Tips to edit and collaborate on files

Modified on Wed, 9 Jul at 5:24 PM

Tips for authoring & editing

To quickly create new files, enter one of these URLs in your browser:

A blank file opens, and you can add your content.

On your computer, in a browser, open a presentation in Google Slides.
At the top left, in the menu bar, click Tools Dictate speaker notes .
- The speaker notes open and a microphone box displays.
When you're ready to speak, click Microphone .
Speak clearly and at a normal volume and pace. Learn how to add punctuation.
When you're done, click Microphone .

On your computer, open a Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms or Vids, home screen.
Open the file you want to make a copy of.
In the menu, click File Make a copy.
Type a name and choose where to save it.
1. If you want to copy comments from a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or video, click Copy comments and suggestions. You can choose to include resolved comments and suggestions in your new copy.
Click Ok.

In Docs, Sheets, or Slides, open the file.
Click FileEmailEmail collaborators.
(Optional, shared drive files only) To email all members of the shared drive, check the Members box.
(Optional) Change the email recipients or add a subject.
Add a message.
(Optional) To send a copy of the email to yourself, check the Send yourself a copy box.
Click Send.

Insert smart chips in your Google Doc to include information about:

Where there’s a smart chip in your document, you and other users can hover or click on a chip to get more information.

You can also insert placeholder chips, time trackers, and dropdowns, and use building blocks to track projects, files, and more.

Availability of this feature depends on your edition of Google Workspace and permissions set up by your administrator. Who is my administrator?

In Docs, Sheets, or Slides, open the file.
Note: You will need to have edit access for the file to see the Activity dashboard data.
Click ToolsActivity dashboard.
You can see information about the activity on your file, including:
- Shared with tab: Shows people you’ve shared the file with. You can also email collaborators.
- All viewers (organization) tab: Shows people in your organization who have viewed the file.
- Viewer trend tab: Shows a chart of viewers over time.
(Optional) If you don’t want your view history to appear in Activity dashboard, click Privacy Settings and choose an option:
- Turn off view history for all files: Under Account setting, turn off Show my view history for all Docs, Sheets and Slides files.
- Turn off view history for one file: Under Document setting, turn off Show my view history for this document.
Click Save.

You can see activity on files in My Drive or in a shared drive.

On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
On the left click My Drive.
In the upper right, click Info .
Select an option. To access:
- Recent changes, select an option:
  1. Click Activity.
  2. Scroll down the right side.
- The activity of a specific file or folder, click the file or folder.

Note: You need Owner or Editor access to see the version history.

In Drive, open your file.
Click FileVersion historySee version history.
Click a timestamp to see a previous version of the file. Below the timestamp, you can review:
- The names of people who edited the document.
- The color next to each person’s name. The edits they made appear in that color.
(Optional) To revert to this version, click Restore this version.

Normally, app notifications are turned on. If you previously turned them off:

After you turn on notifications, you get direct messages about Drive events, such as:

Note: If you want to delete an app message, in the conversation, point to the message and click Delete .

To turn notifications back on, send another direct message to the Google Drive app.

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
At the top, click Tools Notification settings Edit notifications.
In the window that appears, select "when" you want to receive notifications. Notify you when:
- Any changes are made: Set notifications when someone makes a change to a spreadsheet.
- A user submits a form: Set notifications when someone fills out a form.
In the window that appears, select "how often" you want to receive notifications. Notify you with:
- Email - daily digest: Send a daily summary of all changes.
- Email - right away: Send an email for every change.
Click Save.