When are Folders Okay

Welcome to SpotOn SharePoint. Metadata and You, module 3. When are folders okay? We’ve talked a lot about why folders aren’t terribly useful in the online environment, but there are some specific situations where they’re a good way to go. If you have a central library but need to separate access to content, folders allow you to set a permission level that cascades down to all of the contents within the folder.

This allows the central management of content to be much easier. Folders can be used to share specific or packaged information with third parties such as a client or a subcontractor or a contractor. It ensures confidential information isn’t sent by email and ensures that everybody is getting the same version or copy of the content. Let’s take a look at an example. In our example, we have a central reporting library that has different audiences.

Content within each folder is tagged using metadata, but we’re using a folder to control the access to the content. By selecting a folder and clicking the details pane, you can choose manage access. This shows you who has access to the content. You can change that by removing an individual, and you can change the level of access someone has by changing them from edit to view only. In addition, by clicking manage access you can click grant access at the top of the screen and invite a specific individual.

Once you select 1 or more individuals, you set the level, in this case, can edit, and you can type a message that will be included in the email with the link that automatically is sent by the system notifying the user they are allowed to access this content. If you uncheck Notify People, no email is sent. Sharing content in this way is a great way to grant access to somebody who would not otherwise be able to access this content. By selecting a different folder and clicking on the details pane, you can take a look at the individuals who have access to that specific folder. Keep in mind, when you do access permissions by folders, you have to update the permissions on each folder individually.

Otherwise, they’ll just inherit the permissions for the overall document library. Now that we’ve managed access generally, how do I share a specific item with a third party? Go into your folder and select the item and then choose manage access. When you click share, you’re gonna change the level from people within your organization to specific people. In this case, I don’t want to allow them to edit and I wanna block downloads so that they can only view this content but cannot make any changes or take a copy.

I’m then gonna type out the full email address, which is outside of my organization. The system will give you a warning, making sure you’re aware that this is outside your organization, and then you can type in a message that will be included with the link in an email to the recipient. Remember, only the person that you gave the link to can use it. They cannot forward this email to give link access to another user. Thank you for taking the time to watch our video.

We hope that it helped explain how permissions can be granted and managed within SharePoint Online. Please contact us with any questions. We want to hear from you.