How to Access and Use My Company's SharePoint Documents

There are multiple ways you can access important files that are in your organization's SharePoint. For example, you may choose the option of working via a Web Browser when signed in with your o365 account or from your local computer. Let’s review these options:

Web Browser 

One way to access is to open a Web Browser and go to https://portal.office.com and sign in. Then click on the SharePoint icon which will open it and show you all of the Sites that you are following and those that you have recently visited.

You can also get there directly from your local Outlook Client running on your computer. On the right-hand side of your Outlook Client, you can see all of the o365 Groups that you are a member of under "Groups".  

Click on any Group, then click the Home Tab at the top of outlook, then click on the Files icon highlighted below which will take you to your online SharePoint Page.

You can then work on the online version of the appropriate application such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. and your changes will be saved as you go.

Local Computer

Many people are used to working with their Files through Windows Explorer on their local machine. You can do that too. All you must do is Sync your files from the online version, and they will be loaded into your company’s OneDrive folder on your computer by clicking the "Sync" button Highlighted below.

The files will then be in your Windows File Explorer shown highlighted below. Any of the Groups that you chose to sync will show when expanded. (The other OneDrive is your personal OneDrive files for your o365 account)

You can then work out of File Explorer and all your changes will be synced to SharePoint just as if you were using the online version.

What Do the Icons in File Explorer Mean?

Below are the icons you will see on the Folders/Files to give you a status.

When you sync the SharePoint Group it loads the entire Folder/File structure onto your computer but doesn't download all the files which would use your computer's hard drive space.  

The Blue cloud (Online-only) shows that the files are currently just online.

The Green check with white background (On this device) is shown when you open a file (it downloads to your computer as a local copy and then sync's it from your computer back up to the cloud as you make changes).

The White check with the green background (Always available) is shown when you have right-clicked a file and selected Make Available Offline (this is handy when you know you need to work on a file and will not have an internet connection) - a caveat is that when you are back online, the file will sync back up to SharePoint (knowing your data and team will be helpful in case someone was also editing this file while you were offline so you can properly merge any changes).

If you would like to discuss any aspects of SharePoint and more, contact us at iuvo Technologies today and we will be happy to help!