Documents in Google Drive can just be shared or shared and findable. A shared document is one that you are giving a specified person or group of people access to. If you don’t have the link to the document or the document isn’t shared exclusively with you then you can’t access it. In other words you have to specifically been given permission to see the document.

A findable document is one that anyone with an @mtroyal.ca email address can search for. All they need to do is enter a term in the search field in Google Drive and Google will find all the documents that contain that term in the filename or contents. Therefore they don’t need to have the link to access the document, they can just search for it.

Currently, the option to make a document findable is buried in the settings wheel that is only accessible when you want to generate a document link that can be used by members of the Mount Royal University group.

 

 

This makes it difficult to accidentally make a document findable. However, a few years ago this option was part of a drop down that included other sharing permissions.  This made it much easier to select it when you didn’t intend to.  The good news is, only MRU community members can search for the document. The general public cannot. So if you accidentally made the document findable, you are somewhat protected.

Now for more good news. While there is no easy way to determine which documents have been shared. There is an easy way to determine which of your documents are findable, just type owner:me source:domain in the Google Drive search bar and press Enter on your keyboard. It will bring up all the documents that you own that are marked findable. As a document can’t be findable unless it is shared with the whole campus, this should help you track down some of your accidentally shared documents and folders as well.

You are welcome!