If you have documents that you're creating that need to be looked at and approved by multiple people, you may want to automate the approval process. Google Docs provides a way for you to do so.

To start, create the document that needs to be approved. When it's completely finished and ready to be sent to the person who will approve it, choose Approvals from the File menu.

The approval panel will pop out. Click "Make a request " to start the process.

A box will pop up asking you who you want to request approvals from. Enter their e-mail in the "Add approvers" box. You can also add a message or due date. Be sure to communicate with any approvers outside of the approval tool so they know it's coming, and don't open any approval e-mails that you don't know are coming.

Click "Send request" to send out the e-mail. Your document will also be locked. If you unlock it and make any edits, all approvals will be reset.

If you haven't already shared the document, you'll be asked to share the document with others. You'll need to do so if you want them to be able to comment.

The person that you invite will receive an e-mail notifying them of your request. They can then comment on the document, and will be asked to approve it via a banner on the top of the page.

Click Approve to do so, or Reject to not.

When they do, you'll be able to view the approvals.

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