https://www.youtube.com/embed/O9dOvhbG9loWe recommend watching this video tutorial so you can see SharePoint in action.
You can also read our written tutorial below.
Video Transcript
Hi there! I’m Ashlyn with Fixed Fee IT. Welcome to our series on everything you need to know about Sharepoint. Today, we’re walking through how to access SharePoint through the web, how to follow a site, how to access the documents library, and how to bookmark that documents library. If you’re looking for a specific section of this tutorial, hover over the progress bar and select the part you need. Otherwise, let’s get started….
To begin, we’re going to walk through how to log in. Okay, so first we’re going to open our web browser and go to portal.office365.com. There are several other ways to get to the SharePoint site, but this is the easiest for us.
How to Login/Stay Signed In
Now you’ll see the login page. Type in your Office 365 or Microsoft login credentials and click “sign it”. You will now see a screen that says: “stay signed in?”. This option gives you the opportunity to save time when you need to access Sharepoint in the future. It will keep you signed in to your office 365 account on this device…as long as you don’t clear your browser history. It’s super convenient, especially if you will be using the Sharepoint in-browser frequently.
Once you have logged in, you will now see the Office 365 launchpad. This is where all of your Office 365 web applications will be. You’ll notice the most common web apps, like Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and One Drive. You can click the box icon at the top of this section to expand it, so it now shows more info on your apps and recently opened documents. Let’s click on Sharepoint and jump right into it.
Here you will see “Frequent Sites” and “Suggested Sites” if applicable. On the left, it shows any sites you’re following, plus recent sites you’ve visited. Now is a great time to explain what sites are in Sharepoint.
You might be familiar with OneDrive, which is where you can save your personal documents in cloud storage. Your OneDrive is for your documents only, like pictures, documents, and things only you need access to. Although, you can share documents with others as well. However, it is not for multiple people to utilize at once. That’s where Sharepoint comes in. As the name says, it’s a single point where everyone can share documents together. It’s specifically designed for sharing. That’s where sites come in.
Sites are used to separate your shared content into groups. For instance, your company could have an HR site, a Marketing site, an Accounting site, and so on and so forth. Your business needs are unique, so your SharePoint sites can be organized in whatever way that makes the most sense for your team.
How to Follow a SharePoint Site
A helpful way to stay organized within SharePoint sites is to follow sites. To follow a site, click the star icon in the upper right-hand corner of the applicable site box. Once you follow a site, it will pin itself in the “following” section to the left of the screen. Now, every time you go to Sharepoint, it will be easily accessible.
How to Get to a SharePoint Documents Library
To access a SharePoint documents library, head over to the site you’d like to access. Your homepage will look something like this. In the left-hand column, you will see different sections of this SharePoint. Select “Documents” in this section to access all the shared documents in this Sharepoint. Feel free to organize your documents to best fit your business’s needs.
How to Bookmark Sharepoint Documents Libraries
To bookmark a single SharePoint site to your bookmarks bar, click the star icon next to the Address/url bar. Next, select “add bookmark”. Name the bookmark something easy to remember, in my case “RevGen Sharepoint”, then select the “bookmark bar” section you just made in the folders section. It should show up in your bookmark bar, which you can enable by clicking the 3 dots in the upper right-hand corner, hovering over bookmarks, and selecting “show bookmark bar”. Or press shift+command+B on Mac or control+shift+B on windows.
Next, we’ll open the bookmarks manager in Google Chrome. To do that, open a new tab in Chrome. Then click the 3 dots in the upper right of your browser. Then hover over “bookmarks” and click “bookmark manager”. This will show all of the bookmarks that will appear in the top section of your Chrome Browser.
To create a folder for your different SharePoint sites, you can right-click in the gray area as shown. Then select “add new folder”. Name this folder something easy to identify, like “SharePoint”. Next, head over to the home page of the sites you’d like to bookmark. For instance, we will go to the homepage of Fixed Fee IT’s RevGen site. Once you’re there, click the star icon next to the Address/URL bar. Next, select “add bookmark”. Name the bookmark something easy to remember, in my case “RevGen Sharepoint”, then select the “SharePoint” folder you just made in the folders section. Then click “done”. You can do that for every applicable SharePoint site you’d like to bookmark. Using this method helps keep your bookmark bar organized and easy to navigate.
And that’s all I have for you in this section. Now you should be able to access SharePoint through the web, follow a site, access the documents library, bookmark that documents library. Check out our other SharePoint tutorials in our playlist. If you still have questions, feel free to reach out to our team at Fixed Fee IT. Thanks for watching!
