Drive spaces and sharing with people

Where files live

Open Drive. The left menu has these places:

• My Drive: your own files. Only you can see them until you share.
• Shared with me: items other people gave you access to.
• Recent: files you and your teams changed lately.
• Starred: anything you starred to find it quickly.
• Trash: deleted items, kept for a limited time before they are removed for good.
• Team folders: shared spaces owned by a team rather than one person.

A Storage meter shows how much space you have used.

Create and upload

Use the New menu to choose New folder or Upload files. You can also create a Doc or a Spreadsheet from Drive. Name a new folder in the dialog (it starts as "Untitled folder"). Use Search Drive to find items by name, and the sort control to order them by name, newest, oldest, largest or smallest. The layout button switches between a list and a grid.

Select one or more items and a toolbar appears with Share, Download, Move, Star and Trash. Right-clicking an item shows the same actions plus Rename.

Personal space or team folder

Your My Drive is personal. A team folder belongs to a group. Create one with the New team folder button next to the Team folders heading, then use Members and settings to add people. Team roles are:

• Manager: can change members and delete the team folder.
• Editor: can add and change files.
• Commenter and Viewer: can open files.

Use a team folder for anything the whole team needs, such as a client project. Files in it stay available even if a person leaves.

Share with specific people

Select an item and choose Share. In the dialog:

1. Type a name or group in Add people or groups.
2. Choose the access in Access to give: Viewer, Commenter or Editor.
3. Add a message if you like and choose Give access.

The dialog shows General access at the top, which is one of three states: restricted (only people added), anyone in your workspace, or anyone with the link. Below, People with access lists everyone, with a drop-down to change a role or remove access. The owner is listed first.

You can also share with a person outside your company by email. They confirm their address with a six-digit code, so they do not need an account, and they get view access.

Note: Your administrator can switch off outside sharing or public links for the whole workspace. If the option is missing, that is why.

Roles in one line each

• Viewer: open and read.
• Commenter: open, read and comment.
• Editor: change and upload.
• Owner: everything, including who has access.

Practice

1. Create a folder named Training and upload one file.
2. Share it with a colleague as Viewer.
3. Star the folder, then find it under Starred.
4. Trash a test file, open Trash and use Restore.