Sending and Sharing Files on SharePoint

Sending and Sharing Files on SharePoint

Sharing files on SharePoint

There are 3 main ways (though, additional ones exist) people generally share files that are on SharePoint:


  • You are working on the file and are in Word or Excel or PowerPoint, and wish to collaborate with others to get feedback, usually within the document itself.
  • You are in SharePoint, using an internet browser (Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer) and wish to send a link to someone.
  • You have worked on a document, and are now composing an email and want to attach the file, or a link to it.* 

Historically, SharePoint's default actions were to not only allow you to share, but to automatically grant new permissions to whatever you were sharing, regardless of whether the recipient already had access. You could somewhat work around this, but it was not intuitive, nor as simple as it could have been. Because of this, using "Share" on SharePoint was something that was discouraged.

Microsoft has recently rolled out a change that makes the default Share option faster, and does not add unnecessary permissions.

*A related change to address this in Outlook, though, has not yet rolled out. They have teased that an updated way of "attaching" a link to a file on SharePoint from within Outlook should be released at some point in June.

Sharing from within a Microsoft Application

While working in a file (in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint), go to the top menu and click File > Info. 

You will see something similar to this:


Sharing or copying the path from within Microsoft Apps.

After clicking Share, you will see the following pop-up, that now defaults to "People with existing access can use the link." While this had been an option before, it wasn't the default. You can enter a name or email address, add a note, copy the link, or add the link to a new Outlook email. Because it now defaults to users with existing access, the links it generates will not create new permissions.

Share dialog pop-up

NOTE: If just you wish to get a "clean" link to the file to share with someone (maybe you've already started an email, or you want to send the link to someone you're chatting with on Skype), you can click Copy path. You won't get a pop-up, but it will copy a direct link to the file -- and it will default to opening it in an internet browser. 

When the recipient clicks a link that is generated through this method, it sets the file to open in the online version of the application, and not the full, desktop version. This will prevent a copy of the file from being automatically downloaded to your computer (how Chrome processes direct links to files) -- and ensure that those clicking on the link will be seeing and/or editing the online version that lives on SharePoint. If you prefer to use the full version of the application to do editing, click Editing just below the file title, and then click Open in Desktop App.


How to Open in Desktop App

Sharing from within SharePoint

All the concepts are the same. Quick steps for how you do it in the interface can be seen here:


How to share a file from within an internet browser on SharePoint

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