Google Drive Shortcuts At-A-Glance

Google Drive shortcuts provide such a nice way to save time while working with Docs, Slides, and Sheets. And some of these shortcuts only require one simple keystroke! Such a timesaver!
The only problem?
It can be tough to remember all the different options.
But I have a way to help remember those shortcuts…and save you time!
Today, we’ll take a quick look at:
- how to use these different shortcuts
- a visual tool you can store in your Google Drive so you can remember all of them
So. The Google Drives shortcuts are divided into two main categories…let’s take a closer look:
SHORTCUTS TO CREATE NEW ITEMS
These shortcuts all use the shift key plus a letter to create a new file.
When you are in your Google Drive and want to create a new Google Slide, for example, click shift and p at the same time.
A new Slide will be created automatically, saving you time from navigating to create a new file like usual!
Here are the shortcuts to create new items:

SHORTCUTS ON SELECTED ITEMS
These are my favorite shortcuts because they only require ONE keystroke!
As long as you have an item selected, such as a Google Doc, you can click any of these keys to access the shortcut:

My go-to shortcut is rename!
Just select a file, click the letter n, and you can rename it!
SO much faster than right-clicking on the files, navigating down to rename, and so on!
REMEMBERING ALL THOSE SHORTCUTS
So these are pretty amazing little shortcuts, right?
But it can be tough to memorize all of them. To help with this, I created a little resource for us: Google Drive Shortcuts at a Glance!
These little menus can be stored near the top of your Drive. I named mine 1 and 2 so they would appear at the beginning of my Drive where I can always see them.
Now whenever I’m creating in Drive, I just take a peek to use those shortcuts and save time!!

Would you like a copy for your Google Drive? Please click here: Google Drive Shortcuts At a Glance
Both slides are in one file to make it easy to share with you. To view them as two separate files in your Drive, make a copy and delete the first slide. Now you can store the two separate at-a-glance menus in your Google Drive and save some time!
Looking for more shortcuts? I have another template that I use every day in my Drive…108 custom color swatches! Click here to learn more about them: Google Drive Custom Colors
Thanks for reading! I hope these resources will help save you so much time in your teaching!
Kristen Beakey
I’m an elementary math coach with a passion for sharing beautiful, streamlined solutions to save teachers time. Ladybug’s Teacher Files has been a work of love since 2010. Filled with organization, time-saving ideas, and make and take tech tutorials…I strive to save you time in all aspects of your teaching!