In this article, I will show you the best practices for sharing Google Sheets. We will explore how to share via email and using a shareable link, as well as configuring permissions and sharing with non-Gmail users.
To make the following demonstrations easier, we have created a sample spreadsheet. Click here to access it and follow along.
Sharing Google Sheets via Email
In the following demonstration, I will show you how to share Google Sheets via email, both with Gmail and non-Gmail users.
1. Open the Sheet you want to share and click the Share button
Open the Sheet you want to share, then click the green Share button in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Enter the email address in the “Add people and groups” input and press Enter
A popup window will appear. In the Add people and groups input, enter the email address of the person you want to share the sheet with, then press Enter.
In our example, we will be using the email address [email protected].
3. Set the user’s permissions
The popup window will now show more options. You can add additional email addresses by entering them in the email address input field.
To the right of each email address, click the dropdown menu to modify the user’s permissions. The available options are:
- Viewer: Allows recipients to only view the sheet. They will not be able to add comments or modify the content.
- Commenter: Allows recipients to view the sheet and add comments, but they will not be able to modify the data.
- Editor: Grants recipients full access to the sheet. They can view, add comments, and modify the data. All changes will be visible in real-time to everyone with access to the sheet.
In our example, we will not add additional email addresses and we will set the user’s permissions to Editor.
4. Choose whether to notify the recipients, add a message, and click Send
Check the Notify people checkbox to send an email to the recipients informing them of the access. If this checkbox is unchecked, the permissions will be applied, but the recipients will not be notified.
Add a message in the message input field, then click Send.
At this stage, if the added email address is not a Gmail user, a message will appear informing you that you are sending an email to a non-Google account. Click Share anyway, and the person will be notified that they have access without needing to sign in.
5. Access permissions have been updated
A popup window will show the message Access updated. The sheet is now shared and the recipients have been granted the specified access permissions. If the Notify people checkbox was checked earlier or if there are email addresses not associated with Gmail, the recipients will receive a notification with the optional message.
Sharing Google Sheets with a Shareable Link
Sometimes, it is easier to share with multiple people by providing a shareable link. In the following demonstration, we will explain how to create a shareable link to be sent through various communication methods.
1. Click the Share button
With the sheet you want to share open, click the green Share button in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Change the general access to “Anyone with the link”
A popup window will appear. Towards the bottom of this window, click the dropdown menu for Link access. By default, it will be set to Restricted. Select Anyone with the link from the menu.
3. Set the access permissions
To the right of the Link access section, there is another dropdown menu. By default, Viewer is selected. Expand the list by clicking on it. There are three options available:
- Viewer: Allows anyone with the link to only view the sheet. They will not be able to add comments or modify the content.
- Commenter: Allows people to view the sheet and add comments, but they will not be able to modify the data.
- Editor: Grants recipients of the link full read and write access to the content. They can view, add comments, and modify the data. All changes will be visible in real-time to everyone else with access to the sheet.
4. Click “Copy link” and share the link with intended recipients
Click the Copy link button, this will copy the link to be shared. You can now share the link with the relevant people through any text-based communication.
Click Done to close the sharing menu.
How to Stop Sharing or Modify Sharing Settings
Sometimes, you may need to modify the sharing settings or completely stop sharing the sheet.
1. Access the sharing options by clicking the Share button
With the sheet open, click the green Share button in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Modify the sharing settings for individual people
The sharing options menu will appear, if the sheet has already been shared with recipients via email, they will be displayed under the People with access section. To the right of each person, there is a dropdown menu.
Click the dropdown menu to open it. There are four options available:
- Viewer: The person will not be able to add comments or modify the data in the sheet.
- Commenter: The person can view the sheet and add comments, but they will not be able to modify the data.
- Editor: Grants the person full access to the sheet. They can view, add comments, and modify the data. All changes will be visible in real-time to everyone else with access to the sheet.
- Remove access: Revokes the person’s access permissions to the sheet. They will no longer be able to view the sheet at all, and their email address will be removed from the People with access section.
3. Modify the general sharing options for the sheet
In the sharing options section displayed under Link access, expand the dropdown menu to see the following options:
- Restricted: This option stops sharing the sheet with users accessing via a pre-shared link.
- Anyone with the link: Allows sharing of the link. Anyone accessing through the link will be granted access permissions.
To the right of the Link access section, there is a dropdown menu to change the access permissions for Anyone with the link. The available options are Viewer, Commenter, and Editor. These options allow users with the link to access as defined in the previous step.
4. Click “Done” to apply the changes.
Click the Done button. The sharing modifications or restrictions will be applied, and the sharing options menu will close.
How to Share a Google Sheet with Over 100 People
We can share a Google Sheet with over 100 people by publishing it to the web. Here’s how:
Note: When you publish a file, it becomes visible to everyone on the web. Please keep this in mind if you are publishing private or sensitive information.
1. Select “File”, then “Share”. Click “Publish to the web”
In the file menu, click on File to display the menu, then click on Share. In the sidebar menu, select Publish to the web.
2. Choose to publish the entire workbook or select sheets, then specify the publishing format
A dialog box will appear with various options. These options allow you to choose which data will be published and how it will be displayed.
Expand the dropdown menu under Link to choose which data to publish. The dropdown menu gives you the choice to publish the entire workbook or, if there are multiple sheets in your workbook, to select individual sheets.
In the second dropdown menu, you can now choose how the published document will be displayed:
- Web page: Publishes the sheet as a web page that can be accessed by anyone with the link.
- The other options will download the sheet in the following file formats on the users’ computers when they access the link:
- Comma-separated values (.csv)
- Tab-separated values (.tsv)
- PDF document (.pdf)
- Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)
- OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods)
In our example, we will click Web page. This will not result in any downloads on the user’s computer if the link is entered, but instead display the content online in the browser.
3. Click “Publish”, then click “OK” to publish the document and access the link.
Click the green Publish button, a dialog window will appear. Click OK.
The sheet will be published, and the link will be displayed. You can now share the link with over 100 people who can access it to view. Only read access is allowed via the link.
If users require additional access permissions, this can be done by individually sharing through their email address. Refer to the section on Sharing Google Sheets via Email in this guide.
If you need to stop the publication, this can be done by expanding the Published content & settings section and clicking Stop publishing.
If you need access to the sheet’s embed code for your website, click on the Embed tab, the HTML code will be displayed instead of the link.
We hope this article has helped you and provided you with a better understanding of how to share Google Sheets. You might also like our articles on creating a table in Google Sheets and sharing a tab in Google Sheets. To optimize your workflow, we recommend reading our guide on importing a CSV file into Google Sheets and trying out our invoice reminder software!
For more tips and tricks, visit Crawlan.com.
