Google Drive has 1,000,000,000+ active users.

But only a few use the platform effectively.

Here are 9 tips that you'll wish you knew sooner:

1. Search within images

A simple search for word image has, it will fetch you appropriate images.

It even recognizes the text in images.

2. Open PDF and text images as a text document

It is annoying when you get documents that you have to edit in PDF formats.

A hidden Google Drive hack solves this problem.

Upload the PDF or image file in Google Drive and open it with Google Docs.

3. Use the activity pane to get a history of all the changes

The activity pane allows you to keep an eye on all the changes made to a file by anyone.

To view this, select the file or folder and press ‘i’ on your keyboard or the ‘i’ icon on the top left of the home screen.

4. Create a force copy link

Force copy link enables the copy of the file to retain the source file in its original location.

All you need to do is copy the link to the original file in the browser.

Replace the text after the last slash with the word "copy"