Turn custom Drive templates on or off for users

Supported editions for this feature: Business Standard and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Nonprofits; G Suite Basic and G Suite Business.  Compare your edition

To create a custom template, go here instead.

As an administrator, you can set who in your organization can submit custom templates for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. You can also create categories to organize templates. Templates allow your users to quickly create formatted files, such as project plans, budgets, or presentations.

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Turn on custom templates

Allow users in your organization to find and use organization-specific templates from the Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites home screens. When custom templates are turned off, users can’t submit or use custom templates, but they can still use the standard template gallery.

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. In the Admin console, go to Menu and then Appsand thenGoogle Workspaceand thenDrive and Docsand thenTemplates.

    Requires having the Drive and Docs administrator privilege.

  3. Click Template Gallery settings.
  4. Check the Enable custom templates for your organization box.
  5. Click Save.

Create or remove template categories

Set up template categories so users can quickly find relevant templates. For example, you might want separate categories for your marketing, sales, and human resources teams.

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. In the Admin console, go to Menu and then Appsand thenGoogle Workspaceand thenDrive and Docsand thenTemplates.

    Requires having the Drive and Docs administrator privilege.

  3. Click Template Gallery settings.
  4. To add a category:
    1. Click Add a new category.
    2. Enter a category name and click Add.
  5. To remove a category, next to the category, click Remove.

    When you remove a category, you get an option to move its existing templates. If you don’t select a new category, existing templates are listed in the gallery as Uncategorized.

  6. Click Save.

Restrict or moderate custom template submissions

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. In the Admin console, go to Menu and then Appsand thenGoogle Workspaceand thenDrive and Docsand thenTemplates.

    Requires having the Drive and Docs administrator privilege.

  3. Click Template Gallery submission settings.
  4. Select who can submit templates:
    1. Open—Anyone in your organization can add or remove templates without approval.
    2. Moderated—Admins with the Docs Templates privilege get an email request to approve each new template. The request is closed once any admin responds. Approved templates are added to the custom gallery. Rejected templates can be resubmitted.
    3. Restricted—Only admins with the Docs Templates privilege can submit templates.
  5. Click Save.

Allow templates with add-ons

You can pair Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites templates with recommended add-ons. Add-ons are third-party tools that work with Docs editors. For example:

  • A legal template might include an add-on for electronic signatures.
  • A project plan template might include an add-on to create flow charts and other complex diagrams.

When users create a new document from a template, a sidebar shows any paired add-ons. This sidebar makes it easy to find and install the right tools for a task.

To allow add-ons:

  1. Enable add-ons for Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. You can optionally:
  2. If template submissions are Moderated in your organization (see step 8 in the previous section), review any add-ons before you approve templates. Links to paired add-ons are included in the template approval request.

Edit or remove custom templates

You can edit and remove templates you or your users created. To review existing templates, open the template galleries in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. Note: You can’t remove templates in the Google template gallery.

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