Add Cloud Storage to Teams

Quick reference

• 00:04 Throughout this course, we've looked at many different aspects of Microsoft 365.
• 00:08 And in this section, it is time to pull everything together in Microsoft Teams,
• 00:14 because many organizations look at Teams as the centralized collaboration hub.
• 00:19 We can do so many different things in Teams.
• 00:22 We can chat with colleagues and have conversations.
• 00:26 We can start video and audio meetings.
• 00:28 We can share files and connect to other applications.
• 00:33 And we've seen how everything interacts with Microsoft 365 groups and
• 00:38 SharePoint sites.
• 00:39 And for most organizations, particularly these days since the pandemic,
• 00:44 a vast number of employees spend most of their day working somewhere within Teams.
• 00:50 So making sure we understand how to pull all of the knowledge that we've gained so
• 00:54 far together when we're working in Teams is imperative.
• 00:57 So in this section, we're going to delve a bit further and
• 01:00 take a look at file management from within Teams.
• 01:03 And I'm going to show you how to add additional cloud storage systems to make
• 01:07 it really easy for you to upload and
• 01:09 share files that aren't necessarily located on your PC or in OneDrive.
• 01:13 We're also going to take a look at how we can add other applications into
• 01:18 Teams to really extend its capabilities.
• 01:21 And we're also going to take a look at how we can make our channels a lot more useful
• 01:25 by adding different tabs to display different pieces of information.
• 01:29 And then finally, we're going to jump into a Teams meeting again, and I'm going to
• 01:34 showcase to you some of the newer features like PowerPoint and Excel Live.
• 01:39 Again, these are great features when it comes to collaborating with others.
• 01:43 We've seen already how easy it is to share files that are stored in
• 01:48 OneDrive cloud storage.
• 01:50 And just as a quick reminder, if I was to start a new conversation at the bottom
• 01:54 here, if I wanted to share a file that I have stored in OneDrive,
• 01:58 I can simply click on the paperclip icon, and I can access OneDrive from here.
• 02:03 But what if I have files stored in other cloud storage applications?
• 02:07 Maybe I have files stored in SharePoint that I want to share, or
• 02:12 maybe they're in Google Drive.
• 02:14 How can I access those?
• 02:16 Well, it might be that if you click on the paperclip icon and
• 02:20 choose Upload from my computer, if you have SharePoint libraries or
• 02:25 your Google Drive storage synchronized to your PC,
• 02:29 then you can easily pick up the files that way.
• 02:32 But what if you don't?
• 02:33 What if you only have these existing in the online sphere?
• 02:37 Well, this is where we can add additional cloud storage directly into channels
• 02:41 within Teams.
• 02:42 So I'm currently clicked on the Design channel in the Mark 8 Project Team team.
• 02:47 And currently, I am clicked on the Posts tab, so we have quite a lively
• 02:52 conversation going back and forth between myself and other channel members.
• 02:57 Now, if we click across to the Files tab at the top here,
• 03:01 I can see the three files that have been shared within this channel so far.
• 03:05 So we have a couple of PowerPoint presentations and a GIF image.
• 03:09 Now, if I wanted to upload a file, for example, and
• 03:12 share with this channel, I could go to Upload,
• 03:15 I could choose Files, and again, it's going to jump me across to File Explorer.
• 03:20 But as I said, we might not necessarily have Google Drive files synced to our PC.
• 03:25 Fortunately, there is an alternative.
• 03:28 If we go all the way across to where we have these three dots,
• 03:32 notice we have an Add Cloud Storage option.
• 03:35 So if we click on this, it's going to open up this little window, and
• 03:39 we can choose the cloud storage that we want to add.
• 03:43 Now, if you're looking at this list and thinking, well, my cloud storage isn't
• 03:47 listed here, the only thing I can say to you is check back frequently,
• 03:51 as this is being updated all the time with different cloud storage applications.
• 03:55 Now, just for the purpose of demonstration,
• 03:58 we're going to link to SharePoint.
• 03:59 So let's click this, and now it's showing me some of my SharePoint sites.
• 04:05 And you can see at the top there, we have Project Alpha,
• 04:08 we have Sales and Marketing, so on, and so forth.
• 04:11 Now, if you can't see the SharePoint site that you want to add,
• 04:15 then don't panic, because we can also use a SharePoint link.
• 04:19 For example, if we go back to SharePoint, and
• 04:22 I'm just going to access this from the app launcher.
• 04:26 Let's open it up.
• 04:27 If for example the Sales and Marketing team site wasn't listed there,
• 04:32 what I could do is jump into the site in SharePoint and simply grab the URL.
• 04:38 So I could go up to here, I could Ctrl+C to copy in, go back to Teams and
• 04:43 click on Use a SharePoint Link, and then Ctrl+V to paste it in.
• 04:48 So when I click on Go, it's going to recognize it.
• 04:51 I can click on Next.
• 04:52 I can see here that I have a Documents folder within the Sales and
• 04:55 Marketing SharePoint site, which is perfect.
• 04:58 So let's select that and click on Next again.
• 05:01 And I'm going to choose Add Folder.
• 05:03 So check out what we now have, we now have a link to our SharePoint team site.
• 05:08 I can click to expand it, and then I can see any folders and files stored within.
• 05:14 So that is a great way of linking to other cloud storage systems and
• 05:18 making those files available to members of your Teams' channel.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.