Tech Thursday: Make a Copy

Change the link so that collaborators are prompted to make their own copy of a Google Drive file.

One challenge with using Google drive for collaboration is that the default sharing settings allow collaborators to view documents, and you can allow edit access - but sometimes we want students to each have their own copy of a file so they can work independently rather than collaboratively. There’s not a simple or obvious way to share personal copies - but there is a tricky hidden method that works well.

“Make a Copy”

In the past I created videos to walk students through how to make a copy of a file for their own use, but I inevitably would get emails requesting edit access each time I shared a file. This eliminates all of that!

Directions for creating the “Make a copy” link:

• Go to the sharing dialogue, select "get shareable link", select "anyone with link can view" then select "copy link".

• You should have a link that looks like this:

  docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<spreadsheetID>/edit?usp=sharing

• Then change the last part to /copy instead of /edit?usp=sharing so that it looks like this:

  docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<spreadsheetID>/copy

• Use that link when sharing and the person you are sharing with will get a prompt to "make a copy" when they click it.

If you want to still have access to each student’s work, you’ll have to ask them to share the new document back to you, which is a bit clunky. (I know this process is much simpler for folks using Google Classroom - this is the best work-around I’ve found for the rest of us.)

Past Tech Thursdays

• Providing audio feedback

• Canvas “What-if” grades

• Working in shared Google docs

• Managing references

• Custom URLs & QR codes

• Text Expanders

• Interactive quizzing

• Screen share in Zoom

• Mailbird email program

• Using screenshots

• Voice-to-text options

• Wheel of Names (random name generator)

• Collaborating in Google Slides