Google Docs Tutorials - Part 19 - Publishing
Learn how to publish your Google Doc. In the previous section, we learned how to share documents with other users as collaborators or viewers. Collaborators can edit documents while viewers can only look at them.
There is another way that you can make your document available to viewers that is a little different from the way demonstrated in the last section: publishing.
To begin, start with an open document. Click on the Share button again to explore a few more options (as shown to the right). When you click on View as web page (Preview), you will see a web-page preview of the document you are working with. This preview will not have the Google Docs toolbar or menu bar, but might have the internet browser toolbars depending on your browser settings. If you know how to look at the source document, you will see that it is actually an HTML file – a web page.
If you scroll down on the web page, you will see a couple of links and a command button (see below). At the bottom right of the page is a link to Edit this page (if you have permission). If you are logged into Google Docs, this link will take you to the writeable document with the menu bar and the toolbar (assuming you are the document owner or an invited collaborator). If you are not logged in, the link will direct you to the Google sign in screen, where, once you log in, you will gain access to the document (again assuming you are the document owner or an invited collaborator).
On the bottom left side of the preview document is a link for Google Docs — Web word processing, presentations and spreadsheets. This link takes you to Google Docs (http://docs.google.com); if you are signed in to Google, you will be automatically directed to your document list. If you are not signed in to Google, it will take you to a screen where you can do so.
The Report abuse button will alert Google Docs to investigate the document content. Do not press this button unless you really suspect something is wrong. You can press the Back button on your browser to return to the document.
Another view sharing option is to Publish the document page as a web page. To do this, go to the Share button and this time, click on Publish as web page… (as seen below).
This results in the Publish this document screen as shown below. As it explains, your document is not yet published. Publishing a document converts it into a web page, and gives it a unique address, or URL, on http://www.Google.com. Once your document has been published as a web page, you can then forward its URL to friends, family, or colleagues, so that they can view the document from their web browser.
It takes one simple step to Publish the document; you just click the Publish document button, which you can do now. As you can see below, the document is now publicly viewable at a web address. Google Docs has assigned this URL to your document, and clicking on the link will take you to the published document web page.
The screen above also shows you the date and time when the document was published, and provides you with some additional options. The first is to select the check box to Automatically re-publish when changes are made. Clicking this check box option will tell Google Docs to automatically re-publish the web page, or refresh the page, every time you make a change to the original document in Google Docs. This check box will ensure that your published document web page always stays updated. If you want to re-publish your web page immediately, you can do so by clicking the Re-publish document button. This will publish a new version of the web page with any document updates that you have made.
If you are logged into Google Docs, and you are either the document owner or an invited collaborator, clicking on the published URL link is going to take you to the page where you can edit the document. For any other user, the URL link will take them to a web page that is similar to the preview screen that you examined previously. If this user clicks on the link Edit this page (if you have permission), they will see this message: We’re sorry, but you do not have access to this document. They cannot edit, just view!
After publishing a document, return to the Google Docs home, and you can see, that the document it is now listed as Published in the Folders / Sharing column.
To confirm, you can re-open the document, click on the Share button again, and again on the Publish as web page… Note below, that Google Docs confirms that the document is published on the web.
At the bottom of this window, there is a link for Google Analytics, where you can actually track the stats for your document (i.e., how many people visited it, etc.) This option is beyond the scope of this manual, but you can click on the Learn more option for further information.
There is another button as shown above, the Stop publishing button. When you no longer want this document to be published on the web, you click on Stop Publishing. You will see that your link disappears, and your document is no longer published (see below).
Finally, there is one last option and more buttons at the bottom of the window. The Post to blog button allows you to publish your document to a blog. If you maintain a blog, you can set your blog site settings using the provided link, and then post your documents directly to your blog. Most blog writers are familiar with the steps involved in this process, so blog publishing is not further discussed in this manual.
You have now reviewed the basics of publishing your document, which allows you to let viewers access your document as a web page. Plus, Google will actually issue you a URL that you can forward to other users everywhere!
