These resources offer a comprehensive introduction to Microsoft SharePoint Online and its integration within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. They guide users through accessing SharePoint, understanding different site types like team and communication sites, and navigating their features. The materials also explain how to manage and customize SharePoint sites, including navigation, appearance, and the application of site templates. Furthermore, they cover collaboration tools such as Microsoft 365 Groups, file management with OneDrive for Business, and methods for discovering and managing content and user profiles within the platform. Finally, the resources touch upon site administration, including site creation, deletion, and restoration.

Microsoft SharePoint Online Study Guide

Quiz

Explain the primary purpose of Microsoft SharePoint Online in 2-3 sentences.
Describe two different roles a user might have when interacting with a SharePoint Online site.
What is Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), and how does it relate to accessing SharePoint Online?
Outline the steps a user would typically take to access their SharePoint Online account.
Identify and briefly describe the function of the “app launcher” in the Microsoft 365 environment.
Explain the difference between the online/web-based versions of Microsoft applications and their desktop counterparts within the context of a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Describe the search functionality within the Microsoft 365 home page and highlight one of its key features.
What is a Microsoft 365 group, and what are two benefits it provides for collaboration?
Briefly explain the purpose of OneDrive for Business and how it can be accessed.
What is the SharePoint start page, and what are two things a user can do from this page?

Quiz Answer Key

Microsoft SharePoint Online is a web-based platform and cloud service designed to help organizations manage and share content and knowledge effectively. It empowers teamwork by facilitating quick information retrieval and creating seamless collaboration through the web.
A typical user in a SharePoint site might primarily view and interact with content, such as reading documents or viewing web pages. A site owner, on the other hand, has administrative responsibilities, including managing site content, permissions, and overall structure.
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service that includes web-based versions of Microsoft Office applications and other online services, including SharePoint Online. It serves as a common gateway through which users can access various Microsoft cloud platforms, including SharePoint.
To access SharePoint Online, a user typically starts by going to office.com or microsoft365.com in a web browser and signing in with their organizational email address and password. Once logged in to the Microsoft 365 home page, they can then locate and click on the SharePoint icon (often a stylized “S”) in the app launcher or navigation pane.
The app launcher, often symbolized by nine dots or a “waffle” icon in the top left corner of the Microsoft 365 interface, is a menu that provides quick access to all the Microsoft 365 applications available to the user, including Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
Online or web-based versions of Microsoft applications are accessed through a web browser and are part of the Microsoft 365 subscription, allowing users to work from any device with internet access. Desktop applications, in contrast, are installed directly onto a computer’s hard drive and typically require the user to be on that specific machine to access the software.
The search functionality within the Microsoft 365 home page offers a powerful way to find content across various applications and services, including file contents, site names, people, news, and conversations. A key feature is its ability to search not only file titles but also the content within the files and even text within images.
A Microsoft 365 group is a service that connects different Microsoft 365 tools, allowing a defined set of people to collaborate effectively. Two benefits include a shared inbox and calendar for streamlined communication and scheduling, as well as a shared document library for centralized file storage and collaboration.
OneDrive for Business is a personal cloud storage space associated with a user’s work or school Microsoft 365 account, allowing them to store, protect, and share their files. It can be accessed by clicking the blue cloud icon labeled “OneDrive” on the Microsoft 365 home page or through the app launcher.
The SharePoint start page is the initial screen users see when they access SharePoint Online. From this page, users can view news and updates from across their organization, see and navigate to SharePoint sites they frequently visit or follow, and use a global search to find content, sites, and people within their Microsoft 365 environment.

Essay Format Questions

Discuss the key differences between a SharePoint Online team site and a communication site, highlighting their respective purposes and typical use cases within an organization.
Explain the strategic considerations involved in planning the structure and navigation of a new SharePoint Online site, emphasizing the importance of user experience and site maintainability.
Describe the evolution of site organization in SharePoint Online, contrasting the use of subsites with the modern approach utilizing team sites, communication sites, and hub sites. Analyze the benefits and drawbacks of each method.
Outline the various ways a site owner can customize the look and feel of a SharePoint Online site, including the use of themes, headers, and navigation settings, and discuss the impact of branding on user engagement and site recognition.
Discuss the administrative responsibilities associated with managing SharePoint Online sites, including site creation, deletion, restoration, and the importance of understanding user permissions and site governance policies.

Glossary of Key Terms

App Launcher: A menu (often a nine-dot grid or “waffle” icon) in the Microsoft 365 interface that provides access to all available Microsoft 365 applications and services.
Cloud-based Service: A service, such as software or data storage, that is hosted on remote servers and accessed over the internet, rather than being installed or stored locally on a user’s device.
Communication Site: A type of SharePoint site designed primarily for broadcasting information, news, and updates to a large audience in a visually appealing format.
Document Library: A specific type of list in SharePoint used for storing, organizing, and managing files and documents. It offers features like version control and metadata.
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365): A subscription service offered by Microsoft that includes a suite of web-based applications (like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and cloud services such as SharePoint Online and OneDrive.
Microsoft 365 Group: A service within Microsoft 365 that allows a group of people to collaborate more effectively by sharing resources like a common inbox, calendar, and SharePoint site.
OneDrive for Business: A personal cloud storage service associated with a user’s work or school Microsoft 365 account, used for storing, syncing, and sharing files.
SharePoint Online: A cloud-based platform and service from Microsoft that enables organizations to share and manage content, collaborate on projects, and build internal websites and portals.
SharePoint Start Page: The initial landing page in SharePoint Online that provides users with access to news, frequently visited sites, followed sites, and a search bar for finding content.
Site Owner: A user with administrative permissions over a specific SharePoint site, responsible for managing its content, settings, user access, and overall structure.
Team Site: A type of SharePoint site designed for collaboration among a team of people, providing a shared space for files, communication, and project management tools.
Tenant: A dedicated instance of the Microsoft 365 service provisioned for an organization. It includes all the organization’s users, data, and configurations within the Microsoft cloud.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The web address of a resource on the internet, such as a SharePoint site or page. Understanding the components of a SharePoint URL can provide insights into the site’s structure.

Briefing Document: Microsoft SharePoint Online Fundamentals

Date: October 26, 2023 Prepared For: Individuals seeking to understand and utilize Microsoft SharePoint Online. Sources: Excerpts from “Pasted Text” (a transcript of a Microsoft SharePoint Online introductory course).

Executive Summary

This document summarizes the key themes and concepts introduced in the initial modules of a Microsoft SharePoint Online course. The course aims to equip new users and prospective site owners with the foundational knowledge to manage and share content, create engaging web pages, and understand the roles and potential of the SharePoint Online platform within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The primary focus is on accessing SharePoint Online through Microsoft 365, navigating its environment, understanding different site types (Team and Communication), and basic site management principles.

Main Themes and Important Ideas/Facts

1. Introduction to SharePoint Online

Definition: SharePoint Online is a web-based, cloud-based platform from Microsoft designed to help organizations share and manage content and knowledge, empower teamwork, facilitate information discovery, and enable seamless collaboration.
Quote: “SharePoint online is a cloud-based service some organizations use it in conjunction with Microsoft 365 and some of them use it as a standalone web-based application or platform but the great thing about SharePoint online is that it really helps organizations to share and manage content and knowledge by empowering teamwork quickly helping them to find information and creating seamless collaboration through the web.”
Target Audience: The course is designed for individuals new to SharePoint and those looking to create and manage their own SharePoint sites or become new site owners.
Quote: “This class is designed for someone who is new to SharePoint in this course we’re going to explore how to access SharePoint online through office 365.”
Potential: SharePoint Online offers significant potential for both site owners and end users in managing and sharing content and creating engaging web pages.
Quote: “You’ll be amazed at the great potential that SharePoint online has for both the site owner and the end user.”

2. Accessing SharePoint Online through Microsoft 365

The Gateway: SharePoint Online is primarily accessed through Microsoft Office 365 (now Microsoft 365), a subscription-based suite of web-based services.
Quote: “The first thing we need to do to access SharePoint online is actually go into another Microsoft platform called Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft 365.”
Login Process: Users can access Microsoft 365 by navigating to office.com in a web browser (e.g., Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome) and signing in with their organizational email address and password.
Quote: “To do that we’re going to be logging into the office.com site… right here I need to click on sign in and then of course I’m going to paste in my email address… and then I’m going to click on next I’ll need to provide my organizational email address because I will be logging into a work Office 365 account.”
Homepage Overview: The Microsoft 365 homepage provides access to various online applications and recently accessed files. Key elements include the app launcher (waffle/Rubik’s Cube icon), organization name, and the online versions of Office applications.
Quote: “Number one top left hand corner I have the app launcher next to it I might see my organization’s name and then that I’m in office but this is the online version of office so again this will be our jumping point to get into SharePoint online.”
Cloud-Based Nature: Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online are cloud-based applications, requiring only a computer, web browser, and internet connection to access.
Quote: “When we’re talking about Microsoft 365 we’re talking about web-based applications these are cloud-based applications meaning that all you need for them to run is actually your computer a web browser and the internet.”

3. Navigating the Microsoft 365 Environment

App Launcher: The app launcher provides access to all available Microsoft 365 applications, including SharePoint. Users can pin frequently used apps to the launcher for easier access.
Quote: “This is called the app launcher sometimes people give it other names like the Rubik’s Cube or the waffle but the correct term is app launcher and from anywhere where you are in Microsoft 365 this allows you to see a list of all your M365 applications.”
Creating New Content: From the Microsoft 365 homepage, users can create new online versions of Word documents, Excel workbooks, and PowerPoint presentations directly in their web browser. These are automatically saved to OneDrive for Business.
Quote: “Over on the left hand side in my navigation pane I have the ability to create new content using Microsoft 365. when I click on this create button you’re going to see that it gives me options to create new Word documents PowerPoint presentations even Excel files using the online versions of the Microsoft applications.”
Search Functionality: Microsoft 365 offers a powerful search capability that searches through file titles, content, SharePoint sites, people, news, conversations (Outlook, Teams), and even text within images.
Quote: “When you do a search on your Microsoft Office 365 home page it’s not only going to be searching through the titles of files it searches through their contents.”
Customization: Users can customize their Microsoft 365 environment by changing the theme, switching to dark mode, and pinning/unpinning apps from the app launcher. These settings can be accessed via the settings gear icon.
Quote: “If I go to the top right hand corner of my Microsoft 365 home page you’re going to see a little white gear this is something that you will see throughout Office 365 web-based applications this represents the way to basically get into your defaults for your Microsoft 365 account.”

4. Understanding Microsoft 365 Groups

Definition: Microsoft 365 Groups are a service within Microsoft 365 that connect different collaboration tools. They allow a group of people to share documents, create spreadsheets, work on project plans, schedule meetings, and send emails to the group.
Quote: “Microsoft 365 group now groups are a service that work inside Microsoft 365. they help you really to connect different tools that you need to collaborate with a Microsoft 365 group you can take a group of people and actually write documents create spreadsheets work on project plans even schedule meetings or send email to that group of people.”
Accessing Groups: Groups can be accessed primarily through Microsoft Outlook (online and desktop). In Outlook online, groups are found at the bottom of the folder pane. In Outlook desktop, they are listed in the folder pane as well.
Quote (Outlook Online): “Inside of Outlook online to access my groups I’m going to come over to my folder pane… then to access your groups you’re going to want to scroll all the way down to the bottom you’ll see that groups are also something that can be expanded and collapsed so make sure that you have them open so that you can see them.”
Quote (Outlook Desktop): “Inside Outlook desktop and I want to access my groups notice over here that I have my folder task pane open and if I come down towards the bottom I’m going to see the groups that I’m part of inside my organization.”
Collaboration Tools within Groups: Each Microsoft 365 Group comes with a shared inbox, shared files (stored in a SharePoint document library), a shared calendar, a shared OneNote notebook, and often an associated Planner for task management and a SharePoint Team Site.
Quote (Shared Files): “To access that area and come directly to this little piece of paper button this is actually way to go to the shared files that this group has in common when I click on it it takes me to what’s called a document Library this is actually part of a SharePoint site but we’re able to access it here from inside the Outlook web application.”
Quote (Shared Calendar): “I’m going to come up now again and click on the shared calendar button this takes me into another browser tab for the calendar web application and it’s going to take me specifically to the group calendar that’s been set up.”
Quote (Planner): “Planner is a task application that’s part of your Microsoft 365 platform and when you click on planner it opens up the Microsoft planner application inside of a browser tab… for viewing tasks inside of what are called buckets.”
Quote (SharePoint Site): “When I click on site I’m going to see another browser tab open this is taking me to a SharePoint site it’s actually what we call a team site it’s a site that’s been created to allow my Microsoft group to have a place to collaborate within a website.”
Creating and Managing Groups: Users can create new Microsoft 365 Groups through Outlook (online). When creating a group, users can define the name, description, privacy settings (public or private), and whether members receive notifications. Owners can manage group membership.
Quote (Creating): “To make a new group of my own I’m going to select new group this is going to take me into where I can give my new group a name as I do this it’s going to create an email account for my group I can update this by just changing this name up here I’m also going to include a description this would help other people if they were discovering my group to know what my group is about.”
Quote (Managing): “For this I have a manage groups option when I click here it’s going to take me and show me the different groups that I’m currently part of in fact it refreshes and opens up the People application because this is where my group membership is managed from.”

5. Understanding Delve (Microsoft 365 Profile)

Purpose: Delve is an application within Microsoft 365 that helps users discover and organize information based on their activity and connections within the organization. It tracks files worked on and people collaborated with.
Quote: “With your profile Microsoft keeps track of where you go files that you work on even people that you work with inside your organization now this might sound scary but it’s not they use an application called Dell to help you manage this information and it’s really made to help you discover and organize the info.”
Permissions: Delve respects existing permissions, so users will only see documents they already have access to. Private documents remain private.
Quote: “Delve is never going to change any permissions you’ll only see documents that you already have access to and other people will never see your private documents.”
Accessing Delve: Delve can be accessed from the user’s profile picture or initials on the Microsoft 365 homepage or by searching for “Delve” in the search bar or app launcher.
Quote: “From my home page I’m going to come to the top right hand corner to my picture or initials and click and down here I’ll see a hyperlink that will give me access to my office profile when I click on this it’s going to take me to an application called Dell.”
Features: Delve displays recent documents, people users work with, and a home screen showing recent documents their colleagues are working on. Users can favorite documents and navigate to colleagues’ profile pages.
Quote (Home Screen): “When I go to my home screen I’m going to see recent documents that co-workers have worked on they’re going to appear on little cards that are called content cards and the idea is that it tells me the type of file when it was last updated and also where it’s stored.”
Safety and Privacy: Delve does not store files; it’s a tool to access them. It does not change permissions, and only users can see their private documents within Delve.
Quote: “Yes your documents are safe inside of delve delve will never change permissions for your documents and only you can see your private documents in delve and also your files aren’t actually stored in Dell delve is just the tool to help you access the files.”

6. Understanding OneDrive for Business

Definition: OneDrive for Business is cloud storage within a user’s Microsoft 365 account for storing, protecting, and sharing work or school files. It can be accessed from any device.
Quote: “OneDrive for business it’s also sometimes called OneDrive for work or school so what is OneDrive OneDrive is really the cloud storage that is part of your Office 365 account just for you it lets you store and protect your files and share them with others and get them from any device.”
Storage Space: Users typically get over one terabyte of storage space.
Quote: “With Microsoft 365 you can get over one terabyte of space for storing your files.”
Accessing OneDrive: OneDrive for Business can be accessed from the Microsoft 365 homepage via the app launcher or by searching for it.
Quote: “I can also come over to my app launcher and I’ll see OneDrive there as well.”
Interface: The OneDrive for Business interface includes a command bar at the top and a navigation pane on the left, with views for “My files,” “Recent,” “Shared,” and the “Recycle bin.”
Quote: “A few common interface settings is that you’ll see a command bar at the top also on the left you’re going to see a navigation pane the default view in OneDrive for business is called my files this is exactly what we’re seeing here.”
File Management: Users can create new folders and files, drag and drop files into folders, and upload files and folders from their local computer or network drive.
Quote (Creating Folders): “Up in the command bar I’m going to see options to help me manage content one of them is that I can create new folders and files using office 365. I’m going to create a new folder I can name it and then I can take my files and store them inside the folder.”
Quote (Uploading): “For this I’m going to use my upload button with my upload button I can upload files and folders.”
Synchronization: OneDrive files can be synchronized with a user’s local computer using the OneDrive sync client, allowing access through File Explorer. Changes made locally are automatically synced to the cloud.
Quote: “The other thing that some people will do is synchronize their OneDrive files synchronizing can be important if you don’t want to have to come to this site to be able to access your OneDrive files it actually allows you after we’ve synchronized to access your files from your file explorer.”
Sharing Files: Users can share files with colleagues by generating a link (internal or sometimes external to the organization) and granting either view-only or editing permissions. Shared files are indicated in the OneDrive view.
Quote: “Up in the command bar you’ll see a share button also if you come to the ellipses next to the file’s name you’ll have another option to share now remember sharing is not like emailing a file that’s attached through email because when we email file attachments it recreates a copy of the file… when I share a file through OneDrive I’m giving my co-worker or the person I’m sharing the file with a link to the file it’s not creating copies of it.”

7. Introduction to SharePoint Online Sites

Accessing SharePoint: Users can access SharePoint Online from the Microsoft 365 homepage via the app launcher or by searching for “SharePoint.” This leads to the SharePoint start page.
Quote: “From my Microsoft 365 home page I’m going to come up to the search bar and type in SharePoint… as I come to SharePoint we’re going to see that I’m still in Office 365 so I can see the app launcher… and also that I’m now inside of SharePoint.”
SharePoint Start Page: This page displays content cards for news updates and SharePoint sites the user has permission to access. Users can favorite sites to follow them.
Quote: “This area that I’m in right now is called the SharePoint start page instead of seeing a specific SharePoint site what I’m seeing are content cards that allow me to see different news updates or sites that are part of my organization it’s a great way to explore what kinds of sites your organization has.”
Searching within SharePoint: The search bar on the SharePoint start page allows for a global search across SharePoint, OneDrive, and other Microsoft 365 content, with pre-filtered results for files, sites, people, news, images, and Power BI reports.
Quote: “If I come up here and do a search and it can be for people it can be for Content it can be for anything it’s a very very Global search because not only am I searching through SharePoint I’m searching through my OneDrive I’m searching through anything that’s stored within my Microsoft 365 account.”
Navigating a SharePoint Site: Once on a SharePoint site (e.g., a Team Site), users will see common elements like the site title, navigation (often on the left or top), search bar (scoped to the site by default), and user login information.
Quote: “I’m now on a SharePoint site this is what we call a SharePoint team site now a couple of common features that you’ll see in a SharePoint site we’re still inside of Office 365 so I see the app launcher also notice right now the search bar tells me that if I do a search it will default to just search the site that I’m in.”
Common Site Content: SharePoint sites often contain document libraries (for storing files) and SharePoint lists (for tracking tabular data like product lists or contacts).
Quote (Document Library): “I’d like to do is take you to a really common piece of content called a document Library when I click on documents it’s going to take me to a list of folders and files that this department has stored inside their SharePoint site.”
Quote (SharePoint List): “For this I’m going to come over to my site navigation and go to product list this is an example of a SharePoint list with products here I’m going to see information that would normally be stored in a spreadsheet but here it’s just right inside of my SharePoint site.”

8. Types of SharePoint Sites: Communication Sites

Purpose: Communication sites are designed to share news, reports, status updates, and other information visually with a broad audience. They are primarily for broadcasting information.
Quote: “What exactly is a communication site in Microsoft 365 a communication site is a way to share news reports and status and other information in a visually compelling way a Communications site is really made to broadcast information to a broad audience.”
Membership: Typically have a small number of content contributors and a much larger audience of information consumers.
Quote: “Usually a communication site only has a small set of members that contribute content but then that content is consumed by a much larger audience.”
Microsoft 365 Group Association: Do not automatically create a Microsoft 365 Group.
Quote: “When you create a communication site a Microsoft 365 group is not created.”
Common Features: Often include news releases, links to resources, calendars of events, and sometimes integration with platforms like Yammer for leadership communication.

9. Types of SharePoint Sites: Team Sites

Purpose: Team sites are designed to connect teams, allowing them to share resources, collaborate on files, and create and manage lists of information. They are focused on collaboration.
Quote: “Team sites allow you to connect you and your team together to share resources and content team sites are a great place to store and collaborate on files and even create and manage lists of information.”
Membership: Team sites have a defined set of members (team owners and members) who typically have permissions to edit content at different levels.
Quote: “If you go to the top right hand corner you’re going to see a list of team members when you click on this list you’re going to see that some of them are team owners and some of them are members but both a team owner and a team member have permission to edit content on this site at different levels.”
Microsoft 365 Group Association: Often associated with a Microsoft 365 Group, which helps manage membership and provides additional tools like a team calendar, shared OneNote notebook, and Planner.
Quote (Team Calendar): “Often team sites are going to be regulated by an Office 365 group that is helping to manage the membership of your team this calendar will take me to exchange online and let me see a calendar that’s been created for my Mark 8 project team.”
Quote (OneNote Notebook): “When a team site is created for a group of people an empty OneNote notebook is created that can be accessed from the team site.”
Quote (Planner): “These planners are created again when the site is created this particular one when we open it up will open in planner this is of course a task management application that’s part of The Office 365 experience.”
Common Features: Include left-hand navigation, recycle bin, document library, team calendar, OneNote notebook, and Planner app.

10. Planning and Creating SharePoint Sites

Importance of Planning: Before creating a site, it’s crucial to plan the site’s organization, including navigation, lists, libraries, and pages, to ensure ease of maintenance and user productivity.
Quote: “When a site’s content is logically organized and easy to find it’s going to be easier to maintain and manage it also helps your site users to be more productive so as a site owner you need to plan out your site and there needs to be some strategy involved before you get started.”
Site Collections: SharePoint sites and their associated content (pages, libraries, apps) form a site collection.
Quote: “With SharePoint online you will have what’s called a site collection which means the different pages that make up your site the document libraries the different applications all come together in a collection that is your SharePoint site.”
Permissions to Create: Typically, only users with specific permissions granted by a SharePoint or M365 administrator can create new SharePoint sites.
Quote: “Keep in mind that to create a SharePoint site you have to have permission to do so in a lot of organizations normal users cannot create SharePoint sites and there is a request process that you need to go through and your site will be created for you a SharePoint admin or an M365 Global admin can give you the ability to create sites through permissioning.”
Creating a Team Site: From the SharePoint start page, users with permission can click “Create site” and choose “Team site.” They need to provide a site name (which also creates an Office 365 Group and calendar), a site description, privacy settings (private or public), and add members and owners. The site URL is created based on the site name and is not easily changed later.
Quote: “I’m going to click on create site on the right hand side a panel opens up asking me the type of site I want to create… we’re going to do a team site now I need to name my site after my site’s named I’m also going to see that underneath it’s creating an Office 365 group and also a calendar… this group and calendar are important because they’re going to help me manage calendar events and also communicate with the different users of my site using email the other thing that’s really critical here that’s created is your site URL this is something that cannot be changed very easily after the site is created your site name can always be updated later on.”
Adding Members and Owners: When creating a team site, users can add colleagues as site members (with editing permissions) or site owners (with more administrative control). The site creator is automatically a site owner.
Quote: “At this point I need to start typing in the names of my co-workers who will be able to access this site as I type these co-workers names in they’re actually populating from my company address list or my active directory this makes it really easy for me to go in and quickly start creating the members of my site these are again the people who will be able to access and edit content on my site… I can actually at this point before I’m even done creating the site allocate either my different site members to be owners or site members… because Megan’s creating the site she will also automatically be assigned the role of a site owner.”

11. Managing the Look and Feel of SharePoint Sites

Site Templates: After site creation (and accessible via Site Settings), users can apply pre-designed site templates provided by Microsoft or their organization to quickly add content and structure based on common scenarios (e.g., event planning, project management). Templates update the site’s content, color, and add web parts.
Quote: “Here in my training opportunities team site that I just created I’d like to go ahead and apply one of the site templates to this site to do that I’m going to go to my site settings site settings are located in the top right hand corner of SharePoint online directly from your SharePoint site… about fourth from the bottom in the top menu I’ll see apply a site template when I click on this it will open up the site templates.”
Site Settings: A central place to manage various aspects of a SharePoint site, accessed via the gear icon in the top right corner.
Quote: “To do that I’m going to go to my site settings site settings are located in the top right hand corner of SharePoint online directly from your SharePoint site so they’re really easy to get to so I’m going to come up and click on this white gear located in the top right hand corner of my screen.”
Subsites (Discouraged in Modern SharePoint): While it’s still possible to create subsites (sites within a site), modern SharePoint in Microsoft 365 recommends a flat site architecture using team sites, communication sites, and hub sites for better manageability and migration. Subsites can be created via Site Contents.
Quote: “However with modern SharePoint in M365 we really want to steer clear of subsites one of the reasons is that if you already have subsites and you’re migrating to SharePoint online and M365 it makes the migration process a lot more difficult what SharePoint online recommends instead is that you try to keep the architecture of your site flat instead of using subsites we want you to utilize team sites communication sites and what’s called a hub site to help keep the structure of your SharePoint site very flat.”
SharePoint Online URLs: The anatomy of a SharePoint Online URL provides information about the protocol (HTTPS), tenant name, SharePoint platform (sharepoint.com), site location (/sites/ or /teams/), and the specific site and content (e.g., document library – /Shared Documents/, list – /Lists/).
Quote: “If we come up here in this site I’m in the sales and marketing team site of this organization I’m in a Microsoft environment so the URL is a little bit weird but we can still refer to it to help us understand the anatomy of a SharePoint site the first thing you’re going to notice is that it’s an https site this lets us know that it’s a modern site… the next thing I’m going to see is the company name… and also this is the URL of your tenant now the next thing I’m going to see is I go over to the right it’s going to tell me that I’m in and SharePoint you’ll see that it says sharepointon.com this lets me know that I’m using SharePoint online… the next thing I’m going to see is that I’m in a site this means that I’m in one of the sites that is part of this company’s collection of SharePoint sites then I finally see my site name.”
Modern vs. Classic SharePoint: Microsoft introduced the modern SharePoint Online experience in 2016, designed to be more compelling, flexible, and mobile-friendly compared to the classic experience. The classic experience has some functionalities not available in modern SharePoint.
Quote: “In 2016 Microsoft introduced the modern SharePoint online experience previous to this time a lot of companies were using what they call SharePoint online classic now the modern experience was designed to be more compelling flexible and even available on mobile devices easier to use it was available in SharePoint online and also SharePoint server 2019 with some limitations but there are still organizations that are using the classic experience.”

12. Hub Sites

Purpose: Hub sites connect different SharePoint sites with common navigation and branding, making it easier for users to navigate between related sites. They help create a flat site architecture.
Quote: “Hub sites which is a way to connect certain sites with common navigation and branding to make it really easy for users to navigate between them but now what we want to do is look at how you can manage Hub sites on your own especially if you’re a site owner.”
Creation and Association: Hub sites need to be created by a SharePoint administrator or a global admin. Site owners with permission can associate their sites with an existing hub site via Site Information in Site Settings.
Quote: “A hub site needs to be created for you buy one of your SharePoint admins or a global m a global admin in M365 so keep that in mind if you need a hub site and you want to assign some sites to it you’ll probably need to ask your SharePoint admin to enable The Hub site for you… From my Us sales site I’m going to come in and go to my site settings gear… then I’m going to come down to site information now this is going to take me in and let me see things like the title of my site also the privacy settings and more importantly what we’re looking for is Hub site Association right now it says None So to allow me to associate this with a hub site I’d have to have permission to do so which I do and I need to know know the name of the Hub site for me it’s Global sales I’m going to select that and then I’m going to click on Save.”
Hub Site Navigation: Site owners of the hub site can edit the global navigation bar that appears at the top of all associated sites to include links to relevant sites within the hub. This is done via an “Edit” button on the hub site’s navigation.
Quote: “From here if I am a site owner of this Hub site I will see that on the navigation bar I have an edit button on the far right hand side of the site navigation and keep in mind this is not just within this site this is connecting these sites together I’m going to edit this now you’ll see what’s interesting is that the editing is not horizontal it turns it vertically but once I’m done editing then it will be horizontal now I want to add that site to the site navigation so I’m going to come to the bottom of the current edit Hub navigation and I’ll see this little plus sign in a circle this is of course where I can add new content to the navigation bar at the top I need to type or choose what it is that I’m adding I’m going to be adding a link and then in the address bar I’m going to paste in the address of my US Cell Site.”
Branding Consistency: Sites associated with a hub site typically inherit the hub site’s theme and branding.

13. Updating Site Navigation and Appearance

Site Navigation Options: Site owners can modify the site navigation (left-hand or horizontal) via “Change the look” in Site Settings. They can turn it off, switch between vertical and horizontal orientation, and edit the links (reorder, rename, remove, add new).
Quote (Turning Off/Changing Orientation): “I’m going to go to the top right hand corner to the white gear and Microsoft has done a great job at putting some of these overall site navigation and look tools right here in this menu if you come down to the bottom we have an option that says change the look now this will give me three different primary areas that I can update in my site we want to start with the bottom one which is navigation how are people accessing content on my site now first of all I can turn my site navigation off completely… I’m going to turn the navigation back on but I’m going to change the orientation to being horizontal.”
Quote (Editing Links): “We’re going to come to the bottom of the navigation bar this is really easy to find there’s an edit button this will unlock the site navigation so that I can make changes to it notice how each item has an ellipses on the right hand side hopefully you know what these are for right when you click on them it gives you additional options to manage that specific item for me the first thing I want to do is remove the OneNote that’s associated with this site… also you’ll see here that I can click on the ellipses and use it to move items up in the site navigation… I want to go to the documents area and I’d like to edit that content first of all we’re seeing that it’s a link in the site navigation and we’re seeing the URL to the site I just want to update the name rather than saying documents I’m going to update it to be team files.”
Themes: Site owners can change the overall color scheme of their site by selecting a theme under “Change the look” in Site Settings. Organizations may have custom branded themes available.
Quote: “For that I need to go again to my site settings so from the site I’m going to come up to the white gear in the top right hand corner click on it and come down to change the look under change the look this time we’re going to head to the top to theme think of PowerPoints when you do this these are the different themes or color palettes that you can apply inside of a SharePoint site and as you click on them you can actually preview them.”
Site Header: The header at the top of a SharePoint site (below the Microsoft 365 taskbar) can be customized in terms of layout (minimal, compact, standard, extended), background color (based on the theme), and site logo. This is done under the “Header” option in “Change the look.”
Quote: “For that I need to go again to my site settings so from the site I’m going to come up to the white gear in the top right hand corner click on it and come down to change the look this time we’re going to head into the header portion now in the header there are four different layouts minimal which is very thin compact which is a little bit taller standard and finally extended… under the layouts I’ve got based on the theme that I’ve picked for my site the ability to customize the color applied at the top… below that you can actually turn your site title off maybe you only want to see the theme and notice this just takes the title off now speaking of title on every SharePoint page you’ll see that next to the title there is a logo… as I come down it’s going to ask me for two different logos one is a thumbnail and one is a site logo… I’m going to click on change I have already downloaded my logo locally to my computer… and we’ll see it get added now final thing I can do here is click on Save.”
Updating Site Logo (Alternative Method): The site logo can also be updated via “Site information” in Site Settings.
Quote: “I’m gonna head back to the settings gear again… from here what I want to do is come down to site information now site information is where you can do things like associate Hub sites also customize your site description and update the title of your site… in this case at the very top you’re going to see a location where you can update and change your site logo so I’m going to click on change navigate to the folder where my updated logo is located and then I’ll click on Save.”

14. Deleting and Restoring SharePoint Sites

Deleting a Site: Site owners can delete a SharePoint site via “Site information” in Site Settings. It’s crucial to understand that this action deletes all site content, including files, lists, and associated Office 365 Groups. A confirmation prompt and warning are displayed before deletion.
Quote: “To do that I need to be a site owner also I’ve already done this I’m going to click on my site settings gear now before you delete a site do you have permission to delete it and what’s going to happen to all the stuff in that site… what I’m going to do from here is come up to my site settings gear and go down to site information this is where we’re going to see things like the name of the site it’s description also it’s privacy settings but notice at the bottom above the save button I have a delete site option before you delete a site Microsoft SharePoint online is always going to remind you about what you’re doing notice it’s telling me this will delete all the resources including the site the files the conversations do you want that to happen it’s asking me to back that content up now in this organization there actually is a backup that’s going on behind the scenes but you don’t know that’s going to happen for sure in your organization so please be sure before you delete anything you make triple sure that stuff is backed up yes I’m going to delete all the associated resources and the group… I’m going to click on delete and suddenly I don’t see the side anymore it takes me back to my SharePoint start page.”
Restoring a Deleted Site (Admin Function): SharePoint administrators or global Office 365 admins can restore a deleted SharePoint site from the SharePoint admin center within a retention period (typically 93 days). Restoring the site also restores any associated Office 365 Group and its content.
Quote: “However if you’re a SharePoint admin or a global Office 365 admin you can help there is something there that can help restore a deleted SharePoint site the first thing we need to do is get into the admin portal for Office 365… over here on the left hand side you’re going to see again my my navigation bar I am an admin a global admin actually so I can access my Office 365 admin tools I’m going to click on admin it opens up a new browser Tab and takes me to my M365 admin Center… right here if I expand this lower section of the navigation pane I’m going to see that in the admin portal there’s a section called admin centers and some of the applications which are really more platforms have their own separate admin section SharePoint happens to be that way so I’m going to click on SharePoint another browser tab opens taking me to my SharePoint admin center… one of the very first things you’ll see when you come in here is that for SharePoint I have sites I have active sites these are the sites that are currently being used in the organization and then I have deleted sites… my SharePoint admin can come in select the site and notice up here there’s a restore button… currently we’ll see that sites are retained for 93 days… I’ve selected my site I’m going to click on restore notice this tells me this site is connected to an Office 365 group restoring the site will also restore the group… it’s no longer here under deleted sites if I come back into active sites scroll down and look for event planning it’s back where it was before.”

15. Version History for Site Pages

Purpose: SharePoint Online automatically maintains a version history for site pages (and other content like document libraries). This allows site owners to view previous versions of a page and revert back to an earlier state if unwanted changes have been made.
Quote: “Built into M365 and also your SharePoint sites you have a tool called version history every time a user goes into a site and makes a change or an update it saves those changes under that user as a version and you can actually go in and revert back to a previous version if someone’s made a change that you don’t approve of.”
Accessing Version History: To access the version history for a site page, navigate to Site Contents, find the Site Pages library, click the ellipses next to the page name, and select “Version history.”
Quote: “The first thing I need to do is access my site pages to do this I need to go into a place of SharePoint in my site called site contents it’s kind of like going to the basement or the utility room of your site… in the site contents list I’m going to see that I have contents and subsites and the different elements of my site are listed here including site Pages this would show me the individual pages of my site now right here I have my home page this was the page that I updated… next to the name of the page I’ll see a vertical ellipses… I’m going to click on it and then I’m going to come down and go to version history.”
Restoring a Previous Version: In the version history, users can view details of each version (date, time, editor), and choose to restore a previous version, replacing the current version with the selected one.
Quote: “Every time someone has been in the site… it shows me the date and time and then also the user… what I’m going to do is go back to Lynn’s version click on the ellipses or in this case the arrow next to the date and time that particular version was created I can view properties of that version restore it or delete it in my case what I want to do is restore it so I’m going to click on the restore button notice what it tells me I’m about to replace the current version with the selected version I’m going to click on ok now I’m in a 2.1 version I’m going to go ahead and close out and then I’m going to leave my site contents view by just clicking on my site logo that’ll take me to the top of my site I’m going to see that when I come to it it’s reverted back to the previous version.”

Conclusion

The initial modules of this Microsoft SharePoint Online course provide a comprehensive introduction to the platform, covering essential aspects from accessing the service through Microsoft 365 to understanding different site types, managing their look and feel, and basic administrative tasks like site deletion and restoration. The emphasis on planning, understanding site terminology, and leveraging collaboration tools like Microsoft 365 Groups lays a solid foundation for new users and aspiring site owners to effectively utilize SharePoint Online within their organizations. The course encourages hands-on exploration of the platform’s features to solidify understanding.

Frequently Asked Questions about Microsoft SharePoint Online

What is Microsoft SharePoint Online and why should I use it? Microsoft SharePoint Online is a cloud-based platform designed to help organizations manage and share content, facilitate teamwork, enable quick access to information, and create engaging web pages. It allows users to store, organize, share, and collaborate on files and information from anywhere with an internet connection, promoting seamless collaboration within teams and across the organization.
How do I access Microsoft SharePoint Online? You typically access SharePoint Online through Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365). First, navigate to office.com in a web browser and sign in using your organizational email address and password. Once logged in to your Microsoft 365 home page, you can find SharePoint Online through the app launcher (the “waffle” icon in the top left corner) or by clicking on the SharePoint tile in your list of apps.
What are the different roles of users in accessing SharePoint Online? There are typically two main roles discussed: the typical user and the site owner. A typical user can access SharePoint sites they have permission to, view content, collaborate on documents, and participate in site activities. A site owner has more administrative privileges, including the ability to create and manage sites, control site settings, manage user permissions, and customize the site’s appearance and functionality.
What are Microsoft 365 Groups and how do they relate to SharePoint Online? Microsoft 365 Groups are a service within Microsoft 365 that connect different tools for collaboration. A Microsoft 365 Group can include a group of people with shared resources like an inbox, calendar, file storage (which is often a SharePoint document library), and more. They are often associated with SharePoint team sites, Microsoft Teams, and Planner, providing a unified membership and set of resources for team collaboration.
What are the different types of SharePoint sites commonly used? The two main types of SharePoint sites highlighted are:
Team Sites: Designed for collaboration within teams, allowing members to share files, work on projects, manage lists, and communicate. They are typically connected to a Microsoft 365 Group.
Communication Sites: Intended for broadcasting information to a broad audience, such as news, announcements, and reports. They are visually focused and usually have a smaller number of content contributors.
What is OneDrive for Business and how does it work with SharePoint Online? OneDrive for Business is your personal cloud storage within your organization’s Microsoft 365 account. It’s like your personal online filing cabinet for work or school files. While OneDrive is for individual file storage and sharing, SharePoint Online is for team and organizational content management and collaboration. You can easily share files stored in OneDrive with others, and often, the backend storage for files associated with Microsoft 365 Groups (and thus some SharePoint team sites) utilizes SharePoint document libraries.
What is the SharePoint Online start page and how can I use it effectively? The SharePoint Online start page is the initial screen you see when you access SharePoint Online. It displays content cards showing news updates and sites within your organization that you have permission to access. You can “follow” frequently visited sites by clicking the star icon, which adds them to a “followed” list for quick access. The start page also includes a powerful global search that searches across SharePoint sites, OneDrive, and other Microsoft 365 content.
How can I customize the look and feel of a SharePoint Online site? As a site owner, you have several options to customize the appearance of your SharePoint Online site. You can apply site templates to quickly add pre-designed content and layouts. You can also modify the site’s theme (color palette), header (including logo and layout), and navigation (placement and links) through the “Change the look” settings accessible from the site settings gear in the top right corner of the site.

Microsoft SharePoint Online: Capabilities and Features

Microsoft SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service from Microsoft designed to help organizations manage and share content, knowledge, and applications. It enables the creation of engaging web pages and facilitates seamless collaboration through the web. SharePoint Online is a key part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Here’s a breakdown of important aspects of SharePoint Online based on the sources:

Accessing SharePoint Online:

You typically access SharePoint Online through Microsoft Office 365 (now Microsoft 365).
One way to access it is by going to the office.com site and signing in with your organizational email address.
Once logged into your Microsoft 365 account, you can use the app launcher (sometimes called the Rubik’s Cube or the waffle) in the top left corner to find and access SharePoint.
You can also search for “SharePoint” in the search bar on the Microsoft 365 home page.
The SharePoint start page displays content cards showing news updates or sites you have permission to access.

Key Capabilities and Features:

Content Management and Sharing: SharePoint Online helps organizations share and manage content effectively. It provides a platform for teams to store and collaborate on files.
Teamwork and Collaboration: It empowers teamwork by helping users find information and create seamless collaboration. Microsoft 365 groups play a crucial role in connecting different collaboration tools, including SharePoint team sites.
Web Page Creation: The platform allows users to create engaging web pages.
Document Libraries: These are like file folders within SharePoint sites where users can store and manage files.
SharePoint Lists: These are similar to spreadsheets within SharePoint, allowing you to organize information in rows and columns.
Search Functionality: Microsoft 365, including SharePoint Online, has a powerful search capacity that searches through file titles and contents, as well as sites, people, news, conversations (from Outlook and Teams), and even text within images.
Customization: Users can customize their Microsoft 365 environment, including the app launcher. SharePoint site owners can also customize the look and feel of their sites.

Roles in SharePoint Online:

Typical User: Can access and interact with content within SharePoint sites based on their permissions.
Site Owner: Has the ability to create and manage SharePoint sites, update site content, manage permissions, and customize the site’s appearance and navigation.

Integration with Microsoft 365:

OneDrive for Business: This is your personal cloud storage within Microsoft 365, allowing you to store, protect, and share your files. SharePoint document libraries can sometimes be accessed from within OneDrive for Business. Files created in Microsoft 365 applications are often automatically saved to OneDrive.
Microsoft 365 Groups: These groups connect various Microsoft 365 tools, including SharePoint team sites, Outlook, Planner, and Teams, allowing teams to collaborate effectively with shared inboxes, calendars, files, and task management.
Microsoft Teams: Team sites are often associated with Microsoft Teams, providing a website for team collaboration.
Microsoft Outlook: You can access and manage Microsoft 365 groups from within Outlook Online and the Outlook desktop application.
Microsoft Planner: This task management application is often integrated with Microsoft 365 groups and can be accessed from SharePoint team sites.
Delve: This application helps you manage your Microsoft 365 profile and discover and organize information and people within your organization. It respects existing permissions, so you’ll only see documents you already have access to.

Types of SharePoint Sites:

Team Sites: Designed for collaboration within a team, allowing members to share resources and content, store files, and manage lists. They are often associated with a Microsoft 365 group.
Communication Sites: Intended for sharing news, reports, and other information with a broad audience in a visually compelling way. They typically have a small number of content contributors and a larger audience of consumers and are not connected to a Microsoft 365 group by default.

Managing SharePoint Sites:

Site Templates: Pre-designed layouts and content that can be applied to a site to quickly set up its structure and appearance. Organizations can also create their own site templates.
Site Navigation: Site owners can customize the navigation of their sites, choosing between horizontal or left-hand navigation and editing the links.
Branding: You can update the look of your site by applying themes, customizing the header with a logo and title, and choosing different header layouts.
Subsites: While they were common in older versions of SharePoint, Microsoft recommends a flatter site architecture using team sites, communication sites, and hub sites instead. However, creating subsites is still possible.
Site Collections and Hub Sites: In older SharePoint versions, site collections were used to group websites with the same owner and administrative settings. In SharePoint Online, hub sites are recommended for unifying related SharePoint sites with common branding and navigation, enhancing content discovery. You need specific permissions to associate a site with a hub site and to manage the hub site navigation.
Deleting Sites: Site owners can delete sites, but it’s crucial to understand the implications, as this will delete all site content and associated resources, including the Microsoft 365 group if one exists.
Restoring Deleted Sites: SharePoint administrators or global Office 365 administrators can restore deleted SharePoint sites and their associated Microsoft 365 groups from the SharePoint admin center within a retention period (typically 93 days).
Version History: SharePoint Online automatically saves versions of site pages and documents, allowing site owners to revert back to previous versions if unwanted changes are made.

Modern vs. Classic SharePoint Experience:

Microsoft introduced the modern SharePoint online experience in 2016, designed to be more compelling, flexible, and mobile-friendly compared to the classic experience. The modern experience generally offers easier editing and a more user-friendly interface.

In summary, SharePoint Online is a powerful and versatile platform within Microsoft 365 that enables organizations to effectively manage information, collaborate on projects, and communicate with their users through customizable websites and integrated tools.

Microsoft 365: Web-Based Productivity and Collaboration

Based on the sources and our previous discussion, Microsoft 365 is a line of subscription web-based services offered by Microsoft. It encompasses a rich amount of tools, features, and functionalities accessible directly from a web browser. Formerly known as Office 365, the suite was renamed to Microsoft 365 in 2017.

Here’s a breakdown of key aspects of Microsoft 365, drawing on the sources and our conversation:

Web-Based and Cloud-Based Applications: Microsoft 365 provides access to online or web-based versions of familiar Microsoft applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. These are cloud-based applications, meaning they run on the internet and can be accessed with just a computer, a web browser, and an internet connection. This allows for accessibility from various devices without needing to be on a specific computer where the software is installed locally.
Integration of Services: Microsoft 365 integrates various services and platforms to enhance productivity and collaboration. Our discussion has heavily featured SharePoint Online, which is a core component used for managing and sharing content, and creating engaging web pages.
Accessing Microsoft 365: You can access your Microsoft 365 account by going to office.com in a web browser and signing in with your organizational email address. Once logged in, you’ll typically see a home page with access to different applications. Your browser may remember your login for easier access in the future.
Home Page Features: The Microsoft 365 home page offers several common elements, including:
The app launcher (also known as the Rubik’s Cube or waffle), which provides access to all your Microsoft 365 applications. You can pin apps to the launcher for quick access and unpin them as needed.
Your organization’s name (potentially) and an indication that you are using the online version of Office.
Your profile picture or initials in the top right corner.
Quick access to recently opened or updated files.
A list of files you might need to access.
Options to view all your content.
Potentially an option to install Office desktop applications, depending on your organization’s setup.
A navigation pane on the left side with a list of application tiles (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) that serve as doorways to the online versions.
A “Create” button that allows you to start new documents, presentations, and spreadsheets using the online applications. These files are automatically saved to your OneDrive for Business.
A powerful search bar that searches across your entire Microsoft 365 account, including file content, SharePoint sites, people, news, conversations (from Outlook and Teams), and even text within images.
Customization of the Environment: You can customize your Microsoft 365 environment through the settings gear in the top right corner. This allows you to change the theme, enable dark mode, and potentially update your password (though some settings might be controlled by your IT department). You can also access your account information and Delve (your Office 365 profile) from your profile picture or initials.
Integration with Desktop Applications: Microsoft 365 works in conjunction with your Microsoft Office desktop applications that are installed locally on your computer. When you open a file stored online (e.g., in OneDrive or SharePoint) in a desktop app, auto-save is typically turned on, and changes are automatically saved back to the online location. This provides the flexibility to use both web-based and desktop versions of applications.
Microsoft 365 Groups: These are a service within Microsoft 365 that help you connect different tools for collaboration. With a group, you can bring together a group of people to share documents, create spreadsheets, work on project plans, schedule meetings, and send emails. They are also important for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint team sites, and Planner. You can access and manage groups through Outlook Online and the Outlook desktop application.
OneDrive for Business: As mentioned previously, this is your personal cloud storage within your Microsoft 365 account for work or school. It allows you to store, protect, and share your files and access them from any device. It’s often the default save location for content created in the online Microsoft 365 applications.
Delve (Microsoft 365 Profile): This application helps you manage your profile, discover documents you have access to, and find information about and connect with people within your organization. It never changes permissions, so you only see content you already have access to.

In essence, Microsoft 365 is a comprehensive suite of online services and applications designed to enhance productivity, communication, and collaboration within organizations, with SharePoint Online being a central platform for content management and teamwork.

Managing SharePoint Online Sites

Based on the sources, managing SharePoint Online sites involves several key aspects, ranging from initial planning and creation to ongoing maintenance and even deletion when a site is no longer needed. Here’s a discussion of site management drawing on the provided text:

Planning Your Site

Before creating a SharePoint site, strategic planning is crucial for maintainability and user productivity. This involves considering:

Navigation: Deciding where the site navigation should be (top or left) for easy access.
Content: Determining the types of lists (for tabular data like contacts or tasks) and libraries (for file storage) needed. Document libraries allow users to store and collaborate on files.
Pages: Planning the individual pages for displaying content within the site. Each page in a SharePoint Online site is considered a site page.
Apps: Considering which applications or features, beyond lists and libraries, will support users in their tasks. This can include news feeds and calendars.

Creating a Site

To create a SharePoint site, you typically need the necessary permissions, which are often granted by a SharePoint administrator or an M365 Global administrator. From the SharePoint start page, you can choose to create a site, selecting between a team site (for collaboration and file sharing among a team) or a communication site (for broadcasting information to a broad audience).

When creating a site, you’ll need to:

Name your site, which will also generate an Office 365 group and a site URL. The site URL cannot be easily changed after creation.
Provide a site description to inform others about the site’s purpose.
Configure the privacy settings (private for invited members only, or public for anyone in the organization to view).
Add site members (who can access and edit content) and designate site owners (who have more control, including managing membership). The creator of the site is automatically a site owner.

Utilizing Site Templates

SharePoint Online offers site templates that provide pre-built content and layouts for various purposes (e.g., event planning, project management). Applying a template can quickly add structure and features to your site, though it won’t delete existing content. You can access site templates through the site settings (gear icon) and “Apply a site template”. There are templates provided by Microsoft and potentially templates created by your own organization.

Understanding Site Structure

Subsites: While historically common in older SharePoint versions, modern SharePoint Online recommends avoiding subsites in favor of a flat site architecture using team sites, communication sites, and hub sites. Subsites can complicate migrations and management. If needed, subsites can still be created under “Site contents” in site settings, but they often rely on the classic experience.
Site Collections vs. Hub Sites: In the past, a site collection was a group of websites with the same owner and administrative settings, often using subsites. Modern SharePoint Online utilizes hub sites to achieve similar unifying goals (common branding and navigation) without the complexities of subsites. A hub site connects related SharePoint sites, providing common navigation and branding, and allowing content to roll up into a centralized display. Hub sites need to be created by a SharePoint administrator. Site owners with permission can associate their sites with a hub site through the site information settings. They can also add their site to the hub site’s navigation if they are owners of the hub site.
Site URLs: Understanding the structure of a SharePoint Online URL helps in navigating and understanding where you are within the organizational SharePoint environment. A typical URL includes https://<yourcompanyname>.sharepoint.com/sites/<yoursitename>/<optional_subfolder_or_list>.

Managing the Site Look and Feel

Themes: You can change the overall color palette of your site by applying a theme through site settings > Change the look > Theme.
Header: The site header can be customized in terms of layout (minimal, compact, standard, extended), background color, and logo through site settings > Change the look > Header. You can upload a site logo (both a thumbnail and a larger version) to brand your site. If no logo is provided, SharePoint may use the first letters of the site name. The site title can also be turned off in the header settings. Another way to update the site logo is via site settings > Site information.
Navigation: The site navigation (typically on the left) can be turned on or off and its orientation can be changed to horizontal via site settings > Change the look > Navigation. As a site owner, you can edit the navigation to add, remove, rename, and reorder links.

Maintaining Your Site

Version History: SharePoint Online automatically keeps track of changes made to site pages and documents through version history. This allows you to revert back to a previous version if unwanted changes occur. You can access the version history for a page via site contents > Site Pages > (select page) > ellipses (…) > Version history.

Site End-of-Life Management

Deleting Sites: Site owners with the necessary permissions can delete a SharePoint site via site settings > Site information > Delete site. Deleting a site removes all its content, including files, lists, and any associated Office 365 group. It’s crucial to ensure content is backed up if needed before deletion.
Restoring Deleted Sites: If a SharePoint site is accidentally deleted, a SharePoint administrator or Global Office 365 admin can restore it from the SharePoint admin center within a certain retention period (e.g., 93 days). Restoring a site also restores its associated Office 365 group.

By understanding and utilizing these site management features, site owners can create effective, well-organized, and easily navigable SharePoint Online environments for their teams and organizations.

Understanding SharePoint Team Sites

Based on the sources, a SharePoint team site is designed to connect you and your team together to share resources and content. It serves as a central place for teams to store and collaborate on files, and to create and manage lists of information. Team sites are a key component of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and are closely integrated with other Microsoft services.

Here’s a more detailed discussion of team sites based on the provided information:

Purpose and Functionality: The primary goal of a team site is to facilitate teamwork. It provides a platform where team members can work together on projects, share documents, manage tasks, and stay informed. Team sites are intended for collaboration within a specific group, where members typically have permission to contribute and edit content.
Integration with Microsoft 365 Groups: Team sites are often regulated by an Office 365 group, which helps to manage the membership of the team and provides shared resources like a group calendar and potentially a shared inbox. When you create a team site, an Office 365 group and a calendar are typically created along with it to help manage events and communication.
Identifying a Team Site: When you navigate to a SharePoint site, you can often identify it as a team site by several common features:
The title of the site is usually visible in the top left corner.
You will still be within the Office 365 ecosystem, indicated by the presence of the app launcher in the top left.
The search bar at the top typically defaults to searching within the specific site you are currently on.
In the top right corner, you can often see a list of team members, including team owners and members, indicating who has access to the site. Both owners and members typically have permission to edit content at different levels.
The site usually has a left-hand side navigation menu to access different areas of the site.
Common Elements within a Team Site: Team sites typically include various components to support collaboration:
Document Library: This is a file storage area (like a “walk-in closet” for the group) where team members can store, share, and collaborate on files. It consists of folders and various types of files, not necessarily just Microsoft-related. Members often have permission to co-author documents within the document library.
SharePoint Lists: These are used to organize information in a tabular format (rows and columns), similar to a spreadsheet. Lists can be used for various purposes, such as tracking tasks, contacts, or product information, and authorized users can often update the content.
Recycle Bin: Similar to a deleted items folder, the recycle bin stores deleted content from the site, allowing for potential recovery within a defined retention policy.
Team Calendar: Often linked to the associated Office 365 group, the team calendar allows members to view and manage shared calendar events for the team. This calendar is usually accessed through Exchange Online.
OneNote Notebook: When a team site is created with an Office 365 group, an empty OneNote notebook is also created for the team to collaborate on notes, meeting minutes, FAQs, etc.. It is accessible from the team site and opens in OneNote Online.
Planner: Team sites often have an integrated Planner app, which is a task management tool that allows team members to view, assign, and manage tasks within a shared plan.
Site Pages: These are the individual web pages within the team site where content is displayed.
Creation of Team Sites: If you have the necessary permissions, you can create a team site from the SharePoint start page by clicking “Create site” and selecting “Team site”. You will then need to name the site, configure settings (like privacy), and add members and owners. The site will be created with an associated Office 365 group.
Modern Experience: Modern SharePoint Online, introduced in 2016, aims to provide a more compelling, flexible, and user-friendly experience for team sites, with features like easier drag-and-drop functionality and optimized views for lists and libraries.

In summary, SharePoint team sites are powerful platforms designed to foster collaboration and information sharing within teams in an organization utilizing Microsoft 365. They provide a range of integrated tools and features accessible through a web browser, making it easier for teams to work together effectively.

SharePoint Communication Sites: Purpose and Features

Based on the sources, a SharePoint communication site is designed to share news, reports, status updates, and other information in a visually compelling way with a broad audience. It serves as a portal for broadcasting information across a large group of people within an organization. Many organizations utilize communication sites as their intranet sites.

Here’s a more detailed discussion of communication sites based on the provided information:

Purpose and Audience: The primary purpose of a communication site is to disseminate information. Unlike team sites focused on collaboration within a specific group, communication sites are intended for one-way communication, where a smaller set of contributors creates content that is then consumed by a much larger audience.
Key Characteristics:
Visual Appeal: Communication sites emphasize a visually compelling presentation of information.
Broad Reach: They are designed to broadcast information to a wide audience within the organization.
Limited Contributors: Typically, a small number of members have permissions to contribute and manage content on a communication site.
Top Navigation: The navigation on a communication site is commonly located along the top of the page.
Absence of Member List: Unlike team sites, communication sites typically do not display a visible list of site members in the top right corner, reflecting their focus on information sharing rather than team collaboration.
Distinction from Team Sites: A key difference between communication sites and team sites lies in their primary function and associated features:
Collaboration vs. Information Sharing: Team sites are designed for collaboration, allowing team members to jointly work on files and manage tasks. In contrast, communication sites are primarily for sharing information with a wider audience.
Microsoft 365 Group Association: When you create a team site, an Office 365 group is typically created to manage membership and provide shared resources like a calendar. However, when you create a communication site, a Microsoft 365 group is not created. This reinforces the communication site’s focus on broadcasting information rather than group-based collaboration features like a shared inbox and calendar directly associated with the site’s membership.
Common Elements within a Communication Site: While the specific content can vary, communication sites often include elements that facilitate information sharing:
News Releases: These sections provide updates on important events and recent happenings within the organization.
Links to Resources: Communication sites often include links to essential resources that employees or the intended audience might need.
Calendars of Events: Displaying organizational or relevant events in a calendar format is a common feature.
Opportunities for Engagement: Some communication sites may include features to allow audience interaction, such as chat panes (potentially powered by platforms like Yammer) for Q&A sessions or discussions with leadership.

In summary, SharePoint communication sites are powerful tools for organizations to effectively share information with a broad audience in a visually appealing manner. Their design and features prioritize the broadcast of news, updates, and resources over the collaborative functionalities found in team sites, and they are distinct in their lack of an associated Microsoft 365 group.

SharePoint Online Basics Tutorial

The Original Text

hey everyone welcome to Microsoft SharePoint online during this series of modules or courses we’re going to learn all about SharePoint online and how you can manage and share content and also create really engaging web pages using this amazing platform we’re going to discuss what it’s like to be a typical user in a SharePoint site and also a site owner this is a great course to go through if you’re looking to create your own SharePoint sites and manage them also if you’re going to become a new SharePoint site owner you’ll be amazed at the great potential that SharePoint online has for both the site owner and the end user so join us on our journey through SharePoint online hi everyone Welcome to our first module in our Microsoft SharePoint online Series this class is designed for someone who is new to SharePoint in this course we’re going to explore how to access SharePoint online through office 365. after completing this course you should be able to understand why to use SharePoint online the different roles in accessing SharePoint how to log into Office 365 and also successfully navigate in a SharePoint online site as always if there are any exercise files that go at this course you’ll find them in the video description so join us on our SharePoint online Journey hi everyone Welcome to our module one of SharePoint online now the first thing we need to do to access SharePoint online is actually go into another Microsoft platform called Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft 365. in 2017 Microsoft introduced a line of subscription web-based Services through Microsoft that also includes Microsoft Office and they called it office 365. it’s been recently renamed to Microsoft 365 but one of the doorways to SharePoint online is to go through office 365. now the other thing we’ll be doing is accessing SharePoint and just a reminder of what SharePoint online is there are previous versions of SharePoint that have been created by Microsoft over the years but now we’re looking at a web-based platform called Microsoft SharePoint online SharePoint online is also a cloud-based service some organizations use it in conjunction with Microsoft 365 and some of them use it as a standalone web-based application or platform but the great thing about SharePoint online is that it really helps organizations to share and manage content and knowledge by empowering teamwork quickly helping them to find information and creating seamless collaboration through the web so the first thing we need to do is access office 365. to do that we’re going to be logging into the office.com site in my training environment I’m going to be using Microsoft Edge this is a Microsoft training platform but you could really use any browser you prefer for example Microsoft Edge or even Google Chrome now I’m going to go ahead and click right here and go into my browser now as I do this I’m going to come up to my address bar and type in office.com this is going to take you directly to the login page for M365 or Microsoft 365. right here I need to click on sign in and then of course I’m going to paste in my email address I’m playing the lovely Megan today and then I’m going to click on next I’ll need to provide my organizational email address because I will be logging into a work Office 365 account it’ll also ask me about reducing the number of times I have to sign in this is a great thing to do and I do suggest checking this box because if you sign into different applications that are part of Office 365 this will help you not have to log into each one separately now we’re going to be going to my home base or my Office 365 home page so let’s just really briefly look at a few common elements of this home page number one top left hand corner I have the app launcher next to it I might see my organization’s name and then that I’m in office but this is the online version of office so again this will be our jumping point to get into SharePoint online hi everyone welcome back now if you’ve already logged into your Microsoft 365 account it’s really easy to get back using your default browser because your computer is going to remember that you’ve already logged in using your company password and also your email account so I’m going to click back here again on my browser of choice which is Microsoft Edge and this is going to take me into my browser then to access again my Office 365 account I’m going to come up here and just type in office.com this time it’s going to remember that I’ve already logged in and not require me to log in again let’s look at some more common elements that you’re going to see when you log into Microsoft Office 365. in the top right hand corner you’re either going to see your profile picture or your initials I’m playing Megan Bowen right now so we’re seeing cute smiley Megan up there not every company will put your profile picture in there but some of your companies will allow you to do that it’s also important to remember that I’ve logged into a work or school account that’s why sometimes people call Office 365 their Microsoft for work or their Microsoft for school but it’s also important to remember that when we’re talking about Microsoft 365 we’re talking about web-based applications these are cloud-based applications meaning that all you need for them to run is actually your computer a web browser and the internet and this is one of the really powerful things about the cloud Revolution that’s begun happening is we don’t have to be actually logged into the same computer all the time our information can be accessible through a website now another thing we’re going to see that’s very common in the Office 365 home page is it gives me access to things that I use all the time so notice for example here I’m seeing files that I’ve recently opened or updated also if I come down I’m going to see basically a list of files that I might need to access and you’ll see here that it’s telling me I recently accessed these files and have worked with them so it’s basically giving me a jumping board to get back to them again if I scroll down towards the bottom I’m also going to see options where I can go in and see all my content this is really kind of a jumping board like you’ve heard me talk about to get to files I work with a lot and also the online versions of the Microsoft applications now speaking of those let’s scroll back up to the top and notice that in my case I have an option here to install office now chances are this has already been done for you on your computer but the idea is that with Microsoft 365 the way that my organization has it set up I also get access to Outlook OneDrive for business word excel and other Microsoft applications so Microsoft 365 Works in conjunction with my Microsoft Office desktop applications remember when we say the word desktop we’re talking about the Microsoft applications that install locally on your computer’s hard drive or a network and they would require you to be on that specific computer to access the soft software now again this is a great opportunity to check Office 365 out so go into your own computer and if you have an Office 365 account try logging in to office.com and spend a little bit of time exploring this home page and see all the great things that are packed in it hey everyone when it comes to Microsoft 365 it’s amazing how much you get so the Microsoft 365 applications include a rich amount of tools and features and functionalities that help you do so many things just from your web browser one great way to see some of the different applications that are part of the Microsoft 365 family is to come over to the left hand side to what we call the navigation pane of your Office 365 home page you’ll see over here on the left that I see a list of application tiles and some of these are familiar Microsoft Word Excel PowerPoint and Outlook but the thing to remember is that from The Office 365 homepage these are doorways to the online or web-based applications there are also going to be desktop applications that install locally on your computer but this isn’t all there are actually more apps if I come right here to the apps tile at the bottom and click on it it will actually show me additional applications that I don’t currently see in my navigation pane also if I go to the very top left hand corner we’re going to see a very familiar feature of Microsoft 365. this is called the app launcher sometimes people give it other names like the Rubik’s Cube or the waffle but the correct term is app launcher and from anywhere where you are in Microsoft 365 this allows you to see a list of all your M365 applications if I come down to the very bottom I’m going to see it say all apps and this is a list of the different applications that are part of my organization’s Microsoft 365 environment some of these I use all the time and some of them I don’t use as often now when I come back and look at this list I’m not going to see all of them on the list when I go to all apps I see everything I could potentially use if there’s something in this list that I’d like to add to the main menu I can actually come to the item the app and the app tile in this case and I’ll see a vertical ellipses on the side of it this is going to take me into a menu for options to manage this particular app tile if I select pin to launcher what this does when I return back to the main menu is it takes that particular app tile and it pins it in this case I’ve actually pinned the lists application which is a great way to create lists to put in SharePoint sites by the way and I’ve pinned it to my app launcher so the next time I need to go in and access it all I have to do is click on it and it will be there in addition if you’ve pinned something and then decide you don’t need it you can actually come to the tile click on the three dots at the side and say unpin from launcher this is not going to remove it from your all apps list notice if I go back I will still see good old Yammer down here at the bottom but from my main app launcher list I won’t see it there anymore so you can control which apps you see on the app launcher and which ones you don’t and again it’s a great way to really customize your Office 365 environment go in and check it out in your own account hi everybody now I know that this is a SharePoint course but we want to spend just a tiny bit more time helping you understand how amazing The Office 365 home page is over on the left hand side in my navigation pane I have the ability to create new content using Microsoft 365. when I click on this create button you’re going to see that it gives me options to create new Word documents PowerPoint presentations even Excel files using the online versions of the Microsoft applications so for example if I need a new spreadsheet I can click right here on workbook it’s going to open up a new browser tab notice here that I still have my Microsoft Office 365 homepage browser tab open but now Microsoft Excel online has also opened in a browser tab of its own I’m in a blank workbook and I’m ready to start working now for example if I want to start typing in this particular cell all I have to do is click and start typing now a few things that are unique about working in the Microsoft 365 applications you’re in a web browser but you can still type and create new content this content is automatically being saved to my OneDrive for business which is again my own personal work storage for files also I don’t have to worry about saving things because we’re working in a web browser so everything saves in the background automatically now how can I know that’s going on well notice if I come in and add some additional information to the spreadsheet in short increments what I’m going to see it do up here is say saving it happens so fast though sometimes it’s really difficult to notice that it’s occurring but everything is saving for me in the background as I do it and as I mentioned the default save location is OneDrive for business that we’re going to talk about in just a few minutes by the way now if I’d like to give my spreadsheet an updated name because right now it’s defaulting to call it book one I can actually click right here where it says the name and I can just come in and type in the name that I want and as soon as I hit enter it’s going to update the name because by default it’s going to give my new spreadsheets the same name as a new blank workbook and now you can see that on the browser tab I see the updated name so again as far as Office 365 goes it’s just like creating a spreadsheet on your normal computer but you’re doing it through a web browser application and you don’t have to worry about saving things and again this is something that you can try out yourself go into Office 365 and try using one of the Microsoft Office 365 applications it’s a great way to get familiar with the platform all right what if you need to find something in your Office 365 homepage well Microsoft has you covered it has one of the most powerful search capacities of any website I’ve ever used when you do a search on your Microsoft Office 365 home page it’s not only going to be searching through the titles of files it searches through their contents let me show you what I mean up here at the top of my Microsoft 365 homepage I have a search button when I click on it I’m going to type in the name of a contract that I’ve been working on in this company you’ll see that it already starts looking for search results for me but I want to delve even further into these search results so I’m going to come right here and select show more results it’s going to take me to a comprehensive list of search results and it actually filters them for me so convenient the first tab is all the content and notice I could come in actually right here and filter even by PDFs and photo types if you come down you’ll see other options as well but if you’d rather just use the tabs you can actually work your way to the right the first tab is for any files that have that word Northwind either in their title or within their contents so we won’t see it actually in all the titles because in some places it actually appears within the content and you’ll see here where it shows me a little quick quip or a little shot of where the word is occurring within the content of the file then I have sites these would be SharePoint sites where this word is located within the site I actually don’t have any when I go to people these would be people that are involved with the Northwind project and it includes both their email address and a phone number news are going to be news postings on SharePoint sites and you can see here how the word Northwind is actually occurring within the text of that particular news posting conversations is an interesting one you’ll see this includes content from Outlook and also from Microsoft teams and this is where the word Northwind has been included in either email content or within a team’s chat or a posting within a channel you might be saying that’s not part of Microsoft 365 but believe it or not it actually is especially if you’re off your company is using Exchange online all of your outlook information is now housed online and is part of your Office 365 account this is my favorite one images you’re going to see here a ping or a screenshot of what we call a dashboard but in this screenshot again this is just a picture we see the word Northwind actually inside and so it comes up in the search results Isn’t that cool it’s actually looking through not only the words but it’s looking through images and finding words in the images now the final thing I want to show you here is power bi this is a dashboard report building tool that’s part of Office 365 and I actually don’t have any North winds inside any of my current dashboards or reports but if I did they’d come up in my search results now if I want to actually go back and open one of these files up notice I can come in I can search based on file type I can also come in and filter based on the last time the file was modified and based on that information that will help me to refine my search results and if I see something that I want to open up all I have to do is come in click on it and it opens and again the browser-based version of the application so in this case it’s Excel online that’s opened and I’m able to access the content because you’ll never see something surfaced in the search results of Office 365 that you don’t have permission to access when I’m done all I have to do is click on the browser tab for Excel online to close the search results go back to my office 365 home page if I actually just come back over to the left hand side and click on the home button that’s right underneath my app launcher it’ll clear my search but the big takeaway from this is that searching in Office 365 is global through your entire Office 365 account and we can do this right through a web browser so it’s super cool if you have access to Office 365 go into your own account and try it out and and see how powerful the search can be hi everyone now with Office 365 what can you do to customize the environment and get to your stuff this is a great question first of all if I go to the top right hand corner of my Microsoft 365 home page you’re going to see a little white gear this is something that you will see throughout Office 365 web-based applications this represents the way to basically get into your defaults for your Microsoft 365 account when you click on it you’re going to see it open up a settings task pane when I come in I can do things like update for example the theme of my Microsoft 365 account you can see how it’s added it here in the background also I can go from the default color scheme of Microsoft 365 to dark mode this is actually really good for people that might be visually impaired or colorblind so there’s a reason for it and believe it or not it’s supposed to be easier on your eyes when you’re staring at a screen all day I’m going to keep mine on the default which is the white on white background you’ll also see some other options like change your password but keep in mind some of these settings may be controlled by your it Department to keep things secure and safe when I’m done making these changes I can come up to the X in the top right hand corner and click on it and the settings pane will close now another place that you can go to get information about your Microsoft 365 account is by going up to your initials or your profile picture that are directly to the right of the settings gear this will let you know whose account you’re logged into and if you want to see for example your account information if you click on view account it will open it up and actually take you in so that you can see your account information inside of Microsoft 365. this all opens in its own separate browser Tab and that’s the thing we’ve got to remember about Microsoft 365. it’s a browser-based application so everything runs inside the web browser we’re going to close that Tab and go back to our home page now another great thing they’ve added recently is the my content folder tile this is over in the navigation pane I love this because when I click on it it’s going to take me to a list of recent files that I’ve used in different areas of Microsoft 365 that I’ve accessed so any file from any application that I’ve opened using Office 365 I’ll see on this list and it’s a great way to quickly jump to the file or to the location all I have to do is come in and click on it and it’s going to open of course it will use the Microsoft 365 version of the application to open so this particular word document opened in word online in its own browser tab because that’s what it will default to we are using a web-based platform so it’s going to default to the web-based applications the other thing that’s really powerful about this platform is that it will interface with your desktop applications and I just want to show you that briefly so you can have ease of mind that you’re not going to lose the ability to get to them I’m going to open this PowerPoint presentation and of course it’s going to open in good old PowerPoint web application or powerpoint online but if I would prefer to edit this presentation in the desktop version of PowerPoint as long as powerpoint’s installed on my computer notice that next to the ribbons of powerpoint online I have an editing button this lets me choose how I will have this file be edited so right now I’m in editing within the browser-based version of PowerPoint but I can also come down and select open in desktop app what will happen is my computer will actually launch Microsoft PowerPoint it’s not open right now so it can take a few moments for it to open but the other great thing about this is then the same PowerPoint presentation that was just opened in powerpoint online will actually open on my desktop so notice down here I see good old PowerPoints open and it’s the exact same PowerPoint presentation a few unique things happen when you do this when you open something that’s been stored from an online Source now in a desktop app your auto save button will be turned on to let you know that if you make any changes for example if I come in and add some content it will automatically save this back to wherever this particular PowerPoint file is stored online if I close it everything’s still going to be saved and it will take me back to powerpoint online if I say continue here it will refresh and what we’ll see is any changes I made to the file in the desktop platform are still being added to the file here because it doesn’t matter if the file is open in powerpoint online or in PowerPoint desktop it’s both saving back to the internet and to my Microsoft 365 account it’s really powerful because you get the best of both worlds you can use powerpoint online you can use PowerPoint desktop it doesn’t matter and you can choose which one you utilize to update your files check it out welcome back everyone I want to show you one of my favorite tools that’s part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and it’s also important to Microsoft SharePoint online it’s actually called a Microsoft 365 group now groups are a service that work inside Microsoft 365. they help you really to connect different tools that you need to collaborate with a Microsoft 365 group you can take a group of people and actually write documents create spreadsheets work on project plans even schedule meetings or send email to that group of people so it’s more than just a glorified inbox for a group of people because it allows you to do many more things also know that Office 365 groups are actually really important in things like Microsoft teams SharePoint team sites and even inside of the planner application when you want to share a plan with co-workers so first of all where some of the doorways to access a Microsoft 365 group one of the really common places is through Microsoft Outlook now we’re going to start by using Outlook online so I’m actually going to come over to my navigation bar in Office 365 I’m on my home page and I’m going to click on the Outlook tile this is in a separate browser tab is going to take me into outlook on the web or Outlook online this is of course all the great utility of Outlook but from a web browser now inside of Outlook online to access my groups I’m going to come over to my folder pane remember that this is going to be next to your navigation bar and it’s not uncommon for it to be minimized so make sure it’s Again full so that you can see the folder task pane then to access your groups you’re going to want to scroll all the way down to the bottom you’ll see that groups are also something that can be expanded and collapsed so make sure that you have them open so that you can see them now what exactly are these groups well first of all they have a name and in most cases they are a group of people inside an organization that need a way to collaborate doing things like sending email to each other having a shared calendar and even using other tools like a plan inside of Microsoft planner now can I include guests in my groups I can if that’s been turned on by your Office 365 admin but let’s just take a minute and look at some of these groups and the tools that you get with them the first thing I want to do to access my group is click on its name now when I do that I leave my inbox and I actually come to an inbox specific to my group notice it has the same name as my group now some people might look at this and say oh great another glorified distribution list or email group Office 365 or Microsoft groups are actually a lot more than that the first thing though that you can do is send emails so if I come right here and click on the send email button it’ll actually allow me to send an email to everyone who’s part of my group notice how my group has an email right here that’s specific to them and anyone who’s part of this group will get this email there are a lot of additional great tools that you can get with groups so we’re going to explore that that in a future lesson so make sure you come back and if you have access to Outlook on the web try going in and seeing if you have any groups hi everyone while we’re exploring Microsoft 365 groups I want to show you some of the great collaboration tools that come with this service so right now I’m in Microsoft on the web or Outlook online and I’m going to access my groups by going over to my folder Pane and scrolling down towards the bottom where I see the different groups that I have access to the group that I want to go to is called my market project team group this is actually a group created for this company internally to help a group of people manage a project that they’re working on I see some great information at the group up at the top of the group name I’m going to see that it’s a public group this means that it’s discoverable to other people inside my organization using tools like the delve application it also shows me how many team members I have inside my group now Beyond sending group email like we’ve already explored another great thing that a group can do is give me a shared repository for files that this group needs to work on their project to access that area and come directly to this little piece of paper button this is actually way to go to the shared files that this group has in common when I click on it it takes me to what’s called a document Library this is actually part of a SharePoint site but we’re able to access it here from inside the Outlook web application which really helps to streamline things because if I’m sending an email and think about one of the files I need to work with with this group I can automatically get to it the top I’m going to see recent files that different group members have worked on recently and then down below I’m going to see the files and folders that the group has shared in common as part of this group experience another great tool is a shared calendar so I’m going to come up now again and click on the shared calendar button this takes me into another browser tab for the calendar web application and it’s going to take me specifically to the group calendar that’s been set up notice over here on the left that my market project team group calendar is checked off and I can see all the different calendar events that again are viewable and editable to any member of our group if I close the tab it will take me back to Outlook on the web now I have some additional really awesome tools here that I want to show you that are part of the collaboration that a Microsoft 365 group provides I’m going to come again up to those same buttons that allowed me to access the group calendar and the email and I will see an ellipses we see these all over in Office 365 they help us get to other great tools when I click another one of the tools that a group will have in common is an empty OneNote notebook this is created when the group is created and it allows them to have a notebook where they can do things like add meeting minutes store FAQs and again it’s part of the group experience and every member of the group has permission to access this notebook you’ll see right here the name of the notebook is always part of the group name and again it’s a great way for the group to have collaboration to exit out of the notebook all I’m going to do is just click on the browser Tab and I’ll go back to Outlook on the web we’d love to have you try this out so please go into to your outlook online and see if you have any current groups that you’re part of and explore hi everyone we’re back in Outlook online exploring Microsoft 365 groups there’s still just a couple more great collaboration features inside a group that I want you to see so from the Outlook online or web application I’m going to come to my folder Pane and again travel down to the bottom where I can see the different groups that I’m part of in the Mark 8 project team group we’ve already explored that groups allow you to have a shared inbox for every member of your group also shared files and even assured calendar and if we come to the ellipses under the group name we’re also going to see a thing called planner now planner is a task application that’s part of your Microsoft 365 platform and when you click on planner it opens up the Microsoft planner application inside of a browser tab now planner is a great application for viewing tasks inside of what are called buckets so here I’m seeing a plan that’s already been created for my Microsoft group and it allows every member of the group to be able to access the plan go into the different tasks that are part of this plan and edit the tasks and work on them together when I’m done viewing my plan I’m going to click back on the little X to close the planner app and go back to Microsoft again and Outlook online from here the next item that you have access to from an Office 365 group when you click on the ellipses is a site and notice the letter s next to this this is actually our SharePoint Online logo that we’re going to see as we start exploring SharePoint online in more detail when I click on site I’m going to see another browser tab open this is taking me to a SharePoint site it’s actually what we call a team site it’s a site that’s been created to allow my Microsoft group to have a place to collaborate within a website and right here I’m actually seeing the plan that I was just in inside of the Microsoft group so another again element or collaboration function of a group is a SharePoint site now to go out of the SharePoint site I’m just going to click on the X on the tab and it will take me back to Microsoft again and back to the Microsoft Outlook web application what we’re going to explore next is how to create groups so again try going into Outlook online and see if you are part of any groups welcome back everyone we want to now look at how easy it is to create your own Microsoft 365 group for this I’m an Outlook online or outlook on the web and I’m going to come over to the folder Pane and scroll down to the bottom to access the different groups that I’m already part of down towards the bottom I’m going to see that there are options to allow me to create a new group discover groups or manage groups that I’m part of to make a new group of my own I’m going to select new group this is going to take me into where I can give my new group a name as I do this it’s going to create an email account for my group I can update this by just changing this name up here I’m also going to include a description this would help other people if they were discovering my group to know what my group is about now before I’m done I also want to come in and edit the default settings of my group this has to do with the privacy of my group so when I click on edit we’re going to see that I have two choices for the privacy setting private would mean only members of the group can see what’s going on inside public would allow other people to view what’s going on inside of the group both of these settings will allow people to request or join the group I’m going to keep my group private because I’d like more control and I only want people who are part of the group to know what’s going on inside the final setting is do you want members of your group to receive notifications in their inboxes when there are group conversations or events going on I’m going to turn that off because it can add a lot of traffic to my inbox and to my also to my group members and boxes and I’m going to click on create now I’m not done because the next thing I need to do is invite again co-workers and others to join my group now this right here is a list of people who are already part of groups that I’m in and I can just double click on their names and it will automatically add them but then I can also come in and just start typing in the first few letters of a co-worker’s name and it will also allow me from my company address list or active directory to add people to my group this way I can always come back in later and edit this group membership after the group’s already been created it’s really easy to do let me quick and just add a few more people to my group now if someone is outside my organization and my company allows for guests to be added to my group I can type in their email address up here and it will allow me to add them when I’m done adding everyone to my group The One Last Choice I need to make is if I want some additional owners notice next to each group member’s name they can either be a member or an owner I’m going to make both Lydia and Patty owners now what’s the difference between a member and an owner a member can fully participate in all the group’s great functionality but an owner is actually someone who can edit the membership of the group so owners have a little bit more ability to do things also if you create the group you’ll automatically be again an owner of the group now I’m going to click on ADD we’re going to see that when I’m done my group is going to be created in fact it takes me directly to my group notice right here we can see again my group over here on the left if I click on it also if I want to access that group all I have to do is come in here click on the three dots at the side side and come down to settings settings allows me to go in and again decide how those if you notice right here how I decide how notifications will be sent for the group and also if I want to come in and edit the group itself I can also come right here and edit its name now we’d love to have you try this out so go ahead and try creating a group of your own inside of Microsoft 365 and start using some of the Great functionalities welcome back everybody I want to show you how to manage Microsoft 365 groups so from Outlook online I’m going to come over to the groups that I’m already part of in my folder pane now what I have here is the ability to discover groups these are going to be groups that I’m not currently part of right here I’ve already come in and I’m going to type in the name of a group that I’d like to join I’ve just typed in us and then I’m going to come down and you’ll see here there is a group that I’m not currently part of that it’s giving me an option to request to join it’s even showing me a contact card so I can see who’s currently part of this group when I click on request to join I can include a message that will allow me to become part of that group and then one of the owners of the group will have to give me permission to join to leave a group what I need to do is come into the settings of the group so I’m actually going to come down to one of the groups that I no longer need to access and click on the group now at the top I’m again going to see the name of the group whether it’s public or private but also the ellipses that allows me to get into the settings for the group I’m going to come down to the settings gear and on the right I’ll see my group settings task pane Open Notice down here at the bottom it gives me an option to leave this group this would mean that I would no longer see this group over in the list of groups that I’m part of on the left hand side in my folder pane of Outlook online now finally what about just managing all the different groups that I’m part of for this I have a manage groups option when I click here it’s going to take me and show me the different groups that I’m currently part of in fact it refreshes and opens up the People application because this is where my group membership is managed from as I come in and look at the different groups that I’m part of if I’m an owner of a group I’ll see that so when I come here I can see that there is again a list of the group members and if I expand it out it actually takes me in so that I can see each individual member and if they’re an owner or a member remember you can also have guests depending on the security inside of your organization’s Office 365 or Microsoft 365. so right here I could actually come in and take one of my current members of my group and make them an owner and remember owners are people who can manage the settings of the group when I’m done all I have to do to access my group is Just Close My People app it will update all those settings and allow me to come back in and in normal Outlook online I can start managing my groups from there so remember groups are a tool to help you collaborate the reason we’re showing you how to get to groups from Outlook is because we use outlooks for so many things already it’s a great place for all the different collaboration options of groups to come into play because you’re already in the Outlook online web application and try it out on your own create some groups and start using them to help you manage products or I should say projects within your organization hi everyone we’ve been exploring Microsoft 365 groups and we’ve been doing it from Outlook online but another great Doorway to your Office 365 groups is from inside Outlook desktop because we know a lot of organizations use Outlook desktop because it gives you all the great tools that we’re used to in an email platform now I’m inside Outlook desktop and I want to access my groups notice over here that I have my folder task pane open and if I come down towards the bottom I’m going to see the groups that I’m part of inside my organization now from here all I need to do to access a given group is actually just click on its name and we’ll see that specific groups inbox open so again this is the shared inbox where we can receive mail through our group and then up on the top I’ll see the home ribbon tab is going to customize because I’m now in a group I’ll see buttons that allow me to access the shared calendar that’s part of my group experience it will open its own separate window so we’re seeing all the calendar events that are specific to my market project team the group that I have selected I also have a doorway to the shared files that are available through or complement some SharePoint online and when I click on this it will actually take me to my SharePoint site associated with my group and into the files and folders that this particular group has in common and this will of course take me online now the other option I have is to get to my OneNote notebook that’s part of my group experience this will take me to OneNote online so this is the online version of the OneNote application and I haven’t yet put any content in my notebook so it’s empty and last but not least the other doorway I have is to the group settings that you’ll see here these allow me to go in and add members to my group edit my group settings and again really decide how I will get notifications about the group now is there a way to discover new groups while you’re inside Outlook desktop there is I’m going to go back to my inbox and up to my home ribbon Tab and come over to the far right hand side to the ellipses we can’t escape it right from the ellipses you’ll see that there is a browse groups option this is going to take me to groups inside my organization that I might or already be part of or are again public groups where I could either request to join these could also be private groups I need to say or I can just automatically join them so for example if I want to join the All company group I can click on join and it will automatically add me to the group if there’s a group that I need to request before I can join it I will have to again type a little message but again we’re seeing that you can access all great utilities of groups for the most part from Outlook desktop if you’d like to use this as your Doorway to get to them but again everything is really happening because of office 365. so please go in and try accessing groups creating some groups of your own there are great collaboration tool hey everyone welcome back now part of your Microsoft 365 account is called your Office 365 profile or Microsoft 365 profile with your profile Microsoft keeps track of where you go files that you work on even people that you work with inside your organization now this might sound scary but it’s not they use an application called Dell to help you manage this information and it’s really made to help you discover and organize the info the other thing to know is that delve is never going to change any permissions you’ll only see documents that you already have access to and other people will never see your private documents now how do we access the delve or the Microsoft 365 profile inside of office 365. well from my home page I’m going to come to the top right hand corner to my picture or initials and click and down here I’ll see a hyperlink that will give me access to my office profile when I click on this it’s going to take me to an application called Dell now the screen that I’m on right now is all about the person I’m playing who is Megan Bowen so we’re gonna see that it shows us her email address her contact information and if I’d like to update any of this content I can click right here on update profile and it will take me in so that I can see the different information that Megan’s provided and if I want to add to it I can keep in mind that depending on the info that you provide some of it might be discoverable to your co-workers now if I’m done updating this information I can come right here and click back on my name and it will take me back to the main me screen from here I’m going to see great information like recent documents I’ve worked on and also below people that I’ve recently worked with and you’ll also see here that if I hover over one of these people and click it will actually take me to an informational page about that person so delve is also about helping me find people that I work with and contact them it’s not about surfacing anything I don’t have permission to see now there’s one more view in delve called the home screen when I go to my home screen I’m going to see recent documents that co-workers have worked on they’re going to appear on little cards that are called content cards and the idea is that it tells me the type of file when it was last updated and also where it’s stored you’re going to see that at the bottom of these files I have options to add these files to my favorites over here on the left you’ll see my favorites view if it’s something that I would like to go back in and work on later also you’ll see here that I can actually create my own cards through boards and if I see a file that I would like for example to send a link to someone too it gives me that ability if there’s something here that I would like to open I can actually come to the file name click on the file and in this case using powerpoint online the file is going to open up it will only let me open files that I have permission to open when I’m done viewing the file I can click on the X and the file will close so delve is all about helping me to manage my information within Microsoft 365 and also discover other people and files that other co-workers might be working on as well hi everyone I want to show you how to access the delve application from your Office 365 home page so I have several different options number one I can come up to the search bar and type in delve there or I can go over to my app launcher and I can come down to all apps and it will of course be in my list if it’s an app that I’m going to access a lot I can always of course make sure that it’s pinned to my launcher which it is when Delph opens it’s going to open in its own browser tab when I come in I will always start on my home screen this is where I’ll see content cards showing popular documents that co-workers have recently worked on and one thing I want to mention if you’re ever feeling nervous that delve is going to surface content that doesn’t belong to you or you don’t want people to see right down here they actually have a little article telling you about how delve works this is just to help reiterate that yes your documents are safe inside of delve delve will never change permissions for your documents and only you can see your private documents in delve and also your files aren’t actually stored in Dell delve is just the tool to help you access the files I’m going to go ahead and close that because one of the things I can also do through delve is discover files that might be helpful to me I’m going to come here to the top left hand corner and do a search and this could be for any topic that someone that I’ve worked with or that I might be working on and notice it’s even making suggestions as I’m typing it in if I come down and ask Dell to show all its results I’m going to see that it’s showing me both people that may have worked with the Northwind project it’s also showing me documents and if I keep scrolling down I can see it’s all kinds of files with any of these files I can come in and bookmark the file to add it to my favorites I can also come up and hover over a person and when I click on their profile picture it will actually take me to their profile page inside of delve so delve is a great way for me to not only discover files but also people and any of those files that I favorite I can actually come right here and click on favorites and it will take me in and show me those files that I’ve favorited and I’m never going to see a file that I don’t have permission to see and access this is also going to tell me where the file is stored and if I want to open it all I have to do is just click on the file’s name and using the online version of the application it’s going to open up so delve is not about again discovering anything that you shouldn’t see it’s about discovering things that you should see and again locating people who might be subject matter experts that can help you get things accomplished more quickly and again when I’m finished I can close the file and I can even close delve and go back to my office 365 homepage if your organization does use the delve application go in and try playing with it and see what you can Discover it can be really exciting hey everyone learning about SharePoint online would not work if you don’t understand another application that is part of your Microsoft 365 account called OneDrive for business it’s also sometimes called OneDrive for work or school so what is OneDrive OneDrive is really the cloud storage that is part of your Office 365 account just for you it lets you store and protect your files and share them with others and get them from any device when you use OneDrive for school or work it’s associated with your school or work email now it’s important to know that with Microsoft 365 you can get over one terabyte of space for storing your files if your OneDrive library is hosted on a SharePoint server then your organization’s administrators determine how much space you have but for many of us we have a terabyte of space I like to tell people OneDrive for business is like having your own personal filing cabinet where you go it goes because it’s stored in the cloud so how do we access OneDrive for business from our Office 365 home page well I of course can come right here and I can search for OneDrive we’re already going to see that OneDrive is represented by a blue cloud which stands for cloud storage I can also come over to my app launcher and I’ll see OneDrive there as well for me OneDrive is really the heart of your Microsoft 365 account because this is where you store your stuff it’s the most personalized part of the platform when I come into my Microsoft 365 application you’re going to see that it opens in a browser Tab and a few common interface settings is that you’ll see a command bar at the top also on the left you’re going to see a navigation pane the default view in OneDrive for business is called my files this is exactly what we’re seeing here we’re seeing my files for work or school that are stored right here inside of this cloud storage you’re also going to see access to recent files that you’ve worked on files that you may have shared with a co-worker or have been shared with you and a recycle bin now it’s also not uncommon under this to have other SharePoint document libraries that you also have permission to access again these may not be turned on in your organization but when you come into OneDrive for business if you see additional areas below your recycle bin it’s just because your organization also uses SharePoint and it’s giving you again a way to get to your SharePoint sites from inside OneDrive for business now as always we’d love to have you try OneDrive for business out yourself so go to your organizational Office 365 Microsoft 365 home page and try finding OneDrive and accessing it hey welcome back everybody we’ve been looking at OneDrive for business as we get ready to explore SharePoint online now I’m currently in my OneDrive for business account this is a OneDrive for work account and I’m seeing the different files that are again stored here one of the great things you can do is manage your files from your OneDrive and we’re going to spend a little bit of time doing that so up in the command bar I’m going to see options to help me manage content one of them is that I can create new folders and files using office 365. I’m going to create a new folder I can name it and then I can take my files and store them inside the folder now one of the ways I can do this is to drag and drop the applicable files in I don’t want to click on the file name because it will open it’s a hyperlink instead I’m going to come to the left hand side and you’ll see that I get a circle with a white check mark inside of it this is my way of selecting these files without actually having them open once they’re selected I can hover over any of the file names hold down my left Mouse button and drag the files up over the top of the new folder I’ve created release my left Mouse button and it will move the files into that folder you can see here in the top right hand corner it’s telling me that’s what I’ve just done to open the folder up I can click and I’ll see the folder open and the files inside of it so we can actually organize content using our OneDrive for business web application to go back out of the folder I’m just going to come at the top and click on my files because that’s the view I’m in now what about bringing content that’s stored locally on my hard drive or a network drive into my OneDrive for this I’m going to use my upload button with my upload button I can upload files and folders one warning with folders if they’re really large you’ll be using upload speed which can really slow down your internet speed so I would suggest uploading large folders when your computer is not busy doing things like attending a training or a meeting we’re going to click on files and come in and I’m going to locate the files that I’d like to upload I have a couple of PowerPoint presentations I’m going to use my shift key to select three of them and then click on open here in the top right hand corner we’re going to see it’s telling me it’s uploading three files into that again into my OneDrive when I upload I am copying them so the originals will still be back on my computer’s hard drive so at best practice would probably be to either delete those files or archive them so I always make sure I’m not getting confused at which ones I’m working with now the other thing that some people will do is synchronize their OneDrive files synchronizing can be important if you don’t want to have to come to this site to be able to access your OneDrive files it actually allows you after we’ve synchronized to access your files from your file explorer you only have to synchronize once on the device that you want to access them from it takes a few moments you’re seeing me go through the process right now and it may ask you to type in your password but what it’s going to do is actually take these files and make it so I can access them from my own file explorer in my computer and it can save a great deal of time the first time you do it like I said it takes a few moments but once you’re synchronized it can save time when I’m done synchronizing Office 365 will tell me that I’m finished it even waves goodbye then to access these synchronized files I’m going to actually go into my file explorer when I open up file explorer what I’m going to see is a new directory over here on the left in my folder pane I now see it says OneDrive Dash contoso it will be the name of your school or your organization that you work for and what’s exciting is the files that we were just looking at through the OneDrive web application I can now see all those files and folders right here from my file explorer if I want to open one of the files up all I have to do is double click on it the other exciting thing that happens is rather than opening in word online for example the files will default to open in the desktop client the auto save will be turned on because again the file is actually stored online in OneDrive for business but this allows me The Best of Both Worlds cloud storage and also the ability to utilize my desktop applications if for any reason I do make some changes to the file I’ll see that it will automatically start Auto saving to my OneDrive because again it’s open from cloud storage and when I’m done all I have to do is close the file without having to worry about saving so synchronizing is a really powerful way to access OneDrive files without actually having to be in your OneDrive for business web application hey everybody back in OneDrive for business I want to show you how to quickly and easily share a file with a co-worker to share a file from the OneDrive for business web application which I have open I need to select the file so I’m going to come to the left hand side I have a PowerPoint presentation that I want to share with a co-worker there are multiple ways to share but up in the command bar you’ll see a share button also if you come to the ellipses next to the file’s name you’ll have another option to share now remember sharing is not like emailing a file that’s attached through email because when we email file attachments it recreates a copy of the file once that person downloads it to open it when I share a file through OneDrive I’m giving my co-worker or the person I’m sharing the file with a link to the file it’s not creating copies of it up here notice I have to decide the type of link and a lot of organizations the only kind of link you can create is one that’s internal to your org that means only people inside your company or school could open that file up down here another exciting option is that you can allow people to edit your file or by unchecking this box you can make it so they can’t edit the file you can also turn on the ability to block downloading the file after I set those settings I need to type in the name of the person I’m sharing the file with this is a co-worker so I’m accessing their name through my company address list also the strikethrough on the pencil means that it will be a view only link that I’m providing to them I can also type a message because they’re going to get an email and in that email they’ll get a link to my file and then I’m going to click on send after the file has been shared we’re going to see that in my OneDrive one thing that changes and I’m refreshing it just so you can see this is that when we look at the file name rather than saying private it will say shared and that’s because any file in your OneDrive you own that file as an employee or student of your school when you share the file you still own the file but you’re giving a co-worker or fellow student access to it another place you can go to see files that you’ve shared or have been shared with you is the shared view over in your navigation pane when you come here there are two tabs the first one is shared with you these are files that you do not own co-workers or fellow students own but they’ve given you permission to access their files either through an editable link or a view only link shared by you these are the files that you own and we’re seeing that PowerPoint that I just shared right here in this list and this again is letting me see a list of all the files that I’ve either given co-workers permission to add edit or View and this is what makes again OneDrive for business such a great platform because not only can you store your work files and school files but you can also give co-workers and fellow students access to them so open OneDrive for business up in your own OneDrive for business account through Microsoft 365 and try sharing a file with a co-worker hey everyone with all the different parts of Microsoft 365 that we’ve explored we’re finally ready to actually explore SharePoint so from my Microsoft 365 home page I’m going to come up to the search bar and type in SharePoint now it’s important to know that the version of SharePoint we’re using here is SharePoint online as we’ve already managed and remember SharePoint online is a cloud-based service that helps your organization to share manage content knowledge and applications and it’s in my opinion the most powerful application that is in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem now as I come to SharePoint we’re going to see that I’m still in Office 365 so I can see the app launcher it’s very common to see the name of your organization in the top left-hand corner and also that I’m now inside of SharePoint and if I look at my search bar I’m going to see here that it also tells me that I’m in SharePoint now this area that I’m in right now is called the SharePoint start page instead of seeing a specific SharePoint site what I’m seeing are content cards that allow me to see different news updates or sites that are part of my organization it’s a great way to explore what kinds of sites your organization has when you first start using SharePoint each of these cards represents a different site and I’d never see a SharePoint site here that I don’t have permission to access to go into a specific site all I do is click on the card and that specific site will open some additional features that you have here are the ability to go to the top right hand corner of a frequent site click on the star and this will favorite that site and add it to the list of sites that you are following so I can actually use this as a way to create my own list of common sites and make it very easy for me to access them by coming to this followed list additionally another thing I can do from this SharePoint start page is a search if I come up here and do a search and it can be for people it can be for Content it can be for anything it’s a very very Global search because not only am I searching through SharePoint I’m searching through my OneDrive I’m searching through anything that’s stored within my Microsoft 365 account when I type in the word up here and I come to the results page you’re going to see that they are pre-filtered there’s an all Tab and then a tab that shows me any files any SharePoint sites that have that word with them any people that have been associated with that word any news feeds or updates any images that have that word inside of them on text and any power bi reports are dashboards this is one of the most powerful searches inside of Microsoft 365. when I come to files for example I can further refine my search results by picking a specific file type applying that and even going further by picking seeing files that have been recently modified if I want to open one of these files I can click on it and it’s going to open up right for me using whatever online application is applicable in this case word online so doing a search from the SharePoint start page is very powerful to get back all I’m going to do is come right here and click on SharePoint and it will take me back to my SharePoint start page welcome back everyone I’m ready to actually go to a SharePoint site and explore it so up on my search bar I’m just going to type in SharePoint this will take me to the SharePoint platform and to my SharePoint start page from here I’m going to see any sites that I frequently visit and also it’s not uncommon down here to even have my it Department suggest sites I might want to access now I have a few sites that I’ve favorited up here at the top to access one of them I’m going to click on it and that site will open up and again the same browser tab as my SharePoint start page I’m now on a SharePoint site this is what we call a SharePoint team site now a couple of common features that you’ll see in a SharePoint site we’re still inside of Office 365 so I see the app launcher also notice right now the search bar tells me that if I do a search it will default to just search the site that I’m in SharePoint is really good with keeping up with where you are and searching that area finally in the top right hand corner I’m going to see who I’m logged in as and then below that we’re going to see some additional important information this is a public group so it’s what we call a public SharePoint site which means other people in my organization can Discover it and request to become members of the site I’m also seeing how many members there are for this SharePoint site which is something that we’ll Explore More in some future lessons if you come over I’m going to see the title for the site and the letter T next to it it’s not uncommon in a SharePoint site for to have it attributed with a Microsoft team this just gives the team a website to go with their team also my navigation is on the left hand side and if I want to access any of the additional parts of this site I can click and it will actually take me to that particular area of my site I’ve just gone into the documents area of this site which is a document Library I’ll also see that there’s a recycle bin this allows me to delete content and then access it a lot like your deleted items folder inside of excel so when you click on the recycle bin that’s sort would take you to any of those deleted items this particular site doesn’t have any right now but if I deleted something I would see it there what we’re seeing with a SharePoint site is that it’s just like navigating in any website we’re just doing it in a website that’s specific to our organization to go back to the top of my site I’m just going to come up and actually click on the logo for the site and I’ll go back to the top of my SharePoint site so again we’d love to have you try this out in your own organization go to Office 365 access SharePoint and explore some of the different SharePoint sites that you have permission to access in your organization hey everyone thanks so much for joining us in this first module of our SharePoint online series we have spent time exploring office 365. we’ve spent time accessing the different applications that are part of our Office 365 account and even spending time looking at how we can customize the app launcher we’ve also spent time looking at the OneDrive for business web application and also delve and again we’re seeing that with Microsoft 365 you have an entire ecosystem of applications that you can access from inside a web browser we finalized our journey by actually going to a SharePoint page and looking at how easy it is from the SharePoint start page to actually navigate two different sites that you have permission to access inside your organization and we spend a little bit of time exploring how easy it is to navigate a SharePoint site because really it’s just a website and now we’re seeing how powerful SharePoint online can be for helping organizations to bring users together and give them a platform where they can both customize and collaborate please join us for the next module where we’re going to actually learn how to build SharePoint sites hi everyone Welcome to our Microsoft SharePoint online module 2. whether you’re managing existing SharePoint sites or you’re getting ready to become a site owner this course will complement your current situation in this course we’re going to help you understand how existing sites can be managed we’re also going to look at how you can plan out your own new SharePoint sites we want to help you get familiar with SharePoint online terminology and also how you can create your own site navigation we’re going to be looking at creating subsites and even being able to delete and update site content after completing this module we want you to be able to understand site templates and also how you can use site collections to help you really create sites that are powerful we also want to look at how to update site navigation and even delete and restore sites now as always if there are any course files they will be below in the video description so join us for this course hey everyone welcome to SharePoint online now there is a lot of terminology associated with the SharePoint online platform and as we’re getting started exploring the platform in more detail I want to help you have this again common terminology available to you in our practice files you will find a PowerPoint that has several of these terms in it and I just want to share a few of them with you as we’re getting started one of them you’ll see is the second bullet on this slide it’s a communication site this is a really common type of SharePoint site that’s made to share information with large groups of people we’re actually going to build a SharePoint communication site during this module another really common element that we’ll see in SharePoint sites is called a library or a document Library it’s basically a file folder full of files but it can also have files inside of it the great thing about document libraries is they give a place for SharePoint users to store all the content that they need as they work together another really common element is called a SharePoint list I like to tell people that lists are like the spreadsheets of SharePoint online lists are anything that can normally be stored in a table so in rows or columns you can put into a list so lists can include everything from contacts to task lists to even lists of products now in addition to these terms you’re also going to learn about things like a site a site is a website in SharePoint online and anytime you go to a different page that’s called a site page so all of these terms are available in this PowerPoint in our practice files also you’re going to see a link to the Microsoft glossary list for all of SharePoint and it’s much more detailed but before I bore you with any more terms let’s actually get in and explore SharePoint some more hey everyone welcome back to SharePoint we want to spend some time getting familiar with some really common types of content in a SharePoint site so from my Office 365 home page I’m going to come up and actually search for the SharePoint application I’m going to click on it it will take me to my SharePoint start page from here I can go to any sites that I have permission to access inside of SharePoint I have a few sites to the left that I’ve followed and I’m going to select one of those sites this sales and marketing site is a site that’s been created for the sales and marketing department of my organization and I want to point out some really common pieces of content on this site that we’re going to learn to create during this module now first of all you’re going to see the title of the site up in the top left corner this helps me to know that I’m in the right place also every SharePoint site has a URL this is again the website address remember when you’re in SharePoint you are in a web-based platform but I’d have to be logged into my office or 365 account to access this site now on the left I’m going to have my navigation this is how I get to the different parts of my site and what I’d like to do is take you to a really common piece of content called a document Library when I click on documents it’s going to take me to a list of folders and files that this department has stored inside their SharePoint site this is great because it’s cloud storage notice it’s made up of folders and also all different kinds of files these files do not have to be Microsoft related but it allows everyone who is in this department to have a website for all their stuff I like to call it a walk-in closet for the group that uses the site another really common element that we’re going to see in SharePoint sites is called a SharePoint list for this I’m going to come over to my site navigation and go to product list this is an example of a SharePoint list with products here I’m going to see information that would normally be stored in a spreadsheet but here it’s just right inside of my SharePoint site you can see that it’s a list of products but everything is organized into rows and columns it’s a great way to give people who use the site quick access to the different products that this organization works with and depending on their permission they can also update this content which means everyone else can also get to it now a few other common elements in a SharePoint site notice in the top left hand corner we still see the app launcher so we’re still in Office 365 because this organization uses SharePoint online in conjunction with their office 365. also it tells me I’m in SharePoint and don’t forget the search bar at the top this is a great way to look for Content final thing to remember is that in the very top left you’re going to see the settings gear we’re going to use this a lot when we start to explore kind of the back side of our sites as a site owner this will give you access to allow you to update and edit the contents of your site so get into Office 365 navigate to a SharePoint site and start looking for some of these these common site elements so that you can get used to them and we’re going to start making some SharePoint sites hey everybody we’re ready to explore two of the most common types of SharePoint sites the first one is a communication site I actually have a communication site up on my shared screen right now now what exactly is a communication site in Microsoft 365 a communication site is a way to share news reports and status and other information in a visually compelling way a Communications site is really made to broadcast information to a broad audience usually a communication site only has a small set of members that contribute content but then that content is consumed by a much larger audience a lot of intranet sites for organizations are actually made into communication site when you create a communication site a Microsoft 365 group is not created so it’s a great way for again an organization to convey information let’s look at a couple of common things you’re going to see in a communication site when you come to this communication site we can see the title in the top left hand corner and again that we’re still in the Office 365 ecosystem with the app launcher and that it’s still part of the SharePoint platform my navigation is here along the top you’re also going to notice that if I come over to the right hand side I don’t see a list of members of this site because again this site is made to convey information it’s not as much made for collaboration it’s very common in communication sites as you scroll down to see things like news releases notice these allow me to get updates on the important things that have recently happened in this organization other common pieces of communication sites are going to be including links to things that I might need as an employee of this organization also if I scroll down a little bit I’m going to see it’s pretty common to have for example a calendar of things that are happening within my organization and also I’ll see here even an opportunity for example to meet with leadership through in this case a chat pane to find out about what’s going on and sometimes this will be hosted by platforms like Yammer but again the communication site is about sharing information it’s not about collaboration so go into your own organization’s SharePoint and see if you can find any communication site howdy everybody welcome back to SharePoint we want to explore a common type of SharePoint site called a team site now just a reminder to get to any of your SharePoint sites you can use your M365 home page I can either search for SharePoint here in my search bar or look for it over here in my navigation pane now once I find SharePoint I’m going to see different sites in my organization that I have permission to access here in the SharePoint start page I’ve actually favorited a couple of these sites and a few of these are what we call a team site I want to go into this team site called The Mark 8 project team now what exactly is the reason for a team site team sites allow you to connect you and your team together to share resources and content team sites are a great place to store and collaborate on files and even create and manage lists of information so we’re going to see some of these functionalities in this team site now a reminder we’re still in of course the M365 ecosystem I can see that because up here I have the app launcher the name of my organization and then of course a reminder that we’re still in the SharePoint online platform but under that I’m going to see the name of my site this particular site has been created for a project group inside the contoso electronics organization they’re going to use this site to help them get things done now a few common features in a team site are a left hand side navigation also when it comes to who can use this site if you go to the top right hand corner you’re going to see a list of team members when you click on this list you’re going to see that some of them are team owners and some of them are members but both a team owner and a team member have permission to edit content on this site at different levels this makes it really easy for me to come in and see who they are right here from the very top page of the site now what are some other common again functionalities in a team site over here on the left hand side in my site navigation we’re also going to see that it’s very common to have a recycle bin in a team site this is where deleted content goes right now my again recycle bin is empty but if I delete something it will be stored in my recycle bin it’s important to know what the retention policy is for the recycle bin in your organization so make sure you check with your it team on that fact another common functionality in a team site is a team calendar part of this is because often team sites are going to be regulated by an Office 365 group that is helping to manage the membership of your team this calendar will take me to exchange online and let me see a calendar that’s been created for my Mark 8 project team where I can actually have calendar events that have been created for the team in common another common element you’re going to see is a document Library team sites a really important part of what they do is to help the group of people using the site to manage the content there so here we’re actually seeing the different folders and files that this again cite have in common every member of the team site and owner has access and permission to use these files they can also co-author inside of them another common component in a team site is going to be a OneNote notebook when a team site is created for a group of people an empty OneNote notebook is created that can be accessed from the team site and here we’ll see it open up it’s empty right now and it opens in OneNote online but the idea is that this empty notebook is available for the team members to use from their site to put whatever kinds of information they would like and here we’re just viewing the notebook before it’s been used but it’s here part of the site ready for everyone to utilize and access very quickly from inside the again SharePoint site another common area that you’ll see inside of a team site as well are going to be planner apps now these planners are created again when the site is created this particular one when we open it up will open in planner this is of course a task management application that’s part of The Office 365 experience once you’re inside you’ll see that if there is a plan attributed to this group I can either create a new plan or I can actually go into a plan that might already be part of that SharePoint experience and this is what the plan looks like and think about it when a group of people are working together to get something done it’s very common for them to need to know who’s doing what and that’s exactly what the planner app helps them to keep track of from their SharePoint site so again we’re seeing that right from the SharePoint team site there are multiple tools allowing this group of people to come together collaborate on files communicate about tasks again and get stuff accomplished and that’s the main reason for a team hi everybody welcome back now if you’re ready to start creating some SharePoint online sites there’s some strategy that you want to go through before you begin that process when a site’s content is logically organized and easy to find it’s going to be easier to maintain and manage it also helps your site users to be more productive so as a site owner you need to plan out your site and there needs to be some strategy involved before you get started we’re going to explore a couple of sites and look at some of the different components that have been used in the site’s design to help make it easier for it to be maintained and also for users to be productive in the site right here we’re going to look at a site from the SharePoint starting page called The Landing this is actually the intranet site for this organization but it’s SharePoint online one of the things the designer of this particular site has done is put the navigation at the top across the very top now this is again a choice that can be made you’ll notice that in other sites the navigation will be along the left hand side like the sales and marketing site that’s been created for a sales and marketing department putting the navigation in an easy to see place will help your users be able to get to what they need more quickly other questions you should ask yourself as you create a site are what kinds of lists libraries or Pages you want to create libraries can be used to store documents and files lists can be used to track issues or tasks and pages are going to be the individual items within the site where you can display content you’ll see here that this particular site has a document library to help the members of the sales and marketing team to get to the files that they need to use another question to ask yourself is what kinds of apps you may want to include in your site apps help to support the users in the site and get things done apps do include document libraries and lists but they can also include things like news feeds to help keep users up to date with events that are happening inside an organization or department or even calendar events for upcoming events that might be occurring all of these are topics that you need to explore and decide the best placement for such elements within your site before it’s created remember with SharePoint online you will have what’s called a site collection which means the different pages that make up your site the document libraries the different applications all come together in a collection that is your SharePoint site hi everybody you are ready to create your first SharePoint site now keep in mind that to create a SharePoint site you have to have permission to do so in a lot of organizations normal users cannot create SharePoint sites and there is a request process that you need to go through and your site will be created for you a SharePoint admin or an M365 Global admin can give you the ability to create sites through permissioning now right now I’m on my SharePoint start page and in the top left hand corner I see two options one to create a site and one to create a News Post so in this particular company I do have permission to create SharePoint sites also please remember before you create your SharePoint site that you’ve planned the kind of content and the type of site that you need so I’m going to click on create site on the right hand side a panel opens up asking me the type of site I want to create now we’ve already explored these two again types of sites but just a quick review team sites are about a site that’s created for teams of people to collaborate together share files and basically get things done a communication site is a portal to share information make sure you pick the right one we’re going to do a team site now I need to name my site after my site’s named I’m also going to see that underneath it’s creating an Office 365 group and also a calendar this group and calendar are important because they’re going to help me manage calendar events and also communicate with the different users of my site using email the other thing that’s really critical here that’s created is your site URL this is something that cannot be changed very easily after the site is created your site name can always be updated later on it’s always a good idea to tell people about what your site is going to be doing so I suggest filling in the site description even though it’s extra then the privacy settings this is where you select how your site will be advertised to other people inside your company if it’s private only members people that you invite can access your site if it’s public anyone in the organization can see the site and access it they won’t be able to change content but it will be viewable to others we’re going to keep it private because I want to be able to control who has access to my team site also a default language then I’m going to click on next now remember I picked a team site so at this point I need to start typing in the names of my co-workers who will be able to access this site as I type these co-workers names in they’re actually populating from my company address list or my active directory this makes it really easy for me to go in and quickly start creating the members of my site these are again the people who will be able to access and edit content on my site now notice as I’m typing these names in that underneath their names it’s telling me that they are a site member I can actually at this point before I’m even done creating the site allocate either my different site members to be owners or site members now I’m playing Megan right now we can see her picture in the top right hand corner but what I want you to remember is that because Megan’s creating the site she will also automatically be assigned the role of a site owner and in this case I’ve also selected Patty after the site’s made can I edit this list of site owners and members absolutely and it’s really easy to do I’m going to click on finish and voila my site will be made now at this point if I close the different panels that are opening up we can see my new training opportunities site it’s already up and running and I already also have six members including myself and Patty as owners and my site is already ready to rock and roll so if you can create sites go in and try create creating your own team site hey everyone when you have a new SharePoint site you may want to update the way it looks one of the ways that you can do this is to apply a site template now after your site’s created the site templates box will pop up but also you can access it on your own in your new site so here in my training opportunities team site that I just created I’d like to go ahead and apply one of the site templates to this site to do that I’m going to go to my site settings site settings are located in the top right hand corner of SharePoint online directly from your SharePoint site so they’re really easy to get to so I’m going to come up and click on this white gear located in the top right hand corner of my screen and when I do I’ll see a menu of different tools to help me manage my site about fourth from the bottom in the top menu I’ll see apply a site template when I click on this it will open up the site templates now remember this is for my entire site so if I select one of these templates it’s going to update all the content of my my site there aren’t a whole ton you’ll see that there are two tabs at the top one are templates that are provided by Microsoft these templates are built around different core capabilities like event planning project management retail management team store collaboration team collaboration training and development and training in courses now to select one of these you just click on it you’ll see a details button this will take you into where you get a little blurb helping to describe what the site does also a preview of what it looks like and then in the bottom right corner you can click on the purple use template button and it will actually update your site to this template now remember if you’ve already added content to your site the template will not delete anything but it will update the color and add new content to your site and you’ll see that they come with a lot of pre-built content including web Parts which we haven’t explored yet but we will that can save you a tremendous amount of time now after I use one template but if I’d like to try a different one I just go through those same steps go to the top right hand corner click on the settings gear come back down to apply site template the Box will pop open and now I can pick a different site template and apply it so you can actually go through and try a few different ones until you find one that which you feel is applicable do you have to use site templates absolutely not but one real benefit of site templates is they help to add a lot of content to your site very quickly and then you can go in and customize the different content that is here one last thing to mention about the site templates when we go up to again the settings gear and go back down to the site templates options is that when you’re in the site templates box there’s also a tab for from your organization these are going to include templates that your own organization has created for SharePoint sites this particular company hasn’t made any yet and it’s because they’re so new to SharePoint on line but this is something that eventually an organization might build out so again we want you to try this go into a SharePoint site that you’ve created and check out the site templates and try applying one of them to your site to look at all the great content and updates that it can make all right welcome back to SharePoint we need to talk about sub sites now in older versions of SharePoint it was very common to have a sub site which is basically a site within a site especially when you’re looking at SharePoint server 2010 2013 2016 2019 subsites were very popular for the overall layout of a site however with modern SharePoint in M365 we really want to steer clear of subsites one of the reasons is that if you already have subsites and you’re migrating to SharePoint online and M365 it makes the migration process a lot more difficult what SharePoint online recommends instead is that you try to keep the architecture of your site flat instead of using subsites we want you to utilize team sites communication sites and what’s called a hub site to help keep the structure of your SharePoint site very flat now that being said if you need a subsite you can still do that so for example in my training opportunities site I’m a site owner so I can create sub sites also I need to create a subsite for a specific group of people who would like to manage content separately but within this site to do that I’m going to need to go into my site settings so to do that we’re going to come into the site and go to the top right hand corner to the settings gear and then I’m going to access an area called site contents now site contents is a great place to go to really see all the pages document libraries and different apps that are part of your site you’ll see when I come in that I’m looking at a list of the different components that make up my new SharePoint team site at the top there is a new button this new button will let me do things like add lists Pages document libraries apps and yes the unmatchinable the subsite we’re going to select subsite and when I do this I actually go into a view of SharePoint that’s a little bit different but this is where I can create my new sub site right here I’m going to go ahead and type in the name of this site notice I can include a description again the description’s arbitrary but it can help other people know what this site is for the other thing that’s a little bit different here it’s more manual I need to add everything in of course I can copy and paste but I even need to make sure that I come in and type in the rest of the URL I’m going to pick the language that my site will be in Additionally the template it’s based on notice here it can be a team site with no M365 group or it can be a team site based on having again an M365 group associated with it and then down below is it going to have the same permissions as the parent site and finally a create button so this will create my subsite for me so when it’s finished creating the site I will see that I’m no longer in the parent site but now I’ll be in my new sub site that I’ve made but again we’ve got to keep in mind that Microsoft does not really suggest doing subsites the other thing you’ll notice about this new site that it’s based on the classic experience because I based it on the classic template when I create created it so subsites are something you can do but we don’t recommend it all right everyone we need to take a minute and talk about SharePoint online URLs now just like a doctor has to know the anatomy of a body with a SharePoint site you’ve got to understand the makeup of your website address or your url now if we come up here in this site I’m in the sales and marketing team site of this organization I’m in a Microsoft environment so the URL is a little bit weird but we can still refer to it to help us understand the anatomy of a SharePoint site the first thing you’re going to notice is that it’s an https site this lets us know that it’s a modern site and it’s going to need the latest version of most browsers to run the next thing I’m going to see is the company name for me this is the m365x17718-452 it’s quite the number but normally this would be your company name and also this is the URL of your tenant now the next thing I’m going to see is I go over to the right it’s going to tell me that I’m in and SharePoint you’ll see that it says sharepointon.com this lets me know that I’m using SharePoint online some companies use SharePoint but not M365 this organization uses both the next thing I’m going to see is that I’m in a site this means that I’m in one of the sites that is part of this company’s collection of SharePoint sites then I finally see my site name which is sales and marketing now within that site if I come in and go for example to a document Library which I’m going to do what we’re going to notice is that my SharePoint online URL gets additional information at the end I’m still in the sales and marketing site but if I keep going over to the right we’ll see that it’s telling me I’m in shared documents this is letting me know that I’m in a document Library which I am if I go for example to a SharePoint list within that site again we’re going to see that now I’m still in the sales and marketing site but I’m looking at a list and specifically the product list so these SharePoint online site URLs give us a lot of information about where we are in the site the company that we’re in and also the SharePoint platform that we’re using and if you explore them you get pretty familiar with again what they tell you about where you are in your SharePoint ecosystem within your organization hey everybody welcome back in 2016 Microsoft introduced the modern SharePoint online experience previous to this time a lot of companies were using what they call SharePoint online classic now the modern experience was designed to be more compelling flexible and even available on mobile devices easier to use it was available in SharePoint online and also SharePoint server 2019 with some limitations but there are still organizations that are using the classic experience on my screen right now you’re seeing a document Library as viewed in the classic experience some of the biggest differences are that in the classic experience things are a little bit more tricky to edit and also the experience has a few functionalities that the modern experience doesn’t for example the modern experience doesn’t include some of the column types and customizations that you can make in the modern experience now if you view a modern document Library we’re going to see that it looks more like what we’re used to seeing in a SharePoint site things are easier to drag and drop and it’s also going to be an experience that’s a lot easier for users to come in and automatically start utilizing with the classic experience it required a little bit more time to get up to speed with how to make the sites work it’s not uncommon for some organizations to have some sites that continue to have the classic experience and then other sites that are already migrated to the modern experience become familiar so that you can know how to utilize both but count on for the most part sites being migrated to the modern SharePoint online experience because again with the modern online experience you’re going to have views document libraries and also lists that are optimized to make it really easy to pin filter and also sort which the classic experience it was a little bit more difficult hey SharePoint welcome back we want to talk about site collections now in previous versions of SharePoint like 2013 2016 2019 where SharePoint server was involved the architecture of a SharePoint site was to be a site collection now site collection was a group of websites that had the same owner and same administrative settings so that would mean things like permissions and quotas were all the same site collections were created in a web application like SharePoint and they would have a top level site that was automatically created and then all the other sites would be called sub sites well as we’ve already talked about we’re trying to get away from subsites in SharePoint online instead what Microsoft is recommending when you have a group of sites that are in common and managed by the same group or individual then is set up a site collection you create what’s called a hub site so our Hub site’s the new site collection no because they’re two different things but they accomplish publish a similar thing so what exactly is a hub site a hub site is where you unify your SharePoint site with common branding common navigation and everything can roll up into a centralized display also hubs help to enhance content Discovery by tying sites together with easy browsing so I want to actually take you to a hub site so you can see what it looks like I’m going to come over here and go to my Global sales site this is a site that I go to once in a while and it is a hub site so first of all how do I know I’m in a hub site notice right below again my SharePoint bar at the top that includes my search bar I see an additional navigation bar this is again an indicator that you’re probably in a hub site this is the global sales Hub site you’ll see to the right that it gives me navigation to sites that are all common to each other another element of a hub site is when you go to one of the sites that’s part of the Hub they all have the same branding this can include again the navigation bar at the top and then also the same theme so when I go to any of the sites that are part of the Hub I’m going to see that they all have a very similar look so that I know that I’m still in the hub experience even though I’m navigating to different sites within the Hub and again it’s very easy for me to go to the different sites of the Hub and then when I get to a different site like when I go back to my sales and marketing site again I’ll see that in addition to my navigation for the Hub at the top this site has its own internal navigation that will allow me to go to the different parts of the site but I can always get back out to the hub by coming to the top and again all of the sites within the Hub have the same theme and branding so that I know that I’m still within that Hub experience so this is kind of the next phase getting away from site Collections and again this is also part of the idea that we want to keep our SharePoint sites very flat and avoid doing site collections that include a lot of sub sites because it makes it a lot harder to manage and update content one more thing about Hub sites a hub site needs to be created for you buy one of your SharePoint admins or a global m a global admin in M365 so keep that in mind if you need a hub site and you want to assign some sites to it you’ll probably need to ask your SharePoint admin to enable The Hub site for you hey everyone we have explored a tool called a hub site which is a way to connect certain sites with common navigation and branding to make it really easy for users to navigate between them but now what we want to do is look at how you can manage Hub sites on your own especially if you’re a site owner so in my environment I’m playing Megan by the way I have a new site that was recently created to help manage sales for the Us sales team but they also use several other sites in common with other groups in their organization now currently these sites are all organized into a hub site called Global sales let’s take a look at it we’re going to see here how at the top you have the common horizontal navigation representing the Hub site and all the sites that are included in the hub site collection and notice when I click on any of them they still keep that hubsite navigation at the top and then they have the same theme to help me know that they’re all part of the hubsite experience but my U.S sales site that’s new is not currently part of that experience so I want to get it added so it’s going to make it easier for my users to get between those different sites when I go to my Us sales site right now it’s a standalone site so how do I get it added to that Hub well you have to be a site owner and you also have to have permission to do so if you’re not a site owner or you don’t have permission to do this ask your SharePoint admin they can set your site up to make it part of a hub site I have permission to do this so from my Us sales site I’m going to come in and go to my site settings gear we’ve spent a lot of time here hopefully you’re getting the idea of how many important options there are under this menu then I’m going to come down to site information now this is going to take me in and let me see things like the title of my site also the privacy settings and more importantly what we’re looking for is Hub site Association right now it says None So to allow me to associate this with a hub site I’d have to have permission to do so which I do and I need to know know the name of the Hub site for me it’s Global sales I’m going to select that and then I’m going to click on Save now one warning here sometimes when you set up a hubsite Association you will not see the Hub site Association come up as quickly as you want this is something that we tell people sometimes takes a little while to bake because there can be many sites that are being associated with a hub so when you first do this if you notice it doesn’t quite take effect as quickly as mine did it’s okay refresh the site maybe log in and out a couple of times it can take several hours for the hubsite association to connect but in our case it happened really quickly so it’s nice we’re gonna see again now the USL site has that common site navigation at the top and the same branding as the other sites so we’re moving a step forward and helping make it easier for those that use the Us sales site to also use the other sites that are part of the Hub site as always we want you to try this out so if you do use SharePoint go and look for some Hub sites in your own organization hey welcome back SharePoint fans here we are talking about Hub sites now this USL site that you see on my screen right now I recently added to the global sales Hub site collection we can see it here but there is one critical issue currently the U.S sales site is not part of the Hub site collection navigation so I need to take this USL site and add it to the global sales Hub site again I have to be a site owner of the Hub site for me to be able to do this Megan happens to be but if you are not request it from your SharePoint admin or the site owner of the Hub site now first of all I’m going to go up and take a look at the URL for my U.S sales site I’m going to copy it because I’ll need this URL when I go in to actually add it to the hubsite navigation quick ways to copy select it do control C right click and copy any of those are going to work they’ll all get that URL on your clipboard now I’m going to navigate to the hub site I’m going to do that by coming to the far left side where it says Global sales this will take me to the top of the site now from here if I am a site owner of this Hub site I will see that on the navigation bar I have an edit button on the far right hand side of the site navigation and keep in mind this is not just within this site this is connecting these sites together I’m going to edit this now you’ll see what’s interesting is that the editing is not horizontal it turns it vertically but once I’m done editing then it will be horizontal now I want to add that site to the site navigation so I’m going to come to the bottom of the current edit Hub navigation and I’ll see this little plus sign in a circle this is of course where I can add new content to the navigation bar at the top I need to type or choose what it is that I’m adding I’m going to be adding a link and then in the address bar I’m going to paste in the address of my US Cell Site I need to replace the HTTP so make sure you delete it out and then paste your url over the top I also need to include text to be the link in the actual navigation bar so I’m going to type in the name of the site then I’ll click on ok now I’m done I can see it here if I would like to move it further up I can either left drag it or I can come in and click on this ellipses on the right hand side and say move up or move down and of course this is the order that the sites will appear in from over from the left to the right I’m going to click on Save now I see if I look up here and I refresh my U.S sales is here now it didn’t quite move it over enough so I’m going to come back in again and say move up a couple of times because I thought I did but it looks like the change I made didn’t save so we’ll move it up with the move up button and then I’ll save that now it’s updated if I click on Us sales it takes me to the USL site which has the same branding and also that common navigation at the top and if I go to any of the other sites the users that use those sites can in turn get back to the Us sales site notice the navigation isn’t quite updating yet and that’s just because it takes a little bit of time for everything to connect but if I refresh those other sites once I go to them eventually the site navigation will be the same on all of them which puts us sales here in the middle so again try out some Hub sites see what they’re like play with them because again this is the updated way to do a site collection inside of SharePoint online hey everybody I want to be able to update some of the different facets of my site starting with the site navigation do I really want this navigation bar over here at the left hand side of my team site do I even want it on these are some of the questions you can ask when you start updating the look of a SharePoint site so where can I go to quickly make some of these changes well a great doorway is of course site settings so I’m going to go to the top right hand corner to the white gear and Microsoft is done a great job at putting some of these overall site navigation and look tools right here in this menu if you come down to the bottom we have an option that says change the look now this will give me three different primary areas that I can update in my site we want to start with the bottom one which is navigation how are people accessing content on my site now first of all I can turn my site navigation off completely notice right here I can say off save it and now my site has no left hand side navigation and sometimes people will do this because they want to keep the navigation within the content of the site if we go back to site settings again and come back down to change the look at the very bottom this time when I look at navigation I’m going to turn the navigation back on but I’m going to change the orientation to being horizontal now when I do this I get a few different styles of menus that I can pick from but these mostly work with again when you have drop downs within drop downs which I don’t but notice what’s happened now my navigation is along the top now are there benefits to this absolutely if my navigations along the top this might be something that the people I work with are more comfortable using they’re used to seeing the navigation up there so that’s where I’m going to keep the site navigation but remember you can always go in under change the look in site settings and you can again very quickly update where your site navigation is either Horizon horizontal or down the left hand side try it out in your own sights alright I want to update my site navigation a little bit more and just a reminder that to do many of these things that we’re talking about with updating the look of a site you need to be a site owner and how can you tell if you’re a site owner because you’ve heard me say that quite a bit you need to go in your team site because that’s what we’re looking at here to your site membership I’m going to come to the top right hand corner to where I see a list of everyone who’s either a site member or a site owner when I click on this menu I’m going to see all the different site owners and members and as I look through this menu I’m looking for myself I’m playing Megan and as I look through this list I can see Megan and under her name it tells me she is a site owner so this is important because sometimes you may go into a SharePoint site and try to do different things and it won’t allow you it’s because of your permissions in the site so we’ve ascertained that Megan’s a site owner and she wants to edit again her navigation bar first of all we’re going to come to the bottom of the navigation bar this is really easy to find there’s an edit button this will unlock the site navigation so that I can make changes to it notice how each item has an ellipses on the right hand side hopefully you know what these are for right when you click on them it gives you additional options to manage that specific item for me the first thing I want to do is remove the OneNote that’s associated with this site when I click on the ellipses towards the bottom of the menu I’ll see a remove option this does not delete the OneNote from my site it just removes the link to it from the navigation also you’ll see here that I can click on the ellipses and use it to move items up in the site navigation and sometimes the things are at the top it’s easier for people to find finally when I come to my site navigation I want to go to the documents area and I’d like to edit that content first of all we’re seeing that it’s a link in the site navigation and we’re seeing the URL to the site I just want to update the name rather than saying documents I’m going to update it to be team files because this is what my team refers to when they’re dealing with these again document storage for this site we can see how it’s been updated I’ll click on Save and now I’ll see that the navigation bar is back ready to be used and for example the updated team file still takes me to my site’s document Library it hasn’t changed any of the navigation it’s just again allowing me to personalize it to the people who use my site as always we want you to try this out so if you’re a site owner go into your site try modifying your site hi everyone what if I want to take my SharePoint site and really update the way it looks things like the color the logo you know give it a little bit more Pizzazz for that I need to go again to my site settings so from the site I’m going to come up to the white gear in the top right hand corner click on it and come down to change the look under change the look this time we’re going to head to the top to theme think of PowerPoints when you do this these are the different themes or color palettes that you can apply inside of a SharePoint site and as you click on them you can actually preview them this is also a place in some organizations where the organization will actually create branded themed colors so you come to this area and you might see some of them are very different but remember it’s what looks good according to your site and also company branding once I’m done picking my updated look I will click on OK or save I should say at the bottom and we’ll see that the new theme will be applied to the site keep in mind sometimes if someone goes to the site and they haven’t refreshed it they may not see the new theme applied so make sure people refresh the site and then we’ll see the updated theme inside the sites hey everybody welcome back to SharePoint nothing really recognizes a site more than its header so what is the header of a SharePoint site it’s the area at the top of your site that’s recognizable to the site and page it is below the SharePoint taskbar at the top but you’ll notice it has a logo it has a title and other important information to help me understand the site we want this to be branded we want it to be visually appealing so how can we help update the logo of our SharePoint site we’re going to head back to site settings click on the gear and come down to change the look this time we’re going to head into the header portion now in the header there are four different layouts minimal which is very thin compact which is a little bit taller standard and finally extended now you’ll see that for example extended is quite tall and takes up a lot of room vertically on my site if I want my site to not be scrolling forever I might want to go with the compact look it’s a little bit thinner doesn’t take up as much room at the top of the page now under the layouts I’ve got based on the theme that I’ve picked for my site the ability to customize the color applied at the top you want this again to pop so it’s usually better to pick a darker themed color now below that you can actually turn your site title off maybe you only want to see the theme and notice this just takes the title off now speaking of title on every SharePoint page you’ll see that next to the title there is a logo if you don’t provide a logo what does Microsoft do they will take the first letter of the first two words of your site name and those become your logo a little bit awkward but the good news is you can change it so as I come down it’s going to ask me for two different logos one is a thumbnail and one is a site logo the thumbnail is to represent your site when people search for it could you have two different logos here yes but I recommend doing the same one for consistency when people see that logo you want them to recognize that it’s your site so I’m going to click on change I have already downloaded my logo locally to my computer you can’t go online and find logo so you’ve got to already have them locally downloaded so that’s why I’m going in for each one and selecting it and we’ll see it get added now final thing I can do here is click on Save because now that I’ve made that change I I want to be able to see that logo update in my site and that’s what we’re actually seeing so again what we did here is we went to change the look we went to header and then we came down and we updated all this information for the site and the value of this is now I have a custom header that when my users see this header in my site they’re going to recognize it and know that they’re on the right site as always we want you to try this out so if you’re a site owner go in and try updating the header of your own sites all right we’re back in SharePoint land in this site you’re going to see an example of a team site where the logo was created by Microsoft and SharePoint online so right here in the top left hand corner notice the the name of this team site is event planning and so to provide a logo for the site all they do is take the first letter of each of the words in the site name and that becomes your logo it works when you’re first creating the site but really having a customized logo makes your site look more professional so we want to look at one more place you can go to update the site logo again my logo I’ve already got locally stored on my network or computer so I can’t go online to look for one when I add it to the site now to access where you can update the logo there are two different places this time we’re going to go to the second one I’m gonna head back to the settings gear again and I am a site owner another reminder of that from here what I want to do is come down to site information now site information is where you can do things like associate Hub sites also customize your site description and update the title of your site remember if the site’s title is updated it does not change the url in this case at the very top you’re going to see a location where you can update and change your site logo so I’m going to click on change navigate to the folder where my updated logo is located and then I’ll click on Save and you’ll see that this will then replace the logo that was originally provided by Microsoft with this new logo that’s what I want so again different ways to do the same thing but having a customized logo really does help to better brand and make your site more recognizable all right guys sometimes it happens a SharePoint site runs its course it’s time for it to die or maybe sites get created and they’re redundant two people create a site that can do the same thing that’s a bad idea so one of them needs to go away we want to have as few sites as possible so again if you’ve got extras get rid of the hangnail sites to do that I need to be a site owner also I’ve already done this I’m going to click on my site settings gear now before you delete a site do you have permission to delete it and what’s going to happen to all the stuff in that site we’re talking about the documents the calendar events the OneNote notebooks sites are not just web pages there’s a lot of content there you need to remember before you delete something that you know what’s going to happen to all that additional stuff so what I’m going to do from here is come up to my site settings gear and go down to site information this is where we’re going to see things like the name of the site it’s description I’ll so it’s privacy settings but notice at the bottom above the save button I have a delete site option before you delete a site Microsoft SharePoint online is always going to remind you about what you’re doing notice it’s telling me this will delete all the resources including the site the files the conversations do you want that to happen it’s asking me to back that content up now in this organization there actually is a backup that’s going on behind the scenes but you don’t know that’s going to happen for sure in your organization so please be sure before you delete anything you make triple sure that stuff is backed up yes I’m going to delete all the associated resources and the group notice that’s what it’s telling me and that group refers to the Office 365 group that works in tandem with this site to help manage the calendar events the conversations kind of that Outlook portion that happens within a SharePoint site I’m going to click on delete and suddenly I don’t see the side anymore it takes me back to my SharePoint start page and if I were to try to do a search for that site I would see that it’s not there anymore I can’t find it because the site is literally gone so again it’s a great way to manage sites but we’ve got to be super careful when we do delete a site hi everyone we want to talk about something bad that can happen and that’s when you delete a SharePoint site and you don’t mean to as a site owner that’s something all of us can do is delete a site we don’t need anymore but what if you do it accidentally and then realize you need that SharePoint site back really makes you feel sick doesn’t it but it does happen and there’s no magic undo button in SharePoint however if you’re a SharePoint admin or a global Office 365 admin you can help there is something there that can help restore a deleted SharePoint site the first thing we need to do is get into the admin portal for Office 365 and again this isn’t something that everyone has access to but I want to show you the process just so that if you work in an organization that’s new to SharePoint online you can help them through this process so I’m in my M365 home page and over here on the left hand side you’re going to see again my my navigation bar I am an admin a global admin actually so I can access my Office 365 admin tools I’m going to click on admin it opens up a new browser Tab and takes me to my M365 admin Center now we got to realize how important SharePoint is to The Office 365 or M365 experience it’s one of the biggest platforms so right here if I expand this lower section of the navigation pane I’m going to see that in the admin portal there’s a section called admin centers and some of the applications which are really more platforms have their own separate admin section SharePoint happens to be that way so I’m going to click on SharePoint another browser tab opens taking me to my SharePoint admin center it’s based on the same interface so it has again the ability to expand and collapse the navigation bar I do suggest you keep it pretty wide open the first few times you use it one of the very first things you’ll see when you come in here is that for SharePoint I have sites I have active sites these are the sites that are currently being used in the organization and then I have deleted sites well I recently deleted that event planning site and if you recall I didn’t mean to so my SharePoint admin can come in select the site and notice up here there’s a restore button the other thing I want to call out is that currently we’ll see that sites are retained for 93 days so I have a 93 or a three month retention policy and then they’re permanently deleted if you click right here on learn more it will take you in and give you a more in-depth description of what’s happening so this just tells me that deleted SharePoint sites will be retained for 93 days after 93 days the site and all its content will be permanently deleted this will include libraries lists pages and any subsites so it’s pretty specific I’ve selected my site I’m going to click on restore notice this tells me this site is connected to an Office 365 group restoring the site will also restore the group which means that all that great email content will be available to me notice it’s no longer here under deleted sites if I come back into active sites scroll down and look for event planning it’s back where it was before so it’s not an undo button but you’re again SharePoint online admin can help save the day if you are within that retention policy welcome back everybody what if you are in a SharePoint site and someone makes a change to one of your site Pages or a document Library anything in a site and it’s not a change that you like what can you do well built into M365 and also your SharePoint sites you have a tool called version history every time a user goes into a site and makes a change or an update it saves those changes under that user as a version and you can actually go in and revert back to a previous version if someone’s made a change that you don’t approve of as a site owner I’m looking at my market project team and I recently made a change to this site by adding this different styled header at the top or this text with an image underneath I don’t like it I want to revert back to the way the site page looked before the change was made the first thing I need to do is access my site pages to do this I need to go into a place of SharePoint in my site called site contents it’s kind of like going to the basement or the utility room of your site and it’s a great way to see what kinds of content are within the site to do this we’re going to go back up to site settings we’re going to come down to site contents now in the site contents list I’m going to see that I have contents and subsites and the different elements of my site are listed here including site Pages this would show me the individual pages of my site now right here I have my home page this was the page that I updated and again changes were made to this page that I don’t like so next to the name of the page I’ll see a vertical ellipses we all know what that does I’m going to click on it and then I’m going to come down and go to version history every time someone has been in the site or I should say in the page it shows me the date and time and then also the user I’m the one who again updated the page and I do not approve of it so what I’m going to do is go back to Lynn’s version click on the ellipses or in this case the arrow next to the date and time that particular version was created I can view properties of that version restore it or delete it in my case what I want to do is restore it so I’m going to click on the restore button notice what it tells me I’m about to replace the current version with the selected version I’m going to click on ok now I’m in a 2.1 version I’m going to go ahead and close out and then I’m going to leave my site contents view by just clicking on my site logo that’ll take me to the top of my site I’m going to see that when I come to it it’s reverted back to the previous version which is different than the way the site looked before but this version history being Again part of your site pages is a really great way if changes are being made to know that you can always revert back to a previous one if something gets changed and you don’t like it so go into a site of your own and check out the version history in one of your site pages hey everyone thank you so much for joining us for this SharePoint online training we’ve covered a lot of territory everything with how to access SharePoint online from your Office 365 homepage to utilizing the SharePoint start page as a great way to follow sites that you access a lot and also navigate to different parts of your SharePoint platform we’ve even spent some time exploring different kinds of SharePoint sites team sites that allow groups of people to come together communicate and collaborate and communication sites that help us to share information we’ve also spent time using the site settings gear to get familiar with great tools like changing the look accessing our site information to help start making edits to our sites once they’re created we even spent some time deleting sites and looking at how a SharePoint admin could go in and restore that site as always we want you to join us for more courses in the future and thanks for being here for SharePoint online thanks for watching don’t forget we also offer live classes and office applications professional development and private training visit learnit.com for more details please remember to like And subscribe and let us know your thoughts in the comments thank you for choosing learn it [Music]

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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Microsoft 365: SharePoint Online Fundamentals