Comments on: Sharing a Google Doc with a non-Google user

By: Russ

Russ — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:28:37 +0000

I have created a Google spreadsheet with setting “anyone with link can edit”. From you post above I understood that invitees didn’t have to be logged into their Google accounts to be able to edit. But although they can all view the spreadsheet, none of them, nor I can edit. Is there a reason for this?

By: Juergen

Juergen — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:23:07 +0000

> I would not consider using the Link to share functionality a best practice for sharing confidential Docs because this system of sharing creates a link that anyone can access.

The link is username + password for the file. You cannot guess the link, so it is safe. The link is as secure as sharing username + password in a mail. But the link is better, as it is per document.
Still better were if you could create several links for the same document.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:17:37 +0000

Mega, learnt a lot from this. Make some more articles like this guys. Will be back for more.

By: Nikos Rous

Nikos Rous — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:07:39 +0000

I’ve shared a presentation, setting that anyone with the link can edit. The problem is that they are not able to insert images, as the insert image option (menu or button) doesn’t appear. Any suggestions?

By: Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 02:14:03 +0000

Is there a way to send a form and allow a non-google account to fill it out? I can do it with the response spreadsheet and can allow a non-google person to edit the survey, but they still can’t fill out the survey and submit a response without an account? Any ideas?

By: Logan Hairgrove

Logan Hairgrove — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 03:13:39 +0000

Click ‘Send Form’. Then share the link in the ‘link to share’ section. Recipients/viewers of that link can only submit responses.

When creating a form, under the confirmation page part you get three check box options:
- Show link to submit another response
- Publish and show a link to the results of this form
- Allow responders to edit responses after submitting
(None of these options will allow recipients/viewers to edit your form)

If you click ‘Send Form’ then click the ‘Add Collaborators’ link your only option is to allow them to edit the form since the only reason you would share this is to have them help you add questions or edit your form in some way. This is separate from the form results spreadsheet you can create. The results spreadsheet has the same sharing options as a regular Google Spreadsheet, which you can review at http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2494886&p=visibility_options.

You can find more Google Form help information at https://support.google.com/drive/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=1360904&parent=2811744&ctx=topic.

By: Lee Barstow

Lee Barstow — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:52:54 +0000

When sharing my form with anyone who has the link, there is no choice but “can edit.” I.e., no drop-down as you show above. The text “can edit” is colored blue, but is not a hyperlink. I want recipients to be able only to fill out the form, not edit it. Thanks for any thoughts. — Lee

By: Susan Metz

Susan Metz — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:12:50 +0000

A document shared with “anyone with the link” is not searchable by the search engines. It should have a special tag in the html that blocks the search engines.

By: Susan Metz

Susan Metz — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:11:55 +0000

What would you like to see in Part 2?

By: cc rider

cc rider — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 02:58:41 +0000

For a document that is shared with “anyone with the link”, do you know if the document can potentially be found via google search, say if someone happened to search on an uncommon string of words in the document using the google via “advanced search” function ?