Getting Notified of Spreadsheet Changes

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated December 20, 2013)

6

When you are collaborating on a spreadsheet with others, it can be a great boon to get everyone's changes all in that single spreadsheet. When your collaborators are all over the country (or the world), it would be great to be notified whenever someone makes a change in the spreadsheet. That way you wouldn't waste time continually checking the spreadsheet to see if others have made changes recently.

Fortunately, Sheets does provide a way to get notifications when things change in a shared spreadsheet. Here's how to set up your own notifications:

  1. Log into Google Drive (drive.google.com).
  2. Open the spreadsheet for which you want notifications. (It must be a spreadsheet that is shared with others.)
  3. Choose Tools | Notifications. Sheets displays the Set Notification Rules dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Set Notification Rules dialog box.

  4. Using the controls in the dialog box, indicate what type of change notifications you want to see.
  5. Indicate at the bottom of the dialog box how quickly you want to be notified.
  6. Click Save. Sheets displays the Set Notification Rules dialog box, which shows an overview of how you are notified.
  7. Click Done.

Notifications can be set on a spreadsheet-by-spreadsheet basis, but (again) only for shared spreadsheets.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Selecting a Text Block

Word has an interesting way of allowing you to select a rectangular block of text, without reference to what may be ...

Discover More

Displaying Negative Percentages in Red

Excel includes quite a few different formats you can use for the information in a worksheet. One format that isn't as ...

Discover More

Creating a Drawing Object

Word documents can contain more than just wordsâ€""they can also contain drawing objects such as lines and simple shapes. ...

Discover More
More DriveTips

Understanding Text Wrapping

Because you can put text into spreadsheet cells, it makes sense that not all that text could be displayed in a ...

Discover More

Brainstorming with Google

Sheets includes a nifty, undocumented feature that allows you to enlist Google's help in brainstorming. All you need to ...

Discover More

Controlling Display of the Formula Bar

The formula bar is where you can see exactly what is stored in a spreadsheet cell. If you would rather hide the formula ...

Discover More
Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 4 + 9?

2014-01-15 09:39:48

Andy

Thanks for making the correction so promptly!

Google have introduced a new feature "Activity Stream" which makes it a bit easier to know when changes are made to documents: http://googledrive.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/a-new-activity-stream-in-drive-shows.html

It is worth considering for a drive tip!

2013-12-20 09:06:22

awyatt

Now corrected; it is about spreadsheet changes, not document changes.

-Allen

2013-12-20 08:59:03

awyatt

You are absolutely correct, Andy. I must have been half asleep when I wrote this one. I'll get it corrected.

-Allen

2013-12-19 23:10:44

Andy

Just a correction to my last post, there is no Notification option on the Tools menu in documents. To set comment notifications you go to comments in the top right corner, then click on Notifications.

2013-12-19 23:07:11

Andy

Your tip refers to "documents" but the screenshot is for a spreadsheet.

I don't think you can be notified of *document* changes, only if comments to a document are made. And there is no Tools menu in documents.

Notification of changes to shared documents is a feature I wish google would introduce!

2013-12-19 08:07:20

vinod

Nice tip. Very useful. Keep up the good work

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR AUTHORS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2020 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.