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About this lesson

Understand how SharePoint Document Libraries integrate with other applications in Microsoft 365.

Quick reference

Get to Grips with SharePoint

Take a tour and get familiar with SharePoint and how document libraries interact with other Microsoft 365 applications.

When to use

We use Microsoft SharePoint whenever we want to create a team site/intranet site that stores documents and other useful information.

Instructions

SharePoint is a multi-purpose application that allows us to create a site for our team to make it easy to share files, collaborate and communicate. 

It is fair to say that we might never have to use SharePoint. However, we will find ourselves using SharePoint (sometimes unknowingly) when working in other applications in Microsoft 365. 

SharePoint is essentially a collection of tools and services e.g. we can build an intranet site using SharePoint and customize it to fit with brand guidelines and design. SharePoint sites are useful for storing company information, files and documents, links, and other useful information. 

The SharePoint Interface

  • From the App Launcher, choose SharePoint from the list

The SharePoint home screen or hub will show any sites you've accessed recently and any sites you are following. To access a site, simply click on the site name. 

SharePoint sites contain document libraries. The document libraries used in SharePoint are the same as the document libraries you see when you are working with groups in Outlook. 

When we create a Microsoft 365 group in Outlook, it will also create an associated SharePoint site. 

We can access the SharePoint site from the Outlook group by clicking the Site button. 

To make a site easier to find on the SharePoint homepage, click the star icon to follow the site. 

This will add the site to the Following section on the SharePoint homepage. 

  • Click on the site to open. 

Once we are on the site, we can click on the Documents link to access files stored in the document library. This will include files shared and stored in the site in SharePoint and also documents shared in the Microsoft 365 group. 

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  • 00:04 It's fair to say that you could use Microsoft 365 and never use SharePoint.
  • 00:09 SharePoint, in general,
  • 00:11 is a multipurpose application that allows you to create a site for your team so
  • 00:15 that you can collaborate, share documents and files, and communicate through.
  • 00:20 But even if you haven't used SharePoint at all to any great extent,
  • 00:24 you will often use SharePoint tools within other
  • 00:28 Microsoft 365 applications without even knowing it.
  • 00:32 So in this lesson, we're just going to get to grips with SharePoint.
  • 00:35 We're going to open it up, we're going to have a little look around.
  • 00:38 Because understanding how SharePoint works, even if you don't necessarily
  • 00:43 have to use it, is going to be really helpful because it does feed through to so
  • 00:47 many other areas in Microsoft 365.
  • 00:49 So we're starting out at our Office Start screen,
  • 00:52 we're going to go up to our app launcher, and we're going to choose SharePoint.
  • 00:56 Remember, if you can't see it in this list, click on All apps and
  • 01:00 scroll down to s.
  • 01:01 So let's click on SharePoint to open it up.
  • 01:03 Now, SharePoint is a collection of tools and services.
  • 01:07 For example, you can make websites in SharePoint.
  • 01:10 And a lot of companies use SharePoint to build their internal intranet sites.
  • 01:14 And SharePoint sites can house lots of useful information, so
  • 01:18 information about the company, may be useful links to different websites,
  • 01:23 may be contact information.
  • 01:25 And most SharePoint sites have a document library so that all members of that
  • 01:29 SharePoint site can access documents that are relevant to them.
  • 01:33 And there's a big design element to SharePoint sites as well.
  • 01:37 You can really make your intranet site look unique, or
  • 01:40 even ensure that it ties in with your company branding colors.
  • 01:45 Now, we are not going to get into any of that in this course, but as I mentioned,
  • 01:49 SharePoint does run through a lot of the other applications in Microsoft 365.
  • 01:54 Now, currently on the homepage, I don't have a great deal going on here.
  • 01:57 This is a fairly new account that I've got, but
  • 01:59 you can see here it's showing me Frequent sites.
  • 02:01 So this is a site that I've worked on very recently.
  • 02:05 And this is the Sample Team Site.
  • 02:07 Now, if we just go back to Outlook for one second, if you recall in the previous
  • 02:12 lesson, we set up an Outlook group, or a Microsoft 365 group, at the bottom here.
  • 02:18 And we call that group Project Alpha.
  • 02:21 And you can see just above Sample Team Site,
  • 02:23 that's the one that I can currently see in SharePoint.
  • 02:26 Now if we click on Project Alpha within Outlook and click the three dots,
  • 02:31 notice here we have a direct link to the Project Alpha site in SharePoint.
  • 02:36 Because whenever we create a Microsoft 365 group,
  • 02:40 it creates a corresponding SharePoint site.
  • 02:43 So if I click on this, it's going to jump me straight into SharePoint and
  • 02:48 to the Project Alpha site.
  • 02:50 And if I wanted to make this a bit easier so that it shows up on the home page,
  • 02:54 I can click on the little star in the top right-hand corner to follow this site.
  • 02:58 And now if we were to go back to the homepage,
  • 03:02 you can see there it is at the top in this Following section.
  • 03:06 So I can then click on Project Alpha and it's going to take me in there.
  • 03:09 Now, a big reason that people like to use SharePoint is because it is somewhere
  • 03:13 where you can create document libraries to store all of your documents and files.
  • 03:17 Now, SharePoint is a lot more than that, but
  • 03:20 this tends to be the primary reason that people use SharePoint.
  • 03:25 So you can see here in every SharePoint site that you create,
  • 03:28 you're going to have a Documents link.
  • 03:30 And when you click in here, this is going to take you to your document library
  • 03:34 for that particular SharePoint site.
  • 03:35 Now, I don't have any documents in here at the moment, but if I did,
  • 03:39 everybody who is a member of this site would be able to access those documents.
  • 03:44 And if we click on where it says 4 members in the top corner, you can see here all of
  • 03:48 the people who currently have access to this SharePoint site.
  • 03:52 So it's a great way of being able to share documents and
  • 03:55 files with a restricted team of people.
  • 03:57 Now, of course, there is lots of other stuff that we can do in here.
  • 04:00 We can create team notebooks, we can create team pages, so on and so forth.
  • 04:06 As I said, this isn't a full-on SharePoint training lesson,
  • 04:09 but one thing that is really important to know is just the connection here
  • 04:12 between Outlook groups or Microsoft 365 groups and SharePoint.
  • 04:16 When we go to Outlook and we create a group in here, it feeds through and
  • 04:21 creates a SharePoint team site.
  • 04:23 And it's also true to say that when you do create a Microsoft 365 group and
  • 04:27 you add members, you can see here Project Alpha has four members.
  • 04:31 The site that gets created will also have those members.
  • 04:34 So it's going to carry across the members and their permission levels to that site.
  • 04:39 Now, as I mentioned, you don't need to know anything more about SharePoint in
  • 04:42 order to complete the rest of this course.
  • 04:44 The takeaway here is really to understand that many of
  • 04:49 the tools in Microsoft 365 are linked together and have relationships.

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