Complete Guide to Sharing Items in Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a powerful tool for project management and team collaboration. To ensure that all team members have access to relevant content and can collaborate effectively, Smartsheet offers several ways to share items such as spreadsheets, reports and dashboards. In this article, we'll explore the different ways to share your items in Smartsheet, how to manage permission levels and the sharing alternatives available.

How to Share Items in Smartsheet

Sharing items in Smartsheet is an essential way to collaborate with your team, ensuring that everyone has access to the latest information. To share an item (spreadsheet, report or dashboard), just follow the simple steps below:

Steps to Share Items:

Click the "Share" button: In the top right-hand corner of the item (spreadsheet, report or dashboard), click Share. If you don't see the "Share" button, click on the down arrow in the top right-hand corner of the Smartsheet window.
Open the Sharing Form: The sharing form will open. If the item has not yet been shared, you will see the Invitation details. Use these details to customize the invitation message and decide whether to send an invitation email.
Add Collaborators: In the "Invite collaborators" checkbox , enter the e-mail addresses of the individuals or groups with whom you want to share the item. Remember to separate the e-mail addresses with a comma or semicolon.
Select the Permission Level: After adding the emails, you must choose one of the permission levels for each collaborator. Smartsheet offers three access levels: Viewer, Editor and Admin.
Click on "Share": After setting up the details and permissions, click the Share button to send the invitation.

Permission levels in Smartsheet

When you share an item in Smartsheet, you can control the access level of collaborators according to their roles. There are three levels of permission:

Viewer: The employee can view the item, but cannot make changes.
Editor: The collaborator can edit the item, add, modify or delete data.
Admin: The collaborator has administrative permissions and can edit the content, add or remove collaborators and change the item's settings.

You can change the permission level or revoke access at any time, ensuring total control over who can access what.

Other Sharing Options

In addition to the option of directly sharing items with collaborators, Smartsheet offers alternatives that allow collaboration without you having to give full access to the items. These options are ideal when you want to share data or information in a more controlled way.

1. Publish

If you want to share information with people who don't have a Smartsheet account, you can use the Publish option. With it, you can send a publish link to anyone, allowing them to view the data dynamically. This means that the data will always be up to date, without the need for direct access to Smartsheet.

2. Send as attachment

When you need to share a static version of a Smartsheet item, the Send as attachment option is the most suitable. You can send the file as an Excel or PDF attachment to an email. It's also possible to email data from specific rows, which is useful when you need to share information about a specific task or group of rows in a large spreadsheet.

3. Using Forms

If your goal is to collect information from other people, you can use forms in Smartsheet. These allow collaborators to add new rows to your spreadsheet based on the information sent via the form, without having to have direct access to the shared item.

4. Use Automated Workflows

Finally, the automated workflow is a very useful tool for automatically notifying team members of changes made to spreadsheets, sending reminders of due dates or requesting updates and approvals. With workflows set up, you can automate the data sharing process according to your team's needs.

Conclusion

Sharing items in Smartsheet is an easy and efficient way to collaborate with your team and ensure that everyone has access to the latest information. Whether sharing items directly with different permission levels or using alternatives such as publishing links, sending as an attachment or using automated forms and workflows, Smartsheet offers a range of flexible options to meet your collaboration needs.

Now that you know the different ways to share and collaborate in Smartsheet, you can take advantage of these features to optimize teamwork and improve the productivity of your projects!