Change Permissions for Specific Items in Workspace

George Speier · 08/10/23

It would be very helpful if I could override workspace permissions for specific items in a workspace. For example:

I give a bunch of people Editor permissions at the workspace level, but for one sheet inside the workspace, I want to downgrade their permissions to Viewer. My understanding is that this is not currently possible.

Thank you for considering this idea.

Genevieve P. · 08/11/23

Hi @George Speier

Thank you for posting your idea! You are correct that you cannot downgrade sharing permissions on a specific sheet within a workspace, however you can do the opposite:

Provide your users with Viewer Permissions in the Workspace
Add them separately to any sheets you want them to have Editor or higher permissions

The higher permission level will override the lower Workspace one so they'll be able to edit specific sheets, but the default permissions for newly created items in that Workspace will be Viewer.

Cheers,

Genevieve

George Speier · 08/11/23

@Genevieve P. Thank you. Unfortunately, that's a very unappealing solution when you have a very long (and growing) list of sheets that need to be editable by everyone, and only one or two sheets that need to have their permissions downgraded.

dizzy_brain · 01/21/24

@Genevieve P. I just tried what you suggest and it didn't work. I gave user view permission to the workspace. I then went into a sheet within a folder, selected the same user and wanted to give them editor rights but it immediately made that person editor for entire workspace. What am I doing wrong?

dizzy_brain · 01/21/24

dizzy_brain

Jan 21, 2024

@Genevieve P. I just tried what you suggest and it didn't work. I gave user view permission to the workspace. I then went into a sheet within a folder, selected the same user and wanted to give them editor rights but it immediately made that person editor for entire workspace. What am I doing wrong?
https://us.v-cdn.net/6031209/uploads/00AZHE7T823T/image.png

I have an update: it weirdly seems to do with the order of permissions granting. If a user has no permission at all at a workspace, I can give them edit permission to a sheet, followed by a view permission to entire workspace. This works - they become an editor of a sheet, with a view permission to the rest of the workspace. If a user already has a view permission to a workspace, then trying to give them edit permission to a sheet insists on changing their permission to editor to the entire workspace. Kind of tedious.

Genevieve P. · 01/22/24

Hi @dizzy_brain

Can you clarify what button you're clicking when you share the direct item? You will need to entirely re-share that same user to the individual sheet, versus updating their permission levels.

Meaning if you already have someone listed as shared to the Workspace (with the Workspace icon next to them):

You'll need to re-type in their email or contact information at the top to add them for a second time:

And this time click "Share" instead of "Share to workspace". Let me know if this makes sense and works for you!

Cheers,

Genevieve

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Change Permissions for Specific Items in Workspace

Idea Submitted · Last Updated 08/10/23

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