Making a Copy
You can easily make a copy of an item in Google Drive in a couple of ways.
In Google Drive
Right-click the item you want to make a copy of, then click Make a copy.
It will automatically name the new one "Copy of [file name]" and place it in the same folder as the original. Feel free to rename them to differentiate between the copies.
In the Item Itself
Click File in the top menu, and then Make a copy.
It will open a window where you can choose to rename the copy and decide where it resides in your Google Drive. Click Make a copy to do just that.
Share Settings
You can change your share settings for each Google doc, sheet, and so on to control who can view and edit them.
To do that, click the blue button in the top right. A new document's share button tends to look like the one in the image below, but it may change to reflect the share settings you assign later on. Clicking the Share button will open a window where you can directly share with people, or change overall edit/view settings.
Adding Individuals
To add specific users/groups to a document, you can start typing their name or email in the Add people and groups field.
After you start to add someone there, the window will change to give you more options.
1. Add more people to the document here.
2. Choose whether the people added can just view the document, comment on it, or edit it.
3. Choosing to notify means they will get an email about gaining access to the document, along with a link to it. You can also choose to include a message in that email by writing in the message box below it. If you don't check this option, they will just get access to it, and can search for it in their Google Drive.
4. At the bottom, you can either cancel the share or click Send to add the people's access to the document.
Choosing Overall Access
If you go back to the original share window, you can also change the document's General access options. This does not affect the access for the people you directly share it with.
Restricted means only those added to the document can open it.
Proximity Learning Inc. can open the document up to everyone with a PLI account.
Anyone with the link is, you guessed it, anybody with the link! Bear in mind, this includes people who get the link from sources other than you. So if you share the document/link with anyone, this setting allows them to disperse the document to others as well.
If you select anything other than Restricted, you can again choose the access level (1), the same as when you add people to the document directly. You can also decide whether the document can be searched and pulled up by anybody in Google Drive, or if they need to have opened the link at some point for it to appear for them (2).
Put in Practice
Use your best judgment when it comes to setting access for Google documents. If it's with students, you might be best off either creating a copy for each student or setting it to Anyone with the link can View access so they can make their own copy. If it's a document for other teachers in PLI, you're probably best off setting it to viewable within Proximity Learning and setting it to be found in search results if you want anyone to find it. You have multiple options depending on the context.