The utility of this neat Google Drive hack isn’t quite clear from the title, but give this tip a chance. Try it out once and you will see the immediate benefit when collaborating with others on Google Drive.
The first thing you need to know about sharing in Google Docs is Visibility Options, which control who can view documents. Your new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in Google Drive are private by default, but from the Share button, you can choose to make your documents visible to certain individuals, anyone with a link to the document. Therefore, the only option available for a compressed email attachment was downloading the file. But now, Google Docs supports those file formats and you can click the View option to open it through Google Docs viewer. After opening it in the Google Docs viewer, it extracts all the content files.
It’s easy to make a copy of any document within your own Google Drive account. But what if you want your collaborators to automatically create copies when they receive share links?
This small tip can come in handy when you want to preserve the original document or template while giving others the flexibility to edit a copy of the document for themselves. It will save them a trip to the File > Make a Copy command on the menu.
Give Users Their Own Copies of Documents
A typical case is a Google Doc that needs to be filled out individually by each respondent. Collaborators can enter the details in their own copy of the document without corrupting the original. Bt notifier for dz09 download pc.
You won’t have to ask them to make a copy. Simply follow these steps and the copy will be made automatically for them. This hack works for all Google Drive tools: Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
- Open the Google Drive document you want to share.
- Click the blue Share button on the top-right of the document.
- In the Share with others dialog, click on the Get shareable link icon. Set the share setting to Edit to update the link. Copy the complete link to your email or any other exchange media.
- Also, click on Advanced. Uncheck the box that says to Notify people. You don’t want them to get the notification email for the shared file. You want to send the link to the shareable document separately. Click OK to save the changes.
- Copy-paste the shared link in an email. Now, delete everything after the forward slash in the link and insert “copy”.
This is how the new link looks now: - Send the email and your work is done. When the recipient clicks on the link, it takes them to their Google Drive screen that prompts them to make a copy of your document.
When they click Make a copy, a local copy of the document is saved on their Google Drive. The original stays preserved in your account.
Looking for more Google Drive tips? Check out these Google Drive tools to get more out of the platform.
Have you tried this method before? In what situation has it helped you or you think it can help you?
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It's funny, because you can just change the link back to edit and It will give you the original document..
This is GENIUS!!! Thank you!
This saved my day! Saw this being done by someone else but I just couldn't do it, or find any tutorial, until I saw yours. Works like a charm!
Isn't it easier just to click on 'view only' when you share a file, and then they can click 'file --> make a copy' and then edit their own copy? Has anyone ever had that not work?
It's not that this doesn't work. It's that often you're trying to make it idiot proof. So if they don't have any option other than to make a copy, you save allllllll sorts of hassle.
You have to remember that people are idiots.
This worked perfectly! Thanks for the tip
I typed 'copy' at the end of the link as suggested and it's still allowing access to the original google sheet. Any suggestions on what might be wrong?
I wasn't able to make this work right. When I sent the link with 'copy' at the end as suggested it was still allowing access to the original google sheet. Any sugestions?
Wow. This is cool.
Can I open one of my docs/spreadsheets/etc in read-only mode?
I would like to view it for reference without having to worry about it being modified.
ale4 Answers
Well, it seems Google Documents has been updated since I wrote my first answer. There's now a button that allows you to enter read-only mode:
At least this button is available in some Google Accounts. Probably a feature that is being rolled out gradually.
Vidar S. RamdalVidar S. RamdalWhen you have 'edit' rights on the document there are no elegant solutions out of the box to switch to a 'read-only' mode temporarily.
After trying out several answers and solutions I have found two solutions that work with the current version (Jun 2018) of google docs (docs, sheets, ..):
Solution #1 (Print Preview mode) Use the /preview endpoint, which is a read-only view.
The only problem with this view is that you cannot use any of the data tools like sorting, filtering etc., which are usually required when you are dealing with sheets/data.
Solution #2 (Create a copy)
This gives you a personal copy in your drive with full permissions but you wouldn't care making edits because it's a copy visible only to you. Once you are done with it you can delete the file and reclaim space from your drive.
It's possible, by creating a shareable link for your document, and opening it in an Incognito/Private window:
Click the Share button while editing the document
In the dialog that opens, click Get shareable link
- Make sure can view is selected.
Then copy the generated URL by pressing Ctrl-C, and click Done - Open a private/incognito window in your browser (usually by pressing Ctrl-Shift-N, or see these instructions on Wikihow)
- Paste the link into the address bar, and press Enter
You now have a read-only version of your document in the private window.
Vidar S. RamdalVidar S. RamdalEspecially when a team uses a Google Docs doc mostly for reference, accidental edits will happen. They'll get tangled in the edit history with intentional edits, making them hard to tease out.
Not exactly what you were asking for: In this situation, it's sensible to switch from Google Docs to Google Sites. Sites is handy for managing a private website of reference-oriented pages. You have to explicitly click to edit a Sites page, so accidental edits don't occur.
That doesn't help with Google Sheets, but Sites might have a 'gadget' that can display content from a Sheet. Sites has lots of gadgets and other features for handling semi-structured information like release notes.
Jerry101Jerry101