How to Make a Copy of a Shared Google Sheet

If you’re a non-traditional student—someone who’s spent years working, raising a family, or caring for others before deciding it’s finally your turn to go back to school—welcome.

You’re in the right place.

On my YouTube channel, I share resources, reflections, and tutorials to help people like you navigate grad school applications, funding, and life balance.

So in this short blog post, I’m going to walk you through how to make a copy of a shared Google Sheet.

I’ll also help you see when you might not want to do that.

And if you want the free Grad School Comparison Tool Bundle that I mention in the video, you can grab that here.

Table of Contents

About the Everyday Historian

Heeey! I’m Brittany – the writer and researcher behind The Everyday Historian.

This blog and my YouTube channel are documenting my journey to and through grad school.

I’m a married woman in my 30s, and it’s a different game making these big kinds of life decisions when you have a husband and a home to consider.

So if you can relate, be sure to join our free Facebook Group full of fellow Everyday Historians!

Prefer to Watch Instead Of Reading?

Click here to watch the video tutorial version.

Or, simply use the YouTube tool below to push play and follow along.

Step-by-Step: How to Make a Copy

Open the Google Sheet link (you’ll probably be in “View Only” mode).
Go to File → Make a Copy.
When the popup appears, rename it something clear—like Grad School Comparison – Your Name
Choose where to save it in your Google Drive.
- If you leave it as “My Drive,” it’ll sit at the top level.
- You can also create or choose a sub-folder (for example, “Grad School 2025”).
Uncheck Share it with the same people.
You don’t want my permissions (or anyone else’s) following your copy.
Click Make a copy and that’s it!

Now you have your own editable version that you can customize however you want.

When You Shouldn’t Make a Copy

If the document you’re using updates regularly (for example, a live database of scholarships or grad-school stats), you won’t get those updates in your personal copy.

Instead, bookmark the original so you can always see the latest version.

Here’s how I do it:

I keep a “Research Resources” folder on my bookmarks bar.
I star important links I use every day.
Then, I organize everything by topic (Scholarships, Applications, Research Tools).

It sounds small, but trust me… it’ll save you hours later when you can’t find that one spreadsheet you know exists somewhere in your Drive.