Sharing a file

As described in About sharing links and protecting files, you can share your file so anyone:

• Can access it (public shared link).
• Share your file and restrict who can access the file (secured shared link).
• Protect the file. You can protect the file when creating a secured shared link.

Create a public shared link

To create a public shared link, do not apply protection to the shared file. Depending on your configuration, you may not see the option to apply protection. In other cases, your administrator may require you to apply protection.

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the file you want to share.
2. Right-click the file and select Share link with Syncplicity.
3. The link is automatically generated. Do not apply protection to the file.
4. Click Email Link to send the link via email message or Copy Link to copy the link to your clipboard. If you select the email option, you are prompted to provide the recipients' email addresses. Depending on your company policy, the email option might be unavailable.

Anyone who accesses the link can retrieve the file.

Create a secured shared link

To create a secured shared link, you must require users to log on to their Syncplicity account and optionally enter a password to access the file. You also can set an expiration period, after which the link is invalid and users cannot access the file. Your administrator may require one or more of these settings.

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the file you want to share.
2. Right-click the file and select Share link with Syncplicity.
   
3. The link will be automatically generated.
4. In the dialog window click Apply protection to show the protection options:
   • Require recipients to log in
   • Require recipients to enter password
   • Set expiration in days
5. If requiring recipients to log in, enter their email addresses. Optionally, click Add a message and type a message to the recipients.
6. If requiring users to enter a password, click the password generator to create a password. The password is not sent with the email; you must send it separately to the recipients.
7. If setting an expiration, enter the number of days the recipients can access the file using the shared link. After that time, the link becomes invalid. If your administrator set an expiration period for shared links, you can set a shorter period but not a longer one.
8. Click Email Link to send the link via email message or Copy Link to copy the link to your clipboard. If you select the email option, you are prompted to provide the recipients' email addresses. Depending on your company policy, the email option might be unavailable.

To disable access to your document later, you can disable the shared link. Also, you can change the secure shared file settings. For details, see Managing shared links.

Allow editing of Microsoft Office files

For Microsoft Office documents, you have an additional option to allow users to edit the file using Office Online directly from the shared link. This helps with collaboration, as it does not require recipients to download the file locally to edit it.

The prerequisites to create an editable shared link are:

• The file owner needs to be a Syncplicity Enterprise or Business Edition user.
• If files are stored on-premise, a WOPI connector needs to be deployed.
• The creator of the shared link needs to have Edit and Share rights over the data/folder, where the file is located.
• The file format needs to be supported by Office 365.

Supported file formats are:

• Microsoft Word - .DOCX, .DOCM
• Microsoft Excel - .XLSX, .XLSB, .XLSM
• Microsoft PowerPoint - .PPTX, .PPSX
• Microsoft Visio - .VSDX
• OpenDocument - .ODT, .ODS, .ODP

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the file you want to share.
2. Right-click the file and select Share link with Syncplicity.
   
3. The link will be automatically generated.
4. All links with editing permissions are secured shared links, so you need to enter the email addresses of the recipients. Optionally, click Add a message and type a message to the recipients.
5. In the dialog window click Apply protection and check the Allow editing option.
6. Set a password and expiration date for the link, if needed.
7. Click Email Link to send the link via email message or Copy Link to copy the link to your clipboard. 

When a recipient accesses the link, they have the option to Open in Office Online. Once the file is opened, click Edit in browser to begin the editing process.
If a file is locked by a different user (see File locking for more details), the Edit in browser button will not be available. Once the lock expires or is disabled, the Edit option is displayed again.