One of the most powerful features of Google Sheets is that you can easily share your spreadsheets with other users so they can view and edit your files.
In Google Spreadsheets there are various permission settings. You can have some people as viewers, some people as commenters, and some as full editors that can edit whatever they want in the file.
In this tutorial, I will cover everything you need to know about setting permissions in Google Sheets. I will show how to request edit access, grant edit access, change permissions and how to remove access in Google Sheets.
Table of Contents
How to Request Edit Access
- If you only have view access you will see a view-only button in your spreadsheet. Select the view only button
- Select Request edit access
- You can type a message (optional) and then select Send
This will request access to be able to edit the document, the owner of the file will have to grant access on their end
How to Grant Edit Access
To share a spreadsheet with someone and give them edit access, here’s what you need to do.
1. In the top right corner of your sheet select the green Share button
2. In the text field, enter the email address of the person you want to give access to. On the right-hand side, you can set them as a viewer, commenter, or editor. If you want to notify them and send a message you can also do that in the fields below.
3. Select Send
The email address that you sent edit access to will then get an email and they should now be able to open and edit the file
How to Remove Edit Access
1. Select the Share button in the top right corner of your file
2. On the right of the person you want to remove, select the down arrow on the right-hand side of their permission setting, then select Remove
3. Select Save
If you want the person to still be able to view the file but not edit it, you can also just step them to a viewer or commenter depending on what priveleges you want them to have in the spreadsheet
Closing Thoughts
Shared spreadsheets are a powerful tool for collaboration between various individuals. Hopefully, you have now learned how to change permission settings in Google Sheets.
We hope you found this helpful!
More Google Sheets Tutorials:
Notes vs. Comments
How to Do Math Formulas
How to See Edit History and Restore Previous Versions
How to Transfer Ownership