A molecular model can be ready to review long before it is ready to be edited by someone else. Sharing the wrong version, or choosing unclear access settings, can slow down a collaboration—or expose a document more widely than intended. A useful handoff starts with two decisions: where to publish the document and who should be able to use it.
In SAMSON, you can publish a document to SAMSON Connect from Home > Publish. This gives you a place to share the document and choose its visibility. The choice matters because visibility determines who can use the document; it does not automatically give everyone permission to edit it.
Choose visibility based on the handoff
When publishing, enter a document name and description, then select one of the three visibility options. A simple way to decide is to ask: should people find the document, should only people with its link be able to use it, or should access be limited to authorized users?
- Public: Everyone can use the document, while editing requires access rights. This is the clearest choice when the document is intended to be broadly available.
- Hidden: Anyone with the link can use the document, while editing requires access rights. This can suit a handoff to specific collaborators when you want to share the link directly rather than make the document generally discoverable.
- Restricted: Using or editing the document requires access rights. Choose this when access itself needs to be controlled.
These distinctions are especially helpful when sharing work at different stages. For example, a model you want others to inspect or use can be shared with a visibility level suited to that audience, while editing remains subject to access rights where specified. If a document is restricted, recipients will need the appropriate access to use it. Before sending a link, consider whether the intended audience can use the document under the visibility setting you selected.
Make the handoff easier to understand
A descriptive name and a useful description help collaborators identify what they are opening. In practice, include enough context to distinguish the document from other versions or related work—for instance, the project or purpose. This small step can reduce back-and-forth when several documents are being shared. The publishing dialog provides fields for both the document name and its description.
After choosing the visibility, click Publish document. The document is shared in SAMSON Connect – Documents, and its link is provided in the same window. You can use that link to direct collaborators to the shared document. Public and hidden documents differ in how people can find and use them; restricted documents require access rights to use or edit.
Find or download a shared document
Sharing is only half of the workflow. If a collaborator needs to bring a document shared on SAMSON Connect into SAMSON, they can use Home > Download. This provides a straightforward route from a shared document to working with it in the application.
You can also access and manage documents you have shared, as well as documents shared with you, through your account on SAMSON Connect. If the collaboration requires managing access rights, groups, or shared documents, continue with the Collaboration documentation.
For the full walkthrough, see Share documents in the SAMSON documentation.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON.