The Secrets to Sharing a Google Sheet – Everything You Need to Know

Google, with its user-friendly collaboration tool Google Drive, has created a workspace environment that promotes teamwork and collaboration within teams. Sharing spreadsheets and inviting colleagues to contribute has become extremely easy. But behind this seemingly simple sharing process lies a powerful functionality capable of supporting various scenarios. Needless to say, there are multiple ways to do it.

In this article, I will cover all the possible options and approaches for sharing a Google Sheet and a spreadsheet, providing precise instructions on how to do it.

How to Share a Google Sheet or Workbook

The first step is to go to your Google Drive and find the spreadsheet you want to share. Then, right-click on it. Alternatively, you can first open the document and then click on the “Share” button located at the top right.

Once the “Share with people and groups” popup window opens:

1. Add the email addresses of the people or groups you want to share the document with.
2. Choose the access rights you grant to the Google account user (or group). By default, Google suggests assigning editor permissions.
3. Under the list of users you want to share the document with, you will see the “Notify people” checkbox checked by default. You can leave it as it is and send a notification email or uncheck the box and click the “Share” button.
4. At this point, the popup window will close.

Sharing Permissions in Google Sheets: How a Spreadsheet is Shared and Managed

Google offers three types of user permissions: Viewer, Commenter, and Editor.

• The Viewer can only view your document (they cannot share or modify it).
• The Commenter can view and leave comments (they cannot share or modify it).
• The Editor can view, share, and modify the document.

How to Get a Shareable Link to a File in Google Sheets

Once you have shared your document, you may need to get a shareable link to it. To find it, you can either locate your file in Google Drive, right-click on it, and select “Get link”.

Or you can open the document, go to the top right, and click on “Share”.

Once the “Share with people and groups” popup window opens, please:

1. Go to the bottom part of the popup window.
2. You will see if this document is already shared with a Google group, for example, an organization or a service. In my case, this file has been shared with the entire Railsware Google group, so its members have viewer permissions for this document.
3. To change this default setting, click on “Change”.
4. In the drop-down list, choose between “Restricted”, “Your group/organization”, or “Anyone with the link”.

Google allows you to choose between the following options:

• “Restricted” – when access to the document is limited to the email addresses and groups you specified in the “Share with people and groups” popup window.
• “Your group/organization” – sharing a document with your company or service by specifying access rights. If you choose this option, you can also go to the “Get link” part of the popup window and click on the settings icon located at the top right, then check the box if you want to allow members of your organization to search for your spreadsheet.
• “Anyone with the link” – when anyone with the link can view, comment, or edit the document without signing in to a Google account. By default, this person has viewer rights (but I recommend being very careful when configuring the sharing settings).

Which Sheet Will a User Land on After I Share a Workbook in Google Sheets?

By default, a user you shared the link to a spreadsheet with, whether you gave it to them or sent them a notification email (if you chose “Notify people”), will land on the first sheet (tab) of your Google Sheets workbook.

How to Share Multiple Google Sheets Files

To share multiple Google Sheets files, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and select multiple files. Then, right-click on the selected area to open the sharing popup window. Then, you can follow the steps described in the “How to Share a Google Sheets Document (Spreadsheet)” section of this article.

How to Modify Sharing Settings for a Person or Group on a Google Sheets Spreadsheet

To modify sharing settings for a person, go to the “Share with people and groups” section. Find the person you want to make changes for. Then, modify their settings by selecting one of the options (Viewer, Commenter, or Editor), make them the owner of the document, or remove them from the list.

In the “Get link” part of the popup window, you can also update the permissions for the group, either by removing it and assigning “Restricted” permissions, switching to “Anyone with the link”, or keeping it and changing viewing rights to editing or commenting rights.

How to Provide a Link to a Specific Sheet (Tab) in Your Google Sheets Workbook

Sometimes, it’s necessary to direct the user’s attention to a specific sheet within a shared spreadsheet or ensure that they land on a specific tab when opening the document (other than the default first tab). To do this, go to the sheet you want the user to land on, then go to the address bar and copy the URL while staying on the sheet.

This URL will have the following syntax, containing the GID number that corresponds to the unique number of a sheet, or SheetID.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/SpreadsheetID/edit#gid=SheetID

Here’s an example of a link to a Google Sheets spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q_Ch8q9ZesuSmHSmiBR-51w7n7wsri_hDXgAJLIipBI/edit#gid=992289955

Where SpreadsheetID = 1q_Ch8q9ZesuSmHSmiBR-51w7n7wsri_hDXgAJLIipBI and SheetID = 992289955.

Sharing a Single Google Sheet Without Giving Access to the Entire Spreadsheet

Below, I will take a closer look at two different use cases that people frequently ask about in forums. Both are related to the need for a user to share a single sheet in Google Sheets. However, each has a unique condition to consider. So, here are possible solutions for both.

Sharing a Google Sheet with a User

For example, I have a spreadsheet that includes three tabs (Sheet 1, Sheet 2, and Sheet 3). What I want is to share only one tab in Google Sheets (Sheet 3) with my colleague.

To share a Google Sheet, follow these steps:

1. Protect the sheets you don’t want to share with another person.

• To protect the sheet, find the tab you want to protect, then right-click on it and select “Protect sheet”.
• Choose “Set permissions”, then “Restrict who can edit this range” by only leaving the people who need access to the sheet. Then, click “Done”.

2. Hide those sheets.

• To hide the sheet, find the tab you want to hide, then right-click on it and select “Hide sheet”.

3. Then, give them access to the spreadsheet by providing a shareable link.

Result: The user will only be able to edit “Sheet 3”, while the other sheets will be protected and hidden for them. If they try to open them, they will get the following error message.

Sharing a Single Sheet from a Google Sheets Workbook with Multiple Users

And what if I need to share separate sheets from my spreadsheet with three different users, allowing them to only see one specific tab that has been shared with them?

My suggestion would be:

1. Create +2 separate spreadsheets.
2. Import data from Sheet 1 of the main document into Sheet A.
3. Import data from Sheet 2 of the main document into Sheet B.
4. In the main spreadsheet, protect and hide Sheet 1 and Sheet 2, leaving only Sheet 3 with shared access.
5. Share all three documents with the corresponding users.

Importing Data from One Google Sheet to Another Sheet or Workbook

In some cases, it’s necessary to not share a Google Sheet but import data from it. In this case, it’s important not only to transfer data from one sheet to another but also to sync that data between the two documents.

To do this, you can use:

• The IMPORTRANGE formula.
• The Coupler.io Google Sheets integration.

The Coupler.io integration allows you to import data according to a predefined schedule (e.g., every hour, Monday to Friday, from 9:00 to 18:00).

To set up this synchronization, you need to sign up for Coupler.io, click on “Add Importer”, then select Google Sheets as the source and destination applications. Then, proceed as follows:

• Source:

  • Connect your Google account and select a file from your Google Drive to transfer data from. Choose one or multiple sheets to export data from.

• Destination:

  • Log in to your Google account and choose a file on your Google Drive to transfer data to. Enter a name to create a new sheet or select an existing sheet.

That’s it! You can run the import immediately by clicking on “Save & Run”, or you can automate data import according to a schedule using the automatic data refreshing feature.

You also have the option to use Coupler.io as a Google Sheets add-on for quicker access to the tool within your spreadsheet. To do this, install it from the Google Workspace Marketplace and customize it as described above.

Coupler.io allows you to combine multiple sources with three destinations – Excel, Google Sheets, and BigQuery. So, for example, you can easily export Google Drive to Excel.

You can also use Coupler.io to merge data from two or more different sheets into one. Basically, you perform a similar setup of the product, adding an additional step to specify the sheets to join.

Note:

• If you join two or more sheets with the same data structure (the same number of columns and names), your imported information will be merged vertically.
• If you join two or more sheets with different data structures (columns with different names and a different number of columns), your imported information will be merged horizontally.

How to Share Google Sheets with Users Without a Gmail Account

According to Google’s help resources, it’s possible to enable the “Share with visitors” option for your organization. By doing so, visitors can view, comment, or edit your document for 7 days (after verifying their email). To enable this sharing option, please contact your Google account administrator.

If you don’t want to share documents with visitors, I recommend following these instructions when sharing files with users who don’t have a Google account:

1. Click on the “Share” button in the top right corner of your document.
2. Click on the “Get link” section and choose “Anyone with the link”.
3. Select the sharing permissions in Google Sheets: Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
4. Copy the link and share it with the user who doesn’t have a Google account.

Conclusion

Google Sheets is one of the best spreadsheet applications for collaboration, isn’t it? I hope you managed to find the best way to share a Google Sheet or spreadsheet. However, be cautious when doing so, as you might unintentionally make a document public or share it with a Google group without intending to. Also, make sure you can trust the person you’re sharing your file with. A good practice is to create a backup version of your main spreadsheet to protect your data from any damage or loss.

For more tips and tricks on Google Sheets, feel free to visit Crawlan.com.