Google Drive is a robust enterprise device in its personal proper, particularly when partnered with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. But numerous Chrome browser extensions can add extra file administration options and different methods to Google’s cloud storage and workplace apps.If you often use Google Drive via Chrome or Chrome OS, take into account including the next extensions to make working with Drive and Google’s productiveness apps extra environment friendly and productive.1. SuperiorDrive for Google DriveIf you utilize Microsoft Office and retailer your Office paperwork in Google Drive, SuperiorDrive is a should. Once the extension is put in in Chrome, you possibly can open an Office doc from Google Drive and it’ll load within the Microsoft Office utility (Excel, PowerPoint, Word) that’s put in in your laptop.After you edit and save the doc in Office, the brand new model of it is going to be saved again to Google Drive. Thus, SuperiorDrive saves you from having to manually obtain your Office paperwork from Google Drive and add them once more after you’ve labored on them in Microsoft Office.2. Checker Plus for Google Drive / 3. Drive AnywhereChecker Plus allows you to entry Google Drive and handle your recordsdata without having to open your Google Drive dwelling display screen in a Chrome tab. Clicking the Checker Plus icon on the Chrome toolbar opens a panel that exhibits your recordsdata in your Google Drive. Here you possibly can browse or seek for recordsdata, in addition to delete or rename them. ISG
With Checker Plus, you possibly can open and handle recordsdata saved in Google Drive with out launching Drive in a brand new browser tab. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
When you click on a filename, the doc will open within the applicable Google workplace app inside a brand new browser tab. You also can copy shareable net hyperlinks to recordsdata, star gadgets so that they’re simple to maintain monitor of, and add recordsdata out of your laptop to Google Drive.In addition, Checker Plus can provide you with a warning each time a file in your Google Drive has been modified (equivalent to a doc that you simply’ve shared with somebody to edit). These alerts are despatched as notification playing cards that pop up from the lower-right nook of your laptop’s desktop and from the Checker Plus icon on the Chrome toolbar.Drive Anywhere is much like Checker Plus, however with fewer capabilities to handle your recordsdata. So why would you think about using it? Drive Anywhere allows you to obtain your recordsdata via its toolbar panel, one thing you possibly can’t do via Checker Plus.4. OmniDriveWhereas Checker Plus and Drive Anywhere present a fast approach to discover recordsdata in Google Drive with out having to first open your Drive dwelling display screen, OmniDrive makes it even quicker by including the power to go looking your Drive recordsdata proper from the Chrome deal with bar (the “Omnibox” in Google lingo).You sort the phrase drive into the deal with bar, adopted by an area. As quickly as you sort that area, “OmniDrive” seems at the start of the deal with bar. Now sort within the filename or a phrase or phrase within the doc that you simply need to discover in Google Drive and hit Enter. Your Google Drive web page opens within the browser window and exhibits the search outcomes.A caveat: This extension hasn’t been up to date in a number of years, nevertheless it nonetheless works, and its code is accessible publicly as open supply.5. Google Docs Quick CreateThis extension allows you to shortly begin a brand new Google Drive doc, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, or type. Click the Google Docs Quick Create icon on the Chrome toolbar, and a panel opens displaying icon shortcuts. Click one to launch the corresponding Google Drive workplace app (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and so forth.) inside a brand new browser tab.IDG
Creating a brand new doc, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, or type at any time takes simply two clicks with the Google Docs Quick Create extension.
6. Open with Google Drive ViewerThis extension might be handy for viewing paperwork and different recordsdata which are on the internet with out having to obtain them first. By right-clicking the online hyperlink to the doc and choosing Open with Google Drive Viewer from the pane that opens, the extension will load the linked doc within the applicable Google workplace app. (You might must reload the browser tab to get the doc to look, notably if it’s a .ppt file.)Supported recordsdata embody the Microsoft Office codecs (.doc/.docx, .ppt/.pptx, .xls/.xlsx) in addition to .txt and .zip recordsdata, PDFs, and extra.7. Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & SlidesGoogle’s Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides extension is helpful for those who work with Microsoft Office paperwork continuously however desire to make use of Google’s Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps.When you drag and drop a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file that’s saved in your laptop onto a Chrome browser window, it can mechanically load within the applicable Google workplace app so that you can view and edit — so a .doc/.docx file will open in Google Docs, .xls/.xlsx in Google Sheets, and .ppt/.pptx in Google Slides. IDG
Simply drag and drop Office-formatted recordsdata onto Chrome, they usually’ll open for modifying in Docs, Sheets, or Slides. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
You also can open a Microsoft Office doc inside the suitable Google workplace app by urgent Ctrl-O whereas in Chrome and choosing the doc in your laptop.True, for the previous couple of years Docs, Sheets, and Slides have been in a position to edit Office-formatted recordsdata natively, however provided that you add them to Google Drive first. This extension allows you to open an Office-formatted file in your laptop immediately from Chrome.Note: In Chrome OS, this extension is put in by default.8. Save Emails to Google DriveCloudHQ’s Save Emails to Google Drive extension works together with your Gmail and Google Drive accounts collectively. It converts an electronic mail in your Gmail account to PDF format and shops it in your Google Drive. This might be helpful when you have enterprise or authorized correspondence that ought to be archived as PDFs for straightforward printing or sharing with others.To do that, open an electronic mail message in Gmail. Click the “Save to” button on the toolbar above your electronic mail and select “Save to Google Drive” from the drop-down pane. You’ll be proven a window itemizing the folders in your Google Drive; choose the one the place you need to save the PDF of the message, together with any file attachments it has.This extension additionally works from the house display screen of your Gmail person account. Select a number of emails from right here and click on the “Download as PDF” icon on the toolbar above the e-mail topic headings. A drop-down pane will allow you to save all of the emails you chose as separate PDFs, merge them collectively into one PDF, or save solely the attachments to those emails. The PDFs created, and any attachments in these emails, will likely be saved to a folder that you simply select in Google Drive.CloudHQ makes use of its personal server to tug off this trick. (See the corporate’s safety and privateness insurance policies.) You can convert and save as much as 50 of your Gmail messages per thirty days without spending a dime. You’ll must pay for a Premium plan at $15 per thirty days to transform and save a limiteless variety of emails.9. Save to Google DriveHere’s one other helpful Chrome extension from the Google Drive builders. With Save to Google Drive, you possibly can stow gadgets that you simply come throughout in your net shopping, equivalent to paperwork, pictures, and media, immediately in Google Drive with out having to obtain them first. For instance, if you wish to save a picture you see within the browser window, right-click it after which click on Save Image to Google Drive from the pane that opens.IDG
Save to Google Drive allows you to save paperwork, pictures, media, and net pages to your Google Drive with a few clicks.
Save to Google Drive additionally provides its icon to the Chrome toolbar; when clicked, it can screen-capture the online web page within the presently energetic browser tab and add this picture to your Google Drive. It might be set to do that in considered one of 5 methods: as a display screen seize of the web page’s entire format, as a display screen seize of the part of the web page that’s seen within the browser window, because the web page’s HTML supply file, as an MHT net archive file, or as a doc that you may edit in Google Docs.This article was initially printed in January 2018 and up to date in May 2021.
Copyright © 2021 IDG Communications, Inc.