Create Force Copy Links in Google

Collaboration benefits both educators and students alike. Sharing resources is an easy way to lighten the load. It allows us to work smarter -- not harder -- and will enable us to pool our collective brainpower to develop thoughtful, engaging learning experiences for our students. Imagine how much time and effort we could save if we worked as a team to develop all of the lesson plans and templates our students utilize during the school year. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Now I want you to step back to a time when you shared something with a colleague and that person inadvertently made changes to your original document. Maybe something was deleted. Maybe something was reorganized in a way that changes the way your students can interact with the template. Regardless of what change occurred or how accidental the mistake was, having your original documents altered makes a big impact and it doesn’t feel good.

A few years ago, I learned a tip that takes the ‘ick’ out of sharing and it is so easy to implement. Rather than just clicking the share button and giving your colleague full editing access, you can share a "force copy" link instead. A forced copy link does just that - it forces the person to make a copy of your original so they can edit it to meet their own needs without altering your original document. The best part of this tip, it literally takes 2 seconds to implement this preventative measure to safeguard your original.

Does this tip come one share too late? No problem, there is a fix for that too. Take a look at the instructions in the format that works best for you. Happy sharing!!

Printable Instructions
Video Instructions

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