Google-docs – Why do two Google documents look and act differently

google docs

I create this Google document about two months ago, viewing it as a published website looks like this:

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and when editing it, the toolbar looks like this:

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I just created a document and published it looks like this:

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and when editing it, the toolbar looks slightly different:

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I assume these are two different Google Document versions, but can't find any version number anywhere.

Why is there this discrepency and how can I get my Google Documents to all act and look the same when I view and edit them?

Best Answer

It's because when you're editing the document it has the print layout (they used to have an option to edit in a different view but not anymore) and when you are publishing it they are removing the page layout and showing only the contains as an html page.

If you want to preserve the page layout for the published document as well and make it look exactly the same as in edit mode, then you have two options. From the sharing options select one of the following:

  • Public on the web
  • Anyone with the link

and you will get in both cases a link that will look exactly the same. The only downside with these options is that everybody will be able to see who is currently viewing your document.

Here is a screenshot of these two options:

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