Sharing documents with colleagues and clients is common practice in many workplaces. Google’s office suite, now known as Workspace, makes sharing files easy through Google Drive. However, once you share a document, how can you check whether the intended recipients have actually viewed your file? Here’s what you need to know.
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Google Drive and Google Docs provide an Activity Dashboard that shows you basic information about who has viewed your documents. However, viewing this dashboard requires certain conditions:
- Your Google account must be a Workspace account, such as a G Suite legacy free edition account or a paid Workspace subscription. Personal Google accounts do not have access to the Activity Dashboard.
- Both you (the file owner) and the viewer must be part of the same Google Workspace domain. For example, if you share a file with a client who uses a personal Gmail account, their views will not show up in your Activity Dashboard.
If both you and the viewer meet these conditions, you’ll be able to see their name and the time of their last view of your document.
Here are the step-by-step instructions to check who has viewed your shared Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides files:
- Open the Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide file in Google Drive.
- In the top right corner, click the upward arrow icon to open the Activity Dashboard. Alternatively, go to Tools > Activity Dashboard.
- On the left sidebar, make sure “Viewers” is selected.
- On the right side, switch to the “All Viewers” tab.
- Scan the list to see names of viewers and their last view date/time.
If needed, you can also email viewers directly from this dashboard by checking boxes next to names and clicking “Email”.
In some cases, you may need to determine not just who has viewed your file, but who has access to share your file further.
To check who has permission to reshare your document:
- Open the Google Docs, Sheet, or Slide file.
- Click the “Share” button in the top right.
- At the bottom, make sure the box for “Editors can change permissions and share” is unchecked.
With this setting disabled, only you as the file owner can control sharing of the document.
Best Practices for Sharing Sensitive Documents
When dealing with sensitive documents, keep these tips in mind:
- Disable options for commenters and viewers to download, print or copy documents if needed. This prevents spreading content outside of Google Drive without your consent.
- Consider making reviewers request access instead of broadly sharing a document link. This gives you more control over who can view a file.
- Use Google’s built-in protection against sharing files outside of your organization. Enable the “Only within [your domain]” option in Admin settings.
- Share confidential documents one-by-one instead of sharing full folders. This minimizes accidental oversharing.
- Follow up with intended recipients if they have not viewed a document as expected. The Activity Dashboard makes this easy.
Conclusion
The Activity Dashboard in Google Drive provides helpful insight into whether your colleagues and clients have actually viewed documents you have shared. Keep the prerequisites and limitations in mind, and leverage these metrics to ensure your files get seen by the right people.
When sharing sensitive information, be strategic about your sharing settings and user permissions. With some thoughtful precautions, Google Docs can enable seamless collaboration while still maintaining control over your documents.
