Project tracking software: what to look for before you commit
Most project tracking software is bought for the reporting and abandoned over the data entry. Here is how to judge a tool by the work it costs, not the dashboards it promises.
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Document sharing platforms: how to choose one and share safely
Document sharing platforms all send a link. The differences that matter are what the link can do, who can pass it on, and what happens when someone leaves.
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Document sharing platforms look interchangeable from the outside: upload a file, get a link, send the link. The differences show up months later, when a contractor still has access to a folder, when a link posted in a group chat turns out to be public, or when the person who owned the account has left and nobody can find the master copy.
Sharing is an access decision, not a transport decision. Judging a platform on that basis makes the comparison much shorter.
What to compare in document sharing platforms
- Granularity of access. View, comment and edit as separate levels — not a single "share" switch.
- Named access versus link access. Inviting an address means you can see and revoke who has it; a link means you cannot know who it reached.
- Re-sharing control. Whether the people you invite can invite others, and whether you can tell that they did.
- Expiry and revocation. Time-limited links, and the ability to cut access instantly without moving the file.
- Ownership and offboarding. What happens to shared documents when the person who created them leaves — the single most common way access goes stale.
- Versioning. Whether the recipient sees your latest version or the copy they downloaded three weeks ago.
- Audit visibility. Who opened it, and when. For anything commercial, this is not a luxury.
- Export. Whether your documents leave in a usable format if you leave the platform.
The most valuable habit is unrelated to the platform: share the document, not a copy. Sending an attachment forks the truth immediately — from that moment there are two versions and no way to tell which one is current.
Named access or a link
Invite by email when the audience is known and the content is sensitive. You get a list you can audit, per-person levels, and instant revocation. It costs the recipient one sign-in, which is the actual reason people avoid it.
Use a link when the audience is unknown or large — a public price list, a brochure, a form. Treat every link as forwardable, because it is. If a link would embarrass you when posted publicly, it should have been an invitation.
A safe sharing routine
- Decide the level before you share: read, comment, or edit. Most sharing that goes wrong was set to edit out of habit.
- Invite named people for anything commercial or personal; keep links for material you would be comfortable seeing indexed.
- Set an expiry where the platform supports it, especially for contractors and one-off reviews.
- Review access on a schedule — quarterly is enough for most teams — and remove anyone whose project ended.
- When someone leaves, transfer ownership of their documents before the account is closed, not after.
- Keep the canonical copy in one place and share from there, so no version of "final_v3_revised" ever exists.
In Ettex, every document starts private to you, and sharing is a deliberate step: invite specific people by email at Editor, Commenter or Viewer level, or switch the document to a link that anyone can open. Levels are changed or revoked from the same panel. Storage then gives you one list of everything you have regardless of which app made it — documents, spreadsheets, presentations, images, PDFs and uploads, with a Shared with me filter, favourites, filters by date, source and size, grouping and sorting, and Ctrl+K search across the lot. Because the document lives in one place, the person you shared with always opens the current version.
Where teams get caught out
- Sharing a folder when a single document was meant, and inheriting access nobody reviews.
- Personal accounts holding company documents, which become unreachable when the person moves on.
- Link sharing for convenience during a project, then never turning it off.
- Sending a downloadable copy for review, then merging comments from three different copies by hand.
- Assuming a platform is compliant for a given data type without checking where the data is stored.
Frequently asked
What is the safest way to share a document?
Invite named people at the lowest access level that lets them do their job, and review that list periodically. Links are convenient and cannot be audited.
Should I send documents as email attachments?
Only when the recipient genuinely needs a static copy, such as a signed contract or an invoice. For anything still being worked on, share the document itself.
How do I stop someone re-sharing a document?
Use a platform that separates viewing from inviting, and keep collaborators at Viewer or Commenter unless they need to bring others in. Assume anyone with edit rights can pass access on.
What happens to shared files when an employee leaves?
That depends entirely on ownership. Transfer their documents before the account closes; otherwise access disappears with the account or, worse, lingers on their personal device.
Are free document sharing platforms good enough?
For low-risk material, often yes. The limits that matter appear around audit trails, expiry, admin control and export — which is exactly what you need when the sharing is commercial.
Judge document sharing platforms on what the link can do and how easily you can take it back. Sharing that can be revoked in one click is worth more than any amount of storage.
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