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Inviting collaborators to a story

If you are the owner or editor of a Shorthand story you can invite other people to edit it, take over as the story owner, or simply view the story from their Shorthand dashboard.

Note: on some Shorthand plans, all users can view all stories in the workspace via an ALL STORIES toggle on the dashboard. On these plans, the roles of users assigned to stories include only Own and Edit.

You and your editing collaborators can also comment on sections and text within a story.

Owners and editors can easily add existing team members as collaborators on a story. Owners can also invite brand new users to collaborate.

Collaborators can be assigned from your dashboard or from within the story Dditor.

How to change collaborators from the dashboard:​

To add a collaborator, open the menu on the card of the story you wish to add a collaborator to, then select Collaborators from the menu.

This will open a window where you can manage the collaborators for that story.

Click the drop-down menu at the top of the white panel and you'll be shown the names of other team members. Select the name of the team member you wish to add as a collaborator.

You can also invite people who aren't currently a member of your team. Simply enter their name and email address, and once you press INVITE, they'll receive an email inviting them to join Shorthand and will automatically be added as a collaborator on that story.

Note: Plans without Team Leader or Viewer roles, users invited to a story will see the story on their Shorthand dashboard and have access to edit it.

On plans with Team Leaders and Viewer roles, by default an invited user will be added with rights to view the story only, meaning it will show up on their dashboard and they can preview, but not edit, the story.


If you wish to make them an editor of the story, click the pencil icon (Highlighted below) next to their name.

Manage Story Collaborator permissions panel found on the Shorthand Dashboard.

If you are the current story owner and wish to transfer ownership to the new collaborator, click the star next to their name.

This will transfer the ownership of the story to them, and you'll become an editor of the story. The new owner of the story can not only edit the story, but also control who has access to it.

How to change collaborators within the Shorthand Story Editor:

Collaborators can be added to a story from directly within the story Editor. When you use this method, the collaborators you add will be assigned edit permission by default.

Adding an existing member of your team to the story is as simple as choosing their name from the dropdown menu that appears when you click the green + icon at the top of the page in a section labelled WORK TOGETHER.

You can also invite entirely new users to the team and story by specifying their email address in the collaborator panel. The invited user will receive an email invitation to register for Shorthand, and if they accept, they'll be added to your team and find the story on their dashboard.

Did you know?

Shorthand also supports multiple authors working on the same story at the same time — see Editing a story at the same time.

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