28 Jan Increased control over Google Drive file sharing

Google realise the importance of sharing files via Google Drive, so that the recipient can access and open files easily. Google have now increased your control over Google Drive file sharing. When a file is shared with your recipient in Gmail, the option ‘Share and Send’ will appear as shown below. As you can see, you have one of three options to choose from, can edit, can comment or can view. This will change how the file is shared on Drive, if you wish to send the document without sharing you also have that option.

This is also valid when you “+” a recipient into a comment in Docs, Sheets or Slides or if a file is attached via Google Calendar. Google have taken into consideration feedback from App admins and have decided that they want more control over file sharing. Google have launched new Access Checker settings in the Admin console which you can access following the steps shown below:

Admin console > Apps > Google Apps > Settings for Drive > Sharing settings

If you select the box ‘Allow users in your domain to publish files on the web or make them visible to the world as public or unlisted files’ this will allow external and public file sharing. The three following options will appear, giving the admin the flexibility to choose which option their users will have when sharing a file. The admin can choose between the following three options as shown below:

It is important to note, for the admin that allows public file sharing, the first option will be selected by default. However if the admin prohibits public file sharing, they have the option to choose from the Recipients only or yourdomain.com or Recipients only. The sharing options for the user will depend on what the document owner’s domain settings are and also what the domain of the person sharing the file are. If the case is the file owners are in different domains, Google will use the least permissive policy.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks, until next week.