For example, recently my choir's recruitment co-ordinator was on holiday during a week when we knew that some people would contact us to ask about membership. By giving me edit-access to the audition-scheduling spreadsheet, I could look after these messages for her, and she had immediate access to the up-to-date information when she came home.
Giving everyone in the whole world (well at least everyone with a Google account) access is very easy: you just change the first, generic, option in the access control lists.
But giving access to specific individual people is a little more desirable and only a tiny bit harder to set up.
How to to give a specific person rights to a Google Spreadsheet that you own:
Go to Google Drive
Tick the check-box beside the file or folder that you want to let another named person have "editor" access to.
From the More menu, choose"Share..." - or just click the Share icon share icon.
Enter the other person's email address in the "Invite people" field. (you do not tell the other person in advance, but it is a good idea because it stops people from stopping "unnecessary" email.
Check the rights that Google suggests giving to them are what you want to give them.
The default is value "Can Edit", but other options are
- "Is Owner"
- "Can Comment"
- "Can View"
Optional - also choose:
- Tick or untick "Notify people via email"
- Use the Add Message link to send some extra explanation or a personal message from you to the person being given access.
- Tick or untick "Send a copy to myself"
Click Send.
If the email address that you entered is not associated with an existing Google account - as either the account name or as a recovery address - then you are asked to confirm the request, and warned that anyone who gets the invitation will be able to get access.
Click "Yes" if this is what you want, or "No" if you have made a mistake and want to change it.
What happens next
What does the person you shared the file with see
If you have ticked "Notify by email" then the person will get an email message, from you and with the file name and their email address in the Subject field, saying
This message body says "I've shared an item with you", and shows the file-name and link.
It may also say "It's not an attachment - it's stored online. To open this item, just click the link above", if the other person reads it using an email that doesn't support HTML, and so just shows messages in plain text.
When they click the link, they will be invited to sign into Gmail, using either an existing or a new account.
However if they are already signed in to Google with a different account that has not had the file shared with it, then they see a message saying that they do not have access, and with links to let them ask for access or switch accounts.
What do you see
If the email address that you entered is already associated with a Google account, then:- The other person is shown in your list of people with access to the file with their current profile picture, and
- The file is shown in their "Shared with me" section of Google drive.
If the email address that you entered is not associated with a Google account, then:
- The other person is shown in your list of people with access to the file - but with an email address and an email icon only.
- When the person who receives the email message logs into Google using any (new or existing) account, they get access to the file, and their Google account details are added to your list of authorized users - and the original email address is still shown too, with a comment "This invitation has been used by 1 person".
Giving permission to sheets within a spreadsheet.
Sometimes, you may want to just let a person see an individual worksheet within a bigger spreadsheet. Currently Google Drive does not support this - and I don't expect this to change in the near future.
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