One of the gems of Google Drive is how easy sharing documents can be. One of the struggles, however, can be getting students to create a copy of a shared document. In most cases I would simply share a document with “View Only” rights, tell them to go to “File” and then click “Make a copy”. This works well, and most students can handle it. Every once in a while you might want it to be even easier. Below are some steps to make a document viewable only after the student makes a copy.
Force Others to Make a Copy of a Google Document
Create your document and give it “View only” rights.
- Open a document and click the blue “Share” button.
- Click “Advanced”.
- Click “Change”.
- Click “Anyone with the link” and choose “Can view” from the dropdown.
- Click “Save”.
- Click “Done”.
Make the document a force “Make a Copy” document.
- Click the blue “Share” button.
- Click “Copy Link” then click “Done”.
- Share this link in an email to your students. When you paste the link into the email, change the words “edit?usp=sharing” (or your text) at the end of the url to “copy”.
- Send your email. They will get the following screen when they click the link asking them to make a copy. They will need to click “Make a copy”.
- Have them rename the document to your naming format by clicking on the title and renaming the document.
If you want these directions in a document click here.