December 2021 Technology Newsletter
By: Michael Kealy
Happy Holidays from the Technology Department!
Google Chat
After a discussion with administration a decision has been made to prohibit student use of Google Chat in the new year. Google Chat for students will be disabled sometime during the December holiday break.
REMINDER: Refrain From Using Free Wi-Fi To Access District Data
Happy Holidays!
Google Updates
Prevent unwanted invitations from being added to your calendar
What’s changing
Google improved the "Automatically add invitations" setting to help prevent unwanted invitations from being added to your calendar. You can now choose to either:
- Always have invitations automatically added
- Only have them automatically added if you have RSVP’d in the email event invitation.
These settings allow you to prevent invitations from automatically being added to your calendar or to be visible for others who you've shared your calendar with
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it matters
These additional controls can help you manage your calendar with less manual work by ensuring unwanted events don't appear, and you see only the events that are important to you.
Additional details
- If you choose to only have events added if you RSVP, you’ll see an additional option to allow those who have permission to view or edit your events to see all invitations.
- When you change the setting, it only determines whether future events are added to your calendar. Any events that are already on the calendar will remain visible unless you delete them.
- If you choose to only add events when you RSVP, you’ll receive an email invitation to all events, even if the organizer chooses not to send one. This will help prevent you from missing events. Note that this doesn’t apply to updates, only to invitations.
- We've moved the notification option ("Yes, but only notify me if I've responded Yes or Maybe") into the notifications section to help you better manage when you get notifications.
- Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
- Available to users with personal Google Accounts
More details on migration of existing multiple-location Google Drive files to shortcuts and other improvements for shortcuts
What’s changing
Last year, Google announced improvements for shortcuts in Google Drive. Shortcuts simplify file and folder structures in Drive by creating pointers to items, rather than having items which existed in multiple locations.
At that time, we also mentioned that we would be migrating existing files in multiple locations to shortcuts in 2021. This migration will now happen in 2022—see below for more information on the updated timeline:
- Google Drive end users will begin seeing a banner in Google Drive on web and mobile notifying them of the migration. No additional action is required, the migration will take place automatically.
- This applies to all Google Workspace users and users with personal Google accounts.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
New shortcut behavior for items stored in multiple locations
We’re replacing files and folders that are stored in multiple folders in Google Drive with shortcuts. This change simplifies your folder and file structures and helps reduce confusion around files with multiple parent folder locations.
When a file is replaced with a shortcut:
- One location is preserved for files or folders currently contained in multiple locations. All other instances of the item will be replaced with a shortcut.
- Ownership and sharing permissions for files and folders are preserved.
- Admins can view a record of these events and changes in the Admin audit log.
Several weeks before the migration in your organization, end users will see banners in Google Drive notifying them of the change. This process is automatic and requires no action from your end users. After the replacement, users can move their file or folder to another location or add a shortcut in another location.
Additional details
Shortcut creations using Drive for Desktop
Previously, when using Backup and Sync to connect with a computer, it was possible to add a folder to an additional location using the “Shift+Z” function. Going forward, once all users have fully migrated to Drive for Desktop, the Shift+Z behavior will create shortcuts instead of a folder living in multiple locations.
Recent improvements to shortcuts in Google Drive
As we continue to improve Google Drive, we’ve given our users more options to store and organize their files.
To provide our users with more information about the file a shortcut points to, we’ve added more information in the details window. Depending on sharing permissions, you’ll see information such as:
- Who has access to the file and whether the file can be downloaded,
- The size of the file and storage used,
- The location of the original file,
- Who created the file and the last modification, and more.
These updates are fully available on Google Drive for web — we will provide an update on the Workspace Updates Blog when they become available for Google Drive on mobile devices.
Additionally, because the original file’s permissions don’t automatically update when you create a shortcut, we will be adding prompts for users in the next few weeks to ensure your permissions are set how you want to. Previously, when you added a shortcut to a folder, users with access to the folder weren’t automatically granted access to the file at the other end of the shortcut. Now, when you create a shortcut, you’ll be prompted to give impacted users access.
Getting started
- End users:
- Beginning early 2022, you’ll see a banner in Google Drive on web and mobile notifying you of the migration. No additional action is required, the migration will take place automatically.
- Visit the Help Center to learn more about finding files and folders with Google Drive shortcuts, organizing your files in Google Drive, and upcoming changes to Google Drive sync clients.
- Users with personal Google accounts: Visit the Help Center to learn more about shortcuts replacing files and folders stored in multiple locations.
Availability
- Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
- Available to users with personal Google accounts
Michael Kealy
Beacon City School District
Email: kealy.m@beaconk12.org
Website: https://www.beaconk12.org/Page/43
Location: 101 Matteawan Road, Beacon, NY, USA
Phone: 845-838-6900
Twitter: @techkealy