Share the right data with anyone

If your work is complex and constantly changing, updating stakeholders can be a huge investment of your time. Learn to streamline—and expedite—this process in Airtable. 

When it’s time to share information with your team, you probably have two major concerns: giving them the right level of access (so you still have control over your data), and giving them the right level of visibility (so they’re informed, but not overwhelmed). 

Read on to learn how shared view links can solve both problems.

What is a shared view link? 

A shared view link is a unique URL you can generate and share. This link displays a read-only version of either a view, or of an entire base.

You can create a share link for any view in your table—grid, gallery, calendar, kanban, timeline, or gantt. As the information in your view changes—say there’s a new delivery date or updated status—the share view link reflects those changes too.

A shared gallery view can be a reference and resource, giving anyone with the link access to the same library of images to use across all platforms and content.

Share a preview of the status of everything in your pipeline with a shared grid view, so that project stakeholders can see all the latest details from a single link. 

Share your production timeline view with your social media agency, so they know what’s going to debut, and when to promote it. 

Seamless collaboration with shared view links

Regardless of whether you’re working with a teammate, an executive, an external contractor, or a client, a read-only share link helps you provide the context that matters most, without unnecessary details or accidental edits.  

With a single shared view link, you can:

1. Stay in control of how you share.

A shared view link allows you to give outside stakeholders access to your data, but only to the level that you’re comfortable with—and you can change those settings at any time. 

Share view links are inherently read-only, reducing the risk of any unwanted changes to your data. For any link, you can specify whether viewers can copy information, expand records, or sync data to other bases. For an extra layer of protection add a password, or set access to a specific email domain. 

2. Share only what’s relevant.

With a shared view link, you can customize exactly what details you want a view to show, then share it with anyone (including people outside your company) so what they see stays focused on the details they need to know.  

Customize your view by updating the options on the toolbar—hide, filter, group, color or sort the data in any view for a specific stakeholder or audience.

3. Updates automatically, so you don't have to

Your base is a living document, which means it’s subject to changes and additions. Unlike a copy of a spreadsheet, which quickly goes out of date when updates are made, a read-only share link updates as the data in your base does, all from a single link.

Take action: Create a shared view link

Now that you’re familiar with what a shared view link is, let’s walk through the steps to create one.  

First, customize the view you want to share by hiding sensitive information, or filtering to show relevant data for your audience. 

Then, generate a link for that specific view, and share it with anyone who needs it. Go to the Share view icon at the top right of your base, and select “create a shareable view link”. 

From there, you’ll be able to control how much freedom the viewer has to interact with the data, set the view behind a password, and more.