Insert facts: Using Google Spreadsheet, it’s easy to insert facts, like a countries’ population, which is simply pulled through the Google search engine.

Create graphs: Visuals are great tools for getting your point across. Using charts in Google Spreadsheets, you can create your very own information-sharing graphs.

Create forms: Gather research information; ask for opinions, and more by creating Forms in Google Docs.

Convert PDFs to images and text: Use Google Docs to make PDFs easily editable.

Save to different file types: You can easily save your documents and spreadsheets to commonly used file types like DOC, XLS, CSV, and HTML.

Automatically add email addresses: If you have Google Apps, the email addresses of the people who fill out the form will automatically be saved.

Hide chat: Keep everyone quiet during your presentation by clicking the left side of the chat module.

Track edits and changes: In Google Docs you can go back and forth between edits that you or collaborators made.

Remove collaborators: If you want to take someone off a project, click none next to the name of the person you want to remove.

Turn it into a webpage: Download your document in HTML, and you can share it as a webpage with a minimal amount of hassle. A great starting point for students wishing to create a website.

Change ownership: Switch ownership of Google docs as project leaders change. You might need to transfer ownership of a document to a staff member or student. It’s easy.

Share an entire folder: If you’ve got a collection of documents to work on together with students or staff, just open up a shared folder that everyone can access and contribute to.

Adding video: Remember Google owns YouTube, so they know video. You can embed video in documents, slides, and more to dress up your presentation.

Track visits: Using Google Analytics, you can track how much traffic a published document is receiving. This is really useful if you need feedback on whether your audience is actually getting involved.

Revert back to old versions: If your group doesn’t like a certain set of changes made, it’s very simple just to revert back to automatically save previous versions in the revision history.

Get Google Drive – Google Drive is the central place to manage all of your online profile with Google and syncs with a number of devices.