Use Zoho WorkDrive to work with people outside your organisation, such as clients and suppliers. This article explains how external links work, what external users can and can't do, and how to collaborate on documents with them.

Applies to: Zoho WorkDrive – All clients

For a step-by-step guide to creating an external link, see Share files and folders in Zoho WorkDrive with people outside your organisation.

Create an external link

To share documents or folders with people who aren't licensed WorkDrive users in your organisation, create an external link. The animation below shows how.

1. Give the link a name. The name is for your reference only. If you later audit your external shares, the name helps you decide whether each share is still needed.
2. Set the permission level:
   • View: external users can only view files and folders (and their contents).
   • Upload: external users can only upload files.
   • Edit: external users can upload files and edit Zoho Workplace files.

External users can only edit Zoho Workplace files (Writer, Sheet and Show). Other formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, must first be converted to their Zoho equivalent. Only users in your organisation can do this, not external users.

3. Choose the options you need with the toggles:
   • Set password: set a password and give it to the external users. They must enter it before they can open the shared folder.
   • Set expiration: set a date after which the link no longer gives access. Use this to share a folder for a set period only.
   • Allow downloads: turn this off to stop external users downloading files to their own computer.
   • Request user data: ask external users for their name, email address and/or phone number. This lets you see who uploaded or edited a file.

External users can't create or delete files or folders. They can edit Zoho Workplace files (if the link has Edit permission) and upload new files and folders. To add a new folder, an external user can choose New and then Folder Upload.

Collaborate on Workplace files

Only Zoho Workplace files can be edited online together. To convert a Word document, a member of your organisation opens it and clicks Open in Writer. This creates a copy of the Word document in Writer format.

External users can then open the document and edit it, if the external link has Edit permission. Track changes is turned on, so you can see who made each change.

The users who made changes are shown at the top right of the writing area. If you don't ask external users for their details (such as their name), they're shown as Guest. We recommend asking external users for their name.

Create Workplace files directly

Members of your organisation can also create Workplace files directly, so nothing needs converting. Click New and choose the application:

• Writer: create a document.
• Sheet: create a spreadsheet.
• Show: create a presentation.

When the files are finished, you can convert them to PDF or Microsoft Office format to download and share.

If an external user downloads a document, edits it offline and uploads it again, WorkDrive creates a new file. For example, if document.docx is downloaded, edited and uploaded again, WorkDrive creates a new file called document (1).docx.