How to add an external link as an item in your data room?

Not everything you want to share lives inside a PDF. With links as items, you can add any external URL (a Loom video, a Notion dashboard, your company website) as an entry in your data room, sitting right next to your documents in the folder tree.

Adding links as items works on every plan with data rooms, starting from the Data Rooms plan.

What it does

When you add a URL as a data room item, it behaves like any other item:

• It appears in the file list alongside your PDFs and spreadsheets
• It has a custom display name you choose
• It shows up in the automatic index file
• Clicking it opens the URL in a new browser tab
• Permissions and visibility work the same as for documents

It's perfect when part of your data room story lives on the web, but you don't want to copy it into a PDF.

Step-by-step setup

Step 1: Open the folder where you want to add the link

1. Log into Papermark and open your data room.
2. Navigate to the folder where the URL should live.

Step 2: Add a new link item

1. Click the Add button at the top of the file list.
2. Choose Add link from the menu.
3. Paste the URL you want to add.
4. Enter a display name (this is what visitors will see in the file list).
5. Click Add.

The link appears in the file list with a link icon to distinguish it from regular documents.

Step 3: Set permissions if needed

Like documents, link items respect granular file permissions. You can hide a link from specific visitors or groups the same way you would hide a document.

Add a link to your data room

Common use cases

• Demo videos: link to a Loom or YouTube walkthrough of your product
• External dashboards: link to a metrics dashboard hosted on a tool like Mixpanel, Linear, or Notion
• Company website: link to your homepage, careers page, or product page
• Notion docs: link to a Notion page you keep updated
• Press coverage: link to articles or media mentions
• GitHub repositories: link to open-source code or your repo
• Calendar booking: link to your calendar so investors can book a follow-up call

Best practices

• Use clear display names. Name links by what they contain ("Product demo video") rather than by URL.
• Group with related documents. Put a Loom walkthrough in the same folder as the product spec PDF.
• Audit the destination. Make sure the URL works without authentication for the audience you're sharing with, or warn viewers if it requires a login.
• Watch for link rot. External URLs can change. Review them periodically and update if needed.
• Use Papermark links for sensitive content. If the destination is sensitive, share it as a Papermark link instead so it gets the same security and analytics as your documents.

How analytics work for link items

When a visitor clicks a link item, Papermark records the click in the data room analytics. You can see:

• Which visitors clicked the link
• When they clicked it
• How often it was clicked overall

Once the visitor leaves Papermark for the external URL, their activity on the destination site is outside Papermark's tracking. To track engagement on the destination too, share content directly through Papermark rather than as an external link.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• How to add documents to your data room
• How to add folders to your data room
• How to share Notion documents using Papermark
• How to enable index generation for your data room

Need help? Contact support@papermark.com or use the in-app chat.