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Sharing an Office file as a OneDrive or SharePoint link instead of an attachment: what else the recipient can reach

Last updated: 25 October 2026

A copy or a link

When you attach a file from OneDrive or SharePoint in Outlook, you choose between a copy and a link; what an attached copy carries, and what Outlook and Gmail do with it, is in attaching Office files in Outlook and Gmail. One point from Microsoft's page Add pictures or attach files to emails in Outlook matters for links in particular: "By default, if you're in a business environment, everyone within your organization can edit the linked file."

PowerPoint offers the same choice under Share. Microsoft's page Share your PowerPoint presentation with others says that if you don't want to share a document "to collaborate on, simply use a traditional email attachment": in the Share dialog, select … for more options, then Send a copy, and choose the presentation or a PDF. On Windows, the page notes, this needs a Microsoft 365 subscription.

What a link can show that a copy does not

Earlier versions

Microsoft's page View previous versions of Office files says version history works for files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, and that with a personal Microsoft account "you can retrieve the last 25 versions"; with a work or school account the number "will depend on your library configuration". The SharePoint page How versioning works in lists and libraries says that in Microsoft 365 a new library or list keeps "the last 500 versions of a document" by default, and that with versioning "you can see when an item or file was changed and who changed it".

The same page lists when versions are made, among them "When a file is uploaded and has the same name as an existing file", "When an Office document is opened and saved" and "During co-authoring of a document, when a different user begins working on the document". The page What is AutoSave? adds that with AutoSave on, new versions are added "periodically (about every 10 minutes)". So a copy uploaded over the original, or a file cleaned while it sits in OneDrive, leaves the earlier versions in the history, comments and all.

Who can open them depends on permissions. The SharePoint page lists View Versions among the permissions of the default Full Control, Design, Contribute and Read levels, and says a library can be set so that drafts are seen only by some people. We found no Microsoft page that says what someone who opens a sharing link can see of the version history, so treat the earlier versions as reachable unless you have checked.

Who is working on it

For Word, Microsoft's page Collaborate on Word documents with real-time co-authoring says that "If anyone else is working on the document, you'll see their presence and the changes they're making". The file can keep a record of it too: for PowerPoint, Microsoft's Document Inspector page says that when you collaborate on a shared document stored in the cloud, PowerPoint "stores data about who made changes to the document and when the changes were made". That record is in the file, so it goes with a copy as well as with a link.

Later edits and comments

A link shows the file as it is now. Microsoft's page Share a file puts it as an advantage: "you can update the file content at any time and others will also be seeing your latest version". The same holds for what other people add: a comment, a tracked change or a changed property written after you sent the link is in the file for everyone who can open it. Resolving a comment does not remove it; see comments, ink and annotations.

Link settings to check

Microsoft's page Share files and folders in Microsoft OneDrive describes who a link works for:

• Anyone "gives access to anyone who receives this link, whether they receive it directly from you or forwarded from someone else. This may include people outside of your organization."
• People in your organization with the link works the same way for anyone in your organization.
• People with existing access "does not change any permissions"; use it for someone who already has access.
• Specific people "gives access only to the people you specify, although other people may already have access. If people forward the sharing invitation, only people who already have access to the item will be able to use the link."

Under the link's settings, the same page describes:

• Allow editing, which is on by default. With it cleared, people "can view, copy, or download your items without signing in. They can also forward the link to other people."
• Block download, available "only for work or school accounts and if you don't allow editing". It stops downloading, not reading.
• Set expiration date and Set password, for Microsoft 365 subscribers. After the date, "the link won't work anymore".
• Open in review mode only, for Word documents, which limits people to comments and suggestions; it does not stop someone who already has editing permission.

For SharePoint, Microsoft's page Share SharePoint files or folders describes the same kinds of link, says an expiration date and a password are "only available if it is an anyone link", and notes that your organization's admins may grey out some options. In OneDrive, Manage access shows who has access and lets you remove a link or change its password or expiration date; the SharePoint page says a Shared with list shows who the file is shared with, and that sharing by invitation lets you remove people's permission later.

Before you share a link

1. Clean a copy on your computer first: properties, comments, tracked changes and anything hidden. The pre-send checklist goes through each.
2. Upload the cleaned copy as a new file, with its own name or in a new folder, rather than over a file that already has a history.
3. If the file is already in OneDrive or SharePoint, open its version history (in the app, select the file's title, then Version history) and look at what the earlier versions hold. In a SharePoint library, Microsoft's page Delete a previous version of an item or file in SharePoint describes deleting one version or all of them from the library's own Version History dialog; it says deleted versions go to the SharePoint Recycle bin and are kept there for as long as 90 days, so they can still be recovered.
4. Share with specific people, view only, and block download if they only need to read it (in OneDrive, block download needs a work or school account). Set an expiration date where you can; in SharePoint that is only for Anyone links.
5. When the work is done, remove the link in Manage access.
6. If the recipient only needs the file, send a copy instead, cleaned the same way.

What ScrubDrop does

ScrubDrop checks a supported .docx, .xlsx or .pptx file in your browser; the file is not uploaded. It works on a file on your computer and does not connect to OneDrive or SharePoint, so it cannot see or change a file's version history, its links or who has access. Download a copy or start from the file on your computer, check it, and upload the result as a new file.

• Free, one file at a time: it lists every supported kind of hidden data it finds and removes the properties, comments and tracked changes, which it accepts.
• In every version it does not keep PowerPoint's record of who edited which slide, which a presentation edited by several people can carry; the result lists it among the parts it did not keep.
• ScrubDrop Pro also removes the structural kinds, such as hidden sheets and slides, speaker notes and editing-session ids, and takes several files at once.

The cleaned file keeps your file name with "-scrubbed" added; rename it before you upload it if the name says more than it should.

Questions

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 25 October 2026. ScrubDrop is not affiliated with Microsoft.