Sharing to Anyone

You can use these methods to share content to anyone:

With visitor and public links, it is possible to share links to M-Files objects for people without access to M-Files. With visitor links, you can specify the people who can open the link. With public links, anyone with the link can open it.

Sharing visitor links

You can make M-Files documents temporarily available to anyone with visitor links.

If you do not see the Copy Visitor Link option in the context menu of an object, ask your M-Files admin to make sure that these operations are done:

Public links have been configured.
Note: You cannot enable visitor links without enabling public links.
M-Files Web has been set up.
The M-Files Web home page has been specified in Document Vault Properties.

To copy a visitor link in M-Files:

In the listing area, right-click an object and select Copy Visitor Link.
Result:The Copy Visitor Link dialog opens.
In the dialog, enter the email address of the link receiver and click Add.
Result:The email address is added to the list of people's addresses that can open the link.
Click Copy link.
Result:The link is copied.

You can now paste the link, for example, to emails and chats. Make a note that only the people whose email addresses are on the list can open the link.

Note: A visitor link expires after three months. Every time the list of email addresses is edited, the expiration date is set again to three months. You can see the expiration date in the Shared by Me dialog.

Sharing public links

You can make M-Files documents temporarily available to anyone with public links.

If you do not see the Share Public Link option in the context menu of an object, ask your M-Files admin to make sure that public links have been configured.

To create a public link:

In M-Files, find the object to share.
Optional: Right-click the object and select History to share a previous version of the object.
Right-click the object or the object version and select Share > Share Public Link.
Result:The Share Public Link dialog opens.
Select the target version.
Use Expiration date (local time) to select the date and time after which the public link will not be active.
Optional: In Description, enter a description.
The description is shown in the Shared by Me dialog.
Click Create Public Link.
Result:The public link is added to the Public link field.
Click Copy to copy the public link to the clipboard.
Click Close.

You can now share the public link to anyone.

Managing visitor and public links

In the Shared by Me dialog, you can manage the visitor and public links that you have shared. For example, stop sharing a link. Users with the Full control of vault or See and read all vault content administrative rights can see and manage the visitor and public links shared by all vault users.

To manage shared visitor and public links:

In M-Files Desktop, click your initials in the top-right corner and select Shared by Me.
If you have the Full control of vault or See and read all vault content rights, you can also select Shared Files (All Users).

Result:All the visitor and public links shared by you are shown in the Shared by Me dialog.

Do the necessary operations.

Link type	Option	Description
Visitor link	Copy Link	Copies a shared visitor link to the clipboard.
Visitor link	Edit	Opens the Copy visitor link dialog. Click Remove all to stop sharing the visitor link.
Public link	Copy Link	Copies a shared public link to the clipboard.
Public link	Stop Sharing	Removes a shared public link.

Click Close.

Sharing a copy by email

To share a copy of an object by email, right-click an object in the listing area and select Share > Send Copy by E-mail. As a result, an email message with a copy of the selected file attached is created.

Sharing a PDF by email

To convert and share a file in PDF format by email, right-click an object in the listing area and select Share > Send as PDF by E-mail. As a result, M-Files converts the selected file to PDF format and creates an email message with the PDF file attached. The file in M-Files stays in its original format.

For information on how to convert objects to PDF format without sending them, see Making PDFs of Existing Objects.