Sharing a Spreadsheet for Collaboration

When you invite someone to view a spreadsheet, that's all they can do; they can navigate around the spreadsheet, but they can't add to or edit any of the data within the spreadsheet. If you want to collaborate with others on a spreadsheet, you must explicitly open the spreadsheet for collaboration.

Caution

Google permits more than one user at a time to make changes to an open spreadsheet; the spreadsheet isn't "locked" when the first user starts editing. This can create havoc if both users try to make changes to the same data or aren't aware of the other changes being made. For this reason, you should always use caution while collaboratively editing a spreadsheet.

To share a spreadsheet for collaboration, follow these steps:

1.	From a saved spreadsheet, click the Show Sharing Options link; this opens the sharing pane.
2.	In the Invite People to Edit box, enter the email addresses of the people with whom you want to collaborate. (Separate multiple addresses with commas.)
3.	Click the Invite People button.
4.	This opens an Invitation window. Enter a personal message if you like, and then click the Send Invitation button.

Your recipients now receive an invitation via email. The invitation contains a link to the spreadsheet; clicking this link opens the spreadsheet in a new browser window. Once accessed, the other users can now edit the spreadsheet, in real time. In fact, multiple users can edit the spreadsheet at the same time; each person's edits appear on all the other users' screens as soon as they press the Enter key when editing a cell.

Note

Anyone you invite to edit a spreadsheet can, in turn, invite other users to also edit the spreadsheet.