What is Google Drive?
Google Drive is an online storage service provided by Google. It allows you to create and edit files, as well as share them with other users.
Using Google Drive with a university account.
At the University of Tokyo, Google’s “Google Workspace” is provided as “ECCS Cloud Email”. Since Google Drive is a part of this suite, members of the University of Tokyo can use Google Drive with their ECCS Cloud Email accounts.
ECCS Cloud Email is provided through an organizational contract, so it has differences from personal Google accounts.
- With personal Google accounts, the free storage limit is up to 15GB, but with ECCS Cloud Email, you can use up to 100GB without any cost.
- By paying a usage fee, it is possible to use storage capacity exceeding 100GB. For more details, please refer to the “ECCS Storage Management System (in Japanese)” page.
- When sharing files on Google Drive, it is possible to set them to be shared only with ECCS Cloud Email accounts.
- You can use a system called “Shared Drives,”, which is suitable for jointly managing files with a team or within an organization.
- For details about the “Shared Drives” feature and its differences from the regular Google Drive (My Drive), please refer to “About the “Shared Drive” of Google Drive” page.
- Due to the storage capacity considerations, there are restrictions on the creation and management of Shared Drives. For more details, please refer to the “ECCS Storage Management System (in Japanese)” page.
Video about Google Drive
This page also explains the basic content of Google Drive in a video format.
Setup Procedures
Opening Google Drive in a Browser
Please access Google Drive through the following link.
When accessing Google Drive, if you are not logged in, you will be prompted to do so. Please refer to the “Initial Setup Procedures” section on the ECCS Cloud Email page for login instructions.
Creating, Editing, Uploading, and Downloading Files
For instructions on how to create, edit, upload, and download files, please refer to the following page.
Basic Usage of Google Drive (in Japanese)
Sharing Files
For instructions on how to share files on Google Drive, please refer to the following page.
Sharing Files on Google Drive (in Japanese)
In addition, the following page explains the recommended settings for sharing files on Google Drive for each use case. Please refer to it as well.
Recommended Settings for Sharing Files on Google Drive (in Japanese)
Others
About File Formats in Google Drive
Files created on Google Drive will be in formats unique to Google’s own services, as follows.
- Google Docs: Corresponds to Microsoft Word
- Google Sheets: Corresponds to Microsoft Excel
- Google Slides: Corresponds to Microsoft PowerPoint
Each of these formats can be converted to the corresponding Microsoft Office format for download. Additionally, it is possible to edit Microsoft Office format files that have been uploaded, using Google’s services.
However, they are not fully compatible. Viewing and editing Microsoft Office format files on Google services may result in a corrupted appearance and loss of information due to features that Google services do not support. If you use Google Drive as your main file system, it is the smoothest way to create and edit files on Google services, as you can use them without any format conversion.
About Apps and Using Offline
The page titled “About Google Drive Apps and Using Offline (in Japanese)” explains about the Google Drive app, as well as the features for using Google Drive files offline.