Despite the growth of high bandwidth internet in recent years, a USB flash drive still is a favorable way to transfer files between multiple computers. It’s generally cheaper as it doesn’t consume any data plan and come in handy especially for internal use.
As you might have known, Google Docs stores a document on the cloud under your Google account which is great for sharing online and a bit more redundant than storing it in a hard drive. But then how to get the document to a computer and transfer it to a flash drive?
In this article, I will show you how to save a Google Docs document and store it on a USB flash drive.
1. First, plug in a flash drive to your computer. It should appear as USB Drive under File Explorer. Make sure it has enough space for the document later.
2. Next, open the document on Google Docs.
3. Navigate to File > Download Microsoft Word (.docx). You may choose different formats, such as PDF, RTF, and ODT if needed.
4. When the file has been downloaded, open its context menu and select Show in folder.
5. A File Explorer will appear, showing the downloaded document. Right-click on it and click Copy.
6. Locate USB Drive, right-click on the blank area, and hit Paste.
7. The document is now in the flash drive.
8. You may Eject the drive and unplug it from the computer.
In the tutorial above, I suggested downloading the document as a “Microsoft Word” file which means only computers with Microsoft Office installed can render the document. Alternatively, “OpenDocument Format” is a great choice as it is supported on many popular platforms and still allows for editing capabilities.
Another thing that is important to know is document conversion may result in some original settings may go missing and corrupting the document. That is why I still highly recommend sharing Google Docs documents to avoid that issue.
