How to Use Keyboard Shortcuts on Google Drive

Most of what you do with your Google account gets saved in your Google Drive including messages in Gmail and your Android backups as well as files you’ve manually uploaded to this cloud storage platform. If you generally use Google Drive on your computer, your work should be even more efficient with keyboard shortcuts as they make it easier to get around and take action on the files you’re working on.

In this post, we’ll help you understand all the ways you can use keyboard shortcuts to work around Google Drive.

How to use keyboard shortcuts on Google Drive

The following is the list of keyboard shortcuts you can use to get things done inside Google Drive.

1. Move around Google Drive

The keyboard shortcuts listed below will help you navigate through your screen when you launch Google Drive. You can view the navigation panel, open items in different views, see details, view download/upload status, and access preview mode using these shortcuts.

Shortcut action	On Windows and Mac
Open navigation panel or folders list	G then N G then F
Open items view	G then I
Toggle between list view and grid view	V
Access details pane	G then D
Go to the top of the app	G then T
View download status	G then A
View upload status	G then U
Toggle the details pane on/off	D
Toggle the activity pane on/off	I
Close preview mode	Esc
Play/pause preview mode	Space
Zoom in preview mode	+ or =
Zoom out preview mode	/

2. Select files and folders

To select one or multiple files and folders, you can use these shortcuts inside Google Drive. You can select one item, multiple items, or all items in a folder with these shortcuts.

Shortcut action	On Windows and Mac
Select an item or unselect it	X
Select item below	Down arrow or J
Select item above	Up arrow or K
Select the item on the right	Right arrow or L
Select the item on the left	Left arrow or H
Continuing selecting downwards	Shift + Download arrow
Continuing selecting upwards	Shift + Up arrow
Continuing selecting rightwards	Shift + Right arrow
Continuing selecting leftwards	Shift + Left arrow
Select all items	Shift + A
Deselect all items	Shift + N

3. Execute an action of selected items

If you’ve selected a bunch of files and folders, this set of commands will let you take different actions depending on what you want to do with them. You can open an item, copy and paste it from one location to another, copy item URLs, create shortcuts, rename files, share them, and mark them as favorites with these shortcuts.

Shortcut action	On Windows	On Mac
Open the select item(s)	Enter or O	Return or O
Open the item in a new tab	Ctrl + Enter	⌘ + Return
Copy an item	Ctrl + C	⌘ + C
Cut an item	Ctrl + X	⌘ + X
Paste an item	Ctrl + C	⌘ + V
Copy an item URL to the clipboard	Ctrl + C	⌘ + C
Copy an item title to the clipboard	Ctrl + Shift + C	⌘ + Shift + C
Create an item shortcut within Drive	Ctrl + Shift + V	⌘ + Shift + V
Move selected files to a new folder	Z	Z
Mark or unmark the item with a star	S	S
Create shortcuts to selected files	Shift + Z	Shift + Z
Share item	.	.
Rename the item	N	N
Remove items you’ve selected	# or Delete	# or Fn + Delete
Undo the last action	Ctrl + Z	⌘ + Z
Redo undone action	Ctrl + Shift + Z	⌘ + Shift + Z

Related: What is Drive on Android?

4. Move around with items selected

If you have selected a group of files and folders and you want to move around the screen without unmarking this selection, the following shortcuts should help you navigate around your Drive with ease.

Shortcut action	On Windows and Chrome OS	On Mac
Move downwards with selection	Ctrl + Down arrow	⌘ + Down arrow
Move upwards with selection	Ctrl + Up arrow	⌘ + Up arrow
Movie rightwards with selection	Ctrl + Right arrow	⌘ + Right arrow
Move leftwards with selection	Ctrl + Left arrow	⌘ + Left arrow

5. Make new files and folders

The following shortcuts can be used to create new files and folders inside your Drive. You can use them to create new documents, presentations, spreadsheets, drawings, forms, and folders.

Shortcut action	On Windows and Mac
Create a Folder	Shift + F
Create a document	Shift + T
Create a presentation	Shift + P
Create a spreadsheet	Shift + S
Create a drawing	Shift + D
Create a form	Shift + O

6. Open menus and launch actions

To access different menus inside Google Drive without a mouse, you can use these keyboard shortcuts on your computer. With these shortcuts, you can access these menus Create, More, Folder actions, Sort, and Settings as well as find an item, search your Drive, or Print something directly from Google Drive.

Shortcut action	On Windows	On Mac
Open the Create menu	C	C
Open the More actions menu	A	A
Open the Current folder actions menu	F	F
Open Sort menu	R	R
Open Settings menu	T	T
Change next visual density	Q then Q	Q then Q
Find/find next	Ctrl + F	⌘ + F
Print	Ctrl + P	⌘ + P
Show the last message	M	M
Search your Google Drive	/	/

How to view all shortcuts list on Google Drive

Since there are a ton of shortcuts that can be used with Google Drive, remembering every single one of them could be tough. That’s why the service lets you view all the keyboard shortcuts on Google Drive with a single keyboard shortcut for easy access.

To view all the keyboard shortcuts for Google Drive, open Google Drive on the web.
Inside Drive, you use the following shortcuts based on the device you’re using:
On Windows and Chrome OS: Ctrl + /
On Mac: ⌘ + /

How to use Cut, Copy, and Paste shortcuts on Google Drive

When interacting with files on your computer, you likely use a keyboard shortcut the most when copying and pasting files from one location to the other. You can use these shortcuts with Google Drive on the web as long as you’re running Google Chrome on your computer. The cut, copy, and paste keyboard shortcuts won’t work if you open Drive on other web browsers like Firefox or Safari.

To copy files within Drive, you can use:
On Windows: Ctrl + C
On Mac: ⌘ + C
To cut files within Drive, you can use:
On Windows: Ctrl + X
On Mac: ⌘ + X
To paste files within Drive, you can use:
On Windows: Ctrl + V
On Mac: ⌘ + V