Collaborating on Documents Using Google Drive

May 16, 2014 by Staff Writer

There are so many occasions when you would like to sit down next to someone to create a new document, but they are in a different time zone or even a different country. Fortunately, for Google Drive users, the limitations of physical location have been overcome by a neat feature that means you can work online to create a document with anyone, wherever they are in the world.

First of all you need to login to Google Drive. Then, of course, you need to create a document. Google Drive offers a range of features that operate in a similar fashion to Microsoft Office:

Of course, whatever you produce will be in a native Google format, but you can download what you produce in a number of different formats, including Microsoft formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).

Choose the type of document you want to create – today we have chosen ‘Document’ to create a document called ‘Collaboration Document’:

If you want to collaborate with someone online, click on the ‘Share’ button in the top right hand corner of the screen:

When you click on ‘Share’, another interface appears:

From here you add the email address of the person you want to collaborate with. You need to set what they can do to the document, and if you want them to collaborate online, you need to click on ‘Can edit’. Add a message if you want so your future collaborator will know it is from you, and then click ‘Send’.

Your collaborator will receive an email telling them that you have given him/her access to the particular document you want to work on:

The collaborator clicks on the link showing the document’s name and that’s it – they are directed to the document in Google Drive.

You will then see the name of the collaborator added to the list of people who can work on the specified document:

Click on ‘Done and the process is over – you are now online working on the document together with your collaborator. As you can see, your partner can now type into the document:

A colored tab shows that someone else is working on a document with you. You can roll over the tab to reveal the collaborator’s name and you can also see their picture in the top right corner.

This is a free service and it really is fundamentally sound – this product works and can save you time and effort. If you use Google Hangouts or Skype at the same time you will be able to talk to your partner as you work on the document, making the feature infinity more useful.

The applications for this tool are boundless – I have especially used it in online training but it goes as far as your imaginations stretch. Try it and I believe you might never work on a document alone again!