Before the check in
This page will guide you as Academedia employees to know what is required of you to know before your check in. Are you a former Microsoft Office 365 user and totally new to Google Workspace, then this site is for you. We will break down the easy need to knows to make your transformation easy.
Google Workspace has 3 key elements, G Mail, Calendar and Drive. These are the most common tools you will work with and the best way to work with these is in Chrome since it supports Google Workspace in the best way. Before you start it is good to master these simple instruction. You can use a regular Gmail account to follow these steps.
Calendar
Lets' start with some very basic calendar functions.
Creating your first calendar event
In Calendar, click an empty time slot in the calendar grid and click Event. You can also click Create .
Add an event title, date, and time.
(Optional) To create an event using another calendar, next to your name, click the Down arrow and select the calendar.
Click More options or Save.
Invite guests
Open your event.
In the Guests tab, go to Add guests and enter the first few letters of a person’s name or email address in the box.
Matching names and addresses in your organisation’s directory appear as you enter text.
Tip: You can also add a Google Groups mailing list address to invite a large group of people at once.
Click a suggestion to add that person to the event. If no suggestions appear, enter your guest’s full email address.
(Optional) To mark a guest’s attendance as optional, point to the guest name and click Mark optional person.
(Optional) To allow guests to modify the event, invite others, or see the guest list, under Guests can, check the appropriate boxes.
Note: If you create an event in Calendar and don't give permission to your guests to modify an event, they won't be able to change the event's date or time on their own calendar.
Quick Invite guests (internal)
Ad the college/colleges in the Meet whit box.
You will now see all calendars in the same view
Mark the time for the meeting in you're calendar.
You can add Rooms, Location, Conferencing, and Description in the pop-up dialog.
Hangout meet
When you add an event to your calendar and invite someone to the event the calendar adds a link to a videoconference system called Hangout meet. You and your guest then can join the meeting using Hangout Meet if one of you are on a distant location. When the meeting starts just click the "Join Hangout Meet" link to join.
Drive
So now let's have a look at Drive. Drive is actually 2 things.
An online storage for you to reach your or your team's files anytime, anywhere. It integrates with all components (G Mail, Calendar etc etc) so your daily collaborative tasks is simple.
Drive has it own version of traditional tools like Word, Excel and Powerpoint built in. In other words you will not need Office installed on your computer. Instead of the traditional names they are named Docs (= Word), Sheets (= Excel) and Slides (=Powerpoint).
And guess what, you can decide if you want to work with the old Office document in original file format or if you want to convert it to a more collaborative document version (by converting it to Googles file format). Bellow we will list the most basic things in that you can try out on a regular GMail account.
Upload files to Drive on the web
One way to store files in Drive is to upload a copy of them using your web browser:
Go to Drive.
Click NEW, select File upload or Folder upload, and then choose the file or folder you want to upload.
Click Open.
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.
If you upload a file that matches the name of an existing file, Drive will add it as a new version, instead of creating a duplicate. To see the previous version of that file, manage versions.
When you see Upload complete, your files have uploaded successfully and can be accessed in any browser or device that has Drive installed.
Create folders
Any new folders you create in your computer’s Drive folder or in Drive on the web automatically appear on your devices so that you’re organized everywhere.
On the web:
Click New and select Folder.
Share files and set access levels and visibility
Share a file you own or can edit:
Select the file or folder you want to share.
Click Share.
In the Share with others box:
Enter the email addresses or Google Groups you want to share with.
Choose what kind of access you want to grant:
Is owner (Files you own only)—You can make someone else the owner. You still have edit access, unless the new owner changes your permission.
Can edit—Collaborators can add and edit content as well as add comments.
Can comment (Select files only)—Collaborators can add comments, but can't edit content.
Can view—People can view the file, but not edit or add comments.
If you want to control how visible your files are to other people, such as keeping them completely private or allowing anyone on the web to see them, click Advanced > Change and choose an option. The options available will depend on your admin settings for your organization.
Click Done.
Everyone you shared the document with will receive an email notification. After you've shared a file, you can get the link by selecting the file and clicking Get shareable link link.
Stop sharing a file or folder you own:
In Drive, select the shared file or folder.
Click Share.
At the bottom, click Advanced.
Next to the person you want to stop sharing the file or folder with, click Remove.
Click Save changes.
Search and sort your files and folders
It can be difficult to browse through hundreds of files just to find the one you need. So, try searching Drive instead.
In Drive’s search box, type a word or phrase. To help you search faster, Drive suggests search terms as you type. Click one of the suggestions to open it, or click Search to see a list of results.
Search for files or folders in Drive:
Advanced search options: In the search box, click the Down arrow to see the search options. Choose any option or combination of options to filter your results further.
Sorting options: Click Sort options to sort files in any of these ways:
Last modified—See items that were recently modified by anyone (not just you). This might help you keep track of things that your collaborators have recently changed.
Last edited by me—See the files or folder that you’ve changed.
Last opened by me—Find files you recently opened, regardless of whether you’ve edited them. This is a great way to get back to items you were recently viewing, if you accidentally closed a tab in your browser, or if you didn’t bookmark something.
Name—See your files in alphabetical order.
Drive documents
Creating a document
Creating a new document is super easy. When you re in Drive just click the "New" button and select what type of document you want to create.
Another way is typing the following 3 different addresses in your browser address field (dependent on what type of document you want to create):
Sharing a document when working with it
Sharing is the essence of collaboration. From each Drive application you will find a sharing button on the top right corner once you are in the applications document. Then you will see the same options you seen when you where sharing a file from Dive interface mentioned above in this page.
Commenting
Commenting in a document is a key feature often used. Just mark the text you want to comment and a little comment symbol will appear on the right. Click it and add you comment.
In Sheets you just mark the cells, rows or columns you want to comment and in the top menu select Insert and then select comment.
If you want to learn more about Google Workspace and its application, bookmark this site. You will find lots of how to instructions and, videos and documents to become a Google Workspace master.