Ask the Library: Reference

You have a few different options but the most reliable that I've found forces people to download a copy rather than relying on them to navigate the document menus to make a copy.

Force a copy with no comments

Go into Google Docs and create your document. When you're ready to share it out:

1. Share the document with Anyone with the link
2. Copy the entire link provided. It should look like:
   • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JzvaXdOytdK5CBx5GGwUykcOwkQzicl6gVGharm9LeM/edit?usp=sharing
3. Replace the end of the link, edit?usp=sharing, with copy
   • Example from above
     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JzvaXdOytdK5CBx5GGwUykcOwkQzicl6gVGharm9LeM/edit?usp=sharing 
   • Now looks like 
     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JzvaXdOytdK5CBx5GGwUykcOwkQzicl6gVGharm9LeM/copy

Now share the updated link. When a student opens the link, it will force them to download a copy of the document to their Google Drive

Force a copy with Comments

This above method does not retain comments you may have made for additional information. To force a copy with comments:

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 from above . Then...
2. Replace edit?usp=sharing, with copy?copyComments=true
   • Example  from above
     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JzvaXdOytdK5CBx5GGwUykcOwkQzicl6gVGharm9LeM/edit?usp=sharing 
   • Looks like
     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JzvaXdOytdK5CBx5GGwUykcOwkQzicl6gVGharm9LeM/copy?copyComment=true​​​​​​​