AccessDropYour Google Slides template opens for the buyer, and they still can't edit it
Undated planners and templates sold as "edit in Google Slides" hit the same permissions mistake as Sheets and Docs templates — plus one trick that skips the problem entirely.
You sell an undated planner, a social media template pack or a course workbook built in Google Slides, and deliver it as a shared link inside the PDF Etsy sends out. It opens fine for you — every slide is editable. A buyer opens the same link and either can't change anything at all, or three buyers in they're all somehow editing the same deck. This is the same underlying mistake the Google Sheets version of this page covers, in Slides.
A Viewer link was never going to let them edit
Google's own permission table covers Slides along with Docs and Sheets: a Viewer "can View: Yes | Comment: No | Edit: No | Download: Yes, by default | Share: No." If the link you shared is set to Viewer, that was never going to put an edit cursor on a single slide — and nothing on the buyer's end is broken. The fix isn't a different link. It's a different action once they're on the page they already have.
What actually gets them an editable copy
Google's own instructions name Slides directly: "On your computer, open a Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms or Vids home screen... In the menu, click File, then Make a copy." A Viewer can do this by default, and the result is an entirely independent deck in the buyer's own Google Drive — their edits never touch your original. That's the correct shape of delivery: a Viewer link, with the buyer expected to duplicate it before changing anything.
The other mistake: sharing it as Editor
Share the link as Editor instead of Viewer, and every buyer who opens it is editing the same live presentation — not a copy, the actual file. Text gets overwritten, slide order changes under you, and the first person to notice usually assumes they've been sent someone else's half-finished deck. An Editor can also reshare the file further, which is the opposite of what a one-time template sale is meant to produce.
| What the buyer sees | What's actually happening | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| They can open it, but can't change anything | Shared as Viewer, which is correct — but Make a Copy wasn't mentioned anywhere | Add a line to the listing: "File, then Make a copy, to get your own editable version" — or switch to a /copy link |
| They can open it, but can't make a copy, download or print it | Sharing settings have download/copy/print unticked for Viewers | Share → Settings → tick Viewers under "People who can download, copy, and print" |
| It worked for months, now other people's edits are in it | Shared as Editor — every buyer has been editing one live presentation | Reshare as Viewer going forward; the already-shared Editor link needs restricting or replacing |
What actually changes
- 1
Share as Viewer, never Editor
Editor access on a template you're selling to strangers means strangers editing your original deck, in real time, for everyone who has the link.
- 2
Say the exact step, or use a /copy link instead
"File, then Make a copy" removes the one piece of knowledge the whole delivery depends on. A /copy-ending link removes the need to say it at all — test it on your own template first.
- 3
Leave download, copy and print switched on for Viewers
Locking this down to protect the template from redistribution also locks out the one legitimate action a paying buyer needs to take.
- 4
Open the link signed out, in a private window, after any change
The same check the Sheets, Canva and Notion guides on this site all make: your own view, signed in as the owner, is never what a buyer with the link actually sees.
The structural fix is the one every guide on this site reaches for regardless of host: put a link you control in the PDF, not the raw Slides URL. How to deliver digital downloads on Etsy covers why that matters even when the destination is working perfectly — if you ever rebuild the template or switch between a /edit and a /copy link, you repoint one link instead of hoping every past buyer still has the old one.
See how the link check works
A real example delivery PDF, and what the weekly access check does and doesn't catch.
See a sample delivery