Roles and Permissions

Understand the roles and privileges that you can configure in Rows.

There are several ways to give others access to your spreadsheets. Users get different permissions depending on the type of access you give them.

Here’s a summary of the access methods and the permissions that are granted.

ACCESS METHOD	USER PERMISSIONS
Workspace invite	Edit any spreadsheet in the workspace that you’ve invited them to.
Spreadsheet invite	Edit only the specific spreadsheet that you’ve invited them to.
Private link	Open the Live View of the linked spreadsheet.
Community link	Open the Live View of the linked spreadsheet and duplicate it to another workspace.

Permissions

For a more complete picture, here’s a more detailed comparison of all the permissions that are granted across the different access methods.

PERMISSIONS	WORKSPACE INVITE	SPREADSHEET INVITE	PRIVATE LINK	COMMUNITY LINK
View all sheets in a Workspace	✅	❌	❌	❌
View all sheets in a Workspace	✅	❌	❌	❌
Edit all sheets in a Workspace	✅	❌	❌	❌
View specific sheets in a Workspace	✅	✅	✅	✅
Edit specific sheets in a Workspace	✅	✅	❌	❌
Duplicate a spreadsheet	✅	✅	❌	✅
Administer a Workspace	✅	❌	❌	❌
Access a sheet without being logged in	➖	➖	✅	✅

Roles

Users can also be invited to collaborate on workspaces and spreadsheets. When you invite new users, you can assign them with explicit roles that determine their user permissions.

The following table describes all the roles that are available in Rows—some of these are named roles that you can explicitly assign, and others are implied based on how a user accesses a spreadsheet:

ROLE	DESCRIPTION
Workspace Owner	The user who originally created the workspace. They have the same permissions as a Workspace Admin. Workspace Owners have the following permissions: Edit all workspace settings. Add new members and change the roles of existing members. Edit all folders and spreadsheets in the workspace. They cannot change their own role or transfer ownership to another user.
Workspace Admin	A Rows user who has been invited to administer the workspace by the workspace owner. Workspace Admins have the following permissions: Edit all workspace settings. Add new members and change the roles of existing members. Edit all folders and spreadsheets in the workspace. Change the permissions for all folders and spreadsheets in the workspace. Change their own role give and give other users the Admin role.
Workspace Editor	A Rows user who has been invited to collaborate on all spreadsheets in a workspace. Workspace Editors have the following permissions: Edit all folders and spreadsheets in the workspace. Change the spreadsheet permissions for other Editors and Live Users Invite new Editors or Live Users to the workspace. Invite Guest Users to collaborate on specific spreadsheets. Editors cannot access workspace settings or update the permissions for Admins and Owners.
Workspace Live User	A Rows user who has been invited to a workspace with limited permissions and can only access to spreadsheets in live mode. Workspace Live Users have the following permissions: Browse all spreadsheets in the workspace and open them in live mode. View a list of workspace members. They cannot edit spreadsheets or duplicate them (unless they are community spreadsheets).
Guest Editor	A Rows user who has been invited to collaborate on a specific spreadsheet. Guest Editors have the following permissions: Edit spreadsheets that they've been invited to. Open the live view of spreadsheets that they been invited to. See the workspace that the spreadsheet belongs to.
Guest Live User	Any Rows user who has been invited to open a specific spreadsheet in live mode. Guest Live Users have the following permissions: Open spreadsheets that they been invited to in live mode. See the workspace that the spreadsheet belongs to.
Anonymous User	Anyone who opens a spreadsheet without logging into Rows. Anonymous Users can only open spreadsheets in live mode. Anonymous Users have the following permissions: Open the live view of spreadsheets that have been shared with them through a private link or are listed on the Community page. See the workspace that the spreadsheet belongs to. Unlike logged-in users, Anonymous Users cannot duplicate community spreadsheets.

Roles and Permissions

Permissions

Roles

Further reading