Some Cool Google Drive Features

We always appreciate Google Drive for its simplicity and user friendly nature. But little do we know how much the Google Drive apps are actually power packed for further advanced use. There are quite a few impressive features in Google Drive which we usually overlook like Docs, Sheets and Slides.

Now there are some new features which are great time savers and they create documents with utmost perfection, enough to impress your boss, professors and colleagues.

Research Tools 

In this world text should be very interactive and readers mostly prefer having linking to related articles in any text. So citing sources or any academic paper is always very helpful and they provide a research opportunity too. Google Docs has two tools which simplify this task.

The Research tool adds a quick citation system and if you want to use it then click Tools >> Research. The keyboard shortcuts are CTRL+SHIFT-I on Mac and CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-I on a PC. When first opened the tool appears blank but it will begin to auto-suggest the research topics based on whatever your write. The tool features 7 search options: Everything (which conducts a Google search), Images, Scholar (which filters by academic resources), Quotes, Dictionary, Personal, and Tables.

You just need to click inside the box, select the search option and start typing to search. You can select the style of citation and Docs will insert a superscript numeral. It will be added as a note to the bottom of the page. The content is therefore provided in a right format and the in-text citation process becomes smoother.

There is another option called Power Linking. It's faster then the research tool if lots of links are to be added to any document. Highlight the target text and click Control-K. The search menu suggests a link and if you find the appropriate one just click it, insert and your task is done. You can also change the text in the search box to be more specific.

Sheets for surveys 

Google Sheets is fully packed to help you in your spreadsheets. You can create charts through these Sheets and that too very quickly. Select the Chart icon on the menu bar or choose Insert >> Chart. This brings in the chart editor box. In the Start tab you can then edit the range of cells and choose from a variety of layout settings. Click Insert to put the chart in your spreadsheet.

To do so, select the Chart icon on the menu bar or choose Insert > Chart. This will bring up the chart editor box. In the Start tab you can then edit the range of cells and choose from a variety of layout settings. It also suggests some recommended charts based on the type of data you have. If you don’t like any of those, select from the other options by clicking More. Click Insert to put the chart in your spreadsheet.



There is one more powerful feature in Google Sheets which enables to create a map out of location based data. The data needs to have specific locations in the cells in order. To Begin click on the Charts tab and select Map. Then choose GeoMap option. In the Customize tab you can change the colours which appear on your map.



Slides for group-work 

There is no template option like MS PowerPoint on Google Slides but it can make life easier if you are in a group project. You can also upload a PowerPoint file, convert it to a Slides presentation. To do that you just need to loacte the file, drag it into the Drive interface, select the box which converts the file. Once the Slides presentation is started you can invite others to view or edit it. You can also embed a presentation on a Google site. Select Insert >> Drive >> Presentation. If you want to insert your presentation in your personal or company website, go to File >> Publish to the web. Copy the HTML from the box 'Embed Code' and paste it into the HTML of your website. Click OK to ensure completion.

Hangouts 

If you are collaborating on a project then Hangouts allows you to have a video chat while editing a file. Launch a video hangout, click on the Drive icon and discuss contents of the files with anybody you want. This screen sharing capability is heavily useful and it can be used on both desktops and mobiles.