Upload files to Google Drive

One of the advantages of using a "cloud service" like Google Drive to store files is that you can access them from anywhere, from any device. You may not have been aware that you can store all kinds of files within Google Drive (not just Google Docs, Sheets and Slides) and use it like a gigantic thumb drive in the cloud.

Here's how to upload individual files:

1. On the computer where your files are stored, open a web browser (Google Chrome works best) and login to your Google Drive
2. Once logged into Google Drive, click the "New" button and select "File upload"
   
   
   
3. Select a file to upload and click "Open"
   
   
4. The file will begin uploading to your Google Drive. You should see a small bar at the bottom showing the progress
   
   
5. Once the upload is completed, you will see the file listed in your Google Drive. The icon of the file will be different than that of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
   
   

Because we are teachers, of course we want to use our time as efficiently as possible. If you have entire folders of files that you would like to upload to your Google Drive, you can also upload those all at once. Google Drive will automatically create a new folder and upload all of the files into that new folder. The only caveat is that, in order to upload an entire folder to Google Drive, you MUST be using Google Chrome to login to your Google Drive (PC or Mac). Using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari will NOT work.

Here's how to upload an entire folder of files

1. On the computer where your files are stored, open Google Chrome and login to your Google Drive
2. Once logged into Google Drive, click the "New" button and select "Folder upload"
   
   
   
3. Select a folder to upload and click "OK"
   
   
4. The entire folder will begin uploading to your Google Drive. You should see a small bar at the bottom showing the progress of each individual file
   
   
5. Once the upload is completed, you will see a new folder listed in your Google Drive. If you open the folder, you should see all of the files that were uploaded
   
   

The question is, "how do I convert my old Word, Excel and PowerPoint files into Google Docs, Sheets and Slides?" Stay tuned...