Create custom Drive templates

Supported editions for this feature: Business Standard and Plus; Enterprise; Education Fundamentals, Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Plus; Nonprofits; G Suite Basic and Business; Essentials.  Compare your edition

Using Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites templates, you can create formatted files, such as project plans or budgets. You can use the standard template gallery and create a custom template gallery for your organization.

You can manage the categories for your organization’s template gallery, or turn off your custom gallery altogether. And regardless of settings, admins can always add and remove templates.

Change template settings

You must be an admin with Drive and Docs privilege to do this.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. On the Admin console Home page, go to AppsGoogle WorkspaceDrive and DocsTemplates.

   Requires having the Drive and Docs administrator privilege.

3. Choose whether to enable custom templates for your organization. If you uncheck this box, users can’t submit or use custom templates, but they can still use the standard template gallery.

4. (Optional) Update the template categories to help users quickly find relevant templates. For example, you might want separate categories for your marketing, sales, and human resource teams.

   1. To add a category—Enter a category name and click Add.

   2. To remove a category—Uncheck the category's box.

      When you remove a category, you see an option to move its existing templates. If you don’t select a new category, existing templates appear in the gallery as “Uncategorized.”

5. Select who can submit templates:

   1. Open—Anyone in your organization can add or remove templates without approval.

   2. Moderated—Admins with “Docs Templates” privilege get an email request to approve each new template. The request is closed once any admin responds. Approved templates are added to the custom gallery. Rejected templates can be resubmitted.

   3. Restricted—Only admins with the “Docs Templates” privilege can submit templates.

6. Click Save.

Turn on templates with add-ons

You can pair Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites templates with recommended add-ons. Add-ons are third-party tools that work with Docs editors. For example:

• A legal template might include an add-on for electronic signatures.
• A project plan template might include an add-on to create flow charts and other complex diagrams.

When users create a new document from a template, a sidebar shows any paired add-ons. This sidebar makes it easy to find and install the right tools for a task. Learn more about using and submitting templates.

To allow templates with add-ons in your organization:

1. Enable add-ons for Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. You can optionally:

   • Enable all add-ons or deploy a specific set.
   • Create a whitelist of trusted add-ons.
2. If templates are Moderated in your organization (see step 5 above), review any add-ons before you approve templates. Links to paired add-ons are included in the template approval request.