Using Icons to Help Organize Google Drive Folders

Remember what your Google Drive looked like when you first started using it? It was neat, organized, and free of clutter. As you began to use Drive more frequently, you probably started creating folders and perhaps you are now looking for a way to organize them. In addition to color coding your files, you can add emojis and other symbols to your folders to help you identify them quickly and easily.

The first thing you need to do is open your Drive and identify a folder that you would like to add a symbol or emoji to. Make sure the symbol you select is something that helps you remember the contents of the folder. Maybe you use a snowflake for activities that pertain to winter or a test tube for chemistry lessons. All that matters is that your icon makes sense to you. Once you have selected your folder, navigate to one of the sites below, select the symbol you want to use, copy it, edit the name of the folder then paste the icon into the box where the folder name appears.

Symbol and emoji sites:

• Get Emoji
• Emoji Copy
• Copy and Paste Emoji

A Quick Time-saving Google Drive Trick

Here's a handy trick that I picked up from the Google Drive Google+ page today. If you are using Google Drive on your PC or Mac desktop you can now just right-click on a file in your Google Drive folder to share it. This isn't a major change to Google Drive, but if you use the desktop client frequently you might find this method useful.

Use Shared Google Drive Folders to Distribute Assignments to Students

One of the ways that I like to share documents, presentations, and files in Google Drive is through shared folders. By creating a shared folder anytime that I add a new item to it, all of the people that have access to the folder have access to the new item I've added to the folder. This is a great way to distribute assignment descriptors, lab report templates, grading rubrics, reading materials, or videos to your students. At the beginning of a semester create a folder, share it with your students, and then for the whole semester you can distribute assignments to students by just adding new content to the folder. The directions for creating a shared folder are posted below. (Click the images to view them full size). 

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Note: Anything that you create inside the folder will have the same visibility permissions as the folder itself.