You will learn how to work with files on a Chromebook. Chromebooks are primarily designed to be used on the web, and they utilize Google's cloud storage; however, there are other options for storing your files. Because Chromebooks utilize Google Drive, any documents such as Docs, Slides, or Sheets will be automatically saved in Drive as you work on them. All you'll need to do is organize those files into your Drive folder.

There may be times, however, when you would like to save a file that was created in Google Drive onto your device, or perhaps you would like to save a non-Google file from the web, like a PDF or an image, to your device or your Drive. Let's see how to do that.

Before we view a brief video, I would like to point out that in order to activate the save options on a file, you simply use a two-finger click to open the menu on a Chromebook that contains the save option. Let's see it in action. Here we have a PDF that's been located on the web. I'm going to open the save menu, and here I have the choice of saving it in my Drive, as you see unfolded on the left there, or up in my files and downloads, which is the hard drive of the device.

I've chosen the hard drive; I hit save, and now I can see that the file was downloaded to my Chromebook. I could also save this PDF from the web into my Drive. To do that, I would select Google Drive and then find the specific spot within my Drive where I would like to store this file.

Once files are saved, either in your Drive or on your Chromebook's hard drive, you can move files from one location to the other by selecting a file and dragging it to the new save space. Accessing your stored files on a Chromebook is simple. You can open the launcher in your lower left to see all apps. From that screen, you can open the files interface, or for streamlined access, you can two-finger click on the trackpad to bring up the menu that will allow you to pin this particular app to your shelf. This places the files icon at the bottom of your screen for easy access.

Now you know how to work with files on a Chromebook. You can help your students stay organized with these same tips!