How to Give Your Google Docs Document a Public URL

by © 2011

 

You can easily share your Google Docs document with specific people. All you have to do is tell Google Docs their email addresses. But you can also tell Google to make your Google Docs document public with its own URL, so that anyone who has the link can see it. Here's how.

UPDATE, May 2012

Google has greatly simplified the process of creating a public URL in the upgraded version of Google Docs. You can now do it in just a few steps, as follows:

  1. Access your Google Docs account.
  2. With your Google Docs document open, click the blue Share rectangle in the top right corner.
  3. The document is probably set to "Private." Click Change.
  4. Click the Public on the web radio button, then Save.
  5. Your new public URL will be highlighted under Link to share. Press Ctrl-c to copy the link.
  6. Click Done.
  7. Paste the link into your blog, website, email, etc., by placing your cursor at the point where you want to add the link and pressing Ctrl-v.

If you're on the previous version of Google Docs, continue reading to find out how to create a public URL for your document.

Part 1 – Making the Google Docs document publicly shareable

  1. Access your Google Docs account.
  2. With your Google document open, click the dropdown arrow next to Share in the top right corner.
  3. Click Sharing settings...
  4. It's probably set to "Private." Click Change, then Anyone with the link.
  5. Click Save, then Close.

Part 2 – Getting the link

  1. Click the dropdown arrow next to Share again.
  2. Click Publish to the Web...
  3. Click Start publishing, then OK.
  4. Click anywhere in the box under Document link. This selects the entire link.
  5. Press Ctrl-c.
  6. Click Close.

Part 3 – Adding the link to your blog, website, email, etc.

Place your cursor at the point where you want to insert the link, and press Ctrl-v.

There! The deed is done.

Arun Sinha is president of Access Communications, a digital marketing, content creation and web development company in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. Visit http://www.accessc.com for more information on copy writing, websites, and Internet marketing.

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