Drive: Change Display and Settings — Adjust Item View, Access Items Offline, and See Activity Updates

Customizing your display and settings gives you the freedom and flexibility to choose how you want your Drive to work and can help make Drive even more useful for you.

In this video, you will change the display and settings for Google Drive.

You’ll also learn how to view file or folder details.

There are two ways to view folders and files in Drive: grid view...

or list view.

When viewing files or folders in Drive, select your preferred layout.

You can also view details about individual files and folders, including any recent activity.

Viewing details about a file might be useful, if you want to see when it was last modified, to confirm that the file contains the most recent information.

Choose a file or folder and view details such as the file type, location, and the date the file was last modified.

You can also see a thumbnail image of the file.

Or, view recent activity for a file or folder...

including the date and time of recent edits, who made the edits, and what type of edit was made.

Sometimes you may need access to your files when you’re offline, such as when you’re in a location with no Wi-Fi. But, you can still access Google Drive when you don’t have access to the internet by making your files and folders available when you’re offline.

First, add the Google Docs offline extension to Chrome.

Then, in your Drive, go to your settings and make Drive available offline.

This syncs your files and folders to your device.

If you want to be notified when other users make changes to the files or folders you’ve shared, or when files or folders are shared with you, turn on notifications for Drive.

You will be notified in your browser or by email when content is added, edited, commented on, deleted, or shared.

Then, you can access the file or folder that’s been shared or changed directly from your email.