Working on a spreadsheet together

What it is

A spreadsheet can be worked on together: open it to people by login or by link, protect sheets and ranges from edits, discuss cells in comments, get notifications about changes, and see who is in the workbook now. All of this is in the header of an open spreadsheet (on a phone, in the More tools menu). The Notifications bell is also in the app header, on any page.

How to use it

Who is the owner. The spreadsheet is managed by its creator. If that person has left the organization or has been disabled, the owners of the organization take over the management. Administrators and co-authors do not manage access.
Access. The Access button is on the right of the header. Its tooltip says Only you have access or Available to N users, with the mark by link if the link is open. The number on the button is the number of access requests waiting. On a phone, Access is an item in the More tools menu, and the number is at the right edge of the item. When the Access window is closed, the menu closes after it.
Add a person. In the Access window, type a login or email in the Login or email field. The suggestions are split into Workspace members (from the first letter) and Other users (from the third letter, by the start of the login or email). Choose New member role, either Reader or Editor, and click Add. The person gets the notification You have been given access.
Change or remove access. In the Users with access list, each person has a menu: Reader, Editor, Close access. If the person came by a link, by link is shown next to them. A spreadsheet that is open for the person learns about the change at once, without a reload. For a reader it becomes view-only. For a person whose access is closed, No access appears instead.
Link. Each spreadsheet has one permanent link, in the Sharing section:
- Access limited: only the people on the list can open the spreadsheet. Others see No access and can request access;
- Anyone with a link: anyone can open it. Then choose Link role and Link lifetime (No expiry, 1 day, 7 days or 30 days);
- for readers who use the link, you can turn off Allow copying and turn on Watermark. The link is copied with the Copy button, and Link copied appears.
Who opened the link. A person with an account who opens the link gets the normal editor, and appears in your list with the link role. A person without an account works as a guest: at the top you see Viewing or Editing.
Request access. Someone who is not on the list and opens a limited link sees No access. Without signing in there is a Sign in button. After signing in, there are the field Message to the owner (optional) and the button Request access. Then Request sent appears. The spreadsheet opens by itself as soon as the owner grants access: the page checks this every 10 seconds.
Answer to a request. The owner sees Access requests in the Access window, and a notification. A request has Role for …, Open and Reject. A rejected person sees Request declined and You can try again …, which means a day later.
Protection. The panel Protected sheets and ranges opens to the right of the sheet, and the sheet next to it stays live. There are several ways to open it:
- the lock button Sheet and range protection on the toolbar (it stays pressed), or Protect range… in the cell menu (More cell actions; at a row or column header, directly in the menu). The form opens for the selection. If the selection is inside an already protected range, that protection opens. The cursor is in the Range field;
- Protect the sheet… in the sheet tab menu. The spreadsheet switches to this sheet, and the form Whole sheet opens (with its protection, if it already exists). The cursor is in Description. If the panel is already open, a menu item switches it to the chosen view. At the top of the panel is the list Protection of the sheet (when empty, No protection yet), with the buttons Protect range and Protect sheet, and the checkbox Show protection with shading, which marks protected cells. Choosing a range protection in the list selects its area on the sheet. Below is the form: What do we protect? (Range or Whole sheet); Range, where, while the cursor is in the field, you outline the cells with the mouse, and the address is entered by itself (or you type it, in the form A1:B10); Description; and Who can edit (Owner only, All editors or Selected, with checkboxes for the participants). The checkbox Only warn, do not prohibit allows editing after the question Editing is permitted with a warning. Continue?. At the bottom: Remove protection (the bin, only for a saved protection); Cancel, which returns the form to the view with which the panel was opened; and Save, after which the panel stays open and the protection is selected in the list. To close the panel, use Close in the header, press Escape, or click the lock again.
Comments. Comment… is in the cell menu, or press Ctrl/⌘+Alt+M. The Comments button in the header (on a phone, the item in More tools) opens the panel. The number on the button is the number of open discussions. In a discussion you can Answer, Solve or Reopen. Your own comments can be Edited and Deleted. A guest without an account can edit only the comments left from this same browser. To mention a person, type “@” in the text: employees are labelled by name in the suggestions. The filters are Open, Solved and Mine. A comment moves together with the rows and columns.
Notifications. The Notifications bell is in two places:

in the app header, on any page. The number in the corner of the bell is how many are unread. A click opens the list of cards for all the spreadsheets of the space. A card opens its spreadsheet and becomes read. Mark all read clears everything and closes the list. While there are no cards, No notifications yet is shown;
in the header of an open spreadsheet, with the number of unread (on a phone, the item Notifications in More tools). It opens the Notifications panel: the same list, and the subscription to this spreadsheet. Notify me about this spreadsheet offers About any changes, About my comments and mentions (the default) or Never. How often: Immediately or Digest once a day. A card of this spreadsheet leads to the needed sheet and cell; a card of another spreadsheet opens that spreadsheet. Mark all read is inactive when nothing is unread, and it clears the counter in all tabs. The texts of notifications are in your interface language. The product does not send these notifications by email yet: the mail service is not connected.

Side panels. Comments, Notifications, Protected sheets and ranges and the other workbook panels open to the right of the sheet, one at a time. Opening any of them, by a button or by the Comment… item in the cell menu, closes the one that was open, including Version history, Notifications and the chart editor. More in Spreadsheets (workbooks).
Editing together. Edits by several people in one spreadsheet all go in; in one cell, the last one stays. More in Editing a spreadsheet at the same time.
Who is in the workbook now. The circles in the header, People in this spreadsheet, show: for people, the profile photo in a ring of the colour of their selection on the sheet; for those without a photo, initials; for guests by link, the first letter of an animal name (in the Russian interface, «Неопознанный енот» and «Неопознанная рысь»; in English, Anonymous raccoon). Unnamed guests and participants are labelled “Guest ab12” or “Participant AB12”. All such labels are in the language of the person who is looking. Clicking a circle goes to that person’s selection. Up to 5 circles are shown; the rest are “+N”. On a phone there are no circles.

Limits

Roles: Owner, Editor and Reader. A reader does not edit, does not write comments, and does not see the agent.
The number of co-authors a spreadsheet can have is set by the plan: Starter 3, Solo 10, Team 30, Business 100, Enterprise no limit. The limit is checked both when a person is added by hand and when someone enters by an open link. Above the limit, the person sees No access and can request access. When the request is approved, the limit is checked again.
Turning off copying and turning on the watermark is possible only for readers, and only for guests without an account. A person with an account, and an editor via a link, always have copying, and never a watermark.
Access limited and the link lifetime apply only to people who are not on the list. Those already on the list stay there until the owner closes their access.
A new link address can be obtained only when the old one cannot be restored. Then Create new link appears in the window.
A message to the owner can be up to 300 characters. A comment can be up to 4 000 characters, and a comment can have up to 50 mentions. The owner and co-authors of a spreadsheet can be mentioned, including those invited from other organizations. An employee of the space can also mention all colleagues. A mention notification comes to the bell of the organization the mentioned person belongs to. Replies go one level deep.
Protection is available to people who are signed in, in spreadsheets of their own organization. A guest via a link, and a person in a spreadsheet of another organization, has no button, no panel, no Protect range… in the cell menu and no Protect the sheet… in the sheet tab menu. On a summary sheet, in a version view and for a reader, there is no panel and no Protect range… in the cell menu. In the sheet tab menu, Protect the sheet… depends on the view of the sheet on the tab: for a summary sheet the item is inactive (like Duplicate); for an ordinary sheet it is available, even while a summary sheet is open; in a version view and for a reader there is no item. On a phone, the panel stands under the sheet at full width and takes up to 45% of the screen height. The list and the form scroll together, and Save is always visible.
Protections per sheet: up to 200, and a description up to 200 characters. The creator of the spreadsheet, and the owners and administrators of the organization, can always edit protected areas, both with Owner only and with Selected, even if they are not on the list. Selected lets in only the people who are ticked. A guest via a link passes only All editors.
The bell holds the latest 500 notifications. The digest keeps the 20 latest lines per day.
The subscription to a spreadsheet is changed only in the Notifications panel of the open spreadsheet. Without a selected space there is no bell in the header.
A presence circle disappears after 20 seconds without a signal.
The photo in a circle is taken from the person’s Profile photo. A guest via a link, without signing in, does not see photos: all circles show initials for them. Guests themselves never have photos.
An edit that protection or a changed role did not let through is reverted together with all the edits made while it was being saved. Undo and redo steps before it are not available after that.

If something goes wrong

What you see on the screen	Why	What to do
No access to spreadsheet and This link no longer works: it was revoked or has expired	The old link was revoked, or its lifetime has ended	Ask the owner for a new link
No access and Sign in to request access from the owner	The link is limited, and you are not signed in	Click Sign in
Request declined and You can try again …	The owner rejected the request	Wait until the time shown, or Ask the owner another way
User with this login not found…	There is no account with this login or email	Send the person the link: they can request access themselves
This is the owner of the spreadsheet	The owner’s role cannot be changed	Check whom you are adding
Co-authors on your plan: no more than N. Remove someone from the list or change the plan.	The plan’s co-author limit is used up	Close access for someone on the list, or change the plan
Check the range, for example A1:B10 in the protection panel	The address in the Range field was not understood	Outline the cells on the sheet, or type an address of the form A1:B10
Select at least one participant	Selected is chosen in Who can edit, but no one is ticked	Tick the participants, or choose another option
Check your protection	The protection did not pass the check, for example the sheet already has 200 protections	Remove the unneeded protections
The bar Range protected: … or The sheet is protected: … (without a description: Range is protected or The sheet is protected), and the edit disappeared	The edit touched a protection, and you are not allowed to change it. The spreadsheet returned the previous value	Click Got it, and ask the person who set the protection. Edits to other cells are saved as usual
Edit reverted: no permission to save	While the spreadsheet was open, the owner made you a reader or closed your access	Nothing: the spreadsheet will switch to viewing by itself, or show No access. If you need to edit, ask the owner for access
The spreadsheet structure changed, and other conflict messages	A rare case: the spreadsheet could not carry your edit through other people’s changes (for example, someone restored a version). Someone else’s edit of the same cell is no longer treated as a conflict	Compare the spreadsheet and choose Save my edits, Accept server version or Retry. More in Editing a spreadsheet at the same time
Copying not available or Printing unavailable	Copying is turned off for the link	Ask the owner to allow copying
Failed to load notifications	The list did not come from the server	Wait, or return to the tab: the list will reload by itself
Could not mark as read in the bell list	The mark did not reach the server	Click Mark all read again
The circles People in this spreadsheet disappear and come back, or are absent altogether (when someone with a photo is in the workbook)	The tab was opened before a product update, and it does not understand the new server responses	Reload the page
Initials in a circle, although the person has a photo	You opened the spreadsheet by a link without signing in, or the photo did not load (for example, the person has just removed it)	Sign in to an account. The new photo will appear by itself
You do not have permission for this action in comments	Editing and deleting someone else’s comment is not allowed. For a guest, a comment from another browser counts as someone else’s	Reply in the discussion