Google Sheets, Docs & Drive + Data Alias: Import the range you pick, save the protected copy as a new Sheet

Why use Google Sheets, Docs & Drive with Data Alias

Most exports that need protecting already sit in a Google Sheet. Without a connection that means downloading a CSV, protecting it, and uploading the result again. This removes both file steps at the ends of the job, and your browser talks to Google directly in both directions.

How it works

You sign in with Google in two separate steps: one that only identifies your account, and one that grants access to the files you pick. Google's own picker chooses the file. Data Alias checks the sheet's size against your plan before reading any values, then reads the range as it is displayed. When you save, the reviewed protected copy becomes a new Google Sheet in your Drive — the file you picked is never written to.

What it does

• Import a sheet range, a Google Doc as text, or another file you pick in Google's picker
• Save the protected copy as a new Google Sheet, or text as a new .txt file
• Import the same file, sheet and range again later, only from the same Google account
• Refuse a range larger than your plan's limits before reading any values

How it will connect

These are the steps once the connection is available. Until then: Download the sheet as a CSV from Google Sheets, upload it to Data Alias, and upload the safe copy back to Drive yourself.

1. 1

   Identify your account

   The first consent asks only for your email address. It is used to show which account is connected and to refuse another account's saved source.

2. 2

   Grant access to the files you pick

   The second consent is drive.file: files you choose in Google's picker and files Data Alias creates. It covers reading and writing those files — it is not read-only.

3. 3

   Pick a file and a range

   Google's picker opens. Choose the file, then the sheet and range to import.

4. 4

   Review in your browser

   Detection, your rules and the review before export run in the tab, the same as for an uploaded file. Change any suggestion you disagree with.

5. 5

   Save as a new Sheet

   Values are stored as text, so leading zeros survive, while numbers and dates arrive as text and no formula is kept.

What moves where

What reaches Data Alias servers

Nothing from the file. Your browser calls Google's APIs directly.

What Data Alias reads

Only the file and range you picked, as displayed in the spreadsheet's locale.

What is written to Google

A new Sheet or .txt file holding the reviewed protected copy. Files you picked are never edited or deleted.

Never sent

The original file, the alias mapping, and restored results with real names never leave your browser.

Who holds the access token

Your browser tab, in memory only. A refresh clears it.

When you disconnect

Data Alias revokes its access when it can and forgets the account in this browser. Files you saved stay in your Drive.

Limits worth knowing

• Import keeps what the sheet displays, not the type: formulas arrive as their results, and every value arrives as text.
• If the answer to a save is lost, Data Alias asks you to check rather than sending again. Drive search can lag just after a file is created, so a check that finds nothing is not proof.