Google Drive in Practice: Files, Sharing and Gemini

What's inside

1. Level 1: What You Have: Plans, IT Controls and This CourseFree
   Learners find out which Drive, shared drive and Gemini features their consumer, small business or corporate plan includes, which features their IT team may have switched off, and that this course is independent of Google and reproduces none of its documentation.
2. Level 2: My Drive or Shared Drive: Where a File BelongsFree
   Learners learn why a file in My Drive belongs to one person while a file in a shared drive belongs to the team, and use that difference to decide where each file should live.
3. Level 3: Folder Design, Naming and Shortcuts
   Learners design a shallow folder structure with consistent file names and use shortcuts so a file can appear in several places without being copied.
4. Level 4: Finding Files: Search Chips, Operators and Gemini
   Learners find files quickly with search chips and search operators, and, where their plan includes it, ask Gemini in Drive to locate files, then confirm its results themselves.
5. Level 5: Drive for Desktop: Streaming or Mirroring
   Learners choose between streaming and mirroring in Drive for desktop based on disk space, offline needs and how they work, then configure the option they choose.
6. Level 6: Office Files and Working Offline
   Learners edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in Drive without unnecessary conversion and set up offline access, noting where desktop, web and mobile behave differently.
7. Level 7: Sharing Basics: General Access and Roles
   Learners set general access (restricted, organisation or anyone with the link) and choose the Viewer, Commenter or Editor role, including how roles work differently in shared drives.
8. Level 8: Expiry, Stopping Sharing and Auditing Oversharing
   Learners add access expiry dates, stop sharing cleanly, and find the files they have overshared through link access, inherited folder access or forgotten collaborators.
9. Level 9: Gemini in Drive: Summaries, Facts and Its Limits
   Learners use Gemini in Drive to summarise files and find facts across several files, learn that it sees only the files the user can access, and check every answer against the source files.
10. Level 10: Version History: Restoring Earlier Versions
    Learners view, name and restore earlier versions of Google files, and manage versions of uploaded files such as Office documents and PDFs.
11. Level 11: Trash, Recovery and Moving Ownership
    Learners recover deleted files from the trash in My Drive and in shared drives, know when to ask an administrator for help, and move ownership of files correctly before someone leaves.
12. Level 12: Storage: What Counts and How to Clear It
    Learners find out what counts against their storage across Drive, Gmail and Photos or against pooled organisation storage, and free space safely.
13. Level 13: Moving Files In from a Laptop or Personal Account
    Learners move files from a laptop or a personal Google account into the right work drive without losing structure, versions or the correct ownership.
14. Level 14: Fixing Drive for Desktop Sync Problems Yourself
    Learners diagnose common Drive for desktop sync problems such as stalled uploads, conflicting copies and missing files, and fix them in a set order before contacting support.
15. Level 15: Google Sites: Planning a Team Home Page
    Learners plan an outline Google Sites home page that gives a team one entry point to its shared drives, key files and contacts, with access that matches the drives it links to.
16. Level 16: Final Challenge: Reorganise, Share Safely, Recover Exam
    Learners reorganise a messy project's files into the correct drives and folders, set sensible sharing, prove they can recover a lost version, and use Gemini, if their plan includes it, to check their work while verifying its answers themselves.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

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