Stupid Google Doc Rediscover Email for Sharing Trick

This one of the stupider workarounds, but given the lack of information on the Web, I thought I would share anyway. If there’s a better way to do this, let me know (after you’ve done laughing).

Problem

I can figure out how to share a Google doc with any e-mail, but I hadn’t been able to reveal the e-mail of a Doc I had already shared if they do not happen to be in my Contacts list. Here at Penn State Google Doc address are a mix of @psu.edu and @gmail.com addresses so it’s kind of a guessing game.

For instance, suppose I share a doc with W. Adama once, and I need to share another one but can’t remember the e-mail I used (may it’s a gmail address, maybe it’s not…). I could ask W. Adama, but he’s generally very busy, so I’d rather extract it from the original share list.

Short Term Solution

  1. Open a doc you know you shared with person X (e.g. W. Adama).
  2. Click the Share button on the upper right and select See who has access
  3. Now for the trick part – Click link for Create Event w. these people. This opens a new tab create an entry into the Google Calendar app and add everyone to it.
  4. From the Guests field to the right, copy the e-mail e-mail address(es) you need, then click Cancel and Discard Changes No need to add anything to anyone’s calendar.
  5. Close the Google Calendar tab in your browser. You should be back in your Google Doc.
  6. Back in Google Docs close your doc, create a new one and paste the address in your Share list.

Long Term Solution

You can add people to your Contacts list at https://docs.google.com/c/ui/ContactManager. To add a new contact, click the +Person icon at the upper left. This will show up in your contacts list when you need to share a Google doc in the future.

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