Collaboration with shared sheets

Mitch Cohen

I need to share sheets with multiple users, some need to have editing ability, some just need to be able to view the sheets.  But all users need the ability to collaborate with row and sheet comments. I am sharing multiple sheets, so I am trying to decide the best method for sharing.  I have tried Dynamic View, Workapps, and Dashboard, here’s what I have found (pros and cons):

1.      Dynamic View:

• Con -   issue with Dynamic view is that you can not make sheet comments, only row comments.

2.    WorkApps:

• Pro – you can make sheet comments
• Con – you can make sheet comments with editor permission, which allows the user to also make changes to the sheets, which we do not want.

3.      Dashboard:

• Pro - sheet comments can be made, but you can’t edit the sheet.

I like the WorkApps function, but for my application, Dashboard seems to be the best option……am I missing something?  

Jeff Reisman

@Mitch Cohen

Have you tried using Commenter permissions with the group that needs to view the sheet and collaborate with row and sheet comments? My external free collaborator account with Commenter access only is able to see all comments on the sheet, and add both row and sheet comments (including using the '@' functionality to notify other users when they add or edit comments.)

Are your sheets all together in a Workspace? If they are all in a workspace, you can assign share permissions on the workspace and that permission then extends to all sheets within the workspace automatically.

You can create Smartsheet groups of users, maybe one for editing and one for comments only, then share the sheets or workspace with the group.

Mitch Cohen

@Jeff Reisman Thanks Jeff, after posting this I realized I was forgetting about Workspace. But I have not used commenter permissions with groups, I like that suggestion, thank you!!