Innovative Learning Bite Sized PD: Google Doc Copy

Have you ever created a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slides presentation and wanted an easy way for everyone you send it to—students, parents, staff, community members—to be able to create their own copy? Maybe it’s a worksheet that you want your students to fill out or a template you want your staff members to adjust for events they are planning. Yes, you could direct them to go to File, then Make a Copy, but I can’t tell you how many times I have done that and people still ask me for editing rights to the file.

So my magical tip for today is how to send a link that will automatically make a copy for the recipient! Simply follow these steps:

1. Make sure the file is shared correctly.
   • Open the item you want to share in your Google Drive and check the sharing settings in the Get Link section. Customize the settings so that anyone with the link can view the document. You can also limit permissions so only people in Provo City School District can view it. Just remember that this won’t work for parents or other community members! 
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2. Copy the link and paste it in an email, in Canvas, or wherever you want to share it.
3. Change the end of the link from /edit to /copy.
   • Delete everything in the link from edit to the end and replace it with copy. So your link will go from looking like this: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14CWGgB_15kFbkvBaG3GiLmRWE92kWtVmGWEHCionOiE/edit?usp=sharing to this: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14CWGgB_15kFbkvBaG3GiLmRWE92kWtVmGWEHCionOiE/copy
4. Send that link to anyone who needs a copy of the document!