Working in Google has so many benefits but as a newbie, I found that I learned from my mistakes, something we all do. I once shared my template with my class and then realized there was a lot of confusion in the classroom as everyone seemed to be on the template and changing each other’s work. Not quite how I imagined the lesson to turn out. Then I found out that this could have been avoided just by changing four letters in the Omnibar (search bar). Now, this can be used in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings, it could save you from a serious headache when sharing.

When you are editing the file you want to click in the search box above (see below):

Change the last four letters to “copy”

Then share that link out.
This will force anyone with the link to make a copy of the file to their own individual Google Drive.

You can also use “preview” at the end which then makes the files a view only

Go ahead and try it now, open up a document and change the last few letters to “copy” or “preview” and see what happens.