Share Files in Viva Engage (Yammer)

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About this lesson

Learn how to share files in Viva Engage (Yammer) communities and how file libraries are linked together across Microsoft 365 applications.

Quick reference

Share Files in Viva Engage (Yammer)

Share files and folders in Viva Engage communities and understand how file libraries work together.

When to use

When collaborating with co-workers in Viva Engage communities it's important to know how to share files and also how files shared in Viva Engage are connected to SharePoint and Outlook file libraries

Instructions

Sharing files in Viva Engage is similar to sharing files in Microsoft Teams with a few key differences. 

Share a File from the Home Feed

  • Open Engage from the App Launcher
  • From the Home feed, in the "Share thoughts, ideas or updates" box at the top, click inside the box
  • Type a message

Below the message, you can see "My Storyline", the default location where you will share your post. You can share with additional people by clicking "Add People" and selecting them.

You can also change the community with whom you are sharing your post or file: 

  • Click "X" next to "My Storyline" to clear the community
  • Click where it says Select a community or storyline

  • Choose a community from the list
  • Click the Attach button
  • Choose a file in File Explorer
  • Click Open
  • Click Post

The attachment and post will appear in the Home feed but it will also show in the community it's posted in. 

We have some additional options for working with any document we share in a community which we can access by clicking the three dots. 

File Library in Viva Engage

We can share files in Viva Engage so that they appear in communities and feeds. However, there is a centralized area in Viva Engage where we can view and open any file that has been shared. This means we don't have to scroll through long conversations to find the file we've been looking for. 

  • Scroll to the top of the community page
  • Click on Files

Viva Engage files are stored in the Apps folder. The document library we see here is the same as the document library in SharePoint. 

Viva Engage Files in SharePoint

  • Open SharePoint from the App Launcher
  • Click on the relevant site
  • Click on Documents

We should see the same files and folders.

Yammer is now Viva Engage

  • Please note: When this lesson was recorded, Microsoft was in the process of rebranding Yammer to Viva Engage. If you visit Microsoft 365 now, you should no longer see any branding mentioning "Yammer", but if you do, note that Yammer is now known as Viva Engage.
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  • 00:03 Sharing files in Yammer or Viva Engage as it's now known is pretty much
  • 00:08 the same as sharing files in Teams with a few key differences.
  • 00:13 So let's click on the app launcher and let's fire up Engage.
  • 00:18 Now when we first go into Viva Engage,
  • 00:20 you'll notice that it defaults to our home feed.
  • 00:23 And right at the top of the home feed here, this is where we can add posts.
  • 00:28 So if I click in the Share thoughts, ideas, or updates area,
  • 00:32 I can type a post and I can attach a file to share.
  • 00:36 Now before we type our message,
  • 00:37 the most important thing here is where we're actually sharing this file.
  • 00:42 And notice that by default it's going to share to My storyline.
  • 00:46 And we spoke about My storyline earlier.
  • 00:49 My storyline is your personal feed where you can share updates and
  • 00:53 other people can choose to follow and receive those updates.
  • 00:57 So the default here is My storyline and there is the Attach file button.
  • 01:02 Now I can add other people into here as well.
  • 01:04 So maybe I want to share it to My storyline but
  • 01:07 I also want to share it with Adele.
  • 01:09 I can simply select the person that I want to share with to add them
  • 01:13 into this two field.
  • 01:14 Now maybe I don't want to share to My storyline and
  • 01:17 I don't want to share with specific people.
  • 01:19 Maybe I want to share a file with an entire community.
  • 01:23 Well, if that's the case, I can click the cross to deselect both of these
  • 01:28 because we can also select a community from here as well.
  • 01:31 So if we click in the field,
  • 01:33 you can see all of the other communities that we have access to.
  • 01:38 So maybe I want to share it with the Project Juliet community,
  • 01:42 I can select it from the list, I can add my message, and then I can attach my file.
  • 01:47 So I can browse my cloud locations or I can attach a file from my PC.
  • 01:51 So let's go for Attach File and I'm just going to attach Sales.xlsx.
  • 01:58 Let's select it, let's click on Open.
  • 02:00 And now when I click on Post,
  • 02:02 it's going to post that through to the community.
  • 02:04 And anybody who's a member of that community will see that file,
  • 02:08 they can open it up, and they can work on it.
  • 02:11 So let's jump across to the Project Juliet community.
  • 02:15 I have it saved under Favorites.
  • 02:17 Now, if we scroll down, there is the post that I just made.
  • 02:22 Now anybody who's accessing this post through the community can choose to do
  • 02:26 numerous things with this file.
  • 02:28 If we click on the three dots on the right-hand side,
  • 02:31 we can download the file and essentially download a copy to work on.
  • 02:35 We can copy the link to the file.
  • 02:37 We can edit it in a new tab.
  • 02:39 Now, because this is an Excel file, we can edit it in Excel Online,
  • 02:44 or we can preview this document.
  • 02:46 So there's a few different actions that we can take on this file from there.
  • 02:49 Now another thing that's really useful when it comes to working with files in
  • 02:54 community is the Files tab at the top here.
  • 02:56 If you can imagine, some communities are extremely active, so
  • 02:59 there's lots of conversation going on all the time.
  • 03:02 And if you're looking for a specific file that somebody shared,
  • 03:05 we don't want to have to be scrolling up and
  • 03:07 down searching through long conversations trying to find what we're looking for.
  • 03:11 So the files tab will show exactly that,
  • 03:14 all files that have been shared within this community.
  • 03:18 And you'll see that we get an Apps folder and Viva Engage folder.
  • 03:23 Now the reason why we have folders like this is because what we're seeing here is
  • 03:28 essentially the SharePoint document library.
  • 03:30 So to distinguish Engage files from other SharePoint files,
  • 03:34 they're placed inside their own folder.
  • 03:37 So when we drill down, there is the file.
  • 03:40 Now let's just open up SharePoint and take a look at that because I think that will
  • 03:45 solidify this process a bit clearer in your mind.
  • 03:47 So I'm going to go back to the app launcher and let's open up SharePoint.
  • 03:51 So I've just selected the Project Juliet site.
  • 03:54 And if we go to Documents, that's going to take us into the document library.
  • 03:58 We have the Apps folder just there, we have a Viva Engage folder,
  • 04:03 and there is our file.
  • 04:05 So really simple and straightforward to share files of different types
  • 04:10 with other people, with your community, or to your storyline.

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