So a new feature in Mac OS High Sierra is the ability to share a file that you have
on iCloud Drive with other people.
Before you just share between your own devices but now you can actually select a file and
say I want other people to be able to access it.
Let's look at an example.
I'll go into iCloud Drive and I will select a file that's deep down in the folder structure
here.
Let's start with a regular text file.
I'll click on the Share button and I can see the normal options like Mail, AirDrop, Messages,
etc.
I'll see something called Add People.
So it's not obvious at first that this is the function you want to use but Add People
is basically sharing.
So under Share Options I can choose Only people I invite.
So I can invite people specifically using their Apple ID.
Or Anyone with the Link.
So let's do Anyone with the Link and I can select whether I want them to make changes
or can just view.
I'm also going to, instead of sending an email, I'm going to go to Copy Link.
I can paste that link into an email or a message or whatever I want.
I'll hit Share.
You can see now it says Shared by Me.
As a matter of fact with it selected I can click Share and it says Show People instead
of Add People and I can go in and you can see I have a way to send the link again and
I can also Copy Link or Stop Sharing.
So let's go and take a look now that we've copied that to the buffer.
I can go into Safari and see what it looks like when somebody pastes a link.
I'll paste that in and you can see it's an iCloud Drive link and just a whole bunch of
random characters that identify that file and I'll hit Return and the result will be
a link that shows this file here.
You can see it's a text file.
I can Download a Copy of it or I can Add it to My iCloud Drive if this was another account.
If I hit Download a Copy I'm going to get a copy of that file.
Of course if I Add to iCloud Drive then I would be able to go in and see it but instead
of saying Shared By Me it'll say Shared By Gary and then I'll be able to edit it as well.
So as an example here I've used my main account and I've shared something with this demo account
and I've done it by Messages.
So I had to type in the Apple ID for this Messages account.
You can see I've got a message coming in here and there it is.
It is a link, click on it, open it up, and I can see I've got this file now and it's
actually the text file.
I can add something to it and Save.
If I look at iCloud Drive now I can see there, at the top level of iCloud Drive, I've got
this file here.
This is the one that I accepted sharing on and I can access it anytime I want.
Now I can go in and access this file.
I can edit it and so can the other user.
So we're sharing this file between us.
So this is a really handy function.
It could just be used, you could just if you wanted to make some sort of PDF available
to people, you know, and post it online.
Like say you have a Facebook group and you decide that this PDF here is something everybody
needs to get.
You can just go and Add People, you can Copy a Link, you can say I want View Only and Anyone
with a Link.
You hit Share and then go to Facebook and paste that link into a post and now everybody
can go and download that PDF directly from your iCloud Drive account.