Sharing SharePoint Documents via Outlook

Introduction

I want to describe the latest sharing capabilities that are available in SharePoint/OneDrive and Outlook. What you will read about is not new, but since many people are not aware of the latest improvements, it will benefit them nonetheless.

Latest External Sharing Experience

I am sure many of you had a painful experience trying to invite external partners to work on your SharePoint or OneDrive documents. This is how you had to do it in the past:

• Share a document or a site with external users.
• Get a hyperlink to your documents.
• Send a hyperlink to the external users with instructions on how to open it.

This approach is still valid, but it got noticeably user-friendlier. What I mean is that now you can do the following:

• Copy link

• Paste it to the Email via Outlook.
• Assign permissions to the users via Outlook by clicking on the link > Manage access:

?? Note how you can also select "Attach as a copy"? This is a great time saver. It means you won't have to download the documents manually from your OneDrive or SharePoint before sending them, It can now be done in a few clicks from Outlook

• Select Recipients of this message:

• And that's it! You can now send your email and be sure all recipients will get to the documents you want to share.

Conclusion

So, next time you want to share a document with your colleagues or partners, take a link from SharePoint or OneDrive and paste it into a new email message. Outlook will guide you through the additional sharing steps if needed.?No need to overthink it any longer.