In this post, we’re going to look at several useful Google URL tricks which allow us to quickly do a whole range of things, like quickly create documents, provide links to copy master templates, and from a link automatically download a PDF version of a document, and many more.
We’re going to look at…..
- .new – Creating new documents, etc
- .google.com – Google URL formats and what’s there
- File and folder URLs and IDs – How Google Workspace links work
- /copy, /preview, /template/preview – Get users to copy, preview or copy of a template
- Direct download URLs – URLs that download the document when clicked
- Links to specific pages – Link to specific slides, sheets, sheet ranges, doc headers, or JamBoard pages
Useful Google URL tricks – .new
These links allow you to create Google documents just by typing in the URL (web address) and ending it with .new. they also allow you to do things like create a new Meet session (my personal favourite), a new website, a new Calendar event.
| Google Docs Creates and opens a new blank Google Doc | docs.new document.new documents.new |
| Google Sheets Creates and opens a new blank Google Sheets document | sheets.new spreadsheet.new spreadsheets.new |
| Google Slides Creates and opens a new blank Google Slides document | slide.new slides.new decks.new presentation.new |
| Google Forms Creates and opens a new blank Google Form | form.new forms.new |
| Google Jamboard Creates and opens a new blank Google Jamboard | jam.new |
| Google Calendar Creates and opens a new Calendar event | cal.new meeting.new |
| Google Meet Opens a new Meet | meet.new |
| Google Sites Creates and opens a new Google Site | site.new sites.new website.new |
| Google Keep Creates and opens a new Google Keep note | keep.new note.new notes.new |
| Google Apps Script project Creates and opens a new Apps Script project | script.new |
Note, all new documents are created in your My Drive, which does mean sometimes you have to then move them to the folder you want.
The .new ending isn’t just for Google programs, there are a whole range of shortcuts. You can check them out at: whats.new/shortcuts
A couple of examples:
- Make an instant Miro whiteboard with whiteboard.new
- Design a new logo at logomaker.new
Useful Google URL tricks – .google.com
The URL of most Google sites, especially those related to Workspace, are the name of the product along with .google.com.
At these addresses you can see things like all the files of that particular document type, e.g. all your Google Sheets, plus a range of Google templates, and the option to create your own templates.
| docs.google.com (or docs.google.com/document) See all your Google Docs, see Google Doc templates, and create your own templates |
| sheets.google.com (docs.google.com/spreadsheets) See all your Google Sheets, see Google Sheets templates, and create your own templates |
| slides.google.com (docs.google.com/presentation) See all your Google Slides, see Google Slides templates, and create your own templates |
| forms.google.com (docs.google.com/forms) See all your Google Forms, see Google Forms templates, and create your own templates |
| sites.google.com (or docs.google.com/forms) See all your Google Forms, see Google Forms templates, and create your own templates |
| calendar.google.com Access your Calendar and events |
| drive.google.com Access your Google Drive |
| mail.google.com Access your Gmail |
| script.google.com See all your Google Apps Script projects, triggers, executions |
| jamboard.google.com See all your Jamboards. You can also download as PDFs from here. |
| meet.google.com Start or access a Google Meet. |
| mail.google.com/chat Access Google Chat |
| groups.google.com Access Google Groups |
| maps.google.com Access Google Maps |
| keep.google.com Access Google Meet |
| translate.google.com Access Google Translate |
| accounts.google.com Access the Google account login page here, if you’re not already logged in. |
You’ll need a Google Workspace account to be able to upload your own templates and share them with your organisation.
Google file and folder URLs & IDs
The format of Google document URLs are as follows:
https://docs.google.com/ + type of document + file ID + /edit
Every file has a unique ID, and so has a unique URL.
Google Docs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpnK-7Hy3cSM_uZovtiXHR6riIiuaVCtN86umht9v7a/edit
Google Sheets
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_r5bBuZA-z5VSjcm4-s3ra9RGD6s4_VQdQnXaOpMDIa/edit
Google Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PgF6voZW4B8ed-khrvQUK-rtO1PZcE_GamInHjpeHXa/edit
The last part /edit is important as we can replace it to do a whole range of things, as we’ll see below.
copy, preview, template/preview URL ends
The above links open the documents, allowing you to edit them (assuming you have the appropriate access rights), but we don’t always want to do that. Let’s look at some simple changes to the ends of the URL.
Here’s an example of a normal Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpnK-7Hy3cSM_uZovtiXHR6riIiuaVCtN86umht9v70/edit
/copy
Let’s replace the /edit part with /copy.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpnK-7Hy3cSM_uZovtiXHR6riIiuaVCtN86umht9v70/copy
We see that when we click on the link, instead of opening the Google Doc it takes us to a page, asking us to make a copy of the document. This document will be created in our My Drive.
This is a great way to share a common template, without people accessing the original document and potentially messing it up. They make a copy and edit their own copy.
/preview
We can present a preview version of the document by replacing /edit with /preview. This is good for presenting a document without the menus, etc showing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpnK-7Hy3cSM_uZovtiXHR6riIiuaVCtN86umht9v70/preview
With you Google Slides, you can remove the bottom bar in the preview, by using /preview?rm=minimal instead of /preview.
/template/preview
This is kind of the combination of the two previous shortcuts, it will show you a preview of the document but also allow you to make a copy of it by clicking “Use template”. The good thing here is that the user gets to see the content of the document before copying it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpnK-7Hy3cSM_uZovtiXHR6riIiuaVCtN86umht9v70/template/preview
Direct download URLs
We can also replace /edit with /export to be able to download the file in different formats. The formats available depend on the document type.
Google Docs
/export
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpnK-7Hy3cSM_uZovtiXHR6riIiuaVCtN86umht9v70/export
If we replace /edit with /export, when clicked, it will download a HTML document, which is basically a document that can be opened in Chrome which looks like a webpage.
/export?format=pdf
We can specify the format we want by adding ?format= and the format, e.g. a PDF file.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpnK-7Hy3cSM_uZovtiXHR6riIiuaVCtN86umht9v70/export?format=pdf
Below is a table of the different we can use with Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings.
| Docs | /export | Download HTML file (local webpage) |
| Docs | /export?format=pdf | Download PDF |
| Docs | /export?format=doc | Download MS Word doc |
| Sheets | /export or /export?format=xlsx | Download MS Excel doc |
| Sheets | /export?format=pdf | Download PDF (all sheets) |
| Sheets | /export?format=csv | Download CSV of current sheet |
| Slides | /export or /export/png?pageid=p10 | Download current page as a png image or specify a particular page/slide |
| Slides | /export?format=pdf | Download PDF (all slides) |
| Slides | /export?format=pptx | Download MS PowerPoint doc |
| Drawings | /export/jpg | Download jpg image |
| Drawings | /export/pdf | Download PDF |
| Drawings | /export/svg | Download svg image |
Downloading non-Google documents
We can also create a link, which will automatically download the file when clicked. Note, it’s a different format from the above ones:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id= + FILE ID
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1OjELue4DGnz1cGySyCy1lEPdlyWpJXS5
Links to specific slides, sheets, ranges, and headers
URLs can also contain information which will direct you straight to a specific slide, sheet, sheet range, doc header, or Jamboard page. These specific information appears at the end of the URL.
For example, this URL will direct us straight to a specific sheet in the Google Sheet. Each sheet has an ID, which comes after the #gid= part.
Just to add a little confusion, you may see Sheets URLs with ?pli=1 in between the edit? and #gid parts, e.g. /edit?pli=1#gid=922611724, it still takes you to the same sheet.
| Sheets | /edit#gid=0 or /edit?pli=1#gid=0 | Goes to the first tab |
| Sheets | /edit#gid=52821036 or /edit?pli=1#gid=52821036 | Goes to the sheet with that ID |
| Sheets | /edit#gid=0&range=B3 or /edit?pli=1#gid=0&range=B3 | Goes to cell B3 on the first tab Use “Get link to this cell” to get the URL |
| Slides | /edit#slide=id.p5 | Goes to slide 5 |
| Docs | /edit#heading=h.fkno6j4gsxhu | Goes to the header in the Doc with that ID |
| Jamboard | /viewer?f=1 | Goes to page 2 (page 1 is 0) |
Here’s a couple of full examples from the table above:
https://jamboard.google.com/d/1IM1IT1ddhk1ha4kXw5FlNxAZQZYE4X04UV1CJtFWf3Q/viewer?f=1
Try them out
I use these all the time and they are a great timesaver, plus you can copy and paste the links into documents, allowing other users to quickly copy and go to specific parts of documents.
If you know a little Apps Script, you can very easily create these links just by replacing the edit part of the URL in most cases.
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