Once you've uploaded a document to SharePoint Online, you can use the Share or Copy Link features in SharePoint to easily share a link to it with your colleagues. This recipe shows you how to share a link to a document using the Share feature.
Getting ready
You should have at least Read access to the document you'd like to share.
How to do it...
To share a document with a member of your team, follow these steps:
- Browse to the document you'd like to share.
- Click on the Share icon next to the document. Alternatively, select the document and then click the Share option on the top menu bar, as shown in the following screenshot:
- On the pop-up box that appears, click on the People you specify can view option (note that the exact verbiage may differ, based on your organization's settings) and choose whether the people or groups you are sharing this document with should be able to edit it:
- Click the Apply button and then enter the name(s) of the people you would like to share the document with.
- Enter a message to be sent with the sharing invitation email and click the Send button, as shown in the following screenshot:
- SharePoint then sends the recipients an email with your message and a link to the document, as shown in the following screenshot:
Congratulations! You just learned how to share a document with other members within your organization. The recipients of your sharing invitation can now view or edit this document, depending on the permission that was granted to them.
How it works...
There are a couple of things that happen when a document is shared:
- SharePoint checks to see if the person that the document is being shared with already has the required permissions. If not, SharePoint alters the permissions for the document so that the appropriate rights (Read or Contribute) are granted to the person that the document is being shared with. You can read more about managing document permissions in the Viewing and changing document permissions recipe in Chapter 5, Document Management in SharePoint Online.
- It generates a link specific to the people that the document is being shared.
- It sends an email with the generated link, along with a message, if you specified one.
This recipe showed you how to share a document with specific people. Three other sharing options that you will see in the Link settings dialog are as follows:
- Anyone with the link: Use this option to share the document with anonymous users that are outside your organization. People with this link can view or edit the document without having to sign in to Microsoft 365. Since this option enables you to share your organization's content with anonymous external users, there's a good chance that it may have been disabled by your SharePoint site or organization administrators. When sharing a link through this option, it is recommended to set an expiration date, along with a password, for added security:
If you do decide to password-protect your file, you will need to share it with the users of the link. They will then be required to enter the password every time they use the link, as shown in the following screenshot:
- People in <your organization name> with a link: This option generates a link that anyone in your organization can use to view or edit the document. Note that unlike the previous option, users of the link will be required to sign in to the site.
- People with existing access: This option enables you to simply get a link to the document without changing its permissions. Just like with the other options, if needed, you can directly send a message containing a link to the document right from within this dialog.
There's more...
As we just saw, the Shareoption sends an email message with a link to the intended recipients. You may, however, need to just copy the link so that you can then share it through different means (such as a Teams channel or even an existing email chain). The Copy linkmenu option, which is right next to the Share option, enables you to do just that.
Copy link
You can access the Copy link option from either the top navigation bar or the context menu for a list or library item:
