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Inviting Collaborators

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A collaborator is someone you invite into a file or folder. When you add someone as a collaborator to a file or folder, the item appears in their All Files page.

If you send a collaboration invitation to a person without a Box account, Box prompts that person to sign up with Box before being able to access the content.  If you send a collaboration invitation to someone outside of your enterprise's domain, Box displays both an alert and a visual indicator.  This bolsters data security by helping ensure you don't unintentionally share content with someone outside of your organization.

 

Note

When someone within your enterprise’s domain receives an invitation to collaborate in a folder but doesn't yet have a Box account, Box provisions an account and that collaborator automatically becomes a managed user under your enterprise instance.

When someone with your enterprise’s domain receives an invitation to collaborate in a file:

  • If they are currently an unmanaged user, they will remain so.
  • If they are not currently an unmanaged user, an account will be provisioned and that user will automatically become a managed user under your enterprise instance.

 

Admins can identify all accounts created this way through the Admin Console reporting section:

  • Do not select any groups so the report captures all users.
  • Under User Activity, select Created new user.
  • The column shows when the account was created by “Invited collaborator”.

 

Inviting a collaborator

With simplified sharing, it takes just moments to invite people to collaborate.

 To invite someone to collaborate in a file or folder:

  1. Open the Share window. To do this, in your Box files view, hover over the row of the file or folder you wish to share.
  2. On the right, click Share.

    Share_button_highlighted.png
  3. The Share window opens.
    InviteCollabHighlighted.png
  4. In the Share window, under Invite People, click Add names or email addresses.
  5. Type a collaborator's name or email address.
    • As you type, Box anticipates your intended recipient and lists corresponding email addresses.  You can select the recipient you want, or continue typing the full email address.
    • When typing full email addresses, separate recipients by a horizontal space.
  6. Click the Invite as drop-down menu. Box displays a list of roles.
  7. Click the role you wish to assign to the collaborator.
  8. (Optional) In the Message field, type a message of up to 750 characters for the collaborator.
  9. Click Send.

 

Security indicators

If you invite someone outside of your organization to collaborate, Box adds a small image of a globe to external invitee's avatar image or initials.  At the bottom of the Share window, Box also displays a text reminder that you are sharing this folder's contents externally.

 

More on Box's security indicators.

After you invite collaborators to a file, the Collaborator badge (Collaborator_badge_small.png) displays adjacent to the file name.

Collaborator_badge.png

 

Notes

  • When inviting collaborators to a single file, the only available access level is Editor. You can change this access level to Viewer from the Manage Collaborators page. These are the only access levels available for collaborators on a single file.
  • All collaboration settings configured by enterprise admins apply to both single files and folders.
  • The Message field does not permit URLs.
  • The Message field does not permit email addresses.
  • The Message field is limited to 750 characters.
  • The Invite People field provides suggested names for up to 50 groups.

 

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