Organize Google Drive with Flair

Spring always brings out the cleaning spirit, and the end of the year for those of us in education reminds us how many files, images, and more we added to our Google Drive. A year's worth of lessons and all of the amazing digital wonders made are crowding your Drive with no end in sight. If you are like me and organizing is always a chore, there are some easy ways to organize your Google Drive and also add a little personal flair!

List vs Tile View

Google Drive gives the option for List View or Tile View. It really depends on your own preferences on which one fits your organization style.

List View:

Tile View:

Color Code me Surprised

Google Drive gives you the ability to color code the folders!

  

You can color all of a subject the same color to find what you are looking for faster. Within each folder you can create sub folders to further customize your Drive. Creating folders with coordinating color coding systems can make finding items a breeze. You will always know what color to look for.

I am a huge advocate of subfolders. Within each folder, I create subfolders to further organize my files. Your folder names will be based on groupings of items you have. For example, a teacher might create sub folders in her Math folder for things like assignments, supplementals, and lessons. The possibilities are endless and again, according to how your brain likes things organized.

To color code your Google Drive folders, right click on the folder and select Change Color. Choose the color you want. Vilola! Colors added!

What’s in a Name? Emojis make it fun!

Naming conventions can make or break your organization system. Google Drive automatically alphabetizes your names of folders and items inside. You can further add flair to your names by adding emojis and symbols. However, once you add an emoji or symbol, alphabetizing does not work. It brings it to the top of the list.

You can right click on the name of the folder or file, you can choose the option Rename. A box will pop up for you to alter the name.

You can add emojis with these hotkeys:

Mac Devices: Control + Command + Spacebar

Windows Devices: Windows key + Period (.)

Find it FAST

Now that you have organized your Google Drive, what if you cannot find something? You can search using the search bar at the top of Drive, filter & sort, as well as “Star” favorites.

You can Sort by clicking the down arrow next to Last Modified to sort by date modified. This is helpful if you just used the document.

To “Star” and favorite an item right click on the file, folder, etc and choose “Add to Starred”

The file, folder, etc will have a star next to it.

To show all of your starred folders, files, etc click on Starred on the left navigation bar. Your starred items will be there for easy access.

Searching in Google Drive starts with the search bar at the top. If you click the down arrow on the right side of the search bar, you can further filter your search results by type of file, owner, location, and more.

My favorite search option is to filter by Type. If you click on the drop down menu next to the option Type, you can further filter your search by images, pdfs, docs, and much more!

Remember, the best tip for organizing, is to organize as you go! Each time you upload, create, or save an item, immediately put it in the right folder and subfolder. I downloaded the Google Drive for Desktop in order to save files on directly to my Google Drive from my device! I would be so unorganized without it. Visit this site for more information about the Google Drive for Desktop: https://support.google.com/a/answer/7491144?hl=en