- Sharing a document with Microsoft 365 – choosing the right solution

OVERVIEW

Target audience: McGill staff, faculty, and students

Microsoft 365 offers a wide variety of document-sharing and collaboration options. This article can help you select the best sharing solution for your needs.

In this article:

Comparison chart of sharing solutions
Training and documentation
Best practices for data sharing and security
Additional references

NOTICE: SharePoint "Alert me" going away

The SharePoint Alert me feature will be removed from McGill’s SharePoint sometime between January and July 2026. McGill has no control over the exact moment when the feature will be removed.

IMPORTANT: If you depend on these alerts for business-critical notifications in your workflows, you must discontinue their use as soon as possible.

There are two other options available to replace this feature: SharePoint rules or Power Automate. To know if Alerts are active on a document library, refer to the first item in this article.

Comparison chart of sharing solutions

Microsoft 365 offers various document-sharing and collaboration solutions for working, teaching, and studying at McGill. This comparison chart of use cases and solutions may help you decide which sharing solution works for you.

Need	Solution	Example Use Case	User group(s)	How to
One-to-one sharing with multiple users	MS Class Teams - Assignment	As a teacher, I want to share a file one-to-one with all my students without creating a folder manually for each student and setting the permissions.	Internal and External	Create a Class Teams Create an assignment Microsoft Documentation: Create an assignment in Microsoft Teams
Collaborative notetaking tool	MS Class Teams - Class notebook	As a teacher, I want to share lesson resources, facilitate collaboration, give students their own spaces to work, and provide feedback in various ways.	Internal and External	Create a Class Teams Use Class notebook Microsoft Documentation: Use OneNote Class Notebook in Teams
Largescale file collection	MS Forms – Upload a File	As a staff employee, I need to collect files (e.g., registration forms) from all the students in my department. Files will be stored on the SharePoint site of the department and accessible to all the team.	Internal only	Create a Group Form Add a question, "Upload document" Microsoft Documentation: Add questions that allow for file uploads
Smallscale file collection	Request for files	As a staff employee for my department, I need to collect files (e.g., diplomas) from external applicants. The link for uploading the document(s) would be public.	Internal and External	Create a folder in Sharepoint where the attachments will be stored Click on Request for files Microsoft Documentation: Create a file request
Sharing or collaborating on content with anyone	SharePoint/OneDrive "Anyone Link" Set password and expiration date	As a researcher, I would like to share a file package with external users, accessible with a password.	Internal and External	Ask for activation of anyone link feature (for SharePoint Sites) Share using Anyone link Set the password and expiration date for the link Create a shareable link
Sharing or collaborating on content with specific people	SharePoint Online - Grant access to a folder	As a staff employee in department "A," I would like to share a specific folder from my department site with someone from department "B." The user from department "B” would only be able to access that specific folder and not other folders from department "A."	Internal and External	Share folder/file using a link or through direct access Learn more: Sharing in SharePoint
Sharing or collaborating on content with your Team	SharePoint Online - Add the user(s) to the SharePoint site	As a teacher, I want to share files stored on a SharePoint site with internals and designated externals.	Internal and External	Create a SharePoint site Add the user as an owner, member, or visitor to the site Learn More: Sharing in SharePoint

Training and documentation

Instructor-led training

IT Services offers instructor-led training for many Microsoft 365 applications: Index of IT training courses

Self-serve documentation

The McGill Knowledge Base has many articles about Microsoft 365 applications: Index of documentation for Microsoft 365

Best practices and security

Use caution when sharing documents and data. Do not share McGill documents and data unnecessarily. Use the most restrictive settings that still allow you to collaborate effectively. For example, avoid the "Anyone with the link can edit" setting when sharing a document unless necessary.
Never share your McGill username and password. Everyone must access a document or resource using their own McGill credentials.
Stay alert to phishing attacks. Don't download files or click on links to files you were not expecting or which come from someone you don’t know. Learn more about how to spot and avoid phishing attacks.