You can share Microsoft Office documents online with an anonymous link. This feature can be helpful if you want to share your document on a social media page or send it by email. Here are the instructions on how you can create a guest link and give those who will open it only viewing permissions.
To share your document by anonymous link you should be the owner of the site or have full control permissions. Also the ability to share the link with external users must be switched on in either the Office 365 Service Settings or in the SharePoint Online admin center. It depends on what plan you have chosen.
The first thing to do is to click at the app launcher and select Sites.
Select the three dots (…) that are close to the document you want to open and then select “Share” in the pop-up window.
In the dialog box that has opened choose “Get a link” and then “Create a link”. Set up the permissions: view only or edit.
Voila! The guest link is ready. Copy it and paste wherever you need.
Remember the next tips when you share your Office 365 documents with the outsiders.\
- The link you have created can be viewed and used by your colleagues if the document is in a team site library.
- If Information Rights Management is applied to the library where the document is located then you won’t be able to share the link.
- If you set up editing option when you share an anonymous link be sure that you do not have any extremely important content in the file because it can be deleted by the outsiders.
Remember to always keep the reserve copies of your Office 365 files and documents especially when you share them with people out of your organization. Make sure that you regularly backup Office 365 to enhance your data safety.