How to Share a SharePoint File with Everyone (and When You Shouldn’t)
Some files are genuinely meant for everyone in the organisation — policies, handbooks, all-staff announcements. Sharing them broadly is the right call. The trick is doing it deliberately.
What it is
‘Share with everyone’ typically means sharing with everyone in your Microsoft 365 tenant — your whole organisation — not the entire internet. This is the right approach for content that’s genuinely organisation-wide: HR policies, the staff handbook, the IT support guide, the latest all-hands deck.
The mechanism is the ‘People in your organisation’ link type. Anyone in your tenant who has the link can access the file (within whatever permissions you’ve granted). It’s not externally exposed, but it is broadly available — which means it should be content you’d be comfortable seeing on a noticeboard in the canteen.
Don’t confuse this with ‘Anyone with the link’, which means anyone on the internet, including people outside your organisation. Those two link types look similar in the UI but have completely different security implications.
When to use this
- Publishing organisation-wide policies, handbooks, or guides.
- Sharing all-hands meeting recordings or decks.
- Distributing newsletters or announcements that everyone should see.
- Building intranet pages that link to broadly-available resources.
How to do it
- Make sure the content is genuinely appropriate for everyone — no PII, no confidential information.
- Store the file in an appropriate location (often the corporate intranet site).
- Click Share.
- Open Link settings.
- Choose People in your organisation.
- Set permission to Can view.
- Copy the link and share it via your normal communication channels.
Best practices
- Use view-only for organisation-wide content. Edit access at this scale is asking for trouble.
- Store organisation-wide content in dedicated sites. An ‘Everyone’ or ‘Intranet’ site keeps these files separate from team work.
- Review broadly-shared content periodically. Old policies become misinformation if not actively maintained.
- Be deliberate. ‘People in your organisation’ is the correct setting — but don’t pick it by accident.
Common mistakes
- Confusing ‘Everyone’ with ‘Anyone’. Everyone is internal. Anyone is the whole internet. Pick carefully.
- Sharing confidential content broadly because ‘everyone needs to see it’. Most of the time, ‘everyone’ means the team, not the organisation.
- Granting edit access organisation-wide. Some employee, somewhere, will accidentally delete the entire document.
The Sharing Handbook gives you the Traffic Light System for every SharePoint sharing decision. Real screenshots of the Link Settings dialog, end-user focused, no admin access required.
Get the Sharing Handbook — $27 →FAQ
What does ‘Everyone’ mean in SharePoint sharing?
In Microsoft 365, ‘Everyone’ typically means everyone in your tenant — every signed-in employee. ‘Everyone except external users’ is the same but excludes guest accounts. Both are powerful and dangerous — easy to grant, hard to take back. Use them only for genuinely organisation-wide content (e.g. company policies, the staff handbook).
What’s the difference between ‘Everyone’ and ‘Anyone with the link’ in SharePoint?
Everyone means everyone in your organisation (authenticated users). Anyone with the link means literally anyone who has the URL, including people outside the organisation, without authentication. ‘Anyone with the link’ is the broadest, riskiest option — never use it for sensitive content.
When is it safe to share with Everyone in SharePoint?
When the content is genuinely organisation-wide and not sensitive: published company policies, the staff handbook, communal templates, internal newsletters. The test: would you be comfortable if a screenshot appeared in the company kitchen? If yes, ‘Everyone’ is fine. If no, scope down.
How do I find SharePoint files shared with Everyone?
SharePoint admins can run a report via the SharePoint admin center or Microsoft Graph API showing ‘Anyone’ links and broad organisation shares. For a quick personal audit, check each file’s Manage Access pane. If you’re a site owner, the access requests pane shows broad shares within your sites. Build a quarterly review into your governance routine.