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Public‎ > ‎Desktop/Laptop‎ > ‎Google at WFU‎ > ‎

Google Drive

(Answers to the questions below are mostly quotes from the Google Help pages)

What is Google Drive?

Think of Google Drive as your personal stash of files and folders that follows you wherever you go - it lets you keep everything and share anything. With Google Drive, you can access files, folders, and Google Docs from a web browser or any device where you've installed your Google Drive.

Your Google Drive is in the cloud, but you can also install the desktop and mobile application to access your files from your computer, smartphone, tablet, or other Android or iOS mobile device, in addition to the online interface at drive.google.com. Google Drive's built-in sync capability ensures that your files, folders, and Google Docs are the same on all your devices.

How is Google Drive different from Google Docs?

Google Docs refers to the editors for Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms. These are online documents that live in the cloud and provide real-time collaboration features.

Google Drive is the place to access all your files, including both Google Docs and local files that you sync to the cloud. Google Drive replaces and enhances what you've previously known as the Google Documents List.

Users can access Google Drive in their web browser and can also download the Drive application to their Mac, PC, Android or iOS devices to seamlessly access files across any of these devices. Each user will have 5GB of included storage space for their Google Drive. Documents in the Google Document format do not count against this 5GB quota.

The Google Drive online interface looks similar to the Google Documents List you're used to, with a few key differences:

  • Collections are now called Folders.

  • When you first switch to Google Drive, a new folder called My Drive contains:

    • Documents that you own or have previously uploaded
    • Folders you own and the items contained within (regardless of ownership)

    Note that only items contained in My Drive are synced to your computer and other devices. If you want to sync items from Google Drive on the web that aren't contained in My Drive by default, just drag them to My Drive.

  • Other items that would have previously appeared in the Home view can easily be found elsewhere. You can choose different views and filters to see recently opened documents, starred items, documents that have been shared with you, items owned by a particular person, files of a particular type, and more.

  • You'll have powerful new options to search, sort, or preview your files before opening them.



Is Google Drive available for the wfu.edu domain?

Google Drive will become available to our users on an opt-in basis over the next several weeks.  Because Google Drive is gradually rolled out, some users may not be able to get started immediately, but they can request to be notified when Google Drive is ready for them to opt in (at https://drive.google.com/start).

In the coming months, Google Drive will become the default and will replace the Google Documents List as the way for users to access their files and documents.

Google Drive Help pages:



10/24/2012


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