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 /

Related: Top 3 Ways to Find or Recover Files on Google Drive

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

Related: How to Delete Files from Google Drive on iPhone

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.

  1. To view all the keyboard shortcuts for Google Drive, open Google Drive on the web.
  2. 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. 

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

That’s all you need to know about using keyboard shortcuts on Google Drive. 

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