Teams/SharePoint/OneDrive File Management
There are many different ways and places to save your files using Microsoft Office 365 applications. This article hopes to gives you options and explain how these applications interact with each other.
Teams vs. SharePoint vs. OneDrive
Every Team created also has an associated SharePoint site. When you click on the Files tab within a Team, you are accessing that Team’s SharePoint files. You can access these same files in the SharePoint site by clicking on the Documents tab (shown in the screenshot below).
You can access Teams either via a desktop or mobile application or on the web. SharePoint can ONLY be accessed on the web.
In order to view files in a Team, they must be within one of the Team channel folders (ex. General, Client Services Team, Curriculum Review, etc., whatever your channel name may be). If you access Team files via the SharePoint site and create a new folder that lives outside of one of those channel folders, you will not be able to view that in Teams. In order to avoid confusion, be sure that any new files or folders added via SharePoint are filed under one of the channel folders. In the screenshot below, you can see there is one folder for the General channel files and called “Example 1”. Because there is no channel in our Help Desk Team called “Example 1”, that folder and any files in it would not be accessible via Teams. Best practices would be to move that folder into the General channel folder OR create a new channel within the Team that this folder/files can be filed under.
OneDrive should only store your personal files that no one else in the Westminster community needs access to. There may be a situation where you want to share documents with users outside of our organization (who do not have Westminster email accounts), in which case you could store and share files from OneDrive. Please submit a Help Desk ticket if you would like assistance with this. OneDrive can be accessed via the desktop application, mobile application, or web application. The desktop application syncs with your computer’s native file management application - File Explorer for PC computers and Finder for Mac’s. You can download the mobile application from the App Store or Google Play Store. The web application can be accessed by going to your Westminster Outlook email on the web (email.westminsteru.edu or the EMAIL button at the top of the Current Student and Faculty & Staff Resources pages), clicking the waffle menu at the top left, then selecting Teams.
Accessing Files
Syncing Files to File Explorer (PC) or Finder (Mac)
You can sync your OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint files with your computer’s native file management application - File Explorer for PC computers and Finder for Mac’s. Once synced, the files will autosave as you work on them and automatically sync with SharePoint, Teams, or OneDrive so that everyone who has access to the documents will see live updates, whether they are accessing through the Teams desktop, mobile, or web application or the SharePoint web application. This reduces risk of duplicate file versions and potential for lost edits.
File Explorer (PC):
Your personal OneDrive, when synced, will show up at the top of your sidebar as OneDrive - Westminster University.
Any synced SharePoints or Teams will show up under Westminster University. When you click on that dropdown, it will show all SharePoints/Teams that you have synced, each as their own folder.
Finder (Mac):
Your personal OneDrive, when synced, will show up under your Favorites as OneDrive - Westminster University.
Any synced SharePoints or Teams will show up under Locations as OneDrive - Shared Libraries - Westminster University. When you click on that OneDrive location, it will show all SharePoints/Teams that you have synced, each as their own folder.
You’ll want to save any files that need to be shared in the SharePoint/Teams synced folders and NOT in your personal OneDrive folders. You can ask yourself, “If I ever left the University, would someone need access to this file?” If the answer is yes, save it in a SharePoint or Team folder. If the answer is no, you can save it to your personal OneDrive.
When an employee leaves the University and their account is deactivated, their personal OneDrive files will only be retained for 30 days, then they will be permanently deleted by Microsoft. This is why it is so important to save shared files in the appropriate SharePoint or Team.
File Access Through Teams
You can access your files through the Teams desktop application, mobile application, or web application.
Desktop Application
The Teams desktop application will come pre-installed on your University-issued computer. You can use the Start search bar on a PC or the Finder spotlight search icon on a Mac to search for “Teams” and open the application. You can then pin this to your taskbar (PC) or add it to your dock (Mac) if you’d like to access it more quickly next time. Once you open Teams, you can click the Teams button on the left navigation bar, select the Team that has the files you want to access, select the channel that the files you want to access, and then click the Files tab on the top navigation bar within the Team. Any changes made to files here will sync everywhere.
You can install the desktop application onto your personal computer for free by going to Microsoft’s site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app.
Web Application
You can access Teams on the web by going to teams.microsoft.com. You can also access it by opening your Westminster Outlook email on the web (email.westminsteru.edu or the EMAIL button at the top of the Current Student and Faculty & Staff Resources pages), clicking the waffle menu at the top left, then selecting Teams. Then you can access your files the same way as the desktop app: Click the Teams button on the left navigation bar, select the Team that has the files you want to access, select the channel that the files you want to access, and then click the Files tab on the top navigation bar within the Team. Any changes made to files here will sync everywhere.
Mobile Application
The Teams mobile application can be downloaded from the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android). Once you download and sign in using your Westminster University email address and password, click on the Teams icon on the bottom navigation bar. Select the Team that has the files you need, select the correct channel, then click the Files button on the top navigation bar. Any changes made to files here will sync everywhere.
File Access Through Sharepoint
SharePoint does not have a desktop or mobile application. You can only access it through the web. You can get there by going to your Westminster Outlook email on the web (email.westminsteru.edu or the EMAIL button at the top of the Current Student and Faculty & Staff Resources pages), clicking the waffle menu at the top left, then selecting SharePoint. Once open, select the SharePoint site that has the files you want to access, then click on Documents in the lefthand navigation bar. Any changes made here will sync everywhere, as long as the file/folder you are editing is within a Teams channel folder. If you are working in a SharePoint that does not have an associated Team, you don’t need to worry about that.