Updated Guide to Sharing Files in Google Drive

Google started rolling out some updates to sharing files in Google Drive. This includes Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, and just about everything else but forms. The main changes include the interface and renaming some of the sharing options. If you haven't started to see the new sharing options you probably will soon. These changes are specific to drive and don't impact the drive sharing settings in Google Classroom. 


Here is a quick overview to help everyone adjust to the updated sharing settings.

Sharing a File

You can still access the sharing menu for a file in Google Drive by right-clicking on the file in the Drive stream.

You can also still share an open file by clicking on the "Share" button near the top right of the file.

Change in Sharing Interface (Pop Up Window)

The old sharing interface for Google Drive and Docs editors files

The new sharing interface for Google Drive and Docs editors files 

The big difference is that the new sharing interface has flipped the link-sharing options and sharing the document with people sections. 

Changes in Sharing Options (The Vocabulary)

There are also a few small changes to the sharing options. The ability to make someone a viewer, commenter or editor is the same. You can also still set time limits and remove users.

Change 1. The Advanced sharing options can now be accessed by clicking on the gear next to "Share with people". 

Change 2. The shareable link option is now replaced with the option to "Copy link" near the bottom. 

Change 3. You can share the general document sharing settings by clicking on "Change" near the bottom of the window.

Change 4. The document sharing options are similar with one small change. 

There used to be two options to share a document without restrictions and now the "Anyone with link" and the Public option don’t appear at the same time. You bring up one or the other by clicking on the gear. (More details in Change 5). 

Private documents are now "Restricted" and the option to share within the user's Google Domain only remains the same. 

In some cases, if your domain has turned off the ability to make files Public, then you will see “Anyone with link” instead of the “Public”  option. If this is the case Change 5 will probably not be an option and only the "Anyone with link" option will exist for public sharing. 

Change 5: If you do not want a "Public" document to appear in public search results, you can turn this off by clicking on the gear and unchecking the "Appears in public search results" box. 

You can learn more about the sharing update and explore additional sharing tips by visiting this Google Updates Post. We will also update our Tips for Organizing and Managing Google Drive Document.

"Add to" becomes "Add shortcut to Drive"

I think this is still in the beta testing for many users, so most users may not see this yet, but I wanted to share this just in case anyone is already seeing it. Users have been able to add files to multiple folders instead of just moving or making copies, but the name has changed. You will now find an option to "Add shortcut to Drive" in the file drop-down menu or by right-clicking on the file name in Drive.  This will allow users to still have a file appear in multiple locations in Google Drive.

If you used the "Add to" option before, the file will still be in multiple folders. To learn more about sharing and organizing files, please visit this help page.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions in the comments below. #HappyLearning

Knowing Google, this will probably continue to evolve, so I will be updating this document to reflect future changes. 

Google File Sharing Overview Document