Teaching you how to improve the efficiency of your office work! ~How to use Google Workspace [Beginner's Edition]~

Hello! This is Fujii from the sales department

Google Workspace Beyond's internal business tool, in three parts: beginner, intermediate, and advanced!

This time, we will be introducing how to use Google Workspace - beginner level

What is Google Workspace?

First, let me give you an overview of Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a groupware provided by Google that allows you to manage emails, calendars, shared files, and more all from your browser

The advantages of managing it on a browser are:

- Accessible from anywhere with an internet-connected device

・File management can be done with Google Drive, so you don't have to worry about NAS management or storage corruption

- Real-time collaborative editing of spreadsheets, slides, etc

etc

Now, let's take a look at how to use each tool!

Gmail

It's managed on your browser, so you can access your email from any device

The mail server is on the cloud, so there is no need to manage an on-premise server

Also, if you want to increase your server capacity, you can upgrade simply by changing your plan on your browser

Security measures

By enabling [Enhanced scanning before sending emails], Gmail will detect emails that may be phishing

It then scans attachments in a virtual environment called a security sandbox to identify harmful attachments and prevent virus infection

calendar

Google Calendar is a feature that is almost a must-have for anyone using Google Workspace

Google Calendar can be integrated with many Google tools, and if you master the integration, you can significantly reduce the time you spend on administrative work

Now, let's take a look at the features of Google Calendar

Calendar sharing

The biggest advantage of Google Calendar is that it's easy to share

You can check other people's schedules alongside your own, making schedule management a breeze

When deciding on a meeting date and time at our company, we can check each member's calendar and pinpoint the exact time by asking, "How about starting at XX on XX?" This means that even meetings with multiple people don't take long to arrange a date and time

Issuing a Google Meet URL

This is a very useful feature that is very useful at our company, which employs hybrid work, and allows you to issue a Google Meet URL at the same time as registering an event

▼Click here to learn how to issue a URL

① Click the [Create] → [Event] button on Google Calendar

② Add a title

③ Enter the names of the members you want to join the meeting in the [Add Guests] field

④Click [Add Google Meet video conferencing]

With this setting, a Google Meet URL will be issued at the same time as registering the calendar

In my opinion, the advantage of having the calendar and Google Meet URL linked is that you don't have to search for the URL every time you have a meeting!

When sharing URLs via email or chat, it was time-consuming to search for which email contained the meeting URL..

However, since switching to Google Workspace, I can simply open the URL from the calendar when the meeting time approaches, which saves me a lot of time

Our company uses a hybrid work system, where employees can decide their own remote work days (with some exceptions), so we don't know who will be in the office and who will be remote until the day itself. However, by registering the Google Meet URL from the beginning when adding employees to the calendar, we can get started smoothly even if there are remote employees on the day

Shift management

Google Calendar can also be used for shift management

It is used in combination with Google Calendar and Google Forms

↓Click here for instructions on how to use it

①Create a survey form for shift submission using Google Forms

② When employees fill out the form, the data is automatically tallied in a spreadsheet

③ Confirmed shifts are reflected in Google Calendar

Everything from collecting shifts to updating them can be done on Google Workspace

Google Forms can be accessed via a URL, so you can respond from any device

In addition, if there are shift changes, all you need to do is change the calendar, which is easy to do, and if you set it up so that all members' calendars can be viewed, you can also check if there are any days when there are not enough staff

Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides

Like Google Calendar, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are designed to be shared

Collaborative editing

A particularly useful feature here is collaborative editing

Members who have been granted editing rights can collaborate in real time

At our company, we often use it during Google Meet meetings, where everyone opens the same spreadsheet and discusses things, and we input decisions made in the meeting in real time, so that documents can be completed on the spot

When it comes to collaborative editing, some people may worry that data will be edited without their knowledge, but administrators can grant each member permission to view and edit to the extent that they can, so it is possible to set it so that no one other than themselves can edit

 Microsoft 365 compatibility

If you want to transfer data stored in Microsoft 365 tools to Google Workspace, you can upload it to Google Drive in Microsoft 365 format

Don't worry, there's no need to copy and paste each piece of data to migrate it

Google Drive

Google makes it easy to share data, and it also has strong security features because you can set viewing and editing permissions for each piece of data

There are two types of drives: My Drive, which only you can see, and Shared Drive, which you can share with members

Authorization

There are five ways to grant permissions to members of a shared drive:

① Viewer

→ Viewing only

② Comment poster

→ You can view and comment on files (you can leave comments on the contents of the file, not edit it)

③Contributor

→ In addition to the functions of a commenter, you can also create files and folders, and add or remove users and groups from specific files

④Content Manager

→ In addition to the functions of a contributor, you can also move or delete files and folders within a shared drive

⑤Administrator

→ In addition to the functions of a content manager, you can also configure settings related to shared drives in general, such as changing member access levels and deleting shared drives

As mentioned above, you can set detailed access permissions for each member, which helps protect data from loss or tampering

 

Next time, we will bring you some useful tips for using Google Workspace - Intermediate level, so stay tuned!

We also provide support for implementing Google Workspace, so please feel free to contact us

Google Workspace (GWS) implementation support and support services

*This information is current as of January 9, 2025. For the latest information, please visit the official Google Workspace website