How to Make Google Docs View Only?

Google Docs makes it very easy and flexible to write documents online without the need for stand-alone software like Microsoft word.

You can easily share your document with other team members, clients, collaborators, etc.

However,  when writing the document in Google Docs, it automatically saves the changes to google drive, and you don’t need to save the document manually.

The problem that could arise is that you share the document with someone else, they can also make changes or delete stuff that would automatically be saved.

Ideally, when you share your Google Docs with someone, you want that file to be viewed only so that no changes can be made to the original file.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make your Google Doc document read-only, so you can only view the document and not make any changes.

I will also show you how to share a link to the Google Document with other people so that they can see the doc but not make any changes.

Use Viewing Mode to make Document View Only

If you want to prevent yourself from making accidental changes in your document, you make it View Only.

There are 2 ways you can achieve this.

Method 1: Using the Viewing Option in the Toolbar

  1. Open the document
  2. In the toolbar, click on the Mode option as shown below
  1. From the drop-down, select the Viewing option

This will make your document becomes View-Only.

Now you can only view the document. You are not able to edit it.

I suggest you always make the document view only after you complete the writing process.

Note: Apart from Editing and Viewing, there is another Suggesting mode in Google Docs. Suggesting mode always requires the owner’s permission to edit the document. If any collaborators made any changes to the document, it would appear as a suggestion to the owner. Owners then have the option to approve or delete the changes. 

Method 2: Using the Viewing Option in the Menu Bar

  1. In the Menu Bar, click on the View option
  1. Click on the Mode option
  1. Choose the Viewing option

This will make the document view only. Now you can make any changes to it. 

Share Document With Collaborators in View Only Mode

If you want to prevent others from making changes to the document, share it with restricted access that would not allow the collaborator to edit or delete the document.

There are different ways to share documents in view-only mode.

Method 1: Share Through Email by Adding a Group or People

You can share documents with different collaborators by adding their email.

Follow the below steps to do this:

  1. Open the Google doc document 
  2. In the Toolbar, click on the Share option

The following dialog box will get open

  1. Write the Emails of the collaborator in the Add people and groups option. For instance, I am adding just one collaborator, however, you can add more than one.
  1. Click on the Roles option drop down.

This will open the following dialog box

  1. From the drop-down, select the Viewer option
  1. Click on Send

In doing so, an email is sent to the collaborator from where the collaborator can open the document with view-only access.

Using this method, you have to write the emails of all the people or groups manually.

That’s a bit tedious, especially if you’re sharing the document with many people.

Instead, a faster way would be to share the document via a link which is described in the next section.

Method 2: Share Google Doc, Via Link

Using this method, you can share the document via a link. Follow the below steps to get the complete procedure.

  1. Open the document 
  2. In the Toolbar, click on the Share option

This will open a dialog box, as shown below

  1. Click on the Restricted option
  1. From the drop-down, select the options for anyone with the link
  1. Ensure that the viewer option is selected in the Role
  1. Click on the copy link option
  1. Click on Done

Now the link is copied to the clipboard.

Share the link with the collaborators, and now they will be able to view the file.

Since we have made them only a viewer of the document, they won’t be able to make any changes to the document.

Using this method, the collaborator can not make changes to the document but has the privilege to copy, print, and download the document. But sometimes, we don’t want the collaborator to download, print or copy the document. That could be achieved using the following method.

Method 3: Share Via Link (Restrict collaborator to Copy, Print, and Download)

If you don’t want the collaborator to copy, print and download the document, you can use this method.

Follow the steps

  1. Open the document 
  2. In the Toolbar, click on the Share option

This will open a dialog box, as shown below

  1. Click on the Restricted option.
  1. From the drop-down, select the options for anyone with the link
  1. Ensure that the viewer option is selected in the Role
  1. Now click on the setting Icon

This will open the below dialog box

  1. Check both the following checkboxes
  1. Click on the back option to get back to the share dialog box
  1. Click on the copy link option
  1.  Click on Done

Now share the link with the collaborator, and whoever has the link can only view the option.

The collaborator, in this case, can’t edit, copy, download, or print the document.

The methods mentioned above work well when you have to share a single file with people but imagine a situation when you have to share large numbers of files.

Then you have to repeat the process for all files, but that’s not practical. So how to share a large number of files with view-only access?

The next section will answer this query.

Method 4: Share Large Numbers of Google Docx files with View-Only Access

The best way to share large numbers of files is using Google Drive.

Put all your files in a Google Drive folder and share that folder with the collaborators.

Follow the steps to get a complete understanding of the process.

  1. Open Google Drive
  2. To create a new folder, click on the New option in the top-left.
  1. Click on the New Folder option.

This will open the New folder dialog box as shown below

  1. Give a suitable name to the New Folder. In my case, I am going to name it Tutorials
  1. Click on Create

This will create a folder named Tutorials in Google Drive. Now move all your files to the folder you created. 

  1. After moving all the files to the folder right-click on the folder and choose the option share.

This will open the share dialog box.

This is the same dialog box as in methods 1-3. Now you can adopt any of methods 1 – 3 to share the folder with the collaborators. 

Tip: Use this method only when you have to share a large number of files with people otherwise, use any of methods 1-3. 

In the first part of this tutorial, I showed you how you could make your document view only, while in the second part, I explained in complete detail different methods of sharing documents in view-only mode. 

Other articles you may also like:

Leave a Comment