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HOW I USE...
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WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE IN GOOGLE DRIVENext issue: How I use... ImageMagickExcel – all without me ever opening
the latter.
Converting between file formats
is easy. With an Office file open in
Google Drive, I click File, then ‘Save as
Google’. That creates a duplicate file
in Google’s own format. That’s handy,
but it’s more useful that Google can
convert its own files to Office. It
means I can create a Google Doc,
say, and easily share it as a Word
document, having never actually
opened Word.
There are two ways of doing
this. First, I open a file, click File,
Download, then select the format
I want. In our screenshot I’m
converting a Google Sheet into an
Excel spreadsheet. Alternatively, I can
select one or more files, then right-
click them and select Download. This
automatically converts all Google files
into Office versions. If I select multiple
files, Google Drive even bundles them
into an archive for me.8 – 21 June 2022 • Issue 633If Google can convert Office files in the
ways I’ve described, and let me edit them,
why can’t it also let me create them fromscratch? From a legal perspective (ie,
licensing the software) I can’t see the
difference. That would save a lot of clicks.David can
easily convert
Google
Sheets
into Excel
spreadsheetsMicrosoft Office remains stubbornly
popular, though I’d argue it’s got worse
over the years. Then again, I still use it,
paying an annual subscription to Office
365, so I end up giving Microsoft
money no matter how much (or
increasingly how little) I use it.
For my job, I find Google Drive
a much better choice. I don’t have
to remember to save files manually
because every change is automatically
saved online, and I can access files
from any device, share them with other
people and collaborate on documents.
Google Drive is completely free (up to
15GB) with a Google Account.
The default way of using it is
through a web browser at https://drive.
google.com. It works much like File
Explorer: you can create folders and
Google files (Sheets, Docs and Slides),
although you can also upload any file
type. If I’ve just downloaded a file that
I want to store online, I find it easiest
to drag and drop it into the Google
Drive browser window to upload it
automatically. I also use the Google
Drive app for Windows (www.snipca.
com/41976). This new version creates a
virtual drive that holds the contents of
my entire drive, so I can drag and drop
files into this and create folders.
By default, the app ‘streams’ files,
which means that they’re not actually
stored on my computer, but are just
shortcuts. Unlike Microsoft, Google
doesn’t have offline versions of its
office tools, but you can activate anoffline mode (for Chrome and Edge) –
just click the Settings cog and tick the
box in the Offline section. This lets me
access files I’ve recently opened even
when I’m not connected to the web.
All this is great, but sometimes I need
to submit work as Word documents,
which means I need to perform some
clever conversion tricks in Google Drive.
Once I’ve uploaded a Microsoft Office
file, I right-click it and select ‘Open with’
then click the name of the related Google
app: Docs for Word files, Sheets for
Excel, and Slides for PowerPoint.
Google opens the file in the app that I
want, but keeps it in the original Office
format. That means I can make edits in
Sheets that are automatically saved inTired of paying Microsoft for an Office subscription, David Ludlow switched to
an online rival with clever conversion tricks
Google Drive