Linking to A Google Drive Account
In this video, we will continue with the theme of adding files from outside websites, specifically adding documents from Google Drive.
Before we dive right into it, I want to remind you of a couple of things.
First, make sure you have permissions to post anything you are linking to.
Just like with academic writing, it is important to cite sources, or summarize/paraphrase work so that it becomes your own.
If you are linking to something outside of your EPortfolio, then consider why you feel the need to do this: is it your own content that you can’t add to the EPortfolio any other way?
Is it important that viewers see where the content is coming from?
Does it add to representing your learning and skills?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, continue watching for more information.
The first thing we need to do is make sure that the file we wish to share on Google Drive is public, meaning that anyone who has a link to this document can see it.
Without this feature, any document you link to your ePortfolio will give readers an error message.
To prevent this from happening, we are going to start in Google Drive, with a document of my own.
In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, next to your profile icon, there should be a large blue share button.
Clicking this button should give you a new popup which gives you a link to the document, and in the lower part of the popup screen a dropdown menu to change the share settings for this document.
The Default setting says “Restricted: Only people added can open with this link.”
Under this message is a small set of texts which says, “change to anyone with link.”
When you select this text, it will give you the option to switch to anyone with the link can view.
You can further change this to anyone can edit or add, but I would suggest leaving the settings at view, so others don’t make changes to your document.
Once you are sure that these settings are in place, you can head to D2L for the next step.
I am now going to start from inside a new ePortfolio project. If you are unsure how to get here, or haven’t started your project yet, you can check out either the “Using a Template from an Instructor” video, the “Creating a New Presentation” video, or the “Uploading and Using the MTEngage Scholarship template” video.
I am going to create a new text area to add my Google Drive document in, on the template I am currently on.
First, I will select the add component button at the bottom right side of the page.
Then I will select the text area button from the newly created drop-down menu.
I will name the content area Document, then I will click on the text area.
You will notice there are three buttons in the upper left-hand corner of the dialogue box: a black box with a white right-facing triangle, a chain of three links, and a circular symbol.
The chain is the insert link button, which I’m going to select.
The new dialogue box that appears will give you several options, like adding from google, your one drive, and a url.
I am going to select Google Drive.
If this is your first-time logging into Google Drive through the D2L system, it will ask you to login.
Follow the Directions from the system until you arrive at a screen showing you your Google Drive Homepage.
Select the file you wish to add.
Once you have selected your file, you can hit the select button in the bottom left hand corner of the popup screen.
The popup will disappear, and the file will appear in the text area as a link.
The link title will be the name of the file followed by a dot and the file type.
You cannot change the file title by editing the text in the text box, it will undo the link.
Instead, highlight the link title, select the insert link button, and a new popup will appear.
This is a space where you can change most of the settings for this document.
The first box is the url, the second is the link text, and below is a checkbox called Target which is how the file will open: either Whole window, same frame, or New Window.
The New Window box is default selected, and I would recommend leaving it that way so that readers can navigate back to your ePortfolio as they explore your document.
I will then select the update button in the popup, and my link will be updated with my new features.
I can then continue editing my ePortfolio as normal.
