User Tools


Sharing Files & Links in MS365

Scenarios

Share a document or folder with someone on your team

  1. Click Copy Link in Teams or within the document
  2. Copy the link and send it to your team member(s)
  3. This can also be used for people outside your team with existing access, but if you don’t know who has access you need to click “People with existing access can use the link” to see who that includes before sending the link.

Share a document or folder with someone outside of your team

  1. Select the document or folder and click Share. (You can also use the Share button within the document). (existing screenshot 1)
  2. Click on the current share group. “People you specify can view” is the default for most teams. (new screenshot - attached)
  3. In the sharing settings choose which group you would like to share with. (existing screenshot 3)
  4. You have the option to block downloads of the document. This is off by default.
  5. Click Apply.
  6. You can now copy and send the link to the appropriate people.
Permission types
  • Anyone – anyone with the link can access. Includes the options to set an expiry for access and create a password.
  • People in BC Libraries Cooperative – anyone who has a MS365 account through the Co-op. You can choose whether users can view only or edit the document or folder.
  • People with existing access – anyone who has already been access to the document or folder. Since users already have access they are able to edit.
  • People you choose – people you specify on the Send Link pop-up. You can specify whether or not they can view only or edit.

Shared Folders

If you share documents with outside users you may wish to create a "Public Share" which is shared with Anyone (with no expiry or password). This way you can drop files into this public folder and they become public for anyone with that link automatically. The downside is they can browse all other documents in that folder. But these already should be public.

If you share documents with staff on other teams you may wish to create a shared folder that is set to People in BC Libraries Co-operative or People you choose. This way you can collaborate without having to send links for every document.

It may also be fewer steps to invite a guest (such as temporary collaborator) to the Team and add them to a "Shared channel" directly when there will be co-editing work.

Review what is shared with you/you have shared

  1. Click on the dots in the upper left corner.
  2. Select OneDrive from the Apps menu.
  3. Click on Shared.
  4. From here you can view “Shared with you” and “Shared by you”

OR

  1. Open Teams
  2. Click on Files in the left hand menu bar
  3. Click on Shared
  4. From here you can view “Shared with you” and “Shared by you”

Add shared documents or folders to your files

  1. Go to “Shared with you” in Sharepoint or Teams
  2. Select the document or folder you would like added to your files
  3. From the menu select Add Shortcut to My Files
  4. The document or folder will now display in your files.

Review what is shared with your team

(there doesn’t appear to be an option via Teams)
  1. Click on your Team
  2. Click on "MS365 for <TEAM NAME>"
  3. You will now see a Shared with us option.

More information

Applies to Teams, Sharepoint & OneDrive.

Sharing is invite or link-based. The resulting URL uses our tenant's Sharepoint domain and the Team, folder path and filename are unencoded:

https://librariescoop.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/sites/Accessibility-Test/Shared%20Documents/Test?csf=1&web=1&e=hyIA7e

The default sharing setting for our organization is Specific people.

Most Teams have Anyone (Public) sharing enabled as an option.

Either select Share (best for inviting existing users to a folder or document) or Copy Link for pasting into another document. Both allow you to select a sharing level, Anyone through People you choose.

Some considerations:

  • You can also set the sharing permissions from the default View to Edit or block direct downloads.
  • The Anyone setting in addition gives options for setting an expiry time or a password.
  • If the expiry is not used, it may be difficult to tell which files have been shared with whom. You can only see the sharing settings by selecting the Share/Copy link context menu and noting both the user icons as well as links listed below it.
To create a link to a file that auto-downloads in the browser, append download=1 to the link's query string, replacing web=1 if it's present.

public/ms365/sharing_files_links.txt · Last modified: 2024/05/30 16:31 by jonathan.schatz