Sometimes when working in Google Sheets you may want to share only a single sheet with another user without sharing all of the tabs in the entire spreadsheet.
Unfortunately at this time, there is not a built-in way to do this, but there is a method we can use to do this if we get a little bit creative.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to share a single tab with someone in Google Sheets without sharing the entire spreadsheet with them.
Share One Tab in Google Sheets
If you want to share only a single tab with another user without them being able to see the other sheets in the spreadsheet, what we need to do is import the tab you want them to see using the IMPORTRANGE function into a new spreadsheet, and then only share that spreadsheet with them.
That way they will never be able to see the original workbook. They will only be able to view the imported sheet.
To show you how to share a single sheet, I will be using the below example. In this spreadsheet, I have 4 tabs with different reports in them. The only tab that I will share with another user is the “Report-2” tab
Here is how this is done:
1. First we need to copy the spreadsheet URL of the sheet that we want to share
2. Then, open a new Google Sheet and enter the IMPORTRANGE function. For the first argument of the function, paste the spreadsheet URL that you copied in step 1 inside quotation marks.
3. After the spreadsheet URL is pasted, we need to enter the second argument of the formula. Input the name of the sheet that you want to share and the range of data that you want to share from that sheet. In this example, I have put “Report-2!A;T” as the second argument of the formula to import the entire Report-2 tab. Add your closing parenthesis and press Enter when you are done with this step
4. If your sheets have never been connected before you will get a #REF error and will need to Allow access. Bring your cursor over the #REF error and click the Allow access button
5. You should now see your sheet has been imported into your new Google Sheet
6. From here click File>Share and enter the email address of the person you want to share this sheet with
Whoever you shared the sheet with will now have access to only the imported sheet and not the original file containing multiple tabs.
Closing Thoughts
This is a great method for only sharing a single sheet with another user and not every sheet in your workbook. This way the user you share with will not be able to see all of the other tabs in the original file.
Another option is that if you want them to be able to see the other tabs but only edit data from one sheet, you can share the original workbook with them but then created protected ranges in the sheets you don’t want them to have access to.
More Google Sheets Tutorials:
How to Change Edit Access
How to Transfer Ownership