Search Like You Talk on Google Drive Plus, Google added a few other 'small but mighty' features in Docs to help you out.
This story originally appeared on PCMag
Google is making it a lot easier to find things saved in Drive.
The cloud storage service now supports Natural Language Processing for search, which "is a fancy way of saying [you can now] 'search like you talk,'" Google DriveProduct Manager Josh Smith wrote in a Tuesday blog post. So, when you're looking for a specific file in Drive on the Web, you can now, for instance, type things like "find my budget spreadsheet from last December," or "show me presentations from Anissa."
"Drive will understand what you mean," and use the keywords you type to find what you're looking for. This feature will get better the more you use it, so go ahead and give it a try next time you need to find something.
You don't have to worry about spelling everything perfectly, either. Drive now has a new autocorrect feature that suggests corrections to misspelled search terms -- just like when you're searching the Web via Google. This new feature should "really help when your brain is moving faster than your fingers," Smith wrote.
Finally, Google has added a few other "small but mighty" features in Docs to help you out, including the ability to split your document into multiple columns. Just head over to the "Format" drop-down menu and choose "Columns" to take advantage of this new formatting option.
Finally, Docs should now play nicer with all types of file formats. Now, when you open, convert and edit non-Google files in Docs, Sheets and Slides, the program will save a copy for you. That way, you'll be able to view or download the non-Google source file in its original format right from the document's Revision History on the Web.
These features are rolling out now, and should reach everyone at some point soon.
It comes after Google in December rolled out a "new search experience" for Drive. For instance, you can now narrow your search to a specific file type -- like PDFs, text documents, spreadsheets, photos, presentations or videos -- right from the search box on iOS, Android and the Web.
