01.27.20

20 useful things you didn’t know Google maps could do

BY JR RAPHAEL 11 MINUTE READ

Google Maps is great for just getting around. But don’t be fooled: the app is much more than a glorified Garmin. Maps has all sorts of powerful features and timesaving shortcuts that aren’t obvious, but are just waiting to be discovered. So grab your compass and get ready: It’s time to explore some of its most useful off-the-beaten-path options.

1. GO COMPLETELY HANDS-FREE
We’ve all been guilty of glancing down at our devices while driving—to look ahead at the next turn, perhaps, or see how long is left in a commute. If you have an Android phone, there’s a better way: Google Maps has a whole series of helpful voice commands that’ll work whenever you’re actively navigating.

Just say either “Hey, Google” or “Okay, Google” and then try variations on these examples:

“What road is this?”
“What’s my next turn?”
“What’s my ETA?”
“How’s traffic ahead?”
“How’s traffic to work?”
“Avoid tolls”
“Avoid highways”
“Find gas stations”
“Find restaurants”
“Navigate home”
“Take me to McDonald’s”
“What’s the closest hotel?”
“Exit navigation”

You can also instruct your phone to make calls, send texts, play music, or look for your next appointment—all without ever taking your eyes off the road.

2. REMEMBER WHERE YOU PARKED
Open up Maps on your iPhone or Android phone and tap the little blue dot that represents your current location. That’ll pull up a hidden menu with some handy options—including the ability to save your current parking location. You can add in your own supplementary notes or photos and even set a timer to remind you when it’s time to move your car.

When you’re ready to get back to your spot, look for the saved parking notification on your phone or just open up Maps and tap the “Parking location” card at the bottom of the screen.

 

3. SHARE YOUR LOCATION, EVEN AS YOU MOVE
Need someone to find you—or maybe just know where you are? Take a look at Maps’ simple system for real-time location sharing.

To try it, open up Maps on your phone and tap the blue dot, just like in the previous tip, but this time, select “Share your location.” You’ll be able to set an end time for the location sharing or opt to keep it active until you manually turn it off. You can then select any of your contacts to share with or get a private web link to paste wherever you want.

You can also access the sharing function while in the midst of a Maps navigation by swiping up from the white bar at the bottom of the screen and then selecting “Share trip progress.” That’ll share your location with whomever you choose until you reach your set destination.

In either scenario, people who open the link will see an icon showing your current position on a map as you move—within the Maps app, if they have it, or in a regular browser window if they don’t. You’ll see an indicator at the bottom of Maps letting you know location sharing is active, and you can always stop the sharing by tapping that box.

4. SEARCH ALONG YOUR ROUTE WHILE NAVIGATING
That swipe-up-while-navigating menu mentioned in the previous tip has one other useful gem: an option to search along your current route.

Activating it will give you one-tap buttons for finding gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, or coffee shops along your way from point A to point B. You can also type in your own custom search term—if, say, you want to see every Starbucks or Taco Bell that’s on your present path.

5. FIND OUT WHAT’S NEAR ANYTHING
A similar sort of search is available in Maps, even when you aren’t navigating. Any time you want to find specific types of places near your current location or any other spot, tap the search bar at the top of the mobile app and try variations on these queries:

“Restaurants near here”
“Pharmacies near Figueroa and 1st Street”
“Vegetarian restaurants near me”
“Book stores near UCLA”
“Gas stations near the airport”
“Things to do near the Florida Theatre”

You can also browse to see what’s near your current location by opening Maps on your phone, and then scrolling and swiping through the Explore tab at the bottom of the screen.

6. GET A TICKET TO RIDE
The next time you’re looking up a location on your phone and then decide to hail an Uber or a Lyft to get there, save yourself some steps and order your ride from right within the Maps app. After searching for a specific place and then tapping the Directions button, look for the icon with a person waving her hand in the air as if she were hailing a cab (located directly beneath the address bar, between the walking-person icon and the biking-guy icon).

That’ll show you current prices and wait times for both Lyft and Uber, right then and there, and allow you to hop directly into the ride-ordering process within either app.

7. SEE HOW BUSY BUSINESSES ARE
Before you head out to the grocery, your favorite deli, or even the DMV, let Maps show you how long of a wait you’ll face upon arriving. Search for the spot in the Maps app on your phone—or find and tap it within your current map view—then tap the business’s name in the white bar at the bottom of the screen and scroll down until you see the section labeled “Popular times.”

There, you’ll find a graph of the typical crowds at your current day and time and often also a live report of exactly how busy it is at that very moment. You can look ahead to find average data on crowd congestion for any other day and time as well.

 

8. NAME YOUR FAVOURITE PLACES
If you find yourself looking up or navigating to the same places repeatedly, make your life a little easier by giving your favorite spots more memorable names. For instance, you might name your doctor’s office “Doctor’s office”—which is much easier to remember and say in a voice command than an official map-based moniker like “East LA Doctor’s Hospital: Puglia Joseph MD.” Or you might name your friend’s impossible-to-find building “Biff’s apartment” for simple ongoing reference.

The trick is to tap into Maps’ easy-to-miss labeling system. First, search for the place you want in the Maps app on your phone (or find and tap it within your current map view), and then tap the business’s name or building’s name in the white bar at the bottom of the screen. Next, tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select “Add label” from the menu that appears.

Type in whatever label you want and save it. From that point forward, you’ll see your custom label in place of the location’s formal name everywhere within Maps, and you can navigate to the place simply by telling Maps (or Google Assistant, on Android) to navigate to whatever name you used.

9. SAVE YOUR SPECIAL SPOTS
In addition to naming places, the Maps mobile apps allow you to create collections of places for future browsing or sharing. Just tap on any location’s name within that same bottom-of-screen bar we’ve been using, then look for the option labeled “Save.”

Tap that, and you’ll be able to save the spot into a default list, like “Favorites,” or create your own custom list where it’ll reside. You can choose to make any list private—for your own personal viewing only—or you can opt to have it be accessible via a special shared link you send out. It can even just be publicly available for anyone to find online.

10. EXPLORE AT EYE LEVEL
Street View is one of Maps’ coolest features, but you’d probably never even realize it existed if you didn’t know where to look.

First, on your phone, search within Maps for any location—like Times Square, for instance. (You can also touch and hold your finger to any spot on a map to select a specific point of reference.) Next, tap the image of the location that appears in the lower-left corner of your screen.

Now, for the really neat part, tap the compass icon in the app’s upper-right corner. Hold your phone up and move it around, and the view will shift to match the actual direction you’re facing at any given moment. It’ll be like you’re standing inside the map and looking around.

11. GO BACK IN TIME
Fire up the flux capacitor, Doc: We’re about to do some serious time traveling. Google Maps has a little-known feature that lets you look at the Street View for any area as it existed at various points in the past.

This one only works from the desktop site, so open up Maps on your computer and pick a place. See that little yellow guy in the lower-right corner—known to his friends as Pegman? Drag him up with your mouse and drop him wherever you want to go. Then look for the clock icon in the gray box at the top-left of the screen.

Tap that, and you’ll be able to drag a slider back through time to see 360-degree views from previous years. The feature isn’t available for every possible place, but it’s pretty widespread—and a lot of locations have a full decade’s worth of data.

12. BEAM A MAP DIRECTLY TO YOUR PHONE OR CAR
Speaking of Maps on the web, the next time you’re looking up directions on your desktop, save yourself a step, and beam them directly to your vehicle or mobile device.

All you need to do is click an inconspicuous option that appears whenever you search for a place or pull up directions. It’ll be in the box on the left side of the screen—either as an icon beneath the place’s name or address, if you’re looking at a regular map, or as a plain-text link immediately above the route options, if you’ve already pulled up directions. (If you’ve clicked through to a specific route, it’ll be an unlabeled icon immediately to the right of the travel time estimate. And yes, there’s some irony in the fact that you practically need a map to find this feature.)

Click whichever version appears, and you’ll see a list of devices that are connected to your Google account. Android devices should show up automatically, while iPhones will require you to first install and sign into the Maps app, and then enable notifications within the app’s settings. For a car, you’ll have to manually add your vehicle on Google’s Send to Car site, provided you have a compatible make and model.

Whichever way you go, the Maps info will show up as a notification on your dashboard or device seconds after you send it over from your desktop.

13. SEE TIME-SPECIFIC TRAFFIC ESTIMATES
You can find out how long a drive is likely to take at any given time with Maps’ intelligent traffic estimation tool. Just search for a location in Maps’ desktop version, then click the “Directions” button and put in whatever starting point you want.

 

At the bottom of the same box where you typed the address, you’ll see a line that says “Leave now.” Click the downward-facing arrow next to that, then select either “Depart at” or “Arrive by” to view the probable traffic conditions and estimated trip total for any specific day and time.

14. GET CUSTOM COMMUTE NOTIFICATIONS
When it comes to your standard daily commute, let Maps help you avoid headaches by proactively giving you alerts about travel times and any heavy traffic or delays along your route. To set up your custom commute notifications, tap the three-line menu icon in the mobile app’s upper-left corner, select “Settings,” and then select “Commute” on iOS or “Commute settings” on Android.

That’ll pull up a screen on which you can specify (or confirm) your home and work address and give Maps some info about how and when you typically make your trip. Fill in all the fields, and be sure to activate the “Get commute notifications” toggle toward the bottom of the screen—then just sit back, relax, and know that Maps will have your back from there on out.

15. ADD EXTRA DESTINATIONS INTO YOUR DIRECTIONS
Not every trek is a two-stop adventure. And while it isn’t exactly front and centre, Maps has a feature that lets you add multiple stops into any navigation.

From your phone, start by searching for your first destination. Tap the “Directions” button, then type in your starting point. See the little three-dot menu icon to the right of that same field? Tap it, then select “Add stop” from the menu that appears. You’ll then get a third field in which you can enter another destination—and when you fill that one in, the option for a fourth destination will appear. You can even drag and drop the destinations to reorder them as needed.

The feature’s a little more prominent when using Maps on a computer: After firing up directions to a specific destination, you’ll see a small plus sign with the text “Add destination” alongside it. You can tap that to add as many extra stops as needed into your trip, and you can drag and drop destinations to change their order.

16. GET PARKING INFO BEFORE YOU GO
Nothing’s more annoying than arriving somewhere at the last second and then scrambling to figure out where to park. Maps can help: Before you hit the road, search for your destination in the Google Maps app on your phone. On Android, tap the Directions button at the bottom of the screen, then tap “Steps & parking” and look for the “Find parking” option. On iOS, tap the Steps button at the bottom of the screen, and then look for the “Find parking” link toward the center of the screen.

Just note that the parking feature is available only in some U.S. cities, and Google doesn’t specify which ones. So if you don’t see the “Find parking” option, it might not be live in your area as of now.

17. MEASURE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN MULTIPLE POINTS
Want to map out your morning jog—or maybe just know exactly how far you have to travel on a particular trip? Maps can precisely measure the distance between two or more points, all the way down to the second decimal.

On your phone, tap and hold your finger on your starting point. That’ll cause a red pin to appear along with a white bar showing more info about the location. Swipe up on the bar in iOS or tap the bar in Android and then select the “Measure distance” option. After that, use your finger and the blue plus icon to find and select the second point. Repeat as many times as needed to measure your full path.

On a computer, right-click on your starting point and select “Measure distance” from the menu that appears, then click on each subsequent point in your path to get measurements.

 

18. CHECK IN ON YOUR RESERVATIONS
If you use Gmail and/or Google Calendar, you can find info about upcoming reservations—as mentioned in confirmation emails in your inbox or event invitations in your agenda—right within Maps. Tap the three-line menu icon in the mobile app’s upper-left corner, select “Your places,” and then look for the “Reservations” tab at the top of the screen.

Any plans you’ve made will automatically show up there, and you can tap them to get detailed information about their location along with the option to start navigation.

19. SAVE TIME WITH ADVANCED GESTURES
Beyond the classic pinch-to-zoom, Maps has a bunch of other useful gestures to help you get around the app on your mobile device. Try out these advanced maneuvers:

To zoom in or out of a Map with a single hand, double-tap and then—without lifting your finger—slide up or down on the screen.
Spin a map around to change your orientation by placing your index finger and thumb on the screen and then twisting them together to the left or right.
Shift your perspective by placing two fingers on a map and sliding them both upward on the screen. That’ll take you into a “flyover” view of whatever area you’re looking at, complete with three-dimensional buildings in a lot of places.
Want to save a step the next time you’re ready to navigate? After you look up a location, press and hold the blue “Directions” button at the bottom of the screen. That’ll take you directly into navigation mode, using Google’s best guess for the route and method of transportation you’re likely to use.

 20. GO OFF THE GRID
Like most Google services, Maps uses your searches and in-app actions to personalise future suggestions. But if you’re going somewhere you don’t want stored and associated with your account, Maps has a useful new feature that lets you go incognito and avoid having any of your activity saved.

To access it, simply tap your profile icon in the upper-right corner of the Maps interface on your phone, then tap “Turn on Incognito mode” from the menu that pops up. The app will reload, and you’ll see a gray bar at the top of the screen informing you that Incognito mode is on along with a dark Incognito mode icon in place of your usual profile picture. When you’re ready to go back on the grid, tap the Incognito mode icon and select “Turn off Incognito mode.”

And don’t worry: Your secret’s safe with me.


Article originally appeared on fastcompany.com

09.30.19

7 incredibly useful things you didn’t know gmail could do

BY JR RAPHAEL 6 MINUTE READ

All right, I’ll admit it: I have a bit of a problem. Most people pick an email service, set it up, and then use it—end of story. Me? I’m constantly fiddling with my inbox and working to find new tricks to make it more efficient. It’s an obsession. And I can’t stop.

Can you really blame me, though? From scrutinizing Gmail’s settings to coming up with crafty ways to resuscitate abandoned features—sometimes even concocting kooky hacks for making the most of simple-seeming elements like labels—there’s always some new virtual gem just waiting to be uncovered.

And when it comes to Gmail, the hunt for next-level efficiency hacks doesn’t even have to be limited to what Google itself provides. Powerful app-connecting services like Zapier and IFTTT allow you to expand Gmail’s capabilities in some pretty impressive ways by bringing advanced yet effortless forms of automation into your inbox. The only problem is that searching for worthwhile options within those sorts of services can be a time-consuming, frustrating, and often ultimately fruitless journey.

Luckily, that’s precisely what I’m here for (the whole “efficiency obsession” thing—remember?). I scoured through hundreds upon hundreds of Gmail-enhancing automation possibilities and found seven that stood out both for their usefulness and for the clever things they’re able to accomplish. They’re all free, with one noted exception, and they’re generally quite simple to set up.

Read on, and see which superpowers seem properly suited for your email environment.

1. CREATE A SUPER-FAST FORWARDING SHORTCUT

Do you find yourself frequently forwarding messages to the same people—your work team, your bosses, your family, or even yourself at an alternate email address? Well, save yourself precious time, and set up a two-click shortcut to get the job done.

First, go to Gmail and create a new label called “Forward.” The quickest way to do that is to open a message in your inbox, click the label icon at the top of the screen, type the word “Forward,” and then hit Enter.

Next, open this Zap at Zapier and click the blue “Try It” button. The service will prompt you to sign in, if you haven’t already; make sure to use the same Google account you use for your Gmail. Then, follow the “Advanced Mode” steps to set up the Zap with your “Forward” label as the trigger and “Send Email” as the action—using your desired recipients in the “To” field, the Subject variable in the “Subject” field, the HTML option in the “Body Type” field, and the Body HTML variable in the “Body” field. You might also want to put the From Name variable into the “From Name” field and the From Email variable into the “Reply To” field so that your recipients can see the message’s original sender and reply directly to that person instead of to you.

It sounds like a lot, but don’t panic: Zapier walks you through every step of the setup and makes it as simple as can be.

Once you finish and activate the Zap, all you have to do is assign any message in Gmail to your new “Forward” label—by selecting or opening it within Gmail, clicking the label icon at the top of the screen, and then clicking “Forward” from the menu that appears—and just like that, the message will automatically be sent out to everyone on your forwarding list.

2. AUTOMATE YOUR ATTACHMENT STORAGE

Maybe you have certain types of messages where attachments always need to be saved to a sharing-friendly cloud location—incoming invoices from clients, reports or presentations from contractors, or whatever the case may be. Why not let Gmail handle the heavy lifting by saving attachments to the cloud for you?

Just set up this Zap for Dropbox or this Zap for Google Drive. Either one will let you specify a Gmail label to monitor, be it a label you’re already using for the messages in question or a new one you create specifically for this purpose. And then, it’ll automatically save any associated attachments to the storage service and folder of your choice.

With that one-time setup finished, all you have to do is add the label onto a message as needed—or better yet, create a filter within Gmail’s settings to have the label added automatically based on something like the sender or the subject—and then rest easy knowing any attachments will land right where you want ’em, without any effort or remembering required.

3. SEND STARRED SLACK MESSAGES TO GMAIL FOR SAFEKEEPING

The next time you see something in Slack that you want to save or be sure to remember, beam it on over to your inbox simply by starring it in Slack.

This Zapier Zap is the key to making it happen. Click the blue “Try It” button on the page and follow the steps to connect the service to your Gmail and Slack accounts. After that, you’ll click through a handful of screens that’ll be preconfigured to do what you want, and then you’ll reach a point where you can select exactly where your Slack-generated emails will go and how they’ll be presented. Be sure to put in your own email address and whatever subject line you’d like and then to put the Text variable into the “Body” field.

Click all the way through and activate the Zap, and that’s it: Anytime you star something in Slack, it’ll show up in your inbox a few seconds later.

4. GIVE YOURSELF A HANDY EVERNOTE CONNECTION

Evernote adorers, take note: With a few minutes of painless planning, you can create a special label within Gmail and then have messages assigned to it automatically synced over to your favorite Evernote notebook.

It’s the same basic concept from our first item, only now with Evernote as the destination. Just create a new label in Gmail for the purpose, set up this Zapier Zap, and you’ll be good to go. (You can also use the starring of a message in Gmail as a trigger, if you’d rather; use this Zap if you want to go that route.)

This connection can work both ways, too: With this Zap, you can instruct Zapier to email you (or anyone else) anytime a new note is added into a specific Evernote notebook. I believe that’s what people with made-up job titles like “thought leader” call synergy.

5. SEE IMPORTANT TWITTER ACTIVITY IN YOUR INBOX

Constantly searching Twitter for specific name or keyword mentions can be a real hassle—so why not get automated alerts for whatever type of activity you need to monitor? This Zapier Zap will let you specify a Twitter username or even a keyword and then get ongoing alerts (to you and to anyone else you want to include) whenever your term is mentioned.

You can supplement that with a daily, weekly, or monthly digest, too—an easy way to stay on top of what’s going on without getting overwhelmed by constant interruptions.

Note, however, that this Zap requires multiple steps of automation—which means, unlike the other items on this page, it requires a paid Zapier subscription in order to operate. Zapier’s paid plans start at $20 a month for individuals and $250 a month for unlimited-user business accounts.

6. SYNC YOUR SMARTPHONE NOTIFICATIONS TO YOUR INBOX

Even in 2019, smartphone notifications are still vexingly ephemeral: If you swipe one away inadvertently or even just restart your phone while an alert is still present, you’ll probably never see the notification again. So make sure you never lose track of something important by syncing your highest priority alerts from your phone to your Gmail inbox.

This one’s available only to the Android-using folk among us: Just open this applet at IFTTT and click the big “Connect” button. The service will prompt you to sign in and authorize it to access your account, if you haven’t already done that; just like with the other items in this list, make sure to use the same Google account you use with Gmail.

After that, follow the steps that show up for configuring the connection—entering in the name of the app whose notifications you want to sync and optionally a keyword that needs to be present in order for a sync to occur. For instance, you could enter “Google” for the app name and then “Assistant” for the keyword, and you’d get email-based copies of all reminders and other Assistant-related alerts.

Finally, type in your email address (or any other address where you want the notifications to be delivered), and then click the “Save” button at the bottom of the screen.

All that’s left is to install the IFTTT Android app on your phone, open it up, and follow the steps to sign in and grant it the necessary permissions. Then just sit back and watch as any included notifications magically appear in your inbox moments after they pop up on your phone.

7. LET YOUR INBOX PREPARE YOU FOR PRECIPITATION

Last but not least, a handy way to stay ahead of the weather: Connect this IFTTT applet, configure it for your location, and then get an email any night when rain is expected the following day. You can even set it up for snow, if you want.

However you configure it, your inbox will effectively be transformed into your own personal forecaster—with alerts that’ll always reach you, no matter what type of device you’re using or what apps you have installed.
 

Article originally published on fastcompany.com

08.26.19

14 handy uses for Google Drive that’ll make your life easier

BY JR RAPHAEL 6 MINUTE READ

If you’re thinking of Google Drive as a mere place to plop your files, you’re missing out on some pretty powerful possibilities. Beneath its fluffy cloud exterior, Drive holds all sorts of useful tools for collecting information, working with data, organizing your virtual goods, and sharing stuff externally. In some cases, the options are built directly into Drive; in others, they require a little help from a connecting app or service. They all have one thing in common, though: They’re right there and just waiting to be embraced. All you have to do is uncover ’em. Here are 14 ways Drive can make your days a teensy bit easier—and pave the way for a more productive, hassle-free week.

SPEEDY DATA SAVING

1. Scan documents and receipts directly into Drive with the Google Drive app for Android. Just open the app, tap the plus symbol in the lower-right corner, and select “Scan”—or save yourself some steps by long-pressing the app’s icon and selecting “Scan” right then and there. You can also drag and drop that “Scan” option onto your home screen or use the Drive widget for on-demand, one-tap access.

The Google Drive Android app offers several options for on-demand scanning.

 

However you do it, Drive will save your image as a PDF and then make its text searchable for future discovery. (And sorry, iPhone-toting pals: The option isn’t available in Drive’s iOS app as of now.)

2. Save any web page, image, file, or screenshot directly from your browser to Drive by using the official Save to Google Drive Chrome extension. With the extension in place, you can right-click (or Ctrl-click, on a Mac) on any hyperlink to save its target into your Drive storage—or click the icon in the upper-right corner of the browser to capture and save a screenshot of your current view.

NEXT-LEVEL FILE MANIPULATION

3. Got a PDF file you need to edit like a regular document? No problemo: Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the file’s name on the Drive website and then hover over the “Open with” option. Select “Google Docs” from the list that appears, say hocus-pocus for good measure—and in a matter of moments, Drive will convert your PDF into plain text and open it as a new Google Doc for you.

4. If marking up, highlighting, annotating, or signing an actual PDF file is what you’re after, add the DocHub app to your Google account. That’ll let you open PDFs directly from Drive, using that same “Open with” option, and then use the service’s Docs-reminiscent full-screen editor to edit your PDF in any way you want. When you’re done, you can save the file back to Drive or download it to your computer.

DocHub lets you annotate, highlight, and mark up PDFs from Drive.

 

DocHub is free for basic use, with an optional $5-a-month upgrade for unlimited editing and other advanced options.

5. Maybe you have a PDF document you want to save as a JPG—or a WAV audio file you want to save as an MP3, a TIF image you want to save as a BMP, or almost any sort of file conversion imaginable. With the CloudConvert app connected to your Google account, any such process will always be a couple clicks away in that same Drive “Open with” menu. The service is free for up to 25 minutes of file converting a day and with a max file size of 1 GB; if you need more than that, you’ll have to purchase a one-time credit package or sign up for a subscription.

6. Drive now lets you edit Microsoft Office files—no specialized software or fancy conversions required. Just drag and drop the document, spreadsheet, or presentation onto the Drive website, click the file’s name in the lower-right corner of your screen once the upload has finished, and that’s it: Within a matter of seconds, the file will open in an Office Compatibility Mode editor.

7. Prefer to do your work in Docs, even when an Office file is sent your way? You’ve got it: Just click the gear-shaped icon in Drive’s upper-right corner, select “Settings,” and then check the box next to the “Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format” option. The next time you drop a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file into Drive, the service will skip the Compatibility Mode interface and instead convert your Office file right into the Google Docs format and open it for you there.

8. Give your most sensitive data extra protection by telling Drive to upload your files with encryption and then require a password for future access. The secret lies within the free Secure File Encryption Drive add-on: Simply install the app, follow the steps to authorize it—and then, when you’re ready to upload something new, click the big “New” button in Drive’s upper-right corner, hover over “More,” and select “Secure File Encryption” from the menu that appears.

Protect your most sensitive files with an extra layer of encryption right within Drive.

You can read more about how exactly the app works and what security methods it relies on in the developer’s FAQ.

ADVANCED ORGANISATION

9. Google Docs lets you look back at different versions of a document, in case you need to see or restore your work from an earlier point. You can follow that same model and maintain multiple versions of any file in Google Drive—a PDF, an image, an archive, an audio file, you name it—for easy reference and later restoring. To get started, right-click (or Ctrl-click) a file in Drive and select “Manage versions.” Click the “Upload New Version” button and upload the new version of the file, then repeat that process as needed over time. Drive will show just a single file in its main interface, but when you right-click (or Ctrl-click) the file and select “Manage versions,” you’ll be able to see and download all the different versions you’ve created.

Just note that by default, only 100 older versions are saved—and older versions are deleted after 30 days. You can tell Drive to hang onto a version eternally by clicking the three-dot menu icon next to the file’s name and selecting “Keep forever” from the menu that appears.

10. Drive can color-code your folders to make different areas of your storage easily identifiable at a glance. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) any folder and look for the “Change color” option.

11. Don’t forget that in addition to being able to search for text within PDFs, Drive can find images in your storage via a keyword search. Just type whatever you’re looking for into the search box at the top of the site—”sunset,” “computer,” even a specific color such as blue—and then click the downward-facing arrow within the search box and set the “Type” field to “Photos & images.” Drive will show you every image that matches the description you entered.

Just like its cousin Photos, Google Drive can find images when you search for keywords.

 

12. Running out of space? Let Drive identify your biggest files so you can see what’s eating up your storage and work to clear out some room. Look for the word “Storage” on the left side of the screen and click the area directly beneath it, where your current storage total is displayed. Make sure the arrow next to “Storage used” is pointing downward on the screen that comes up next—and if it isn’t, click it once to change its direction. All of your Drive files will then appear in order of their size, starting with the largest and decreasing from there.

SMARTER SHARING

13. If you have a paid G Suite account, you can opt to make a file in your Drive storage available to someone else only for a limited period of time. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the file and select “Share,” then type in the name or email address of the person with whom you want to share and click the “Send” button. Once that’s done, make your way back to that same sharing menu—and this time, click “Advanced.” See the timer icon next to the name of the person with whom you’re sharing? Click it, and you’ll be able to set a date on which their access will expire. Make sure to click the “Save changes” button once you’re done.

14. Ludicrous as it seems to any non-Luddite, faxing is occasionally still required in this digital-centric world of ours. Why keep a clunky old fax machine around, though, when you can send faxes directly from Drive? A third-party add-on called HelloFax is standing by and ready to do all the dirty work for you.

To get started, click the big “New” button in Drive’s upper-left corner, select “More,” and then “Connect more apps.” Search for “HelloFax” in the window that appears, then click the green “Connect” button and follow the steps to authorize the service.

Now, when you’re ready to send a fax, just right-click any document, PDF, or other fax-friendly file within Drive, select “Open with,” and then select “HelloFax” from the menu that appears. The app will prompt you to allow it access the first time you use it, after which you can select “Fax document” and fill out the appropriate info to get your fax underway.

If you need to send more than five faxes per month, you’ll have to either pay a per-page price or subscribe to a monthly plan—the latter of which also enables you to receive faxes by having them sent to a specific number and then forwarded to you as PDF files.

All that’s missing is the ear-piercing screech—and I think we can all agree that’s a good thing.

For even more next-level Google knowledge, check out my Android Intelligence newsletter.

Article originally appeared on fastcompany.com