Choose restricted access or a public page for your spreadsheet

Suppose you have a spreadsheet of monthly library visits. A colleague needs to review it; readers of your report need to explore the finished numbers. Those are different sharing tasks.

Use restricted sharing for collaboration. Use a public dataset page for reviewed data intended for everyone. Prepare a separate sharing copy rather than sending the working workbook by default.

1. Decide what the recipient needs

Recipient’s task	Recommended approach	What to send
Review or edit unpublished data	Restricted access for named recipients	A file link with the appropriate role
Reuse a finished dataset in their own tools	A reviewed CSV or workbook, with access appropriate to its audience	A file link plus source and version notes
Explore published numbers in a browser	A public interactive data page	A page link plus a short explanation

A link is not automatically private. Google Drive distinguishes Restricted, where only people with access can open the file, from Anyone with the link, which allows access without signing in. Viewer, Commenter and Editor are separate roles; viewers can download by default unless the owner changes that setting. See Google’s sharing permissions.

If the spreadsheet contains personal, confidential or otherwise sensitive information, do not upload it to a public publishing service. Use your organization’s approved restricted-sharing system instead.

2. Build a clean sharing copy

For a public release, create a new file containing only the approved rows and columns. Prefer a simple table: one header row, one observation per row, and explicit units.

Here is a fictional sample, not real library data:

month,branch,visits
2026-09,Central,1240
2026-09,North,860
2026-09,West,0

Define the row: “Each row records one branch’s visits for one calendar month.” Explain that visits is a count and that 0 means a confirmed zero—not an unknown value. If your data has blanks, document what they mean; see empty fields versus zero and missing values.

Before saving the copy:

• Remove identifiers, private notes and fields that are not approved for release.
• Check that the extract contains exactly the intended rows, not just a visually filtered view of the original workbook.
• Use explicit dates and units rather than relying on colors or cell formatting.
• Compare row counts and important totals with the approved source.

For an Excel workbook, also inspect hidden sheets, rows, columns, comments and document properties. Microsoft’s Document Inspector guidance recommends working on a copy and warns that removing hidden data can change formula results. Inspection is an extra check, not a substitute for reviewing the release data.

CSV is useful for a single flat table. Excel’s CSV export saves only the active sheet, and text formats remove formatting, so reopen the exported file and check its contents before sharing. See Microsoft’s export guidance. Keep XLSX when recipients need workbook features; CSV versus XLSX explains the trade-offs.

3. Create the appropriate link

For named reviewers: restricted sharing

In Google Drive on a computer:

1. Select the file and open Share.
2. Set General access to Restricted.
3. Enter the recipient’s email address.
4. Choose Viewer, Commenter or Editor according to their task.
5. Send the invitation.

Check the parent folder too: files inherit folder access, so setting General access to Restricted does not remove access inherited from a shared folder. You cannot give someone less access to a file than they have through its parent folder. Review those permissions before sharing; Google recommends a limited-access subfolder when different permissions are needed. Work or school accounts may also limit external sharing. See Google Drive Help.

For public readers: publish the reviewed dataset

TablePage accepts CSV, TSV, XLSX and XLS files and generates a public dataset page with a filterable table and charts; readers do not need to sign up. For the public-publishing workflow, see how to share CSV data online.

Upload only your reviewed public copy. Inspect the resulting page: check headers, row counts, dates, identifiers, missing values and a few known records. Do not assume the page stays synchronized with your working workbook; identify the release you are sharing.

4. Test access and send context

For a public link, open it in a signed-out or private browser window. Confirm that the intended data is readable without your account. For a restricted link, ask an intended recipient to confirm access; a signed-out access denial alone does not prove their permissions are correct.

Send more than a bare link. Include:

• What each row represents.
• The source and whether redistribution is permitted.
• The period covered and release date or version.
• Units, missing-value conventions and important limitations.

For the fictional sample, a useful message would be: “Monthly library visits by branch, September 2026. Counts are visits, not unique visitors; zero means no visits recorded. This is a fixed release, not a live feed.”

Before sending, check both sides of the task: recipients can open and understand the intended data, and the sharing copy contains no unapproved material from the working file.