In Spreadsheet.com, you can collaborate with teams of people by sharing folders and individual workbooks.
Spreadsheet.com is designed for collaborative work. You can share your workbooks with anyone and invite others to edit, comment on, or manage your workbook as desired. There are six different permission levels for users. Permissions allow you to control who can make changes and 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 as Viewers on your team's project plan.
This article features Spreadsheet.com's Employee Directory template. Explore the Template Gallery to find ready-to-use templates in over 20 different categories, or learn more about starting a new workbook from a Spreadsheet.com template.
How to Share Folders
Folders can be shared with any number of people you work with. Users with Editor, Commenter, and Viewer permissions 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 and they are not already a licensed user in your workspace, your workspace will be charged a prorated fee for new licenses.
When you share a folder with another user, they can access everything in that folder up to their assigned folder permission level. If you want to limit someone's access to specific items within a folder, you must share those items individually with the user rather than sharing the whole folder.
On the far right of each folder, you can see profile images (mouse-over to see names) for all existing users and a Share button to add new users. To open the Share folder dialog, click the pink Share button or select Share... from the top of the folder dropdown.
Either option will open the Share folder dialog, from where you can add new users to your folder via email and specify their permission levels.
Learn more about sharing folders in our article on Adding Folder Users, or see our article on Sharing Permissions to learn about permission levels.
How to Share Workbooks
Individual workbooks can be shared with any number of people you work with. Editors, Commenters, and 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 and they are not already a licensed user in your workspace, your workspace will be charged a prorated fee for new licenses.
To share a workbook or manage users, click the Share button in the workbook header or open the File menu and select "Share..." from the top of the dropdown. If other users are currently in your workbook, their profile pictures will appear to the left of the Automations icon.
Or, navigate to the workbook location on your Spreadsheet.com homepage and right click the workbook name or click the downward arrow to the right of the name and select "Share..." from the dropdown.
Either option will open the Share workbook dialog, from where you can share your workbook with other users via three options: Invite by email, Get link, and Public sharing and embedding. Let's take a closer look at the dialog and sharing options.
Workbook Sharing Options
The Share workbook dialog is where you can specify how your workbook is shared, who it's shared with, and what permission level new users will be added with.
1. Invite by email
Inviting users via email allows you to share your workbook only with specific people. Users invited via email will receive an email from Spreadsheet.com granting access to your workbook. From the Invite by email section of the share dialog, you can add and revoke existing users’ access (via the x icon to the right of a user's name) to your workbook, as well as change their sharing permissions by clicking on the dropdown to the right of each user's name.
2. Get link
Sharing your workbook with a link allows you to give additional users access to your workbook without having to add them individually via email. Similar to inviting by email, link sharing lets you control the permission level of those who use the link to your workbook. Using the dropdown, you can specify the audience for your link.
Configuring a Restricted by user link will create a link that's only accessible to users who have already been invited to the workbook individually, as described above. Configuring a Restricted by domain link will create a link that's only accessible to users with emails belonging to a certain domain, specified in the field below the dropdown. You can also specify the permission levels of new users who open the workbook via your link.
You can also opt to create a public link with the Anyone with link option. This link will be accessible to anyone who has it regardless of their domain or status as an invited user, so be careful before using this option in a workbook with sensitive or confidential data. Like the domain link, you can specify the permission levels of new users who open the workbook via your public link.
Learn more about sharing workbooks in our article on Adding Workbook Users, or see our article on Sharing Permissions to learn about permission levels.
3. Public sharing and embedding
Sharing a workbook publicly is a great way to share a workbook’s data and information directly without having to format it into something else. Spreadsheet.com enables you to share workbooks publicly in two ways: public link sharing and embedding.
Public link sharing and embedding both allow you to publicly share your workbook, but work in different ways:
- Public link sharing allows viewers to visit a read-only copy of your workbook within Spreadsheet.com. For example, you may want to include a link to a workbook with a calendar of upcoming events in a newsletter to your organization’s subscribers.
- Embedding allows viewers to see and interact with a read-only copy of your workbook without leaving the place where it is embedded. For example, you may want to embed a workbook showing a roadmap of upcoming features in a blog post about what users can expect from your product in the future.
Learn more about both options in our article on Public sharing and embedding.
Permission Levels
When sharing a workbook or a folder with another user, you can specify the permission level with which they will join. Depending on their permission level, a user in your workbook or folder may have the ability to view and make changes to that workbook or other workbooks in your folder. Spreadsheet.com offers six different permission levels.
You can grant users different permission levels for folders and individual workbooks. For example, you can share a "Project Management" folder with a new user and grant them Viewer permissions, but then grant them Editor permissions for individual workbooks within the folder.
Workbook users travel with the workbook, even if you move the workbook to a folder. Folder users do not travel with the workbook. However, folder users gain access to any workbook added to a folder.
For more information on setting, changing, and understanding permission levels, take a look at our article on Sharing Permissions.
The User Data Type
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. Like inviting users via email, the Invite new user dialog allows you to specify the permission level for the invited user.
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. For instance in the image below, Beth and Harry are greyed our in the User column.
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.
Collaborating in Workbooks: Channels, Notifications, and @Mentions
In addition to adding users in cells, users can work together in the cell, row, and workbook channels. Channels allow you to share messages, track changes to your workbook, @Mention other users to get their attention, and reply directly to comments or changes from other users. You can access the Workbook messages panel by clicking on the speech bubble icon in the top right corner of your workbook.
In addition to sending messages in the workbook channel, you can also send messages via the Cell channel, accessible by right clicking on a cell and selecting "Cell messages..." from the dropdown, or via the Row channel, accessible by expanding a row.
If other users have notifications enabled, they can see when certain changes are made to workbooks, other users' comments in the workbook channel, or when they are @mentioned. Notifications not only appear in Spreadsheet.com but can trigger an email to the user.
Learn more about collaborating in workbooks by checking out our articles on Channels and Messages, Spreadsheet.com Notifications, and @Mentioning Users. Or, read on to learn more about Sharing Permissions.