Welcome to Module 4: Share your Google Docs. One of the great things about Google Docs is that you can collaborate on your document and still maintain version control. In this module, we'll explore how to share a document with the appropriate permissions, managed versions of the document, and if necessary, transfer its ownership. While there are many reasons to keep the document in the Cloud, we'll discuss the options available for downloading your document. What do you want to do when you finish creating your doc? Share it, of course. Google workspace is known for collaboration. In this module, you'll see the power of collaboration. Google Docs documents are easy to share. Just select Share to get started. The sharing window will appear so you can choose who can access the document. To quickly share a document with someone, type their name or email address in the Add people and groups box. You can add more than one person, and Google Groups can even be added to share with many people at once. When you create a document, you are the owner. As the owner, you can change the contents of the document, add collaborators, download it, print it, copy it, transfer ownership to another collaborator, and delete it. You grant others access to your document by assigning them a Collaborator role. Collaborators can be Editors, Commenters, or Viewers. Permissions are actions that can be performed by an individual according to their assigned role. Editors can change the contents of a document, download it, print it, and copy it, but they cannot transfer ownership or delete it. Depending on the document settings, editors may be able to change permissions and share the document with others. Commenters can view the contents of the document, but cannot change it. They can add comments and assign tasks. Although a commenter cannot change a document, they can also suggest changes that can only be accepted by an editor or the owner. When you are added as a viewer, the document is in view mode for you. You cannot change the content of the document, but you can download it, print it, or copy it as long as the owner allows it. You can also request edit access from the owner, by clicking the Request Edit Access button. Sharing permissions including removing collaborators entirely or transferring ownership of the document to another editor can be changed at any time. Let's share to view your collaborators and their permissions. Selecting the Share with People settings, gear icon exposes two additional options which are enabled by default. An editor's ability to share the document can be removed. Also, download, print, and copy options can be removed from viewers and commenters. You can also set an expiration date for any viewer or commenter. After that data is passed, that collaborator will no longer have access to the document. This might be useful if, for example, you have asked for feedback, but you require feedback by a certain date. Google Docs supports another mode, Suggesting. When a collaborator changes to this mode, edits become suggestions that can later be accepted or rejected by any editor. Suggestions are outlined in green in the document and are linked to a comment card on the right side of the document that shows what the change is, so add, delete or replace, who made it and when it was made. Editors and commenters can reply to the suggestions, to see all of the suggested edits in a document, select Tools, and review suggested edits. A card will appear below the Mode button in a document, with the navigation tools for suggested edits. Use the up and down arrows to move forward or backward in the document to the edits. You can select Accept all or Reject all. You can also preview what the document will look like if you choose either option. You can also share a document using a link. Links can be shared via email, on a website, or any number of other ways. Select Share, and then select Copy link to copy the link to your device's clipboard. By default, the link-sharing scope for a document is restricted, which allows access to only those people who have been explicitly granted permission. You can change the scope of the link to share the document with everyone in your organization or with anyone who has the link. You should also choose viewer, commenter, or editor permissions at this time. Use care when sharing a document in this way. Anyone who has the link can share it with other people. The document's owner can assign ownership to any collaborator who has edit access. To change ownership, select Share to open the sharing window, select the new owner, and select Editor next to that person's name. Select Transfer ownership, and then select Share. When you transfer ownership of the document, you will become an editor, but the new owner can remove you as a collaborator. Google Docs keeps track of all the changes made to the document by all of the editors. To view the history of a document, select File, hover over Version history and select See version history. The Versions browser will appear. Versions are listed chronologically from newest to oldest in a panel on the right side of the screen. Selected a date to expand a more granular view of the edits. Select a version to see what the change was and who made it. Each editor and their edits will be represented by a specific color. Select More options to make a copy of the document at that point in time, or to create a named version. Named versions are a useful way of identifying the state of the document at a specific point in time. For example, you may have been collaborating on a project proposal and are now ready for it to go through an approval workflow, but you want to be able to safely revert to the version that existed just before entering the approval flow. In this case, you can name the version pending approval and then add the approvers as collaborators. Later, you can go back and see the document as it was when it entered the approval cycle. If you create named versions, you can enable the Only show named versions slider to filter out any versions that are not named. At any time, you can select an edit and select, Restore this version to return the document to that state. Editors of a document can access the Activity dashboard to see viewers, comments, and sharing history. Each document has its own dashboard accessible by clicking the Activity dashboard icon in the title bar of the page. The viewer's tab shows view activity for the document. Next to each viewer's name, the date of the last time they have viewed the doc will appear along with the check box to select them for sending an email. An Info button may appear next to the Date column on the row for a viewer. This indicates that the view history is not available for this person because they've opted out of having their activity tracked. The Viewer trend tab shows graphs of unique viewers over time. Click the dropdown to change the view time-frame, or drag the bar on the timeline to change to a a custom timeframe. The Comment trend tab will show comment activity over time. The Sharing history tab shows the number of people that the doc is shared with, with a link to manage settings which if clicked, will open up the sharing code. A list of sharing activity shows who was added to the doc as a collaborator, which Editor added them when they were added, and their role as editor commenter or viewer. The privacy settings tab allows you to manage your activity history. By default, your view history is visible to document editors and owners. From here you can disable your view activity collection across all files you access, or for just the current document. If you choose to hide your view history, you can still see view history on your document, but your views will not be included.
