Organize your Google Drive in 2017

To celebrate the new year, WUSD EdTech will be sharing organizational tips throughout the month of January.  We've been using Google district-wide for 18 months and  there are over 500,000 files now stored in Google Drives! With that many files, you may be getting overwhelmed by your Google Drive.  Here's a few tips to help organize your Google Drive in the new year.

Google Drive Organization Tips

1. Create and Use Folders

Store your files in folders. With the collaborative nature of Google, you can easily share folders with your colleagues instead of sharing individual files. You can choose your folder structure and it's possible to have folders within folders. The keyboard shortcut Shift + Z, allows you to store the same file in multiple locations.

2. Color-code your Folders

Right click on a folder and you can go beyond gray and make it a color of your choice. Not only will this make 2017 more colorful, but makes those folders you always use easier to spot.  

3. Star Frequently-Used Files and/or Folders

Think of starring your files/folders similar to favoriting them.  When you star a file or folder, it will now appear under starred in your Google Drive.  This is great for files or folders that you use on a daily basis. No worries, it's not a permanent decision.  You can see a star next to the file name that operates as a toggle switch.  It the star is yellow, it will appear under starred. You can star folders by right-clicking on the folder name and you'll see an option to star.

4. Name your Files

This tip may sound obvious but you might be surprised. Go to your Google Drive and type "untitled" in the search bar. See how many files turn up! When you create a new file, get in the habit of naming the file before you begin work. 

Look for more organizational tips this month to get 2017 started off right, including how to better organize your Google Classroom files and integrate with Hapara Teacher Dashboard.  In the meantime, if there are files you can't find in Google Drive you can always use the advanced search feature within Drive.