Beginning-of-Year Drive & Chrome Tips

Asynchronous Learning Library

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Make it Visual with Emojis

You can add an emoji to the title of a Google Drive folder to make them easier to find. Simply copy the emoji from a tool like <a href="https://emojikeyboard.io/">Emoji Keyboard</a> and paste it into the title of your folder. Drive will categorize the emoji as coming before A if you have your drive sorted in alphabetical order. Emojis can also be placed in titles of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, too!

Make sure that you have your documents correctly shared before sending other people the link. Otherwise, when the recipient tries to open it, they need to email you an access request which can be frustrating. Anyone with the Link- Makes a link available to the public and can even be found by search engines. Max 200 people can view a public document at any one time. Jeffco Public Schools&nbsp;- Anyone with an @jeffcoschools.us account, who also has the link can either access or edit, depending on the drop-down menu selection appearing just underneath these three options. Ideal for sharing somewhat private info with people you trust who are in district. Restricted- Only people invited via email can either view or edit the document, depending on the drop-down setting selected. You can also set the sharing permissions for folders, which adjusts the sharing for each document inside.

Files in 2 Places at Once

You can make a file appear in more than one folder by using shortcuts. This is different than making a copy and placing a copy in a different folder, as the shortcut traces back to the original file. This means you will always have the most recent version of the file at your fingertips. These can be used in Drive or Shared Drives. Anybody with access to the folder can see the shortcut. However, if they don't have access to the actual file, they won't be able to open the shortcut. To make a shortcut right-click the file and select Add Shortcut to Drive.

If you like visual cues, you can organize your Google Drive folders by color. Right click a folder in Drive and then select "Change Color." If you are changing the color of a folder that is shared with others, they will not see your color selection and can choose their own color within their own Drive.

Find important files or folders quickly so that you can find them later! When you star a file, it is also added to the Starred menu in the left-hand folder navigation of your drive. You can star a file by right clicking on it in Drive and selecting "Add to Starred" or by opening the file and clicking small star next to the title of the document. You can unstar files the same way to remove them from your starred section of Drive. It's helpful to clean out your starred content each school year.

Use a Consistent Naming Convention

A naming convention is the way you name your files. This is an old school recommendation, but still handy. Even though Google Drive will let you name your files however you like, it’s important to be consistent. Keep file names short but meaningful to you and your students. A consistent naming convention will help clean up our Google Drive. For instance, when naming lesson plan documents, use the same naming conventions to make life easier.

A great organizational strategy is to clean up the bookmarks you no longer need on your Chrome bookmark bar. Click on the 3 dots in the top right-hand corner and then click on Bookmarks &gt; Bookmark Manager. On the left-hand tab, make sure you have clicked Bookmarks Bar. If you no longer need the bookmarks, delete them by right clicking the bookmark and then selecting delete.

How to Delete Bookmarks on Google Chrome

Make it Visual with Numbers

Many people choose to organize their Drive alphabetically. However, sometimes the most used folders do not start with A. Bypass the alphabetizing system by placing a number at the beginning of your folder. 01, 02, 03 will appear first in Drive before your standard alphabetized folders.

Convert Microsoft Files &amp; PDFs to Google

Upload a Word file or PDF to Drive by dragging it from your desktop into the correct folder in Google Drive. You can also click the +New button in Drive and then select "File Upload." Then, in Drive, right-click your Microsoft file and choose "Open With" and choose the appropriate Google Match for your file (ex: Word to Docs, PowerPoint to Slides). Once you open the file you will have all the Google features you know and love.

Your Chrome browser saves information from websites in its cache and cookies. Clearing them fixes certain problems like loading and formatting issues on websites you visit. When you clear your cache and cookies settings on some sites will be deleted. You will likely need to sign into accounts on websites again.

<a href="https://jeffcohelp.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/16000016410">Jeffco Help: Clear Cache and Cookies</a>

Professional Development Credit

Educators, if you would like to earn 1 hour of professional development credit for completing this eBook, please fill out this <a href="https://forms.gle/5j3AKG2B1fEs5qsm9">Google Form. </a>The title of this eBook is Beginning-of-the-year Google Drive &amp; Chrome Tips. A 1-hour certificate will be emailed to you upon completion.

Are you a person who simply needs a visual cue? If that's the case consider deleting the name of the bookmark entirely. This will leave a favicon (symbol/logo for a website) in your bookmark bar. Most websites have different favicons, which makes them easily recognizable. You might consider organizing your favicons by frequency of use, topic or color. 

Google Chrome Quick Tip: Using Icons in the Bookmarks Bar

<a href="https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-save-your-bookmarks-as-favicons-in-chrome">Create Favicons in Chrome</a>

Start your year fresh! <a href="bookcreator://page/z4K20HcLREC_DOmoPQNscw">Clean Up Chrome</a> <a href="bookcreator://page/HK0wNFfzQPe7zQdiuirhsQ">Clean Up Last Year's Drive </a> <a href="bookcreator://page/_Twhb-oYT-6cjgBlWCu3aA">Folders for This Year</a> <a href="bookcreator://page/tid_nFqKRuCUd1OR8JxJiQ">Organize &amp; Find it Fast</a> <a href="bookcreator://page/0M84FgZURSCI490WVBzA8w">App Tips</a>

Beginning-of-Year Drive &amp; Chrome Tips

Sharing Multiple Files in Drive

Most people know how to share files on Google Drive but they don’t know how to share multiple files in bulk, though it’s a simple operation.To get started, select multiple files in your Google Drive, then click the Google Drive shareable link icon at the top of the page. Keep in mind, that you can only assign one type of file permission when you select and want to share multiple files.&nbsp;Essentially, the Google Drive share link is multi-functional for sharing one or many files.

For more tips and tricks on how to use Google Drive, check out our <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/yPkO96leC0Qpq7GzrVHcVRAm2hv1/YXlGXeDvSDqOssYI09lesA">Google Drive Tips and Tricks eBook</a>!

When you create a class in Google Classroom, it automatically generates a calendar in your Google Calendar. It's easy to get overwhelmed with all of the calendars if you don't keep them cleaned up. As you archive classes, head into Calendar and delete the calendars from your list for classes you no loner need. Before you delete, however, you may wish to take a photo for your records to help with pacing and due dates. Tip: choose schedule view so you can see dates in a list format.

<a href="https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/google-classroom-cleanup-tips-for-the-end-of-the-year/">From Shake Up Learning</a>

We’ve all been there, in search of a file in Google Drive that we know is out there somewhere, but we’re unable to track it down. We are dumbstruck by why we can’t find it. It’s possible that what you’re looking for has become an orphaned file. If you create a file in a shared folder owned by someone else, and they delete the folder, the file still exists somewhere in a Google Drive, even though its original folder is gone. run an advanced search using ‘is:unorganized owner:me’ in your Google Drive search bar. Once you’ve found the file, you then need to add it to a folder so that it’s searchable.

Revert to a Version or See Version History

When you are in a Google File (Docs, Sheets, Slides etc.) you can click on File &gt; Version History &gt; See Version History. Here you can name versions, see who made which edits, and restore the document to an older version, if necessary. Note: you must be an editor of the file in order to use version history.

Chrome extensions are programs that are installed on your Chrome browser that change its functionality. This includes adding or modifying features to change how the browser behaves. Although many Chrome extensions are beneficial, there are some that can impact the browser in a negative way. This can include slowing down your browsing speed, causing loading issues, giving errors, or changing permissions on other programs. Chances are if you are experiencing an issue while using Chrome, it's probably due to an extension. For this reason, it is important to regularly clear out extensions you aren't familiar with, don't use, or are developed by a third party.

<a href="https://jeffcohelp.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/16000016340">Jeffco Help: Cleaning Up Extensions</a>

With Google Drive, you have unlimited storage space, which means you don't need to delete files. In order to clean things up, you might consider creating an folder called Archive. Then you can move files you no longer need into that particular folder. You might also consider renaming the files and folders in the folder to contain the word "Archive" so that when using the search, you don't accidentally pull up outdated information.

Google will suggest work that it thinks is a part of the same project or tasks. You can easily add these files to workspaces so that you can collect content and access it quickly and easily. To add a file to a workspace, enter into your drive and right-click the file and select Add to Workspace. There is a limit of 25 files per workspace. Each  fall or spring, it's a good idea to clear out and set up new workspaces based on the new work you will be part of completing! 

Create a Master Folder for the Year

Because most of us in education work on a school-year cycle, starting everything for this year in a 2021-2022 folder will help keep this year's content fresh and organized. You can make copies of last year's work and put them in this new folder so that you retain the older version for your historical records.

<a href="https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/13-tips-to-organize-your-google-drive/">From Shake Up Learning Podcast</a>

If you have a lot of bookmarks that go together you may wish to organize them into folders. This is helpful in keeping sites for the same project, unit of study or content area all grouped together. To do this, right-click on your bookmark bar and click add folder. You will be asked to name the folder and click save. You can then head to your bookmark manager by clicking on the 3 dots in the upper-right hand corner and clicking bookmarks &gt; bookmark manager. Here you can drag and organize your bookmarks into your new folders. 

Bookmarks & Using Bookmark Folders  in Chrome

Ignore your Shared With Me

Your 'Shared with Me' folder is a composite of everything that has been shared with you ... ever. There's no way to clean it an organize it, which is why you should avoid looking in there -- scary! Just remember, these are not your files, they are the files of other people: your peers, your students, others in the district etc. If you'd like to keep these files to make them easier to find, use the "Add Shortcut to Drive" option and then file them into the folder in your own Drive that makes the most sense. If they are really important, you could star them or add them to a workspace. 

How to STILL Add Files (see update) and Folders to Google Drive, NOT Shortcuts!

Perhaps the very long name of a bookmark does not serve your needs and you'd like to rename it to better meet your purposes. Simply right click the bookmark and click edit. Change the name to something more suitable for the work you do. You might consider also creating a visual cue by adding an emoji to the name of your bookmark. You can add a book to an article, a letter to your email, or heart to a favorite site. Simply use an emoji keyboard like <a href="https://emojikeyboard.io/">emoji.io</a>. Copy the emoji and paste it into the name of the bookmark.

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Safari may block some audio or video from playing automatically and ‘read to me’ will skip these. You can configure this in Safari’s preferences.