Clone Folders in Google Drive [Back-up Data to another Google Drive Account].

Do you ever wanted to duplicate a Folder Structure in Google drive !!
              or want to transfer all folders to an other account .

Although 'Make a copy' option is provided in context menu, to clone or duplicate single or multiple files at one in same folder as original. However, similar option is not provided to make a copy of folders with original files and  sub-folders structure.  It is essential feature currently missing in Google drive; more like a copy-paste command in windows explorer.

Depending on the file size, folder structure/hierarchy and limitations for manual renaming of 'copied' files, below given methods may be useful workarounds.

Use 'Make a Copy' Option 

This method has a limited application  in case, Folder does not have too much files  and no  sub-folders in it. As it involves manual renaming of all  'Copied' files to restore their original file names, It is too cumbersome.

Here's how to do it :

1. Share Folder <folder name>  in [Drive-A] to be copied to other google account [Drive-B].

2. Create a 'New folder' in [Drive-B] and name it  <folder name>.

3. Go to 'Shared with me' and open shared folder to select all files listed. Hit 'Make a Copy' given under right click context menu.

          [Note:  Notice the the owner of all copied files is [Drive-B].]

4. Use 'Move to ...' option to shift all copied content to  <folder name> created at Step-2.

5. Rename files to their original names manually by deleting the suffix 'copy of', if desired.

6. Revoke folder sharing as created in Step-1 to complete the whole process for folder cloning.

Using 'Backup and Sync' Desktop app by Google

I used this method to do the task for me for two main reasons. First, It is exactly same as a  'Copy & Paste' folder in traditional windows explorer. Other most important thing is that It preserves all original folder structure as well as filenames. Apart from that It safe, and secure way of doing that without using ant external script or Third-party apps. 

1. To start the process, download and Install latest version of 'Backup & Sync' by Google.
                                            https://www.google.com/drive/download/

2. After install, start application and sign in with existing google account from which 'desired folder/s' has to be copied.

3. Continuous backup is required for this task. Therefore, uncheck the boxes on next screen.

4.  Change google drive sync folder, if needed > Select 'Sync only these folders'. 
          Otherwise all content in google drive would be sync to local folder and may have huge data cost.

5.  Select 'desired folder' with all sub-folders and hit Start.

6.  Wait for Backup and Sync to sync desired folder and structure to the local folder.

7.  Use normal 'Copy and Paste' context menu and Make a Duplicate folder in same drive. Wait for 'Users-Copy' to sync.

 8.  Desired folder is now copied to same Google Drive Account.

Make a Duplicate Folder or Move to other Google Drive Account 

 It is exact same upto Step-6,  Disconnect the source drive account as shown below. Now, Desired folder including all files and sub-folders are  sync'd in local hard disk. 

[Note : Another way of doing it may be, to download a zip file of 'desired folder' directly from web interface of Google drive account [A]. Then, unzip it in same folder location as step-6].

Now, Repeat the same from Step-2 to Step-4. Do not select any folder here in Step -5. Wait for the sync to complete and check the status at web interface of Google Drive [B].

Apart from the methods above, some third party apps do it more conveniently through Google Sheets Add-ons or custom scripts,  but It is better to be safe on  personal data security.

Comparative Analysis of Rates using Conditional Formatting

Highlight Cells values in between Lower and Upper Limits

Have you ever wanted to filter or Highlight items in a dataset  automatically for cells values that falls in between two given limits (USL and LSL) !!. 

It is particularly helpful in Comparative analysis of rates, to get atleast [3] suppliers with lowest prices that falls within a 10% price variation from a list of suppliers. Conditional formatting plays an important role to show the final output as Yellow highlighted cells.

[SMALL] function is used to calculate boundary conditions or as input data for conditional formatting in excel.  Simple excel VBA code can even make it faster if it has to be done for number of times.
Also Read :  Print Large Posters and Banners on standard A4 printers

Download it Here  :   Analysis of Rates | Google Sheets version 

Let us see How to do it in Excel Worksheet : 

Just add three columns descriptions as Nth Sequence, LSL and USL at the end of price data in column R, S & T respectively.

Cell (R4) is a  "Sequence no." (i.e 1,2,3 . ..) to denotes Nth  order of minimum value.  for example, '1' is the lowest value and '2' is second lowest value and so on . . . 

Sample Table with price data from different Suppliers/Make

LSL (Lower specification Limit) formula in Cell (S4) 

                                      S4  =  SMALL(C4:Q4, R4)  . . . [ Calculates the Nth the smallest value]

USL (Upper specification Limit) formula in Cell (T4) 

                                      T4  =  S4+10%*S4              . . . [ for a 10% price variation]

Conditional Formatting on Cell Values between LSL and USL

Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule

Select <Format only Cell that contains> <Cell Value> <Between>

Select Format > Fill > Yellow > OK.

Now, Conditional formatting is applied,  but just two suppliers meets the 10% price band limits at lowest  price as LSL.

Revise Nth Sequence no to '2' for second lowest value as LSL and See the output.

Keep changing sequence no till you get 3 supplier or the conditions fails for price range.

Use below excel VBA code to define Shortcut keys

Sub Min_value_format()
    Dim LSL As String
    Dim USL As String
    Cells(Selection.Row, 18).Select
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "1"
   
    ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=SMALL(RC[-16]:RC[-2],RC[-1])"
   
    ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=RC[-1]+RC[-1]*10%"
    Range(Cells(Selection.Row, 3), Cells(Selection.Row, 17)).Select
   
    Selection.FormatConditions.Add Type:=xlCellValue, Operator:=xlBetween, _
        Formula1:="=$S" & "$" & ActiveCell.Row, Formula2:="=$T" & "$" & ActiveCell.Row
    Selection.FormatConditions(Selection.FormatConditions.Count).SetFirstPriority
    With Selection.FormatConditions(1).Interior
        .PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
        .Color = 65535
        .TintAndShade = 0
    End With
    Selection.FormatConditions(1).StopIfTrue = False
   
End Sub