Embed Google Drive files in articles

If you're using Google Drive to create and store files, Google offers some helpful tools for sharing those resources with others. Google provides publishing options for Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Forms.

There are two ways to share files stored in Google Drive within KnowledgeOwl:

• URL redirect articles or categories: If everyone accessing your knowledge base already has access to a shared Google Drive, create URL redirect articles or URL redirect categories pointing to the files you want to open. Grab the share link for a file and use that as the URL redirect.
• Direct embeds: If you want to display a file in your Google Drive to folks who aren't a member of it, or you just don't want anyone to have to open an extra link to view the file, embed your Google file within an article or custom content category in KnowledgeOwl.

To view a sample embedded Google Slides show, check out the Three use cases for snippets (March 15th).

Before you begin

Before you begin, you'll need:

• To know where you want to embed the Google file in your knowledge base. Most likely, you'll want to embed it in an article or a custom content category.
• Access to the Google file you want to embed. Some organizations restrict publishing, so if you don't see the options listed below, you'll likely need to contact your Google workspace administrator.

To embed a Google Drive file into an article, you'll complete two steps:

1. Publish your Google Drive file to the web.
2. Add the Google Drive embed code to your KnowledgeOwl article.

Publish your Google Drive file to the web

Once you have that in hand:

1. Open the file in Google Drive you'd like to embed. For this example, we'll use a Google Slides presentation. 😉
2. In Google, go to File > Share > Publish to web. The Publish to the web modal opens.
3. Select the Embed tab in the modal:
   
   Sample Publish to the web modal in Google
4. Choose the settings that make sense to you. The options vary based on which Google Drive product you're using, for example:
   • Slideshows have options for slide size and slide auto advancement, as well as whether to automatically start or restart the slideshow on completion.
   • Spreadsheets have options to publish the current sheet or the entire spreadsheet.
5. If you see an option for Published content & settings, it's worth opening it to review who will have access once you publish. The options here will vary based on how your Google Drive is set up.
   • If you'd like anyone to be able to view it, don't check any boxes to restrict it.
   • If you're sharing something internal to your organization and you'd still like to make sure that only people in your organization can see it, check the box to Restrict access to the following and make appropriate selections.
6. Once you're done setting the Embed how you'd like it to work, select Publish.
7. Google will ask you for confirmation that you want to publish; select OK.
8. The Publish to the web modal updates to display an embed code:
   
   Sample embed code after publishing in Google Slides
9. Copy that entire code and head over to KnowledgeOwl!

Add the Google Drive embed code to KnowledgeOwl

Once you've copied the embed code for your Google Drive file, add it to KnowledgeOwl using these steps:

1. Open the article or custom content category where you'd like to add this content for editing.
2. Optional: If your article or category has a lot of text in it and you want to add the embedded file somewhere in the middle, find some text near where you want to embed your file, and highlight it. This will make the next step easier.
3. Select the </> Code View control in the editor:
   
   Select the </> Code View control to toggle to raw HTML
4. This will toggle you to the raw code view of your content. If you highlighted text in step #2, the same text will still be highlighted in Code View, helping you orient yourself!
5. Paste the iframe embed code you copied from Google wherever you'd like it to appear. It often helps to put the embed code into a centered paragraph if it doesn't take up the full width. For example, here's a sample of an embed code in a centered paragraph:

   <p style="text-align: center;">
   	<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTqAGlc4tUaBRIl4LQKP1n_Xuxr1xPfPRsqSP-1qmVJQPWcO0nyHhNVx9Jiqg--PAH-GVsi4YEAX9CH/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="960" height="569"></iframe>
   </p>

6. Toggle back to the normal editor view by selecting the </> Code View control again. You should be able to see your embedded file displayed in the editor. It should also show in Preview.
7. Once you're done making edits to your article or category, be sure to Save your changes.

Related resources

Refer to Google's own documentation on Making Google Docs, Sheets, Slides & Forms public for more details on the process overall. Refer to the Embed files section on that page for more information on the embed options and settings.