This article is written for G Suite for Education Administrators.

The Google Docs Template Gallery feature not just demonstrates the power of Google Docs editors (particularly Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms), but also allows teachers and students to produce documents efficiently. Having that said, schools may want to restrict students from using the default templates provided by Google for certain reasons. Instead, schools prefer internal approved templates.

This article demonstrates how Safe Doc can remove some or all default templates in Docs editors. If you have yet to install Safe Doc in your students' chrome devices, apply for a 30-days trial.

Remove All Default Docs Templates

What's changing?

Before: In Google Docs Template Gallery, Google Sheets Template Gallery, Google Slides Template Gallery and Google Forms Template Gallery, your students will see all default templates in the General tab, next to your organization's internal templates. Back in the Docs home page, you will find the general templates displayed as well.

After: All default templates in the General tab are removed. Only your internal templates are shown. This applies to all Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms templates. In the Docs home page, the default templates are removed too.

Remove all default Google Docs templates
Remove all default Google Docs templates. Only internal templates are allowed.
Remove templates in the Google Docs home page
Remove templates in the Google Docs home page

How to configure?

First of all, you need to have Safe Doc deployed to your students' Chrome devices and read Safe Doc configuration.

Then, add or edit this policy BlockEditorTemplates to your Safe Doc policy configuration, with a value ["*"].

"BlockEditorTemplates": {
  "Value": ["*"]
}

If your school doesn't enable custom templates, you can use the above configuration too to block the default templates. In addition, add these URLs to your URL blocking policies to enforce stronger blocking.

  • docs.google.com/document/u/0/?ftv=1
  • docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/?ftv=1
  • docs.google.com/presentation/u/0/?ftv=1
  • docs.google.com/forms/u/0/?ftv=1

Remove Certain Default Docs Templates

What's changing?

Some schools are open to Google templates but want to block certain templates because they violate school policies.

Before: In Google Docs Template Gallery, Google Sheets Template Gallery, Google Slides Template Gallery and Google Forms Template Gallery, your students will see all default templates in the General tab, next to your organization's internal templates.

After: Certain default templates in the General tab of Template Gallery are removed when students are trying to create a document from a template. Which template to block is configured by you, the admin.

Remove certain Google Slides templates. In this example, Photo album and Wedding templates are removed.
Remove certain Google Slides templates. In this example, Photo album and Wedding templates are removed.

How to configure?

First of all, you need to have Safe Doc deployed to your students' Chrome devices and read Safe Doc configuration.

Then, add or edit this policy BlockEditorTemplates to your Safe Doc policy configuration, with a list of keywords matching the title of template. The key phrases match on all Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms template galleries, so specify a key phrase as detailed as possible. The following is an example of blocking Photo album and Wedding Slides templates.

"BlockEditorTemplates": {
  "Value": ["photo album", "wedding"]
}

Please leave your comments in the Safe Doc community or contact us.