Spotlight #1: Collaborate using Team Folders

Spotlight #1: Collaborate using Team Folders


Hello All,

This is the beginning of our new Spotlight Series for Zoho WorkDrive. WorkDrive is a file management and collaboration tool for teams of all sizes. In this series, we will discuss individual features and related use cases in detail, to help you make the best use of WorkDrive.

So, here's our first spotlight series article: Collaborate using Team Folders.

Teamwork using traditional content collaboration platforms involves sharing files with your teammates, managing their access permissions, and a futile attempt to keep track of all the changes they make. It doesn't end there. Every time you need access to a file created by someone else, you have to request access and wait for them to share it with you. It's even harder to keep these files organized for easy access.

These collaboration woes are now a thing of the past. Zoho WorkDrive introduces an entirely new way to create, store and share files to collaborate with your team members—Team Folders.



There are two types of Team Folders: Private Team Folders and Public Team Folders.

1. Private Team Folders
You can create Private Team Folders to store and work on files that are exclusive to your department, or related to a specific project. Only the team members who have been added to a private Team Folder can access its files and folders.

2. Public Team Folders
You can create Public Team Folders to store common team files so that all the members in your team can access them. Anyone in the team can join a public Team Folder and access its files and folders.

How Team Folders can make your workday easy

Smooth onboarding for new team members
Adding members to your Team Folder is simple and quick. Just enter the required email address, assign an appropriate role (Admin/Organizer/Editor/Commenter/Viewer), and add them. You can also add groups to a team folder. All group members will have the common team folder role assigned to the group.

Fine-grained roles and permissions
WorkDrive lets you assign a Team Folder member higher access permissions to a file or folder within it. For example, a member with viewer role in a Team Folder can be given edit or higher access to a sub-folder or a file.

Advanced file sharing
The goal behind Team Folders is to reduce the number of times you have to share files individually with your teammates. Files added to a Team Folder are already available to all its members. You can also share files individually with members of your team with specific access permissions when needed.

Our advanced external sharing feature lets you create multiple links to share the same file with different stakeholders, like clients and partners. You can set access permissions, passwords, and expiry dates, and decide who can download a file. You can also request user data like name, phone number, and email address.

Note: As an admin, you can disable external sharing for your Team Folder altogether when required.

Quick file search
Never worry about losing a file again. Find anything in no time with our advanced file search by just entering the file name, author, or even a keyword. Narrow down your search further by filtering the search results based on file location, type, or date range. Learn more about searching files in WorkDrive.

Built-in Zoho office suite
With WorkDrive, you don't have to spend time or money on external office suite apps to work on your ideas. Easily create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with the help of our intuitive Zoho office suite consisting of Writer, Sheet, and Show.

Files in draft mode
Do you want to work freely on your files without other members commenting on or editing your work too early? 

Working together with your team in a Team Folder doesn't mean your files are available to your team before you're ready for their contribution. When you create files using Zoho Office Suite in a Team Folder, they'll remain as drafts and are visible only to you. When you mark those files as complete, they will be accessible to other members in your Team Folder.

File locking
Have you ever faced a situation where you shared a customized offer with a client, and then one of your team members changed the offer details to share it with a different client? The first client was likely upset by the change. How do you prevent this from happening in the future?

You can use the Check Out option to prevent your team members from overwriting the changes you make to a file. To allow others to edit the file, check the file back in. Learn more about locking files.

Smart notifications
Unread Notifications in WorkDrive will keep you informed on every change made in your Team Folders. You won't be startled by an unrecognizable file when you return to something you'd been working on earlier.

Follow our Community to stay connected on the series, and do not miss any product updates.

If you have any queries, please leave a reply below or contact support@zohoworkdrive.com.


        • Recent Topics

        • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

          Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files
        • Anyone worked out how to export or screengrab a full heatmap?

          I'd love to be able to include a copy of a heatmap in a report but can't work out how to grab the whole thing as there doesn't appear to be an export function? Thanks in advance.
        • Introducing Built-in Telephony in Zoho Recruit

          We’re excited to introduce Built-in Telephony in Zoho Recruit, designed to make recruiter–candidate communication faster, simpler, and fully traceable. These capabilities help you reduce app switching, handle inbound calls efficiently, and keep every
        • Sender Email Configuration Error.

          Hello Team, Hope you are all doing well. We are in the process of creating the Zoho FSM environment in the UAE. When we try to add the sender email address “techsupportuae@stryker.com”, we receive the error message: “Error occurred while sending mail
        • Default/Private Departments in Zoho Desk

          1) How does one configure a department to be private? 2) Also, how does one change the default department? 1) On the list of my company's Zoho Departments, I see that we have a default department, but I am unable to choose which department should be default. 2) From the Zoho documentation I see that in order to create a private department, one should uncheck "Display in customer portal" on the Add Department screen. However, is there a way to change this setting after the department has been created?
        • Es posible cambiar el lenguaje de los modulos del ASAP?

          Es posible cambiar el lenguaje de estos textos? Tengo Zoho configurado en español pero aun así me muestra estos textos en ingles:
        • Auto-publish job openings on my Zoho Recruit Careers Website

          I have developed a script using the Zoho Recruit API that successfully inserts new jobOpening records to my Zoho Recruit website, but my goal is to auto-publish to the Careers Website. The jobOpening field data shows two possible candidates to make this
        • [Free webinar] Custom domains for portals in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

          Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to another edition of the Creator Tech Connect webinar. About Creator Tech Connect The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar featuring in-depth technical sessions designed for developers, administrators,
        • Remove my video

          Hi, How can I remove my video so that I don't have to see myself. It's weird so I always remove my own video from what I see but cannot find this feature here. Thanks!
        • Marking a meeting 'done'.

          I would like to somehow mark a meeting 'done' and placed under the contact's page rather than deleting it and having no record of it. Am I missing a button that does this?
        • Add Lookup Field in Tasks Module

          Hello, I have a need to add a Lookup field in addition to the ones that are already there in the Tasks module. I've seen this thread and so understand that the reason lookup fields may not be part of it is that there are already links to the tables (
        • Super Admin Logging in as another User

          How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are working
        • Cannot find zpuid for Zoho Projects user

          I'm using the Zoho Projects v3 API to create a task. The task is created successfully, but in order to assign the task owner, the "Create a Task" API also requires the zpuid of the task owner. Unfortunately I cannot find any user-related API calls that
        • Allocating inventory to specific SO's

          Is there a way that allocate inventory to a specific sales order? For example, let's say we have 90 items in stock. Customer 1 orders 100 items. This allocates all 90 items to their order, and they have a back order for the remaining 10 items which could
        • Can Zoho Marketing Automation send OTP codes via WhatsApp during user registration?

          The flow I would like to implement is: A user signs up in the mobile app and enters their phone number. The system generates a one-time verification code (OTP). The OTP is sent to the user via WhatsApp message. The user enters the code in the app to confirm
        • Incorrect Functioning of Time Logs API (Version 3)

          We need to fetch the list of time logs for each task for our company internal usage. We are trying to achieve it by using the next endpoint: https://projects.zoho.com/api-docs#bulk-time-logs#get-all-project-time-logs Firstly, in the documentation the
        • Partial payments for retainer invoices

          When a customer does not pay the entire retainer invoice there is no way to apply a partial payment. PLEASE add this function.
        • Can I export to PDF in Zoho Learn

          I have seen help pages where export to pdf options are available but I do not see that option available from the application. I see that exprt is available in my free trial version but that is only to html pages. I need to be able to export my manuals
        • Service line items

          Hello Latha, Could you please let me know the maximum number of service line items that can be added to a single work order? Thanks, Chethiya.
        • Sending emails via Books

          Anyone else getting similar problems recently ??..... Hi, Your message to the following recipient was not delivered. Please find the details below.  Bounce Details: Bounced Address : someone@google.com Bounce Reason : other ; Status : 5.0.0 (undefined status) ; Daignostic-Code : smtp;542 someone@google.com Rejected ; Bounced Time : Sep 05, 2017 06:37 PM BST Regards, Zoho Team The email addresses were fine only a few days ago but are now being rejected ?
        • PDF Generator Upgrade

          Hi Team, What will happen if I don't make any changes for existing template. Zoho just ask us upgrade but haven't tell the benefit. Zoho Corporation
        • No Need To Fix Something That Is Working

          Zoho Books is a great financial tool which helps businesses to become more efficient and productive with day-to-day operations. As such, every change, upgrade, improvement needs to be carefully thought before implemented in the software and I'm sure Zoho
        • Total Cost in reports showing zero

          The image below shows my issue. The column Total Cost should show the cost to our company based on hours logged and the employee's rate. For instance, if the person working on Subtask 1 is paid 20/hr, then Total Cost should display $160 ($20x8 logged
        • Zoho Books (and other finance suite apps) - Retrospective Linking of Invoice and Sales Orders to Quotes.

          In some cases, Quotes and Invoies may be created sperately instead of using the convert feature. In this feature request I am asking for the Finance Suite team to consider adding a lookup field to reference the quote on Invoices and Sales Orders, or some
        • Bring real app analytics into Zoho Creator apps with Zoho Apptics

          We’re kicking off the year with a release we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. After being in the works for a while, Zoho Creator and Zoho Apptics are now officially integrated, bringing in-depth product analytics directly into the Zoho Creator
        • ZohoMail's outbound webhook sends incorrect folderId and messageId

          I used a webhook (outbound) from within ZohoMail to send message details when a new message arrives that meets specific criteria. I received this data correctly. Now I want to get the attachment from this email message. When I made an api call using folder
        • Use URL field to populate Image in a Email Template

          We have two records Record 1: Appointments (with a Lookup to Doctors module) Related Record 2: Doctors (with a URL field that is an image of the doctor) We would like to populate a CRM email template with the image of the URL field for the related doctor
        • Looking for Guidance on Building a Zoho Website

          I'm exploring the possibility of building a custom website with specific features using Zoho as an alternative platform. My goal is to create something similar to https://gtasandresapk.com , with the same kind of functionality and user experience. I'd
        • Ability to add VAT to Retainer Invoices

          Hello, I've had a telephone conversation a month ago with Dinesh on this topic and my request to allow for the addition of VAT on Retainer Invoices.  It's currently not possible to add VAT to Retainer Invoices and it was mutually agreed that there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be, especially as TAX LAW makes VAT mandatory on each invoice in Europe!   So basically, what i'm saying is that if you don't allow us to add VAT to Retainer Invoices, than the whole Retainer Invoices becomes
        • Zoho Bookings Forge: A hands-on workshop series

          Hello all! We’re hosting a five-part, hands-on workshop series to help you optimize Zoho Bookings for your business. In these sessions, we’ll cover key features, practical use cases, and clear steps to get started or improve your current setup. Here are
        • Introducing parent-child ticketing in Zoho Desk [Early access]

          Hello Zoho Desk users! We have introduced the parent-child ticketing system to help customer service teams ensure efficient resolution of issues involving multiple, related tickets. You can now combine repetitive and interconnected tickets into parent-child
        • Update Existing Records greyed out in Free Version

          Trying to update records from an Excel sheet, and not getting the option to update. Only option is to add as new accounts. All documentation I can see says update should be an option! Accounts, Leads, Contacts, all the same.
        • Help with deluge script

          Hi Community, this is my first Deluge script. I've pieced it together from reading various articles I want to use it in a workflow to 1 Convert a lead to a contact 2. Create a record in a custom module Below is what I have got so far but it does not fire
        • Introducing Workqueue: your all-in-one view to manage daily work

          Hello all, We’re excited to introduce a major productivity boost to your CRM experience: Workqueue, a dynamic, all-in-one workspace that brings every important sales activity, approval, and follow-up right to your fingertips. What is Workqueue? Sales
        • Delete button

          Hi, The delete button were hide into the three dot button. Can I display outside? why Zoho make this update?
        • Zoho Vault CLI for Developers and Automations

          Hi everyone, If you're managing credentials in scripts, CI/CD pipelines, or automation workflows, Zoho Vault's Command Line Interface (CLI) can help you securely access and manage secrets directly from your terminal. Zoho Vault was launched in 2013 as
        • On Edit Validation Blueprint

          Hello, I have a notes field and a signature field. When the Approve button is clicked, the Signature field will appear and must be filled in. When the Reject button is clicked, the Notes field will appear and must be filled in. Question: Blueprint will
        • Server-based Appication API access for Social, Sites, Flow, Pages.

          Hello, I am trying to hook up API access for a number of apps and I have hit a wall trying to add these scopes to the API feed. We cannot find the correct way to list the scope for these Zoho apps; Social, Sites, Flow, Pages. Error on web-page comes back
        • Zoho Subscriptions -- Zoho Commerce integration

          Is there integration between Zoho Subscriptions and Zoho Commerce? I would like to create subscription plans in Zoho Subscritpions and list them for on my Zoho Commerce store.
        • Synching changes to Stripe when changes are made in Zoho Billing

          We have a situation where we have merged customers in Zoho BIlling and then found out later that the payment in Stripe was not updated and still associated with the old customer record. The card gets updated and billed, but that payment is still associated
        • Next Page