If you use the free, Standard Edition of Google Apps, your admin control panel will give you the illusion that you can enable the use of document templates on your domain. But it won’t work, and there is a hidden note to this effect in Google Help.
So if you want to use doc templates, here’s how to set up a workaround:
- Log in to your personal Google Account (with the
username@gmail.comaddress). Do not log into Google Apps (Standard Edition) for your domain. - In Drive, create the Doc you would like to use as a template.
- Still in your personal account’s Drive, select that file, and
- either find the “Submit as template” link in the “More actions” drop-down,
- or – if it’s not there – visit the templates main page and click the “Submit a template” link. You will have the option to select the Google Doc you created in Step 2 as your template.
- Note: This will make your template public; so be careful.
- A few moments after you’ve submitted the Doc as a template, you will be able to access it using the Standard Edition of Google Apps for your domain:
- Log out of your personal Google Account, and in to Drive on your domain.
- If your Drive’s “New” button doesn’t offer the option to “Create from template,” you can
- either visit Drive Templates directly,
- or install this little app to add the option to your Drive’s “New” button.
- From the Drive Templates page, select the “Public templates” tab, and search for your template using your personal Google Account’s user name (or use the template file name, if it’s unique enough).
- Select it to open a Google Doc using that template.
- Thereafter, you’ll find it under the “Templates I’ve used” tab.
Templates away!
