Share a workspace

When you share a workspace with a user, they’ll have access to all the items in that workspace.

If your sharing needs change, you can remove people from the workspace or change their sharing permission levels.

The people you share a workspace with can’t access any of your other Smartsheet items unless you choose to share them. To share an item in a workspace without sharing the entire workspace, share an individual sheet in a workspace.

Get started with workspace sharing

To open a workspace

1. On the left Navigation Bar, select Browse .

2. To open a workspace, select Workspace then select the name of the workspace you want to share. 

When you’re in the workspace, check these two settings:

• Workspace Shared To: Use this to see who has access to the workspace.
• Sharing column: Check how a workspace item is shared. If an item is shared individually (or with other collaborators in the workspace), you'll see the icon, as in the image below.

To see which users or groups have access to the item, hover over  .

To share the workspace

1. In the upper-right corner of the workspace, select Share.
2. In the Workspace Sharing form, fill in the following fields:
   • Invite Collaborators: Type the email addresses of the user(s) or group(s) you need to share the workspace with. Or select the Select Contacts icon to add your contacts as collaborators.
   • Permissions: Select a permission level for each collaborator. 
3. In the Invite Details section, customize the message.
4. Select Share Workspace.
5. If you see a dialog confirming if you still want to send the notification, select Notify anyway. 

• To remove people from the mailing list:
  1. Select Back.
  2. Clear the Notify people checkbox.

The contacts you selected will have access to the workspace, and receive a notification, if you chose to send one.

Stop sharing or change permission levels

To remove a collaborator or change their permission level

1. In the upper-right area of the workspace, select Share. 
2. Open the Collaborators section of the Workspace Sharing form.
3. Hover over the collaborator you'd like to remove or change.
4. Remove a collaborator or change their permission level by using either of these elements:
   • Remove from Workspace Sharing icon: Select this icon to remove the collaborator from the workspace. 
     If you stop sharing with a collaborator at the time that they are viewing a sheet in the workspace, the collaborator will receive an error message at the next save or refresh.

   • Permissions dropdown list: Select a new permission level from the dropdown list. 

Workspace sharing permissions

A user’s (or a group’s) access to a workspace and its items will depend on the permission level you grant them. For this reason, it's a good practice to share a workspace using the lowest level permissions (e.g., Viewer, Commenter).

If you change a workspace Admin’s permission to Editor or Viewer, you’ll be the new owner of the Smartsheet items they own in that workspace. They’ll lose ownership rights over the sheets they created.

Refer to this table for examples of how a user’s access to a workspace, or a sheet in a workspace, could be affected.
 

You can't give another collaborator a higher access level than you have yourself. For example, if you’re an Editor, you can't promote another Editor to Admin.

For details on permission levels and how they impact Smartsheet items (sheets, dashboards, and so on), see the Sharing Permission Levels article.

You can make workspace sharing easier to manage with Smartsheet Contact Groups. Note that if you share a workspace with a Smartsheet Contact group, all group members will inherit the selected permission level.