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Google Workspace

Updated June 15, 2025

Google Workspace is a collection of online tools made by Google to help people work together. It includes things like Gmail for email, Google Docs for writing, Google Sheets for spreadsheets, and Google Drive for storing files. Everything is stored online, so teams can share and edit documents in real time from anywhere. It’s like a digital office that helps people stay connected and get work done.

Product information

Product website

https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_ca/

Login page

google.com/

Warning

Your MobilityData email address must be used for work-related communication.

The personal email address you provided us during your hiring process may only be used if you cannot access your MobilityData address for some reason.

Tutorials

More information

Add a Passkey to your account

If this is not already the case, you can add a Passkey to your Google Account, which replaces 2FA/MFA and passwords altogether. Here's a video that demonstrates how to do this:

Multi-factor/2-factor/2-step authentication

Note

Ignore this if you set up a passkey, as it replaces 2FA/MFA and is more secure.

If you require any help with setting this up, or you are locked out of your account, please contact the IT Manager.

Multi-factor or multi-step (also known as 2FA or MFA) authentication is mandatory on your MobilityData Google account in order to ensure it is safe and secure. Your Google account can then be used to log in to various services thanks to this.

This should normally be activated during your computer setup prior to onboarding. If that wasn’t the case, you have one week from the creation of your account to enable it.

Follow the instructions here.

Additional notes

Sharing a document with someone...

  1. Open the Google Doc or Sheet you want to share.
  2. Click the blue Share button in the top-right corner.
  3. In the popup, under Share with people and groups:
    • Enter the email address of anyone with a Google account you want to share with.
    • Set their access to Viewer(1), Commenter(2), or Editor(3).
  4. Click Send to notify them.
  1. Can only view the file. No edits or comments.
  2. Can view and leave comments, but not edit content.
  3. Can edit everything, including content and sharing settings.
  1. Open the Doc or Sheet you want to share.
  2. Click the blue Share button in the top-right corner.
  3. In the popup, click Copy link.
  4. Change access from Restricted to Anyone with the link.
  5. Set the access level: Viewer(1), Commenter(2), or Editor(3).
  6. Click Copy link, then send it to the person.
  1. Can only view the file. No edits or comments.
  2. Can view and leave comments, but not edit content.
  3. Can edit everything, including content and sharing settings.

Important

This makes the file accessible to anyone who has the link.

Confirm with your team if this should be a public document, and consider moving it to the PUBLIC Shared Drive instead.

Export Sheets & Docs documents to PDF and other formats

You can export any Google Sheet or Docs to PDF, CSV, Text or even HTML by adding a bit of text to the end of the URL of any document.

Add or replace whatever is after the URL (for example /edit?pli=1&tab=t.0) with one of these options:

/export?output=docx    # Microsoft Word document
/export?output=rtf     # Rich text format
/export?output=pdf     # PDF
/export?output=txt     # Text file (no formatting)
/export?output=html    # HTML
/export?output=md      # MarkDown
/export?output=odt     # OpenDocument Text
/export?output=epub    # Epub, commonly used for eBooks

For exemple:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1234567890/export?format=pdf

Add or replace whatever is after the document ID number (for example /edit?gid=123456789) with one of these options:

/export?format=pdf     # PDF
/export?format=xlsx    # Microsoft Excel document
/export?format=csv     # Comma Separated Values
/export?format=tsv     # Tab Separated Values
/export?format=html    # HTML
/export?format=ods     # OpenDocument Spreadsheet

If you wish to export the whole spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890/export?format=pdf

If you wish to export a specific sheet in your spreadsheet, use this formulation instead, all on one line:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890/export?gid=gidnumber&format=csv

... where gidnumber needs to be replaced with the sheet number. You can find that inside the existing URL. If switch between sheets you can see the number that changes and that's the GID.

⚠ IMPORTANT

Do not miss the ? and & characters (in bold in the exemple above) as they are important for Google to parse what you want.

Working offline

You can work on your Google Docs, Sheets and Slides offline if you so desire, which does not require any internet connection at all. For example, before going on a plane, or a train which does not have Wifi, or if there is no or unreliable cellular signal. Here are the instructions.

Warning

Please note that you cannot collaborate with other people on the same document at the same time when offline, and until you get an internet connection back and turn this mode off, the online document will not be up-to-date if someone wishes to look at it or make changes to it.

Apps

Calendar

Sharing

Please share your calendar with everyone and send them a friendly note asking them to share theirs with you. You can follow these instructions on how to accomplish this.

You might also want to set your calendar preferences so that guests can modify an event you create. In the Calendar app online, under Settings > General > Event settings > Default guest permissions should be set to Modify event.

You can also send a link to share your calendar with others in Settings for my calendars > Your calendar > Access permissions for events.

Gmail

Out of office / vacation message

Follow these instructions to setup your out of office or vacation message. The settings are located in the Settings page, in the General tab, under Vacation responder.

Go to the Settings page of your Gmail account.

Email signature

You can use this template below to create your email signature. If you need assistance, please contact the IT Manager. You can access the signatures in your Google account in the Settings page under the General tab, then scroll down to Signatures.

Go to the Settings page of your Gmail account.

Email signature example

—
Frédéric Simard | fr, en | IT Manager | MobilityData | mobilitydata.org
[email protected] | +1 514 575 5310 | Montréal, Québec, Canada
⚠ Adding your phone number is optional.

Meet

You can control who has access to any Google Meet, either when you create an invite with a link or when the Meet begins. Follow the instructions below.

Control Meeting access with host controls

The controls are available when:

  • You plan a meeting.
  • You’re in a meeting.

Steps

  1. Enable Host controls.

    1. In your Google Calendar, select an event.
    2. Click Settings .
    3. Open the Host controls tab.
    4. Scroll to Meeting access.
    1. Open the Host controls panel.
    2. Scroll to Meeting access.

  2. Choose a meeting access type:

    • Open: Anyone with a meeting link can join your meetings. No one has to knock.
    • Trusted: Anyone within the host’s organization can join without knocking. Anyone outside the organization, but invited through a Google Calendar event, can join without knocking. Everybody else must knock.
    • Restricted: Anyone invited through a Google Calendar event or from within the meeting by a host can join. Everyone else must knock.

  3. Optional:

    • If you need to join a meeting before the participants, turn on Host must join before anyone else.

    • To let only participants who authenticate with their invited Google Accounts join:

      • For Trusted access: Uncheck the box next to Anyone with the meeting link can ask to join.

        If the box is unchecked, all internal-domain participants can join in addition to explicitly invited external-domain participants. They have to be logged in with a Google Account.

      • For Restricted access: Uncheck the box next to Anyone can ask to join, including people who dial in.

        This turns off knocking for the entire meeting. Anonymous users or third-party bots, like note takers, that attempt to use “Ask to join” are automatically denied access without actions required by the host.

  4. Click Save.

    • Or, close the Host controls panel.

Tip

Settings are at the meeting level, so different meetings can have different meeting access options. Recurring meetings keep the same settings as the first meeting.

Schedule a video meeting in another scheduling system

  1. Start a video meeting from Gmail or Meet.
  2. Copy the meeting details to an event created in your scheduling system.

See Start or schedule a Google Meet video meeting.

Drive

You have a personal Drive which you can access online, or alternatively, using the native app on your Mac(1).

You will also be added to some but not all Shared Drives.

  1. Available in the Self-Service app. Alternatively, contact the IT Manager.

See Shared Google Drives Hierarchy for more information.

Groups

You are part of some of MobilityData's Google Groups, which function something like a shared inbox. These emails will go to your work address automatically, and your responses are automatically shared with all the other members of the Google Group as well as the person who sent the email to the shared address.

You can access the groups at this address: https://groups.mobilitydata.org/.

Resetting your password

You have two options to reset your password:

Here's how to do it yourself:

  1. Go to this page and follow the steps to recover your account. You'll be asked some questions to confirm it's your account and an email will be sent to you. If you don’t get an email:
    • Check your Spam or Bulk Mail folders.
    • Add [email protected] to your address book.
    • To request another email, follow the steps to recover your account .
    • Check all email addresses you might've used to sign up or sign in to your account. Most likely that email will be sent to the email address you provided us during your hiring process.
  2. Choose a password that you haven't already used with this account. See Passwords for more information.

Contact info here.

Backups

There is a safe, automatic daily backup of your Google Workspace (Emails, Calendars, Contacts, personal Drive only) that will be stored for a maximum of 30 days. You can access those backups and do a restore yourself through the Google apps menu, right at the bottom (SpinOne), and by logging in with your Google account on the left (no need to create a new one).