The Accidental Edits
When collaborating in Google Docs, the platform offers three distinct modes: Editing (direct changes), Suggesting (proposed changes marked in green), and Viewing (read-only). If you are the owner of a document or have full edit permissions, Google Docs usually defaults to Editing mode. However, if you are reviewing a highly sensitive legal contract or a finalized public report, the last thing you want to do is accidentally type a stray character or delete a comma while scrolling through the text.
Similarly, if you are attempting to make a quick, permanent fix to a typo, but you are currently stuck in Suggesting mode, your correction will appear as a proposed edit that someone else has to approve later. To maintain strict control over how you interact with a document at any given moment, you need to know how to manually switch out of Suggesting mode and lock yourself into either direct Editing or safe Viewing.
How to Switch Out of Suggesting Mode
You can forcefully change your interaction mode using the dropdown menu located at the top of the interface.
- Open your document in Google Docs.
- Look at the toolbar menu at the top of the screen (where the font and formatting options are).
- On the far right side of this toolbar, just below the blue “Share” button, look for a button indicating your current mode. If you are in Suggesting mode, it will show a green pencil with a speech bubble icon and the word Suggesting.
- Click on the Suggesting button.
- A dropdown menu will appear with three options:
- Editing: Select this if you want your keystrokes to permanently alter the document immediately.
- Suggesting: (Your current state).
- Viewing: Select this if you want to safely read the document without any risk of accidentally changing the text.
- Click your desired mode.
The interface will instantly update. If you chose Viewing, the toolbar will disappear, providing a clean, safe reading environment. If you chose Editing, you can immediately begin making permanent changes to the text.