Share files in SharePoint in review mode only

In case you haven’t seen, there’s a new feature when you share a document from SharePoint Online: Open in review mode only. In this blog post, we’re going to have a look at how it works, and what’s the experience from a reviewer perspective.
 

How does it work?

When you’re about to share a document, you’ll see the option in the popup. You must have allow editing checked, or the option will be greyed out.

You also need to choose People in <tenant_name> with the link, or specific people selected.

In this demo, I’ll share a document called “ReviewModeDoc.docx” with a (fake) user called John Smith.
 

Any difference(s) when sharing?

There’s a subtle visual difference when sharing this way. If you look at the access for that specific document, we can see:

• People you specify can edit
• People you specify can edit (WITH A REVIEWER ICON)

Reviewer perspective

When opening the email containing the link, we’re automatically greeted by a popup which says the document has been shared with John Smith for reviewing.

By clicking on OK, we can View or Review the file but not edit it.

That’s a pretty neat addition when you don’t want to change a lot of permissions just for reviewing a file!
 

Thanks for reading!