Use Google Drive with ZeroTwo

The Google Drive connector lets ZeroTwo search your Drive and work with the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files in it. Separately, you can copy Drive files and folders into a project. This article covers both.

What ZeroTwo can do with Drive

The connector's tools fall into these groups. Open Google Drive under Installed to see the exact list for your account.

• Find files: search, recently used documents, folder contents and a list of your drives.
• Read: document text, tables and comments; spreadsheet cells, ranges, metadata, comments and row search; presentation outlines, slide text, tables, comments and thumbnails.
• Edit: batch updates to documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
• Create and import: new files and presentations, and imports of documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
• Export: export a Google Docs, Sheets or Slides file to another format.

Connect Google Drive

1. Open Customize > Connectors and select Connect on Google Drive.
2. In the dialog titled "Use Google Drive in ZeroTwo", select Connect, then sign in with Google and approve the request.
3. You return to ZeroTwo and Google Drive appears under Installed.

ZeroTwo asks Google for your email, your basic profile and the drive scope. Because the connector can change files as well as read them, consider setting its editing tools to Needs approval (see Control what ZeroTwo can do in a connected app).

You connect Drive with your own Google account, so ZeroTwo can only work with what that account can open.

Ask ZeroTwo about your files

Describe the file or the job in a chat. To make sure ZeroTwo uses Drive, mention it by typing @Google Drive in your message. For example:

• @Google Drive Show me my recent Google Drive files
• @Google Drive Find documents in my Drive
• @Google Drive Summarize the contents of [Google Doc name]
• @Google Drive Create a new Google Sheet for [purpose]

For more structured help, install the Google Drive plugin from Customize > Plugins. It adds skills for Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive comments. Its guidance has ZeroTwo find the right file first, and treats text extraction from other file types, such as PDFs and images, as best effort.

Copy Drive files into a project

1. Open the project and choose Add sources, then Google Drive.
2. In the dialog "Add from Google Drive", paste a link into the Paste URL box. It accepts links to a Doc, Sheet or Slides file, a Drive file link, or a Drive folder.
3. Select Add.

If Drive is not connected yet, ZeroTwo opens the connect dialog instead.

• The project gets a copy. Docs are saved as .docx, Sheets as .xlsx and Slides as .pptx; other Google file types are saved as PDF, and regular files such as PDFs are copied as they are. ZeroTwo does not refresh the copy when you later edit the file in Drive.
• For a folder, ZeroTwo reads the first 25 items and skips any nested folders.

Browse Drive in the Library

If the Google Drive library view is turned on for your account, connecting Drive adds a Google Drive entry to the Spaces sidebar. It opens a browser with Recent, My Drive and Shared with me tabs, and each file's menu offers Hide, Chat about this, Download and Rename (rename only when you can edit the file). When the view is on and Drive is connected, Drive files also appear when you type @ in the message box. This view is switched on per account, so you may not see it yet; the connector works in chat either way.

If something is not working

• Open Google Drive under Installed. "Connection issue" means you need to sign in again: select Connect.
• If a project import says "Unsupported Google Drive URL", paste a link to a Doc, Sheet, Slide, file or folder.
• To stop ZeroTwo using Drive, switch it off in Settings > Plugins > Connectors, or disconnect it from its page.

For how Google data is handled, see How ZeroTwo handles your Google account data.