I new and wondered if you could help me a little with understanding Google drive.
I have two computers, and I put my docs on Google drive. If I then work on a doc on my first desktop, as I understand it, that doc is automatically updated on GD.
However, I guess the copy of that doc on the desktop of my second computer is not updated - or is it?
Is everything somehow synced and all three locations are ‘current’.
Also, having opened up GD it looks like it’s just about safe storage and viewing docs, the idea isn’t you work on docs directly on GD?
What sort of documents are you working on? The document should update via the cloud every minute or so. When I share a spreadsheet with my wife, we can both work in it at the same time from different computers.
Have you downloaded and installed the Google Drive program on both computers, and registered both installations with the same account? If so, then you should be able to open a file that’s in your Google Drive folder on one computer, edit and save it, and it should automatically update on the other computer. In my experience, though, there may be a significant delay before it syncs and updates the file.
I ask if you’ve installed the program because I know some people who only access their files by logging onto the web version of their Drive. Thus if they edit a file on one computer, they have to upload the edited version to their Drive in order to be able to access the updated version from another computer. Unless it’s a Google Doc which can be edited and saved in the browser without having to download and then upload.
To clarify Tangent’s explanation, Google Drive can handle two broad classes of files/documents:
Google Docs, which are pseudo-Word, pseudo-Excel or pseudo-PowerPoint documents that you edit directly in the browser. These are maintained directly in your Drive space online, are not normally downloaded to your computers, but can be shared with other people who will view or modify them in their browser. They also offer nifty multi-user access (multiple people modifying the same spreadsheet at the same time). There are features that allow importing or exporting a Word or Excel file on your computer, but this is a single-shot import or export (no syncing).
Uploaded files, which can be anything (including, but not limited to, a .ZIP, a .JPEG, a .DOCX or a .XLSX). The functionality for these files is different and evolves from year to year. Right now you can use your browser directly to view (and sometimes edit) many of these files. You can also share them with other people, even if they don’t have a Google account.
For the latter category, there is also a Google Drive program that you can install on your computers. You configure this program by giving it your Google identity, then pointing to folders on each computer that are to be kept in sync. Any file you place there is automatically uploaded to your Drive, where it can be viewed online. It is also downloaded to the corresponding folder on your other computers. This is very similar to what Dropbox does.