Spreadsheet.com is designed for collaborative work. You can share your workbooks with anyone and can invite other users to edit, comment on, or manage your workbook as desired.
There are six different permission levels for users which can be adjusted at any time. Plus, with the User data type, you can add users in cells and comments to assign them tasks, identify team members, or @mention them to notify them of a comment or change.
Add new users as editors on your team's bug tracker so that they can indicate their status and note when bugs are fixed. Or, for your team's big new product launch, let other employees see how the product is developing by adding them as Viewers on your team's project plan.
Sharing Your Workbook
Individual workbooks can be shared with any number of people you work with. Viewers are free in Spreadsheet.com, so you don't need to worry about how many people you share with.
If you invite someone to a workbook or folder as a licensed user (i.e. any user with the Owner, Manager, or Collaborator role) and they are not already a licensed user in your workspace, your workspace will be charged a prorated fee for new licenses.
The number of Commenters and Editors in your workspace may be limited by your plan. See pricing for more details.
To share a workbook or manage users, click the Share button in the workbook header or open the document menu and navigate to File > Share. If other users are currently in your workbook, their profile pictures will appear to the left of the Share button.
How to Access the Document Menu
To access the document menu,
- Open the document dropdown by clicking the arrow to the right of the document name
- Select "Menu..." from the dropdown
Or, share the workbook from the Workspaces sidebar by clicking on the three-dot icon to the right of the workbook name and selecting "Share..." from the dropdown.
Either method will open the Share workbook dialog where you can invite new users to your workbook, manage permissions for existing users, and see who has permission to access your workbook via their folder permissions.
To invite someone new to a workbook, type their email address, set their permission level, and click Send. You can add an optional message to the invitation and assign a workbook permission level for each user. Multiple users can be invited at once.
If you're looking to share a workbook with a wider audience like an entire organization, you can use a shareable link instead of adding users individually. To learn more, see our article on Sharing workbooks by link. Or, share your workbook with the general public with Public sharing and embedding options.
Each invited person who does not already have a Spreadsheet.com account will be prompted to complete account registration before accessing the workbook. Users who already have an account will immediately see the workbook on their Home page.
Invited users will appear in the the Share workbook dialog under the "Workbook users" heading, from where you can change their permission levels or remove them altogether.
Permission Levels in Spreadsheet.com
You can add workbook users at different permission levels. Granting users access to your workbook allows them to view and, in some cases, make changes to the workbook.
Workbook users travel with the workbook, even if you move the workbook to a new folder. Users also have access to your workbook through folder access, see our article on folder sharing for more information on Folder users.
Understanding Workbook Permissions
Spreadsheet.com provides 6 different permission levels to choose from when sharing workbooks:
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Owner ✨
An Owner can do anything with any workbook they own, including deleting the workbook, moving it, and changing the Owners. Only a licensed user can be assigned this permission. -
Manager ✨
A Manager can do anything with a workbook they manage except deleting it, moving it, or changing the Owners. Only a licensed user can be assigned this permission. -
Collaborator ✨
The Collaborator permission level allows users to create and edit rows within the workbook and add data, but does not allow structural changes such as add/modify/remove columns, configuring columns, editing cell data types, or modifying formatting. Collaborators can also share the workbook with other users. -
Editor
The Editor permission level allows users to create and edit rows within the workbook, but does not allow structural changes such as add/modify/remove columns, configuring columns, editing cell data types, or modifying formatting. -
Commenter
The Commenter permission level allows users to view the workbook, expand rows, view attachments, and make comments. -
Viewer
The Viewer permission level allows users to view the workbook, expand rows, and view attachments.
✨ Only licensed users can be Owners, Managers, or Collaborators.
Changing User Permissions and Removing Users
You can manage users' permissions or remove them from your workbook via the Share workbook dialog. To change a user's permission level, click on their current permission level to the right of their name and select the new permission level from the dropdown.
To remove a user from your workbook, click the "x" icon to the right of their permission level.
Only users with Owner or Manager access can remove other users or change their permission levels.
Users, Comments, and @Mentions
Spreadsheet.com allows you to link to users in rows with the user data type. If a user already has access to the workbook, you can type their name in the desired cell and select them from the dropdown. If a user does not already have access to the workbook, you can type their email address and add them from the Invite new user dialog.
Once you have invited a new user, you can add them in User data type cells. You can also mention them in cells and comments using the @mention feature. @mentioning users in comments will send them a notification that they have been mentioned, sharing the comment you wrote.
What does it mean when a user is greyed out?
Spreadsheet.com's templates sometimes include users in the form of dummy data. These are not real users, but examples of how users could be added in-line. Other times, a user's name will be greyed out because they once had access to a workbook but have since been removed.
If an existing user's name is greyed out in a workbook's User cells, the workbook is not shared with that user. Sharing the workbook with that user will change their User cell values to fully active. Similarly, once a workbook as been unshared with a user, User cell values for that user will appear greyed out.
In all cases, greyed-out users do not have access to your workbook. They cannot view the data in your workbook or make changes. To grant other users access, share the workbook with them or replace their greyed-out name with an existing user.
Looking to share a folder instead of a workbook? Check out our article on Folder Sharing and Permissions. Or, for a deeper dive into all of the sharing options Spreadsheet.com offers, visit our suite of articles on Sharing & Collaborating.