Share a workspace

When you share a workspace with a user,  the user can access all the items in that workspace.

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

The people you share a workspace with can’t access any of your Smartsheet items outside the workspace unless you share them explicitly. To share workspace items individually, see Overview: Share sheets and reports for details.

Basics of workspace sharing

Open your workspace

1. Select Home > Workspaces tab.
2. Select the name of the workspace you want to share.

Alternatively, search for your workspace by name in the search icon, or use the Star icon in the workspace panel to add it to the Favorites tab for quick access.

To review who already has access to your workspace:

• Select the dropdown next to the Share button. Select Share Workspace to review the list of people with access under Manage access. 

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To review who already has access to an item:

• Select the Share button and review the people in the list under Manage access.

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Share a workspace

1. In the upper-right corner of the workspace, select Share > Share Workspace.

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2. In the Add people by name, email or group field, type the names or email addresses of the users or groups that can access this workspace.
3. Use the dropdown to select a permission level for each collaborator.
4. Optional: Use the Message field to personalize a message for your collaborators.
5. Select Share.

The people and groups you invited are shared to the workspace and receive the notification.

If you have many email recipients, a confirmation dialog appears. If you still want to send the notification, select Notify anyway. You can remove people from the mailing list by selecting Back and clearing the Notify people checkbox.

Owners or Admins can share, unshare, and modify any collaborator’s sharing permissions. 

Consider the following:

• When you go to share a workspace, the Share window specifies that Recipients without a Member seat may be limited to View-only access.

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• Ensure that collaborators you’re sharing your dashboard with have the right seat type to become Admin. As an Admin yourself, open the Share window, go to Manage access, and hover over a name to view that person’s seat type.

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Share an item in a workspace

1. In the workspace, open the item you want to share.
2. In the upper-right corner of the item, select Share.
3. In the Add people by name, email or group field, type the names or email addresses of the users or groups that can access this item.
4. Use the dropdown to select a permission level for each collaborator.
5. Optional: Use the Message field to personalize a message for your collaborators..
6. Select Share. 

Look at the icon next to the collaborator's permission level to differentiate when they have access only to the item or to the workspace. 

• When they have access to the workspace, you see this 
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   icon.
• When they have access only to the item, you see this 
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   icon for sheets, this icon 
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    for reports, and this icon 
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  for dashboards. 

Stop sharing or change permission levels at the workspace level

1. In the upper-right area of the workspace, select the dropdown next to the Share button. Select Share Workspace.
2. Open the Manage access section and find the collaborator you’d like to remove or change.
3. Hover over the collaborator's name.
4. Remove them by selecting the X next to their permission level, or change their permission level from the dropdown menu.

If you stop sharing with a collaborator when they view a sheet in the workspace, the collaborator receives an error message at the next save or refresh.

Workspace sharing permissions

The permission level you grant a user (or a group) determines their access to a workspace and its items. 

As a best practice, you should share a workspace with the lowest level of permissions (Viewer or Commenter).

If you change a workspace Admin’s permission to Editor or Viewer, you become the new owner of the Smartsheet items they own in that workspace.

This table shows how a user’s access to a workspace or an item within it could be affected.
 

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

See the Sharing permission levels article for permission levels and how they impact Smartsheet items.

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 inherit the selected permission level.