A snapshot of electronic data is generated to provide information about a file at a specific point in time. The snapshot may be shared between several users. The snapshot is generated based on the type of snapshot that is requested. The snapshot types include a static snapshot, a published item snapshot and an interactive snapshot. Each type of snapshot may hide a portion of the file data from requesting users such that sensitive information is not made available to the users. The static snapshot is generated by saving only static data associated with the file. The interactive snapshot is generated by saving static data associated with the file, but any links or references to dynamic file data are maintained. The published item snapshot includes specific file objects and static data associated with the specified objects.