ShareLane help

1. Install and open ShareLane

1. Install ShareLane in your Google account.
2. Google shows the permissions ShareLane needs. If they come with checkboxes, tick every one. If one is left unticked, ShareLane cannot make or share the copies. Why each one is needed is under Permissions.
3. Open a spreadsheet and choose Extensions → ShareLane → Open ShareLane. The ShareLane panel opens on the right, with two tabs: Shares and Plan.

Make sure row 1 of the tab is the header row, the column names. ShareLane always treats row 1 as the header and copies it to everyone.

2. Set up a share

1. Press + New share and choose the Tab to share. The hint under it lists the column names ShareLane found in row 1.
2. Choose how it splits: Each person gets only their rows, or Everyone gets the whole tab (one shared copy). Both are explained below.
3. Choose the columns, the access and the Name of this share, and optionally a note for Google’s sharing email.
4. Press Preview to see who gets how many rows, which columns and any warnings. Preview creates and shares nothing.
5. Press Save, then Update now on the share. Before the first sharing, ShareLane asks once more, because Google Drive emails each person a link.

The setup is saved in the spreadsheet itself. Two editors of one spreadsheet can each set up their own shares; each share is updated from its owner’s account, and others see “Set up by … — only they can update or change it.”

3. By rows: each person gets only their rows

Every person gets a separate spreadsheet with the header and only the rows that belong to them. Who gets each row — column is the column that says whose row it is:

• It holds email addresses. Each cell holds the person’s email address. A cell with two or more addresses, separated by commas, semicolons or spaces, gives the row to each of them. Rows with an empty cell go to nobody. Rows whose cell is not an email address go to nobody and are counted in a warning.
• It holds names — I’ll match them to emails (Pro). For a column of names: employee, store, student. Type one line per person, Name, email. A name may have several addresses: Store 12, manager@example.com, owner@example.com. List the names adds every name found in the column, so you only type the addresses. Names match without regard to upper or lower case or extra spaces. Rows whose name is not in the table go to nobody, and the share warns you with the first few such names. The table holds up to 150 names.

Each copy is called after the share and the person, such as “Payroll — ann@example.com”, or “Payroll — Ann Lee” when names are matched.

4. Whole tab: one shared copy

Everyone gets the whole tab makes one copy of the tab, called “<share> — shared copy”, and shares it with every address in Share with, separated by commas or new lines. Everyone sees the same copy, so they may see who else it is shared with. Use By rows when people must not see each other.

5. Columns, access and the note

• Columns. Every column, or with Pro Only these columns: tick the ones people may see. Columns keep their order from your sheet. Leave out the pay of others, internal notes, cost prices, anything private. If you later rename or delete a ticked column, ShareLane leaves it out and says so.
• People. Can view, or with Pro Can comment. Nobody gets edit access.
• Turn off download, print and copy for them. On by default. People can still read the copy on screen.
• Note in Google’s sharing email (optional, up to 500 characters). Google Drive adds it to the email it sends when someone gets access to a copy for the first time. Without a note, ShareLane writes: “<you> shared your rows of “<share>” with you. It is view-only and is kept up to date from their spreadsheet.”
• Name of this share. Also the start of each copy’s file name. All copies of a spreadsheet live in your Drive folder “ShareLane — <spreadsheet name>”; the Plan tab links to it.

6. What people receive

• An email from Google Drive that you shared a spreadsheet with them, only the first time they get access to that copy.
• Their copy. Row 1 says “Shared from <you> with ShareLane — updated <date and time>. Edits here are not sent back.” Row 2 is the header, bold and frozen, then their rows. Values arrive with your number formats, such as dates and currency, and your column widths; formulas arrive as their results.
• They need a Google account to open it, like any shared Google file. They do not need ShareLane.

Colours, notes, filters and formulas are not copied, only values and their formats. Hiding a row or filtering it out does not leave it out: a hidden row that belongs to someone is still copied to them. To keep a row from someone, change or clear its cell in the key column.

ShareLane — Share Rows of a SheetGive each person a view-only copy with only their rows or one tab

See pricing

7. How updates work

Update now creates missing copies, rewrites the ones whose rows changed, gives access to new people and removes access from people who are no longer in the sheet. With Pro, Update automatically does it for you: Every hour, or Every day at an hour, from your account, also while the spreadsheet is closed.

• A copy is rewritten only when its rows (values or formats), the chosen columns or the tab name changed. Unchanged copies are not touched.
• A row you delete disappears from the copy at the next update.
• Someone whose email no longer appears in the sheet, or who was taken off the Share with list, loses access at the next update. Their file stays in your Drive; if they come back, ShareLane uses the same file again.
• If you delete a copy from your Drive, the next update makes a new one and shares it again.
• If you edit a share that is already in use, Save applies the change to the copies right away: a column you untick disappears from every copy.
• Saving a new schedule never runs it at once. The first automatic update comes at the next hour, or at the hour you chose.
• ShareLane reads up to 10,000 rows of a tab per update.
• One update runs for about 4½ minutes at most. A big share that needs longer is finished in parts, “Updated 40 of 100 people — the rest continue at the next update.” Press Continue, or let the next automatic update finish it.
• With more people than your plan allows (3 free, 100 with Pro), the people who already have access come first. The rest are listed in a warning and are not shared with. Access is never taken away because of the limit.

8. The list of shares

Each share shows its tab, how it splits, the access, the update schedule (“Updates every hour · next …”, “Updated by hand”, “Stopped — nobody has access”), the last update and its result, warnings and errors.

• People (N with access): everyone the share reached, as Can view, Can comment, No access (removed, or not shared yet) or Error with the reason, and Open to open that person’s copy yourself.
• Update now. It reads Continue when the last update ran out of time, and Share again after Stop sharing.
• Edit opens the share editor.
• Stop sharing removes everyone’s access at once and stops automatic updates. The copies stay in your Drive.
• Delete works once nobody has access. It removes the share from the list; the copies stay in your Drive folder.

9. The log tab (Pro)

On the Plan tab, tick Keep a log of every update and every access change in a “ShareLane log” tab. Each update adds a line, and so does each access change: shared, access changed, access removed, or failed with the reason. The tab keeps about the last 1,000 lines. The same tab sets the time zone for Every day at and for the “updated” time in the copies; by default it is the spreadsheet’s own.

10. Free and Pro

• Free: one share per spreadsheet, up to 3 people, by rows (an email column) or the whole tab, every column, view access, download, print and copy off, the note, Preview and Update now by hand.
• Pro: $4.99 a month or $39 a year, for automatic updates every hour or every day, up to 20 shares per spreadsheet and 100 people per share, choosing the columns, matching names to emails, comment access, and the log tab.

Pro is bought from the panel’s Plan tab, with Paddle as our Merchant of Record. The checkout is filled in with your Google account email, and after you pay, Pro switches on by itself in the open panel, usually within a minute. Paid with a different email? Open Already paid? Activate and enter the email you used at checkout. One subscription is for one Google account, in every spreadsheet.

Cancel any time from the link in your Paddle receipt, or by emailing info@bilingoplus.com. Pro then runs to the end of the period you paid for. Every charge has a 14-day refund (see refunds). If Pro ends, automatic updates stop and your shares keep their settings. A share that uses Pro features (chosen columns, names, comment access, more than 3 people on a whole tab, or a second share) is then not updated at all, rather than in a weaker form, so hidden columns can never reach anyone. Renew, or edit the share down to free features.

11. Permissions

When you install ShareLane, Google may list each permission with a checkbox. Tick all of them. If one is left unticked, ShareLane says in its panel that permissions are missing: press Give the missing permissions, tick every box on Google’s screen, then close the panel and open ShareLane again.

Why “all your spreadsheets”? ShareLane writes into the copies it made, which are other spreadsheets, and automatic updates (Pro) run from a timer while everything is closed. Google’s narrower “this spreadsheet only” permission allows neither. Google does not narrow the spreadsheets permission further; ShareLane’s own code does: it opens the spreadsheet you set it up in and its own copies, and no other spreadsheet.

ShareLane has no full Google Drive™ permission and no Gmail™ permission: Google Drive itself sends the “shared with you” emails. None of its permissions is a “restricted” Google permission.

12. Troubleshooting

13. Your data

ShareLane runs inside your Google account. Your rows go only into the copies in your own Drive, shared with the people you chose; nothing from your spreadsheets is sent to BiLingoPlus. The setup is saved inside the spreadsheet, and a small record for your account (which copy belongs to whom, the Pro status) in your Google account. Erase my data, at the bottom of the panel, deletes that record and stops automatic updates from your account. People keep their access and the copies stay in your Drive, so press Stop sharing first if you want access removed. If you update a share again later, ShareLane finds its existing copies instead of making new ones. Details are in the privacy policy.

14. Still stuck?

Write to info@bilingoplus.com or use the support page. Tell us the message you see in the panel or in the ShareLane log tab. Please do not send us your spreadsheet with private details in it.

ShareLane — Share Rows of a SheetGive each person a view-only copy with only their rows or one tab

See pricing