I'm new to Office Live & have been using Google Docs.  I prefer Office Live & am moving docs to my new workspace.  My collaborators know the documents are being moved.  Do I have to send an invitation each time I share a document?  Google Docs gave me the option to share without sending an invitation for every document I added. 

Glad to hear you're moving over!

You do not need to send an invitation each time you share a document. In fact, Office Live Workspace makes it easier to share a lot of documents together with the same people. Simply click the "New Workspace" button on the left hand side (below "My Workspaces"), click Share to share that workspace (and all of its contents, you only have to do the sharing once!), and then upload all your documents to that workspace (using the new Multiple File Upload Tool if you want to).

 The people you share with will receive one invitation to that workspace, and they will have access to everything you put in there.

Hope that helps,

Ned

But is there a URL I can post so members can simply go to the workspace or does an invitation have to be sent to each and every person?

Each workspace has it's unique URL, go to your workspace, copy URL that appears in your browser (including this unreadable hash) - it is URL to your workspace.

By default only users who have permissions to view and/or edit this workspace will have ability to work there. So you'll have to add every user to list of sharees and this action will trigger email to them. In email we send URL for the workspace you see in your browser, users just have to sign in with their Windows Live ID that matches their email addresses. So you can share workspace and give URL to your user immediately through IM for example or by posting it somewhere else. 

Another option would be to check "Let everyone view this without signing in" in Sharing view and just post URL. Everyone will be able to see your documents so you may publish URL somewhere and do not worry about individual invitations. Your users will be able to see your items but they will not be able to do any editing unless they sign in and you gave them editor permissions.

How do you get this Sharing View.  Every time I click Share (not share screen) all I can do is send an invite but nothing that changes the url to share without needing to sign in and there is no option to save this setting without actually sending and invite to some address.  A good option would be have an "options or settings" page for doc/worspaces where you could select Share without signing in as an option and then save it without have to send a invite somewhere.

Or am I missing something?

To get to Sharing view you click on Share -> Share workspace. If it is already shared with someone you click "Share with more" button.

Then there is a checkbox "Let everyone view this without signing in" - check this box.

Add an editor or a viewer and send new invite. From this moment everyone who knows URL to your workspace will be able to see it without signing in but can not edit.

For more information take a look at this help article

When I sent the invitation to the ones i want to share with, they log in and nothing is displayed; is there a trick to others viewing? they do have edit rights. 

Also, maybe an email link could be added to navigation that could send email to sharing users with url to access .

Andrew Edwards:

When I sent the invitation to the ones i want to share with, they log in and nothing is displayed; is there a trick to others viewing? they do have edit rights. 

Something is wrong here, can you please provide exact steps you are using? There should be no tricks, you share things with other people and they just view or edit those items.

Andrew Edwards:

Also, maybe an email link could be added to navigation that could send email to sharing users with url to access .

That is exaclty what is happening. When you share workspace or item with someone we send an email to address you shared with and email has a link to get to shared item.

So normal flow is expected to be like that:

1. To share a workspace you enter email address of editor or viewer you want to share with, click "Share" button. It may be useful to type personal message there so people you share with will know that it comes from you.

2. Email is sent to the mailbox of person you shared with.

3. Sharee reads his email, clicks on the link in email and sees the items you shared.

Please post here if it does not work like this for you. Do you maybe have any suggestions how to make sharing simpler for you?

Thanks,

Anton

im trying to get screen caps of what the user is seeing, but they are indiacting that when they log in; the page is blank; tried on 2 machines--will they not see the workspace from which to choose diff docs? i have shared the workspace .

Frankly speaking screen capture may not be all that useful - if they see blank screen it does not add much of useful informtion.

Can you instead provide exact steps you used to share workspace? Was it that you shared the workspace, your sharees received email and clicked on links? Or you used some other way to deliver those URLs?

Maybe you can share something (new workspace or documents) with antonkra@microsoft.com temporarily so I see if I can repro the problem?

Thanks,

Anton

The steps i just took to share with you are the same step i used yesterday

create workspace

click shareworkspace

enter email addy

send

I've got your invitation and can succesfully view workspace, no problem there, I put new note there, all works.

Is it possible for your users to get network trace with www.fiddlertool.com? If they could get a trace for the login session when they see the blank screen, save the trace as ArchiveZip (Fiddler option) and send this to me (just put it in the workspace you shared) I may be able to get more information.

If there is no way to get a trace, can you provide more information about those users who can not see your workspace. Did they signup for Office Live Workspaces? Do they use Windows LiveID matching their email address to view the workspaces you shared with them?

Thanks,

Anton

as far as i know both of the users created workspace ids when they got the link and were unable to view form that point--

ill more checking and see if i can get a trace and put it on the space--

thank you very much for your time!!