Care to share? Accept an invitation to share a workspace or document
Are you curious about the e-mail invitation that you received to share a workspace or document on Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta? By clicking the link in your sharing e-mail invitation, you can
collaborate with family, friends, or colleagues on documents, notes, spreadsheets, presentations, and lists. And because you are working together in an online environment, you'll always be certain that you are working on the latest version of any document.
Keep in mind that when you share documents using Office Live Workspace, your e-mail address and any changes that you make to a document can be viewed by people who have access to the workspace or document. If you are asked to share a workspace with family or friends, make sure that you avoid adding any private or malicious content. If you are sharing with business colleagues or clients, make sure that you avoid adding any content that is unprofessional or that could pose a security risk for your business.
Read on to learn how sharing can help you speed decision-making, reduce meeting time, and ease the time crunch in your fast-paced world.
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In this article
What can be shared with me?
Office Live Workspace offers extensive opportunities for sharing in both your business and personal life. You may be invited to share:
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Workspaces A workspace contains collections of documents that have a common theme. Your manager may invite you to share a workspace that contains promotional materials that you need to review before the launch of the next advertising campaign. Or your travelling partner may ask you to share a workspace that contains a trip itinerary, packing lists, and other documents that can help you plan for an upcoming vacation.
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Notes Notes are Web documents that have helpful formatting tools that you can use to record top-of-mind issues. You can comment on a shared note that contains critical meeting decisions or add details to a shared note that contains key points from a class lecture.
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Lists Lists are easy-to-use Web documents that have a familiar row and column format. Use a shared list to record the contact information for potential customers that you meet during a trade show. Or use a shared family to-do list to select the check box next to a completed chore that was assigned to you.
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Microsoft Office documents You can open Microsoft Office Excel worksheets, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations right from a workspace. Your roommate can use Office Excel to create a household budget, and then share it with you to track household expenses. Your co-worker may draft a team presentation using Office PowerPoint and share it with you to ask for feedback. Or your lab partner may share an Office Word document that contains results from your science experiment so that you can enter the latest observations into the document.
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What can I do with a shared workspace or document?
When friends or colleagues send you a sharing e-mail invitation, they control whether you can revise and comment on a workspace or document or just review and comment without making any changes. Office Live Workspace offers three sharing roles with the following permissions:
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Owner The Owner initiates a sharing session and controls who has Editor or Viewer permissions. The Owner has full access to the shared workspace or document and can decide at any time to end a sharing session.
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Editor Owners invite Editors to have read/write access to a shared workspace or document. Editors can make changes, add comments, or delete documents. Editors can also review all changes and comments from everyone who has sharing privileges.
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Viewer Owners invite Viewers to have read-only access to a workspace or document. Viewers can see all workspace content, including comments and revisions made by others who have sharing access. Viewers can add their own comments, but they cannot make any changes to the text.
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How can I get started?
Sound intriguing? To get started, just click the link in your sharing invitation.
Note Never open an e-mail message that was sent from an e-mail address that you don't recognize. And don't forward an Office Live Workspace sharing invitation to others — instead, reply to your sharing invitation and ask the sender to invite other people.
When you click the link in your sharing invitation, one of the following appears, depending on the e-mail address that is used in the sharing invitation and whether you have your own Office Live Workspace account:
- A preview page of the shared workspace or document
- A sign-in page
- A Create Your Account page
- Your Office Live Workspace
Preview a shared workspace or document
If, after clicking the link in your sharing invitation, you see the shared workspace or document described in that message, but you can't add comments or make any changes to it, the Owner has allowed you to preview the shared item without signing in. In that case, it's easy to sign in to make comments or changes. Click Sign Up in the left navigation bar of the preview page, and follow the instructions.
Sign in from a sharing invitation
If the e-mail address used in your sharing invitation is also used for other Microsoft services, you may be prompted to provide the password that is associated with that e-mail address if you are not already signed in to another Microsoft service. In the Type Your Password
box, type the password that is associated with the e-mail address, and then click Sign in. Office Live Workspace appears in your browser. You can find the shared workspace or document on the left navigation bar under Shared with Me.
Note If you are already signed in to an Office Live Workspace account using the same e-mail address that is used in the sharing invitation, when you click the link in the sharing invitation, your workspace will open.
If the e-mail address used in the sharing invitation is not already used for other Microsoft services, the Create your Account page appears. Do the following:
- Type a password that contains 6 to 16 characters, and then retype the password to confirm it.
- Type your first and last names.
Note The names you type are used as the display name that appears when you send e-mail messages from this account.
- Select the country or region where you live.
- Select a secret question, and then type your secret answer using a minimum of five characters.
Note Providing a secret question and answer is a protective measure to prevent other users from accessing your account or changing your password without your permission. Office Live Workspace uses your secret answer to verify your identity if you forget your password.
- Type the eight numbers and letters that you see in the Picture box. This requirement helps Office Live Workspace confirm that a person and not an automated program is trying to sign up for an account. It prevents automated programs from misusing the service by sending spam or fraudulent e-mail messages.
Note The characters that you type do not have to match the case of the characters shown in the Picture box.
That is, if the picture shows a capital B, you can type a lowercase b.
- Click Finish.
Note If the sharing invitation was sent to an e-mail address from a reserved domain (such as verizon.net or orange.fr), you may be prompted to sign in using a different e-mail address. You can reply to the sharing invitation and ask the sender to create a new sharing invitation using another e-mail address that you own. Or, if you prefer, you can create a free Web e-mail account and then ask the sender to use that new e-mail address in your sharing invitation.
Verify your e-mail address
When you complete the sign-in process, you may receive a verification e-mail message at the e-mail address that you used to sign in to Office Live Workspace. This e-mail verification process ensures that you are the owner of the e-mail address that you provided. E-mail verification protects you and other users from fraudulent e-mail. Follow these steps to verify your e-mail address:
- Check your e-mail Inbox for an e-mail message from Office Live Workspace.
Note If the e-mail message does not appear in your Inbox, look in your Junk Mail folder. The message may have been mistakenly delivered to the Junk Mail folder instead of the Inbox. If you cannot find the verification e-mail message, you can request another one. To do this, go to Office Live Workspace, and sign in using your e-mail address and password. On the Check your E-mail Inbox page, click request a new verification e-mail message.
- Open the e-mail message, and click the
link in the first paragraph to confirm your e-mail address.
- After you click this link, you are asked to sign in to Office Live Workspace again.
- Office Live Workspace opens in your browser. The shared workspace or document is located on the left navigation bar under Shared with Me.
To learn more about the e-mail address verification process, see Troubleshoot e-mail verification for Office Live Workspace. For an overview of the sharing feature, see Share workspaces and documents using Office Live Workspace.
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Troubleshoot
I clicked a link in a sharing e-mail message. Why was I unable to access the shared document?
If you have problems accessing a shared item from a sharing invitation, try one of the following:
- Check your e-mail address. Make sure that the e-mail address you used to sign in to Office Live Workspace matches the e-mail address that your sharing invitation was sent to.
- Sign out of any Microsoft Web site that uses an e-mail address that is different from the one that you use for Office Live Workspace. If you signed in
to another Microsoft Web site using a different e-mail address, you may have selected Sign me in automatically. As a result, you may be signed in to Office Live Workspace with the e-mail address used for another Microsoft Web site.
Why can't I make changes to my shared workspace or document?
When you first view a shared workspace or document, two issues may prevent you from making any changes:
- You have Preview access The Owner of the shared item may have allowed you to preview the shared item before signing in to Office Live Workspace. To start working on the shared item, click Sign in
in the
upper-right corner.
- You have Viewer access The Owner may have assigned you Viewer permissions, in which case you'll be able to comment on the shared item.
However, you won't be able to make changes unless the Owner changes your permissions role to that of an Editor.
How can I get my own workspace?
When you accept an invitation to share a workspace or document, if you do not already have an Office Live Workspace account, you sign in as a guest to work on the shared item. You do not have access to other features that are available in Office Live Workspace.
To gain full access, you must sign up for your own workspace by clicking Create a workspace on the left navigation bar.
For information about the sign-up process, see
Sign up for Office Live Workspace.
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Sign in
