Sharing a document in Microsoft 365

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Last updated: Aug 23, 2023 by Michael WoodsVersion comment

Background

One of the great things about Microsoft 365 is that you can easily share documents with other people, and even edit documents at the same time others are editing. This article shows you how to control who can edit your document. 

Step-by-step guide

To let someone else view or edit one of your Microsoft 365 documents, follow these steps:

  1. Log into Microsoft 365. and either create a new document or edit an existing document.
     
  2. If you open an existing document, you can share the document by clicking/tapping the Share button in the top right of the screen:


    While editing a document, the button is in a slightly different place (on the main header), but does the same thing:
  3. The sharing dialog box will open. Start typing the name of the person with whom you want to share the document. That persons name should appear in the menu. When you see the name of the person, click/tap on it and it will be added to the list. 

  4. Select Can edit or Can view from the droplist beside the names. Select Can edit if it's necessary for the other people to make changes to the document, otherwise choose Can view. 

  5. Make sure that Require sign-in is checked, as this forces those other people to be correctly logged in.
     

  6. Click/tap Share.

    By default, the people you share the document with will receive an email to let them know. You can turn this off by clicking/tapping SHOW OPTIONS and un-checking the Send an email invitation box.
     





Additional resources

Upload and Share

Another way to share a document

You can also share a document by sending a link directly to someone. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Click/tap Get a link in the sharing dialog box.

  2. From the first drop list, select 'View link - account in your organization required' or 'Edit link - account in your organization required.' 

    You can use the other options, but be aware that if the link falls into the wrong hands, people you don't know might gain access to your document.

  3.  Copy the link and paste it into an email message addressed to the person you would like to share the document with:
     

Changing what the other person can do

After you have shared a document, you are not stuck with that decision and can change what the person can do. If that person can only view the document, you can let him/her edit it. Similarly, if he/she can already edit the document, you can restrict the document so it can only be viewed. And you can stop sharing the document altogether.

  1. To control this, open the Sharing dialogue for the document by following in Steps 1 and 2 in the main article.

  2. Click/tap Shared with.

  3. Look for the name of the person and select one of the options in the drop list (Can edit, Can view, Stop sharing).



  4. Repeat this step for any other people you have shared the document with, and click/tap Save changes when you have finished.