Force Copy? ... No More! Viewing You Can Do

I 💖💖💖 when others share out their work! I 💖💖💖 it even more when I can see what it is they are sharing. Only a handful of years ago, I thought it was AMAZING when Stacy Smith (@MilfordTECH) showed me how to "force a copy" for my students. I quickly deleted all the "Make sure you make your own copy" I typed at the top of all my docs. I moved on to jokingly reminding my students how polite Google is when it asks if we would "like to make a copy". 

Earlier this school year, I came across the amazing post by Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent), "Google Document URL Tricks" and my mind was blown! It was a posting that transformed how I think about sharing. Tony shares 5 ways to change the ending of your link to serve your sharing need. My favorite one is to change the ending to "template/preview" and when others click the link ... they see your doc but not everything else going on all around it. And if the viewer decides they like what they see, they just click the "Use Template" button and they have their very own copy they can edit/modify/share.

This is a breakthrough in sharing work with others!!

Let me clarify - there IS a time and place for each of these endings. Please don't be confused - they can't be used interchangeably. Tony does a great job of explaining each ending and when would be a good time to use it. Forcing a copy is hands-down a MUST KNOW for teachers, but it's not always ideal for sharing out your work.

Which brings me to today. At least twice this week, I've wanted to "see" what someone was sharing, but in order to do so, I needed to make my own copy. If I decided I didn't want it, I'd need to delete it. Maybe it doesn't sound like a lot, but I like to keep My Drive organized.

Soooooooooo ....... never fear! I have a little tip for you. You do NOT have to be tied to their share settings! Nope. You have control. Seriously.

Next time you get this message:

DON'T click that blue button!!!


Instead, go up to the URL of the doc, and delete backwards to the final /, type the word "view", and hit enter. 



I promise. It works. I did it ... I could see a tiny preview of the template for a newspaper but when I clicked on it, I was asked to make a copy. I changed the ending to "view". Watch ...

Never make a copy of a document you've not seen again. Once you see it, you can still use the "File - Make a Copy" command if you decide you DO want a copy. 

Say good-bye to copies of documents you don't really want and say hello to a full preview!