Make Google Docs, Sheets, Slides & Forms public

               

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To make a document, spreadsheet, or presentation available for a large audience to see, publish the file. After you publish your file you can send a new URL to anyone or embed into your website.

Important: Based on your account’s settings, when you publish a file, you can make it visible to everyone on the web, everyone in your organization, or a group of people in your organization. Be careful when publishing private or sensitive info. 

Publish file

Important:

• When you publish a chart to the web, people can see the data used to create it. Be careful when publishing a chart with private or sensitive info.
• Any changes you make to the original document will be updated in the published version. The automatic update might take a few minutes.
• To remove a file from the web, you must stop publishing it. Learn how to stop publishing a file.
• To stop sharing a file with collaborators, learn how to change sharing permissions.

1. In Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides, open a file.
2. At the top, click File  Share  Publish to web.
3. Choose a publishing option:
   • Spreadsheet: Publish the entire spreadsheet or individual sheets. You can also choose a publishing format.
   • Presentation: Choose how quickly to advance the slides.
4. Click Publish.
5. Copy the URL and send it to anyone you’d like to see the file. Or, embed it into your website.

Publish a file from a shared drive

Important: If you’re using an account through work or school, your administrator might have turned off the ability to publish a file. If you can’t publish a file, contact your administrator.

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. On the left, click Shared drives double-click one of your shared drives.
3. At the top, next to the name of your shared drive, click the Down arrow Shared drive settings.
4. Next to “Sharing with non-members,” click Edit.
5. Click “Non-member of this shared drive can be given access to files in this shared drive.”
6. Click Apply.
7. Follow the steps to publish a file.

Turn off automatic updates

1. Open a file in Google Docs or Sheets that you’ve already published to the web.
2. Click File   Share  Publish to web.
3. Click Published content & settings.
4. Uncheck the box next to "Automatically republish when changes are made."
   • To turn automatic publishing back on, check the box.

Tip: You can't turn off automatic updates in Google Slides.

Stop publishing a file

1. Open a file in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. At the top, click File Share Publish to web.
3. Click Published content & settings.
4. Click Stop publishing.

How published files look when you share them

If you send someone the URL of a published file, they’ll see a version they can’t edit that looks different from yours. Here’s what others will see:

• Documents: A version with no toolbar.
• Spreadsheets: A version with no toolbar. People with "view" permissions can see charts, cell formatting, and the values of cells, but can’t view or edit formulas.
• Presentations: A view-only version or a version in presentation mode with full-screen slides.

Control who can publish a file

File owners and editors can publish files. If you're the owner of a file and want someone else to publish the file, give them "edit" access.

If you’re the owner and don’t want anyone else to publish the file:

1. Open a file in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. On the top right, click Share.
3. Click Settings .
4. Uncheck Editors can change permissions and share.
5. Click Done.

Embed files

You can make a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or form available to view on an existing website by embedding it in your site or blog.

Embed a document, spreadsheet, or presentation

1. Open a file in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. At the top, click File Share Publish to web.
3. In the window that appears, click Embed.
4. Choose a publishing option:

• Spreadsheet: Choose to publish the entire spreadsheet or individual sheets.
• Presentation: Choose a presentation size and how quickly to change the slides.

1. Click Publish.
2. Copy the HTML in the text box and paste it into your site or blog.

Edit embedded spreadsheets

If you’re embedding a spreadsheet, you can show or hide parts of the spreadsheet after you publish to the web.

1. Open a file in Google Sheets.
2. At the top, click File Share Publish to web.
3. In the window that appears, click Embed.
4. Click Publish.
5. Copy the code in the text box and paste it into your site or blog.
6. To show or hide parts of the spreadsheet, edit the HTML on your site or blog.

• gid=: The sheet ID.
• range=: The rows and columns that are published to the web. For example, A1:B14.
• widget=: True or false. If true, the sheet tab is displayed at the bottom.
• headers=: True or false. If true, row numbers and column letters are displayed.
• chrome=: True or false. If true, the title and footer are displayed.

Embed a form

1. In Google Forms, open a form.
2. At the top right, click Send.
3. At the top of the window, click Embed.
4. To copy the HTML that appears, click Copy.
5. Paste the HTML into your site or blog.

Tip: Learn more about changes to third-party cookie requirements in Google Drive.

Related article:

• Embed a file in Google Sites