Sharing Folders
You can use SmartVault to securely share folders that contain documents with other users. You can securely share folders with both users inside your company, such as employees, as well as with users outside of your company, such as clients.
When you share folders, you specify exactly who you want to have access to the folder. Only the people that you specify can see the folder and any documents stored in the folder.
Note: Your SmartVault user ID must be a member of the SmartVault Administrators group or a member of the Vault Managers group for the vault that contains the documents you want to share before you can share folders. If you opened the SmartVault account, by default you are a SmartVault Administrator and you can share vaults and folders. If you did not open the SmartVault account but you want to be able to share folders, ask the person who opened the account or another SmartVault Administrator in the account to make you a SmartVault Administrator or Vault Manager. For more information about how to make other users SmartVault Administrators, see
“Adding Users to the SmartVault Administrators Group” . For more information about how to make other users Vault Managers, see
“Sharing Vaults Using the Manage Group Members Option” .
SmartVault provides the following access permissions for you to use when you share a folder:
Full Access
Allows users to view the folder, view all the documents in the folder, download any document in the folder, edit the contents of, or modify the properties of, any document in the folder, upload documents into the folder, and delete the folder or any document stored in the folder.
Read
Allows users to view the folder, view all the documents in the folder, and download any document in the folder.
Note: The user does not necessarily have rights to see all of the subfolders in the folder. To see a subfolder, the user must also have Read rights for the subfolder.
– The user can view all the documents in the folder and view document properties, such as document creation date.
– The user can email someone a link to any document in the folder.
– The user can download any document in the folder.
Write
Allows users to edit the contents of, or modify the properties of, any document in the folder.
– The user can open a document using the SmartVault Drive (or a mapped drive from a Mac, iPad, or smart phone), make changes to the document, and save it back to the folder.
– The user can rename the folder.
– The user can change the name or description of any document in the folder.
Create
Allows users to upload documents into the folder.
– The user can upload a new document to the folder.
– The user can create a new folder (subfolder) inside the current folder.
Delete
Allows users to delete the folder or any document stored in the folder.
Note: Guests and clients cannot delete folders even if you give them Delete permissions.
– The user can delete any or all documents in the folder.
– The user can delete the folder itself, as long as the user also has Delete permissions on all the subfolders in the folder hierarchy.
If you create subfolders under the parent folder after you share the parent folder, the permissions that you specified for the parent folder are copied and flow down onto each new subfolder you create under the parent folder. However, the permissions that you specified when you shared the parent folder are not copied and do not automatically flow down to all of the subfolders under the parent folder that already exist under the parent folder.
This means that users can see any subfolders you create under the parent folder after you share the parent folder. However, users cannot see any subfolders under the parent folder that you created before you shared the folder.
For example, assume you are Carol Jones. You have a client, Larry’s Landscaping, and you have created a vault in SmartVault for Larry’s Landscaping. The following image shows the structure of your Client - Larry’s Landscaping vault in your SmartVault account.
Now assume that you want to share the 2010 Taxes folder in the Client - Larry’s Landscaping vault with Larry. This folder already has a document in it called Client Instructions.pdf, and this folder contains two subfolders, Working Papers and Client Organizer. The previous image shows the structure of the 2010 Taxes folder, including the subfolder structure.
After you share the 2010 Taxes folder with Larry, when Larry signs in to SmartVault, he sees the following items in the Files and Folders view.
Larry sees only the Client Instructions.pdf in the 2010 Taxes folder. Larry does not see the Working Papers and Client Organizer subfolders in his view. This is because when you shared the 2010 Taxes folder using SmartVault by clicking on the Share & Manage access link, you shared only the 2010 Taxes folder. When you share a folder by clicking on the Share & Manage Access link, only the selected folder is shared. Any additional subfolders that may exist underneath the folder are not shared.
Now assume that you create another folder, Completed Return, in the 2010 Taxes folder, and you place Larry’s completed return into this folder. The next time Larry signs in to SmartVault, he sees the following items:
Note that Larry can see the Completed Return folder even though Carol did not manually select and share this folder. This is because when SmartVault creates a subfolder underneath a shared parent folder, SmartVault copies the permissions on the parent folder and uses these same permissions for any subfolders created under the parent folder. However, note that Larry is still unable to see the Working Papers and Client Organizer subfolders in the 2010 Taxes parent folder. This is because you created these subfolders before you shared the 2010 Taxes parent folder with Larry.
Now assume that you want to go back and share the Client Organizer folder with Larry. After you share the Client Organizer folder with Larry, the next time Larry signs in to SmartVault, he sees the following items:
Note that Larry is still unable to see the Working Papers folder, because this subfolder was created before you shared the 2010 Taxes folder with Larry, and you did not go back and share this subfolder with Larry. However, Larry can now see the Client Organizer subfolder because you went back and shared this subfolder with him.
To share a folder:
2. In the Advanced view, in the left tree pane, expand the vault that contains the folder you want to share, and then select the folder you want to share.
For more information about the
Advanced view, see
“Understanding Sharing and SmartVault Views” .
3. In the right task pane, click Share & Manage Access.
SmartVault displays a list of current users who have been given access to the folder using the Share & Manage Access option. For example, since SmartVault Administrators automatically have access to every folder in an account, the name of every user in the SmartVault Administrators group will display in the list. If a user is a member of the Vault Managers group for the vault that contains the folder, the name of each user who is a member of the Vault Managers group will also display in the list.
4. Click Add User.
5. If you want to share the folder with an existing user in the account, in the Email Address field, select the name of the user from the drop-down list.
6. If you want to share the folder with a user who is not yet a member of the account, in the License field, select a license type for the user, in the Email Address field, type the email address for the user, and then type the user’s first name and last name in the appropriate field.
Note: For more information about license types, place your cursor over the name of the license type and review the tool tip for the license type or see
“Understanding SmartVault Licensing” .
7. Specify whether or not you want SmartVault to automatically send the user a sharing notification email by completing the following steps:
a. If you want SmartVault to automatically send the user a sharing email notification, select the Send email notification to user check box.
b. If you do not want SmartVault to automatically send the user a sharing email notification, clear the Send email notification to user check box.
8. In the Personal Message field, specify an optional personal message.
9. Under Access and Notification Settings, specify access and notification settings as appropriate.
10. Click Add.
11. If you want the access and notification settings you specified for the user to apply only to the selected folder, under Apply changes to, verify that This folder only is selected and then click Save Settings.
12. If you want the access and notification settings you specified for the user added not only the selected folder, but also to every folder and subfolder in the vault, under Apply changes to select This folder and all subfolders, and then click Save Settings.
13. If you want the access and notifications settings specified for the folder to replace the access and notification settings specified for every folder and subfolder in the vault, under Apply changes to, select This folder and make all subfolder access settings exactly like these, and then click Save Settings.
