Share and Collaborate

There are many reasons you might want to share a spreadsheet you're working on with others.

You might be: managing a work project, reporting company earnings, or assigning tasks to a community group.

You might also want to collaborate within your spreadsheet to get feedback on your work or ask a colleague to complete a task.

In this video, you will share your spreadsheet with others, use comments to collaborate on your work, and view your file's version history to see changes made to your spreadsheet.

To start, open the share settings in your spreadsheet.

Then, enter the email address of the person or people you want to share your spreadsheet with.

If you're working with a partner, add their email address.

If you're working alone, add your own email address.

Select the permission you want to use: "Edit" means the person you share with can make changes directly in your spreadsheet.

"Comment" allows them to make comments, but not change the project.

And "View" lets them see your spreadsheet only.

Give your collaborator editing permission.

Provide context for the purpose of the sheet.

And notify them that you've shared it.

Then, continue working in your own spreadsheet.

Earlier in this lesson you "protected" your charts; even with editing permissions, your collaborator will be limited in what they can see and do because of those protections.

Add a comment that makes an observation about your data or asks a question.

Any comments are clearly marked so you can find them again later.

Or, add yourself or a collaborator to the comment.

You will receive a notification email and a link directly to the comment.

Leave at least three comments in your spreadsheet.

Once the comments are no longer needed, resolve them.

If you change your mind about a comment you've left, delete it.

Or, if you want to direct someone's attention to your comment, you can send them a link directly to that part of the spreadsheet.

All of your changes are saved automatically to the Google Drive.

But if you or your collaborator make changes to the spreadsheet that you want to remove later, or you want to see changes that were made, use version history.

The "Version history" shows all the changes made in the file by date, time, and person.

You can restore your spreadsheet to that version, if you'd like, but be careful: you don't want to lose your work.

Or return to the current version.

Finally, while it's useful to digitally share and collaborate in your spreadsheet, a collaborator may prefer to view your data in another format, such as a PDF or Microsoft Excel file.

Download your spreadsheet as an Excel file, then open it.

Or, you might need to print it to provide copies to a group.

Adjust the print settings so that your data displays properly.

Now, it's your turn: share your spreadsheet with a collaborator, partner, or yourself, make at least three comments in the shared spreadsheet, add someone to at least one comment, review the version history, and download or print your spreadsheet.