How sharing works in Eigen

Sharing in Eigen works the same way wherever you are. The same controls cover your files in Drive and the documents, spreadsheets, presentations, boards, and chats you create. This page explains the ideas behind it, so you know what you're giving away before you share. For the click-by-click steps, see Share a file or folder.

Everything is private until you share it

Whatever you make or upload starts out private to you. Nobody else can see it. You decide who gets in, one file or folder at a time, and you can change your mind at any point.

You share from the Share dialog. In Drive you open it from a file's menu; inside a document, spreadsheet, presentation, board, or chat you open it from the editor. It's the same dialog either way, so once you've shared one thing you know how to share all of them.

Folders pass their access down. If you share a folder, the people you add can see everything inside it, including anything you add later. That makes a folder a tidy way to share a whole project at once.

Viewer and Editor

When you give someone access, you choose what they can do:

• Viewer: they can open and read the file, but not change it.
• Editor: they can open it and make changes.

You set this from the dropdown next to each person's name. New people you add start as Editors, so switch them to Viewer if you only want them to look.

The person who created a file is its Owner. The owner always has full access and can't be removed from the list. Everyone else is a Viewer or an Editor.

Three ways to share

You can give access to specific people, to a whole team, or to anyone with the link.

• People: type a name or email address. You can choose someone from the suggestions or enter any email address, including one that doesn't have an Eigen account yet. They appear under People with access with their own Viewer or Editor setting. This is the most precise way to share, and the right choice most of the time.
• A team: if you belong to a team, you can share with the team in one step. Everyone in that team gets access, and people who join the team later get it too. It saves adding members one by one.
• A link: under General access you can open a file up so that anyone with the link can get in, as a viewer or an editor. Use the Copy link button to copy it and send it however you like.

A file's general access starts as Restricted, which means only the people you've added can open it. Switching it to Unrestricted is what turns the link on.

Signing in to open a share

A shared link is a shortcut to the item inside Eigen, not a public web page. Whoever opens it has to sign in first, so there's no anonymous, sign-in-free access.

They don't need an account set up for them in advance, though. Anyone you share with can sign in as a guest using a one-time code sent to their email address, then see only the things that have been shared with them. That's how you share with someone outside your organisation. How guests sign in, and the control an administrator has over it, are covered in guest access.

Staying in control

A few things help you keep a handle on who has access:

• You can change or remove access at any time. Open the Share dialog again, change someone's dropdown to Viewer or Editor, or set it to Remove to take their access away.
• Owners can stop editors from re-sharing. If you own a file, you can turn off Editors can share. With it off, editors can still work on the file, but only you can add or remove people.

When you're ready to share something, Share a file or folder walks through it step by step.