Secure your files with permissions

It's important to secure your valuable assets in Showpad to prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. We provide several permission options to ensure your content is secure.

See how it works

Key features

• Decide if files can be shared, downloaded, or annotated
• Select if files can be downloaded as a PDF by users and buyers separately
• Allow mixing and matching of pages in a document
• Make content available in Kiosk Mode

You need this to succeed

The quick way

1. Navigate to the All Files library
2. Click on a file to open the detail panel
3. Click to expand the Permissions section
4. Enable or disable your desired permissions, then click Save changes

Do this step by step

Change file permissions

1. Click the Libraries tab and select a Division if relevant.
2. Click on the file you want to modify to open the detail panel. 
3. Scroll down to the Permissions section and click to expand.
4. Enable or disable the desired permission settings for the file, and then click Save changes.
5. To learn how to edit the permissions of multiple files at once, navigate to the bulk edit files article.

Understand file permissions

• Show in Kiosk Mode: The document will be displayed when a mobile device is in Kiosk Mode. Kiosk Mode is very useful at trade shows where customers or prospects may need to access Showpad without being able to see all Experiences and content. These assets will be displayed with a lock icon before the filename.
  See how users can use Kiosk Mode.

• Can be shared: Your users can share the file, and their prospects can reshare it. They can share this file via email, plugin, or link. However, they cannot download the content if only this permission is enabled.

  When using Salesforce and Content Recommendations, these files will appear in the "Share these files" section. If a file cannot be shared, it will appear in the "Learn from these files" section.

• Can be downloaded internally: Select if this file can be downloaded internally by users within your organization. Unchecking this box prohibits internal users from downloading or editing this content. They won't be able to open the document in other applications on their device. Viewing the asset in Showpad is still possible, but downloading or sharing the original copy is disabled.
  • Restrict internal download PDF: This option will prevent downloaders from being able to edit the original file version and can be an easier way to view content on their device. Restrict to PDF works on the following file types: Word (DOC, DOCX), Excel (XLS, XLSX), PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX), iWork, Pages (PAGES), Numbers (NUMBERS), Keynote (KEY), Text and Rich-text (TXT, RTF).
• Can be downloaded externally: Choose if this asset can be downloaded externally by people outside of your organization. When this is disabled, external users are prohibited from editing or downloading the content. They can view it without downloading it.

  • Restrict external download PDF: This will prevent downloaders from being able to edit the original file version and can be an easier way to view content on their device. Restrict to PDF works on the following file types: Word (DOC, DOCX), Excel (XLS, XLSX), PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX), iWork, Pages (PAGES), Numbers (NUMBERS), Keynote (KEY), Text and Rich-text (TXT, RTF).

    Note: The default behavior for newly uploaded assets is that they are downloadable but restricted to PDF for external downloaders.
    If you deny downloading an asset, your users won't be able to override your settings. In other words, when they allow content downloads and you don't, your settings will apply.

    It's still possible to add the file to a Collection if it cannot be downloaded. However, when a user tries to share a Collection with a file that cannot be shared, it will not be included in the Share.

    Note: While these permission settings make it harder to download files by removing the download button, it's not possible to prevent visitors from using other techniques to capture content.

• Global: Choose to share the selected asset(s) with your other Divisions.

  Note: This is an additional permission option for admins who use Divisions. Global assets are available in other Divisions and may need this extra security setting. You won't see this permission option if you don't use Divisions.

• Can be annotated: Users can add notes and drawings to their version of the document.
• Can be personalized: Users can edit PowerPoint documents by using the Showpad Edit middleware, Microsoft 365, and the Web App. The personalization option is only available if pages of an asset are allowed to be separated as well. Personal Uploads must be enabled in Admin Settings for this permission to be visible in asset permissions.

• Pages can be separated: Users can mix and match all pages of this document with other content. Disabling this option means that users can't select pages to share, and the document will always be shared as a whole. When enabled, you have two options to help you control how pages are shared:

  • Enforce page groups: Ensure a group of sequential pages (e.g., pages 3-5) is always shared together.
  • Always include specific pages: Ensure that specific pages (e.g., page 1 and pages 9-10) are always included in Shares.

  Learn about enforcing page separation requirements.

• Speaker notes enabled: Users can present this file using the embedded speaker notes. When enabled, the notes will be visible to users when they click the Present button in the asset viewer. If a presentation does not have speaker notes when added to Showpad, the field will be blank. This permission is enabled by default for newly uploaded presentations (GSLIDE, PPTX, or PPSX files.)