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9. Share documents or folders in Office 365
The documents and folders you store in OneDrive for Business are private until you decide to share them. Similarly, in a team site library, you may want to share specific documents or folders with people who don't otherwise have access to the site. When you share documents and folders, you can decide whether to let people edit or just view them.
Note You may also be able
Share a document by using Get a
link
- Go to OneDrive for Business or the site library that has the document you want to share.
- Right-click the document you want to share, and then select Get a link.
- Choose the type of link you want to create.
- Links for internal sharing:
- Edit link – account required People in your organization can edit, copy, or download the document.
- View link – account required People in your organization can view, copy, or download the document.
Guest links:
- Edit link – no sign-in required People outside your organization can edit, copy, and download the document.
- View link – no sign-in required People outside your organization can view, copy, and download the document.
Note If you see only a restricted link option instead of the options shown here, sharing links may be disabled or you may not have permission to use them. For information about how to enable sharing, see Video: Share a site without access request.
If you choose a no sign-in required
- Click Copy to copy the link to the clipboard.
- Paste the link into an email and send it or post it on a website for the people you want
share with.
Notes
- Links created by using Get a link are not discoverable by search, so only people who receive a link from someone else can use it.
- No sign-in required links are guest links that are ideal for external sharing. These links are available by default in Office 365, but administrators can disable external sharing for your sites. For details, see Share sites or documents with people outside your organization.
- You can remove no sign-in required links at any time in the Share dialog box mentioned in the steps above. The REMOVE link is right next to the Copy button.
- Site administrators can restrict sharing so that only owners can share files and sites. For information about how to enable sharing links, see Video: Share a site without access request.
Share a document or folder by inviting
people
Go to OneDrive for Business or the site library that has the document or folder you want to share.
Right-click the file you want to share, and then select Share.
In the Share dialog box on the Invite people tab, type names or email addresses of people you want to share the document or folder with.
Select a permission setting, such as Can edit.
If you want, type a message to be included with an email that’s sent to all invitees. The email includes a link to the shared document.
If you don't want to send an email, uncheck Send an email invitation.
Click Share.
More information in this
article
Learn more about file storage and sharing in Office 365
For recommendations on where to store files in Office 365 and how to set things up, see Set up Office 365 file storage and sharing.
Share documents with a limited set of
people
Create a folder and place documents in that folder as you create them
Type a name for the
Click Create.
Add members to the group.
In your group, near the top of the page, click Files to go to the group OneDrive.
Drag files onto the page or click Upload.
Create a folder and place documents in that folder as you create them
To create a folder, click New > Folder. You can share the folder with people as you create it.
If you didn't already share the folder while creating it, share the folder by inviting people.
Upload or drag files to the folder.
See who you're sharing a document or folder
with
In the Share dialog box, click Shared with.
If you're sharing with more people than whose names will fit on the card, select the more link at the end of the list of names. You can scroll the list to see all names.
Tips If the library you're working in has a Sharing column, you can select the people icon to open the Share dialog box.
Stop sharing a document or
folder
Select the people icon for the document or folder to open the Share dialog box.
On the Shared with
To stop sharing a document with everyone at once, select STOP SHARING
Note The STOP SHARING link that removes all users at once is not available for folders. To quickly stop sharing a folder with many users or groups, try this: Click ADVANCED, use the
Other ways to share a document or folder with everyone in your
organization
Create a “Shared with Everyone” folder (or one with a similar name) and place documents in that folder as you create them. To create a folder, click New > Folder. You can share the folder with people as you create it.
Note You may already have a Shared with Everyone folder that was provisioned for you.
The Share dialog box lets you select “Everyone except external users.” If your organization allows external sharing, sharing with “Everyone” includes external users: people outside of your organization who have previously been invited to share documents as guests, either by you or by others in your organization.
If you have a Shared with Everyone folder that was provisioned for you, everyone gets permission to edit documents that you put in the Shared with Everyone folder, unless you change the permission setting or unless your OneDrive for Business was created before June 2014. If your OneDrive for
How do people find documents I’ve shared with everyone?
Documents you share with everyone don’t appear in their Shared with Me view in OneDrive for Business. Why not? Consider that depending on the size of your organization, there might be hundreds if not thousands of documents that are shared with everyone. Also, you may not want to send a share invitation email to everyone in your organization.
Instead, people can find these documents
You can find any document’s web URL in its document callout.
Copy and paste the URL into an email addressed to specific people you want to notify.
Using their Search box in OneDrive for Business.
In this example, Molly Dempsey searches on the keyword “Court Cases” to find any relevant documents shared with her in her organization.
