Settings for sharing a Google Doc

Need help sharing your Google Doc? Here are some instructions to help you do so correctly and other tips of extra features and ways for people to access your doc.

1) Firstly, open up a new Google Doc or an existing one that you would like to share

2) Once on your Google Doc, click on the “share” button, which is placed on the top right hand corner of your screen 

3) Once you have selected the “share” button a menu such as the following will appear.

To simply share it with one of your classmates or teachers, type in their email address on the search bar. When you do select a person (as shown below) there will be a box which appears named “add note” . You can use this make any pointers or notifications to your teacher about your assignment or task that you have completed

4) Your Google Doc has now successfully shared with the person and will send an email notification to them. They can access your doc through this notification email or through the 'Shared with Me' in Google Drive.

Extra Features:

View Only
There is an option to make your documents editable and non-editable for the person you’re are sharing the document with. To select these option, select the icon representing a pen, which is to the immediate right of “add more people” box and a drop down box will appear.
The symbol will change according to the option which you choose. An eye for “can view” and a comment box for “can comment”.

More assurance
If you require a bit more assurance on your sharing settings select the tab at the bottom most right corner of the main settings menu named “advanced” and that will take you to the menu shown here.

Link Sharing Options

You can also share the doc through a link.

At the top right hand corner of the main menu for sharing there if an icon named “get sharable link” as shown below.

When you share a link to a file, you can control how widely the file is shared. These options depend on if your Google Account is through work, school, or Gmail. Once you have selected this you can go the “advanced settings” (as mentioned before) and click on the first table under the title “who has access”. 

If you click on the blue option “change” the following menu will appear. 

From here you can select who can have access to the link or turn the link off so only specific people can have access. You can also determine whether these people can edit your document by pressing on the blue option “Can View”.

Once you have adjusted the settings of how your document is going to be shared simply save your changes and press the blue tab “send” in the main menu (as shown below)

Written by Chanumi Sirithunga