Quickly Save Files in Google Drive

Google recently launched the “Save to Drive” button that enables users to save files directly from a website. This button can be added to any website to allow site visitors to save files from the website to their personal Google Drive accounts. This launch is part of Google’s efforts of expanding its online storage. According to Google, the button is now being used in the following websites: Bigstock, Delta Dental, Fotolia, O’Reilly, Outbox, Ultimate Software, and Zen Payroll.

The Save to Drive button also introduces new ways to save content from the web to the user’s Google Drive account. You can save files without saving them to your computer. This button can save and image of an entire webpage, HTML source code, and a Web archive (.mht). After saving a file, you can open the file, rename, view it in your Drive list, add it to a folder, or share the file with others.

Here are the features of the Save to Drive button:

1. Easy saving of files. Bank statements, product manuals, reports, and any electronic document over the internet can be easily saved using the Save to Drive button. The button lets you save files with just a click for websites where this button is available.

2. Supports a wide range of file types. Aside from the usual file types of major attachments such as PDFs (.pdf), Microsoft Office files (e.g. .doc, .xls, .ppt), and image file types (e.g. .jpg, .png, .gif), the Save to Drive button can save videos, graphics, archives (.zip and .rar), markup and code, and more. You can view any file in Google Drive by clicking the file’s title or the link shared with you. You can also opt to preview a file before opening it which is a great way to scan through numerous files saved in Google Drive.

3. Multiple buttons per page. A website owner can place multiple Save buttons on the same page. This is useful especially if the website has long pages.

4. Customizable. The Save to Drive button can be customized with several attributes. You can put these attributes on any HTML element but the most used elements are div, span, or button. There are slight differences in the display among these elements when a webpage is loading since the browser renders the element before the Save to Drive JavaScript re-renders the element.

5. Supports the same browsers as Google Drive. The Save to Drive button is compatible to the browsers supporting Google Drive. The buttons supports the recent versions of the following: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer (IE9 and IE10).

The Save to Drive button promotes the use of cloud storage. With this development, a user forgoes saving files to the desktop, and instead, uses a personal online storage site. Google sees that the desktop is losing its usability and is paving the way ahead for computing built on online platforms.