How to Create a Document or Spreadsheet

Start a brand-new Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, or Drawing that opens immediately in the real-time collaborative editor.

Before you start

Your organization must have the Docs Editor feature enabled — if the Create New section doesn't appear in step 2 below, ask an admin to turn it on.

Steps

1. Click Docs in the top nav bar.
2. In the menu that opens, find the Create New section and choose one of:
   • Document — a word processing document.
   • Spreadsheet — a table and data workbook.
   • Presentation — a slideshow.
   • Drawing — diagrams, sketches, and visuals.
3. A new browser tab opens immediately. It loads the real-time editor once the document has finished being created on the server (this takes a moment — the tab shows a loading state, not a blank page).

What you'll see

The new file opens in the collaborative editor, ready to type into. It's also saved to your Original Docs tab in the Document Manager, so you can find it again later — see How to Edit a Document with Your Team

If something goes wrong

If creation fails (for example, the feature isn't enabled, or the request times out), the new tab shows an error message instead of the editor rather than silently failing.