See when other people are editing Microsoft Office files stored in Google Drive: Drive for desktop has a real-time presence feature that can show you when other people are making changes to a Microsoft Office file.

This eliminates the need to download and upload non-Google files. When you save the file, the changed version will be automatically uploaded back to Google Drive.

Easily open and work on non-Google files in their native applications: For example, you can open a Word file in Microsoft Word and make changes.

Microsoft Office files, PDFs, Photoshop files etc.). How can Drive for desktop help me work with non-Google files?ĭrive for desktop is particularly useful if you store non-Google files in your Google Drive (e.g. This latter option avoids filling up the disk space on your device and causing network bandwidth issues.ĭrive for desktop can be used to access all files in both your My Drive and Shared Drives. With Drive for desktop, you can choose to download all Google Drive files on to your computer or choose to stream files directly from the cloud to your device when you need it (i.e. What is Drive for desktop?ĭrive for desktop is an application that gives you access to your Google Drive files from the file explorer on your Mac or PC. In this post, I’ll explain what Drive for desktop is, how to install it and how to use it. Drive for desktop can solve this frustration for good by giving you a seamless way to work with non-Google files in their native applications.

Do you or your organisation store non-Google files (such as Microsoft Office files) in Google Drive? If so, you’ve probably found it frustrating to have to download and upload these files every time you want to open or edit them.

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