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Share Files Publicly on Google Drive

Please note that the ability to make a file publicly viewable is controlled by the organization’s Google Drive settings. You may need to ask your administrator to enable this function if you’re not an admin.

Sign in to Google Drive:

  1. Go to the Google Drive website.
  2. Enter your Google account email address and password, then click “Next” and “Sign In”.

Select the file or folder you want to share:

  1. From the main Google Drive window, navigate through your file directory until you locate the file or folder you wish to make publicly viewable.
  2. Right-click on the file or folder to open the options menu, then click on “Share”.

Initiate the sharing process:

  1. In the sharing window that appears, click on “Get link” at the bottom.

Set the sharing permissions:

  1. By default, the link will be restricted to specific people. Click on the dropdown that says “Restricted”.
  2. Select “Anyone with the link”.
  3. Make sure the dropdown next to “Anyone with the link” is set to “Viewer” to ensure that people can only view or download the file and not edit it.
  4. If you want to allow editing or commenting, you can select “Editor” or “Commenter” as appropriate.
  1. Click on “Copy link” to copy the link to your clipboard.

Share the link:

  1. You can now share this link with anyone, even if they’re outside your organization. Anyone with the link can view or download the file, but they won’t be able to edit it unless you’ve given them editing permissions.

Please remember to handle sensitive information responsibly.

Be cautious when making a file or folder publicly viewable, and always double-check the permissions settings before sharing a link.