Saving in Google Drive - Folders

By default, when you create a Google Doc, it just saves it to your Google Drive. Multiply that by all your files (and everything shared with you), and you're not going to be able to find anything pretty soon.

I'll detail two ways to create folders and move files into them - the on-the-fly method for those of us who forget to set up the folder before we make the file, and the from-scratch method for those people who plan ahead. (I do not include myself in that group, but I know they exist.)

Method One - From Google Docs

Once you've created the Google Doc, it will be automatically saved in Google Drive.

To create a new folder and move the file there, click on the Folder icon (Move to...) next to the file name in the upper left corner. It will bring up your Google Drive. Click on the Folder icon with the Plus sign.

Name the Folder (1) and click on the Check sign.

This creates the new folder. Finally, click on Move here and your file will be relocated into the newly-created folder.

Of course, you can maneuver to a previous folder and create a sub-folder (a folder within a folder) ad infinitum.

Method Two - From Google Drive

1. For those Plan Ahead people, go to Google Drive and click NEW (1) and then  click on the Folder icon with the Plus sign (2).

2. Name (1) and then create (2) the new folder.

3. After you create your new Google Doc,  to move it to the destined folder, click on the Folder icon (Move to...) next to the file name in the upper left corner. It will bring up your Google Drive. 

 4. Scroll down to your newly-created folder, click on it and then hit Move.

5. And you will see a briefly displayed message confirming that your file has been moved.

Of course, once you have already created a folder, you can just use steps 4 & 5 over and over to move files to their proper place.

Save a file in 2 different folders in Google Drive

For Capstone research I have Google folders with material for over 70 topics which I happily share with students if they need some help.

Not surprisingly, there's a great deal of overlap, and some articles are appropriate for several different topics.

If you'd like to share the files among several folders without having to make multiple copies, here's how to do it.

Navigate to the file you wish to share in Google Drive; highlight it and click Shift + Z

Click on the arrow at the end of My Drive.

Navigate to the folder in which you also wish to save the file.

Click Add.

Done!