Office 365 offers a variety of collaboration solutions for documents and files stored on OneDrive and SharePoint. Sometimes you may want to invite someone to sign in and edit a shared file, while other times you may just want to provide a link to a view-only version of a document.

The latter option is handy when you’re sending the doc to others who don’t have Microsoft accounts. You can still keep your doc stored on OneDrive or SharePoint, so you can keep it current and updated, which is a big benefit over simply emailing a file.

In order to generate a sharing link from OneDrive for Business or Sharepoint:

1. Select the file you want to share.
2. Click the … link and select Share, or click the share icon in the top bar.
3. In the window that appears, select Get a link.
4. Under View Only, click CREATE LINK.

Some things to keep in mind when using this sharing method:

• Anyone with the link can view the file, and may choose to print or copy from it, but will not be able to save the file.
• You won’t be able to limit who can view the file; the link may be shared or forwarded.
• The link will be valid as long as the file exists, so you can update the file and the link will lead to the updated version.