Share a final document

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 What you'll learn

How to share the final version of a document with colleagues. Also, how to set permissions to prevent changes to a final document.

What you'll need

About 10 minutes.

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In this tutorial

Before you share the final document Share the document After you share the document

1  Before you share the final document

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1.1 Use Cloud Search to find co-workers

Decide who you want to share the file with and find co-workers using Cloud Search.

1. Sign in to Cloud Search at cloudsearch.google.com.

   If you can't sign in, your account doesn't have Cloud Search. Learn more
2. Search for a person by name.
3. In the result card, click the icons to the right of the person's name to send an email, schedule a meeting, or start a video call.
4. To get other contact options or more reporting information, click the person's name to open their profile information page. 
5. In the profile information page, click how you want to contact the person:
   • To send an email, click Email  or the person's email address.
   • To set up a meeting, click Schedule .
   • To chat, click Chat .
   • To start a video call, click Video call .
6. To contact the person's manager or direct reports, click the name of the manager or report to open their profile information page.

1.2 Decide where to share the document from

If you’re sharing with a few specific people, you can add it to your own Drive and share it from there.

If your organization uses shared drives, you can add it to your shared drive and share it with everyone who has access to the shared drive.

To share the document more widely with your entire organization or to share it publicly, add it to Google Sites.

Add the document to Drive:

1. Go to Drive.
2. Click  NewFile upload or Folder upload, and then choose the file or folder you want to upload.
3. Click Open.

 

Add the document to a shared drive:

Requires at least Contributor access

Any files you add are owned by the team. If you leave the shared drive, your files remain.

1. On the left, click a shared drive.
2. Drag an existing file (that you own*) from your computer or from My Drive into a shared drive. Or, at the top of Drive, click Newand choose an option:

   • To create a file, select the file type you want to create, such as Google Docs.
   • To upload a file, click File upload. Navigate to the file and open it.

3. Double-click a file to open and edit it.

*If you don't own the file but have Editor access in Drive, you can move it to a shared drive if your administrator has allowed this option.

Note: To store and access files on your desktop, use Google Drive for desktop. For details, see What can you do with Drive for desktop.

 

Add the document to Sites:

1. Go to Google Sites and open the site and page where you want to add the file.
2. Click Insert Docs, Slides, or Sheets to choose a file on your Drive.

Embed any file from Drive or the contents of a folder stored in Drive. If you make changes to your files in Drive, the same changes automatically show in Sites.

2  Share the document

2.1 Share the document from Drive

Share a file or folder with specific people:

1. Select the file you want to share.
2. Click Share or Share .
3. Under Share with people and groups, enter the email address you want to share with.

   Note: If visitor sharing is on for your organization, you can invite someone who doesn't have a Google Account to collaborate on your Google Drive files and folders. See Share documents with visitors.

4. To change what people can do to your file, on the right, click the Down arrow Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
5. Choose to notify people:
   • If you want to notify people that you shared a file with them, check the Notify people box. If you notify people, each email address you enter will be included in the email.
   • If you don't want to notify people, uncheck the Notify people box.
6. Click Share or Send.

Share a link to a file or folder:

1. In Drive, right-click the file or folder you want to share and select Share .

   In Docs, Sheets, or Slides, at the top, click Share.

   Note: You can only share files that you own or have edit access to.

2. (Optional) To specify what people can do with your file when you share it, under your organization name, click Change:
   • To change the permission, at right, click the Down arrow  and select Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
   • To allow sharing the link outside of your organization, next to your organization name, click the Down arrow Public.

     Note: If you don't see this option, contact your administrator.

3. Click Copy link.
4. Click Done.
5. Paste the link in an email, on a website, or wherever you need to share it.

2.2 (Optional) Set expiration limits for your document

1. Open a file in Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides.
2. Click Share  find the user you'd like to give temporary permissions to.
   • If you haven't shared the file with that person yet, add the user's email and click Send or Share. At the top right of the document, click Share again.
3. Next to the person's name, click the Down arrow   Give temporary access.
4. Next to "Access expires," click a date to set as the expiration date. Choose a date within one year of the current date.
5. Click Save.

2.3 Prevent editors from re-sharing and changing access permissions

If you’re sharing a file, the owner or anyone with edit permissions can change the sharing settings for the file. To make it so only you can share:

1. Open the homescreen for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides.
2. Click Share or Share .
3. At the top, click Settings .
4. Uncheck Editors can change permissions and share.
5. Click Done.

2.4 Prevent commenters and viewers from downloading, printing, or copying files

To prevent viewers and commenters from printing, copying, or downloading your file:

1. Open the homescreen for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides.
2. Select one or more files you want to limit.
3. Click Share or Share .
4. At the top, click Settings .
5. Uncheck Viewers and commenters can see the option to download, print, and copy.
6. Click Save  Done.

3  After you share the document

3.1 Mark a document as final and make it view-only

You can rename a document to mark it as final and then change the permissions on it to view-only. People can view the content but won’t be able to make changes.

Rename your document in Docs, Sheets, or Slides to mark it final:

1. Open the file and at the top, click the file name.
2. Before the file name, enter [Final] or [Archived].
3. Press Enter.

Change your document to view-only:

If you shared the file with specific people or a group:

1. In Google Drive, right-click the file and select Share .
2. To the right of the person or group you want to change, click the Down arrow Viewer.
3. Click Save.

If you shared the file with your organization:

1. In Drive, right-click the file and select Share .
2. Under Get link, at the right, click the Down arrow Viewer.
3. Click Done.

3.2 Stop sharing the document

From Drive:

Stop sharing a file or folder you own:

1. Open the homescreen for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides.
2. Select a file or folder.
3. Click Share or Share .
4. Find the person you want to stop sharing with.
5. To the right of their name, click the Down arrow   Remove.
6. To save changes, click Save.

Remove a link to a file or folder you own:

1. Open the homescreen for Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides.
2. Open or select a file or folder.
3. Click Share or Share   Get link,
4. Under “Get Link”,  click the Down arrow .
5. Select Restricted.
6. Click Done.

From a shared drive:

Unshare files with your organization:

1. In a shared drive, choose an option:
   • Select one file or folder you want to share.
   • Press and hold Shift and select multiple files or folders to share.
2. Click Share .
3. Under Get link, click Change.
4. Next to your organization name, click the Down arrow Restricted.
5. Click Done.

Unshare files with individuals:

1. In a shared drive, choose an option:
   • Select one file or folder you want to share.
   • Press and hold Shift and select multiple files or folders to share.
2. Click Share .
3. Next to the person, click the Down arrow Remove.
4. Click Done.

Note: Group settings can override individual settings. So, if you try to unshare a file with a person who belongs to an organization or group with access to the file, this person can still access the file.

From Sites:

Stop sharing a site:

1. Open a site and at the top, click Share .
2. Under Who has access, find the person you want to remove.
3. Next to the person’s name, click DeleteSave changesDone.

 

3.3 Handle new access requests

Anyone can request access to your document by emailing you and asking for access or clicking the link to the document.

If they don’t already have access, they’ll see a “You need permission” message. They can click Request access, and you’ll get an email asking for your approval. If you want to share the document with that person, follow the instructions in Share the document.

3.4 See who's viewed your document

1. In Docs, Sheets, or Slides, open the file.

   Note: You will need to have edit access for the file to see the Activity dashboard data.

2. Click ToolsActivity dashboard.
3. You can see information about the activity on your file, including:

   • Shared with tab: Shows people you’ve shared the file with. You can also email collaborators.
   • All viewers (organization) tab: Shows people in your organization who have viewed the file.
   • Viewer trend tab: Shows a chart of viewers over time.

4. (Optional) If you don’t want your view history to appear in Activity dashboard, click Privacy Settings and choose an option:

   • Turn off view history for all files: Under Account setting, turn off Show my view history for all Docs, Sheets and Slides files.
   • Turn off view history for one file: Under Document setting, turn off Show my view history for this document.

5. Click Save.

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