Web applications often lack the keyboard shortcuts you might expect in desktop applications, and up to this point, Google Drive now adds support for common desktop shortcuts.
Google announced in a post that several new keyboard shortcuts are available for manipulating files in Google Drive. Starting with the basics, you can now Ctrl + C to copy, Ctrl + X to cut, and Ctrl + V to paste. If you copy a file, you can also do Ctrl + Shift + V to create a shortcut instead of creating a copy. Finally, selecting a file and clicking Ctrl + Enter will open the file in a new browser tab. If you’re on a Mac, you use the ⌘ key instead of Ctrl.
Shortcuts allow you to move and copy files without digging into Drive menus or right-clicking on files, which can greatly speed up file management. Google also says that copying a file will save its link to your computer’s clipboard, so if you paste the file into an email or other text area (instead of Drive), you’ll get a link to the file.
Google has made other improvements to its Drive and Docs web apps over the past few weeks. Selecting multiple stories at the same time began appearing earlier this week, dropdown slides and table templates arrived in May, and improved support for the Markdown format appeared in March.
The new keyboard shortcuts are rolling out faster than most of the other new Docs and Drive features, as they should be available to everyone within 2-3 days. However, it’s only offered in Drive web apps – it’s easy to get the shortcuts on iPads and Android tablets when the keyboard is connected. Google says that the only supported web browser is Chrome, but other Chromium-based browsers may work.
