Viewing and real-time collaboration
You can view Google documents that you’ve created and that have been shared with you through the Drive app on your iPhone or iPad. Every time you open a document, it’ll update to the latest version.
The Drive app uses a native viewer for your Google documents, which means you can view and edit them right in the app, not in a web browser.
When you’re viewing a document, you can see others who are looking at or editing the document by tapping the Current Viewers button in the top-right corner of the screen. If a collaborator is actively working on it, you will see their changes being made in real time.
A few things to remember when viewing Google documents in the Drive app:
- Tables, images, and drawings in your document can all be viewed through the app.
- Links within your text will work in viewing mode, but not in editing mode.
- To zoom into your document, you can pinch-to-zoom (both viewing and editing mode) or double-tap (viewing mode only).
Editing with the Drive app
You can edit your Google documents within the Drive app whenever your iPhone or iPad has an Internet connection. Editing is available in all supported languages, including those with right-to-left text.
To begin editing a Google document, touch its name in your Drive and touch the place in your document where you’d like to edit text. To stop editing and enter view-only mode, press the View button in the top-right corner of the screen. If you've pressed the "View" button, you can press the Edit button to continue editing.
FormattingWhen you’re in edit mode, the toolbar at the top of your document lets you make formatting changes like bolding and underlining text, changing your font style and color, and creating bulleted lists.
- Fonts allows you to change font style and size, as well as text color and background color.
- Bold, Italicize, and Underline change the text formatting.
- Align lets you align your text to the left, right, and center, or to justify it on either side.
- Bullets and Numbering add lists to your document.
- Decrease Indent and Increase Indent let you modify the indentation of your paragraphs.
- To select a word, double tap it or touch, hold, and tap Select in the resulting menu. Use the blue markers to expand your text selection.
- Options to Select, Select All, and Paste will be shown when you touch and hold any place within your document.
- Options to Cut, Copy, and Paste text within your document will be shown when you select a section of your text. Pasted text will lose original formatting and switch to the formatting of the surrounding text.
- On your iPhone, shake your phone to bring up the Undo option.
- On your iPad, use the Undo button in the top-left corner of your screen.
The Drive app currently doesn’t support editing images and tables.