What a room is

A room is a small page for one project, at one unguessable link, under your name. It holds what you put in it and nothing else: not the folder above it, not the rest of your workspace, not your other clients. The person you send it to opens the link and is in. There is no account to create, no invitation to accept and no app to install.

A room can also carry a list of what you still need back, which is the part that stops it being a folder with a link on it. The client opens the page and reads "2 of 5 provided" rather than working out from an email what they are supposed to do. See Requests and messages.

Opening one#

1. 1

   Press New room and name it

   The name is what the client sees at the top of the page, so name it after the project rather than after the file.

2. 2

   Write what you need back

   A line per thing: "Signed contract", "Logo in vector". The client answers each one in the room. Optional, and you can add to the list at any time.

3. 3

   Decide the terms

   A note for the client, a colour, an expiry date, a password, and whether guests may upload. All of it is optional and all of it can be changed afterwards.

4. 4

   Add files from your drive

   Add from drive puts existing files in the room. They stay where they are in your workspace: the room points at them rather than copying them.

5. 5

   Send the link

   Copy it, or let the client scan the code beside it. That link is the only way in.

What the client sees#

One page: the room's name, your name under it, your note if you wrote one, the list of what you still need if you wrote one, and the files, each with a button to open it and a button to download it. More than one file also gets a Download all button that sends the lot as a single zip. If you allowed uploads there is a drop area under them, and a field at the top where they put their name once so it travels with everything they send. If you set a password, none of that appears until they type it.

What they do not see is everything else. A room is not a window into a folder: it holds the files you put in it, one by one, and nothing that happens to sit next to them in your workspace.

How many rooms you can have at once#

The limit is on rooms that are active, meaning their link still works. Archive one and it stops counting immediately, which is how you get a slot back without deleting anything.

What goes in a room, and where it lives#

• Files you add from your drive. They stay in your workspace. Removing a file from the room takes it off the page and leaves the file untouched.
• Files a guest uploads, when you allow it. Those land in your workspace under Rooms/ and then the room's name, and they count towards your storage, not the guest's. See Working with guests.
• A short note at the top of the page, if you write one. It is the place for the sentence a client actually needs: what this is, and what you want back.
• A list of what you still need, if you write one. Each line is answered in the room, by an upload or by the client ticking it. See Requests and messages.
• A colour. Pick one in Settings and the room page wears it. It is the whole of a room's branding, and it changes nothing about who can open the link.

Closing one#

• An expiry date. On that day the room closes on its own and the link stops working.
• Archive. Ends it now. The link dies, the files stay in your drive, and the room stays readable to you.
• Rotate link. Mints a new link and kills the old one. This is what to do when a link ends up somewhere it should not be.
• Delete. Removes the room permanently. Your files stay in your drive.

An archived room can be reopened, on the same link, so a client who already has it does not need a new one. Reopening spends a slot on your plan again, and a room whose expiry date has already passed comes back with no expiry rather than closing itself again the moment somebody opens it.

Knowing whether anybody looked#

The Activity tab counts how many times the room was opened and how many separate visitors that was, and lists what happened in it: uploads, replies, and each line of your list as it was provided. Visitors are counted and never identified. A guest has a name only where they typed one, and nothing on that tab tells you who somebody is.