Collaboration is a breeze with Google Sheets, but sharing a single sheet can be a bit tricky, especially if you don’t want to share the entire document. So, you might be wondering, is it possible to share a single sheet in Google Sheets? Unfortunately, there is no built-in way to do it, but fear not, my friends! I have some creative solutions for you.
Share by Hiding Sheets
While there’s no direct way to share specific sheets in Google Sheets, you can achieve it by hiding the sheets you don’t want to display. Here’s how:
- Go to the sheet you don’t want to share.
- Click on the dropdown menu.
- Choose “Hide sheet.”
- Go to the sheet you want to share.
- Copy the link and share it with the intended user.
When the user clicks on the link, they will be directed to the specific sheet you want to share, and they shouldn’t be able to see the other sheets. However, keep in mind that they can still access the hidden sheets if they choose to unhide them. So, it’s not foolproof, but it’s a clever workaround.
Learn Faster
To level up your spreadsheet skills, structured learning is the way to go. I highly recommend taking a Udemy course on Google Sheets. It will make your learning journey so much smoother.
Designing a Google Spreadsheet
If you’re familiar with Excel, you’ll find Google Sheets easy to navigate. A “Google Sheets” document is a single document called a “workbook,” consisting of multiple pages.
Typically, when you share a document on Google Sheets, you’re sharing the entire document. But what if you just want to share one sheet? Let’s explore the most common ways to do it.
Share a Single Sheet Using Link Sharing
The most common method to share a single sheet in Google Sheets is to click the “Share” button. From there, you can either “Add people or groups” or get a shareable link.
When sharing, you can choose from three classifications:
- Viewer: Someone who can see the content but cannot comment or edit.
- Commenter: Someone who can leave comments but cannot modify the document itself.
- Editor: Someone who can view the content, leave comments, and edit the file.
In general, it’s best to share most documents as “commenters” or “viewers.” Giving others editing access may result in unintended changes or even the loss of content. Be cautious when granting editing permissions to prevent unauthorized sharing or deletion of the file.
However, note that when you share a file, it shares the entire workbook, which is not ideal if you only want to share a single sheet.
Share a Single Sheet by Direct Linking
Let’s say Aaron needs to know Anna’s schedule, and you’re not trying to hide any information. You simply want to make sure he lands on the right sheet.
You can directly link someone to a specific sheet in Google Sheets. First, go to the sheet you want them to see.
When you’re on the first page, you’ll see “gid=0” at the end of the URL. But when we click on Aaron’s tab, we see “gid=2068619782”.
Add “gid=2068619782” to the end of the shareable URL, and they will be automatically directed to the appropriate tab.
The downside is that they can still see the other sheets. They will be directed to a specific sheet, but they can still click on any other sheets. So, while it’s more user-friendly, it’s not the most secure option.
This method is not very intuitive for sharing a single sheet in Google Sheets, as it requires finding the “gid” and it’s challenging to explain to someone what you have done.
But if you’re simply sending someone a link and don’t particularly mind that they can see other data, it’s the best available solution.
Protect Sheets from Viewing by Other Users
What if employees should not see each other’s schedules? Perhaps the sheets also contain sensitive information, such as salary scales. There may come a time when you need to share one sheet while protecting the other sheets from being viewed.
In this workbook, we also have a sheet called “pay information.” Anna earns more than Aaron, probably due to seniority or additional responsibilities.
Fortunately, there’s a hiding feature in Google Sheets that allows you to hide tabs from certain users. You can right-click on the sheet and click “Hide” to hide it from users. As long as the users are “commenters” or “viewers,” they won’t be able to unhide the sheet to view it.
However, this method is not very secure. The problem is that you’ll have to “unhide” the sheet, as shown in this image:
When you unhide the sheet, someone else may still be able to see it. If you have multiple users, you can only hide one thing for one person at a time, not everyone at once.
Protecting Other Sheets
It’s also worth noting that you can set protections for sheets. Protections mean that people can’t edit those sheets even if they can view them. Google Sheets allows you to set permissions so that other users have limited access to the spreadsheet.
For example, you could set things up so that Anna can’t edit Aaron’s sheet, and Aaron can’t edit Anna’s sheet. This would be handy if you asked them to set their own schedules and you don’t care if they can all see each other’s sheets.
You can do this by right-clicking on a sheet and selecting “Protect sheet.” Then, select the users who can make changes to the sheet.
In fact, in this situation, it might be the best solution to this particular problem. They can view each other’s sheets to check their schedules, but they can’t modify them.
The downside, once again, is that you can’t hide information this way. You can only protect it from modifications. If you have sensitive information on those sheets that you want to safeguard, this solution won’t work.
Share a Single Sheet Using IMPORTRANGE Function
You can also use the IMPORTRANGE function to share a single sheet from a Google Sheets workbook. This method is almost like creating a new Google Sheets file. You can use the IMPORTRANGE function to import data from the sheet you want to share into a new spreadsheet.
Here’s how to share a single sheet in Google Sheets:
- Open a new spreadsheet.
- Type the IMPORTRANGE formula in a cell.
- Copy the link of the sheet you want to share and paste it into the formula, then add a comma.
- Write the sheet name and range in quotes and close the parentheses. The complete formula for our example is
=IMPORTRANGE("https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PLvkP_p44cYKigHwsPt9I_JBrt6SOqY9UHGKP7KnQ/edit#gid=0", "Sheet1!A1:D10") - Press Enter.
- You will see a #REF error message, indicating that you need to grant access.
This formula will import the data from the sheet into your new spreadsheet, and now you can share the individual sheet.
Share a Single Sheet by Creating a New File
So far, we’ve explored some imperfect solutions. While we can direct people to a single sheet or hide other sheets, we haven’t been able to completely remove the data we’re trying to protect.
But as mentioned earlier, Google doesn’t have an internal method for sharing a single sheet, so you have to create a workbook that contains only one sheet.
A quick way to share a single sheet is to first make a copy of your file. Once you’ve made a copy of the file, delete the other sheets and share the remaining sheet with the intended person.
This provides advantages in terms of privacy and security. Firstly, the data you’re trying to protect is no longer in the file, so you don’t have to worry about someone accessing it. You also don’t need to share it in a special way; sharing it with the intended person is all you need to do.
However, this approach also has some downsides. You’ll have to update each sheet independently of the overall document. You won’t be able to maintain links between sheets because they will be separate workbooks. And you’ll end up with a lot of additional files.
Note that there are other ways to create a workbook with only one sheet. For example, you can create a blank new workbook and manually copy the sheet over.
Export Your Google Sheets Page
So, what if you don’t want to deal with multiple workbooks but still want to share a single sheet? There’s one last solution you can try: exporting from the document. With this method, you keep the original workbook intact.
First, go to File -> Download. Then, select “PDF Document”.
At the top of the page, you’ll see “Current sheet.” This allows you to export only the current sheet.
This creates an additional file that you can share via Google Docs or send as an email attachment. It doesn’t require any modifications to the original document. Instead, you can export sheet by sheet whenever you want to share a specific page.
And you’ll be aware that the data you’re trying to protect is not in the file you’re sharing. For most people, this would be the quickest and easiest way to share a single sheet in Google Sheets. The downside is that you’ll be exporting it as a PDF document, which is something the other person won’t be able to edit or share back with you.
Note that you can also export as an XLS sheet using this method, but it’ll export the entire workbook. If you’d like, you can export an XLS sheet and then delete the sheets you don’t want, but it still creates other issues as it disrupts your content flow. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to export a single sheet from your Google Sheet without disrupting the original workbook or requiring too many steps.
Print the Sheet
Of course, it’s worth noting that there’s a much more direct way to share a single sheet. You can simply print the document. By printing the document, you can distribute the sheets as you wish.
Most of the time, the reason you want to share a single page as a Google Sheet is for the other person to make edits. But if it’s part of a larger workbook, that would actually be a chore; you’d have to bring the data they modified back into the original workbook once they’re done.
If you want to hand someone an uneditable copy of the document, the quickest and easiest way will always be to simply print the specific page. Not only does this offer the least potential security issues, but it’s also the simplest solution to the technological problem.
Share Only a Single Sheet on Google Sheets
In conclusion, Google doesn’t have a specific process or protocol for sharing a single sheet.
Instead, there are a few workarounds you can use. You can prevent people from editing specific sheets, hide sheets, and export and share individual sheets from a larger workbook.
It can be a bit cumbersome. You may have multiple pages in a workbook that are all linked together, but you may only want certain people to see a single page. For most people, exporting a PDF copy of that page or simply printing the page can be the easiest way to share the information.
When developing your Google Sheets documents, keep this in mind. Understand that data shared on a single sheet is likely visible to everyone the sheet is shared with, and it can be challenging to share individual sheets in Google Sheets without splitting the file.
If you found this article on “Is it possible to share a single sheet in Google Sheets?” helpful, check out our premium templates. Use the code SSP to save 50%!
Stay organized, my friends!
