Learn the differences between Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive, and get best practices for collaboration at work or school.
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What you'll need
15 minutes
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Note: The instructions in this guide are primarily web only. Get switching information for mobile devices .
Comparison at a glance
If you’re using the latest version of Chrome or Firefox, you can simply drag files directly from your computer to the Drive page on your browser.
For more details, see Get started with Drive .
Share with specific people
- Select the file you want to share.
- Click Shareor Share.
- Enter the email address or Google group you want to share with.
- To decide what role people will have on your file, select Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
- If your account is eligible, you can add an expiration date for access .
- Choose to notify people.
- If you want to notify people that you shared an item with them, check the box next to Notify people. If you notify people, each email address you enter will be included in the email.
- If you don't want to notify people, uncheck the box.
- Click Sendor Share.
Share with your organization
You can choose if your file should be available to anyone or restricted to only the people with access. If you allow access to anyone with the link, your folder won't restrict who can access it.
- Select the file you want to share.
- Click Shareor Share.
- Under “General access”, click the Down arrow.
- Choose who can access the file.
- To decide what role people will have with your file, select Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
- Click Done.
- Open a file in Google Drive , Google Docs , Google Sheets , or Google Slides .
- Click Share
find the user you'd like to give temporary permissions to.
- If you haven't shared the file with that person yet, add the user's email and click Sendor Share. At the top right of the document, click Share again.
- Next to the person's name, click the Down arrow Add expiration.
- Next to "Access expires," click a date to set as the expiration date. Choose a date within one year of the current date.
- Click Save.
- In the search box, enter a word or phrase.
To help you search faster, Drive suggests search terms and results as you enter text.
- Click a file suggestion to open it, or click a search suggestion to see a list of results for that search term.
For more details, see the Google Drive Help Center .
At the top of your files, click an option:
- Name—Orders files alphabetically by name.
- Last modified—Orders files by the last time anyone changed a file, or the last time you changed or opened a file.
- In Drive , right-click a non-Google file and select Manage versions. You can download a specific version or upload a new version.
- In Docs , Sheets , or Slides , select File Version history See version history. You can name a specific version or make a copy of a version.
For more details, read See changes to your Drive files and folders .
- Install the Google Docs Offline extension .
- In Drive , click Settings Settings.
- In the Offlinesection, check the Create, open and edit your recent Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files on this device while offlinebox.
- Click Done.
- Right-click a file and turn on Available offline.
To learn how to access files offline from your desktop or mobile, see Access stored Drive files without the internet .
* Note: The instructions in this guide are primarily web only. Get switching information for mobile devices .
Related topics
To set up Drive, or get troubleshooting help, try these guides instead:
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