Basic tasks in SharePoint Online for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses

Here are some basic tasks and information to help you learn how to use SharePoint Online for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses.

 Note    If this information doesn’t match what you’re seeing, you may be using Office 365 after the service upgrade. Try Get started with SharePoint to find the information that applies to you. Am I using Office 365 after the service upgrade?

• Introduction to SharePoint Online
• Parts of a site
• Site specifics that affect your experience
• Permissions and access
• Getting started with designing your Website
• Adding content to a site
• Managing and working with site content

Introduction to SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online provides a single, integrated location where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, share knowledge, and find organizational resources and information.

When you begin, your SharePoint Online site consists of two sites—the Team Site and the Website. It is very important to understand the difference between the two sites.

Team Site    The Team Site is an internal site where teams or groups within your organization can connect with each other and collaborate on documents and other files. You and coworkers can use the Team Site to store documents and share them with other users, post internal announcements, schedule meetings, track tasks and issues, store information in lists, and so on. You can also create various subsites from the available site templates in the Team Site. For example, you can create a team blog for employees to share information, or a social meeting workspace to organize team events, company meetings, and so on.

Website    The Website is where you design your public Internet presence. This is the site where your customers come for information about your organization. The Website has everything you need to get started with designing your site—libraries to store content such as logos, graphics, or documents that you will display on the pages of your site, and most importantly, the Web Site Design Tool which makes it easy to design a site. Find more information on the Website and the design tool in the subsequent section Getting started with designing your Website.

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Parts of a site

A site is a group of related Web pages where your team can work on projects, store data and documents, and share information. For example, your team might have its own site where it stores schedules, files, and procedural information. All sites have common elements that you should know about to get started: lists, libraries, Web Parts, and views.

Lists    A list is a site component where your organization can store, share, and manage information. For example, you can create a task list to track work assignments or track team events on a calendar. You can also conduct a survey or host discussions on a discussion board.

 Note    Although you can create lists on your public Website for internal use, you cannot share information from your lists on the public Website.

Libraries    A library is a special type of list that stores files as well as information about files. You can control how documents are viewed, tracked, managed, and created in libraries.

Views    You can use views to see the items in a list or library that are most important to you or that best fit a purpose. For example, you can create a view of all the items in a list that apply to a specific department, or to highlight particular documents in a library. You can create multiple views of a list or library that people can select from. You can also use a Web Part to display a view of a list or library on a separate page of your site.

Web Parts    A Web Part is a modular unit of content that forms a basic building block of most pages on a site. If you have permission to edit pages on your site, you can use Web Parts to customize your site to display pictures and charts, portions of other Web pages, lists of documents, customized views of business data, and more.

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Site specifics that affect your experience

The specifics of your installation and configuration of SharePoint affect what you see and what options are available to you on your site.

Permissions    If you are assigned to the Full Control permission level, you have the full range of options to manage the site. If you are assigned to the Contribute or Read permission level, your options and access to site content are more limited. Many of the options discussed in this article are not available to users with the Reader permission level, which allows users to read content but not make changes to it. Because permissions are designed to be flexible and customizable, your organization may have its own unique settings.

Customization    Your organization may have customized the permissions and branding of your site, or even customized site navigation and moved controls such as the Site Actions menu to a different location on the page.

Version of SharePoint    This article discusses how to get started in SharePoint Online for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses. If your organization has subscribed to a different Office 365 plan, or if you are using a previous version of SharePoint, see the Help for that plan or version.

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Permissions and access

To access the Team Site or the public-facing Website, you need to have the appropriate permissions. By default, most users on your site are given permission to contribute to the Team Site. A few people are likely to have permission to design the public Website. Site collection administrators can manage permissions for people on all sites. Site owners can manage permissions for people only on the sites they own. As a site collection administrator or site owner you can quickly add or remove users to the sites for which you manage permission by using the Share this site link on the Site Actions menu.

• For more information about adding or removing users in the Website, see Manage users in the Website.

 Note    A site collection administrator can add users as Designers in the Website.

The basic permission levels in SharePoint are Full Control, Design, Contribute, and Read. Permission levels are combinations of permissions that are bundled together typically based on the nature of work. For example, you can assign the Contribute permission level to a user who will add content to the Team Site, or the Design permission level to a user who will design the public Website. For more information on roles and permission levels, see Default roles in a SharePoint Online site. Also, refer to the following table as a quick reference to determine the level of access to the Team Site and the Website based on default permission levels.

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Getting started with designing your Website

SharePoint Online is equipped with features that enable you to design your own public Website to create an online presence for your group or company. This section explains how you can use those features effectively to design a professional-looking Website for your company.

If you used the site design tools that were available in Microsoft Office Live Small Business, or you are completely new, explore the following resources first to read up on a particular aspect of the getting started experience.

Website

The Website has all the components you need to get started with designing your public site. The Website contains the essential libraries to store content such as images, templates, documents and Web pages related to your Website. The ribbon in the Website has options for you to manage your files, and launch the Web Site Design Tool to help you create your public site.

There are two ways to reach the Website:

1. In Office 365 for small business, click SharePoint Online on the top navigation.

-OR-

1. Open the Website in your browser, click Member Login on the home page, and in the credentials dialog box, enter your Windows Live ID and password.

 Note    If you don’t know the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of your Website, contact your site collection administrator.

2. On the top-link bar in the SharePoint site, click Website.

There are three components in the Website that make up the site design experience—the ribbon, the libraries, and the Web Site Design Tool.

The ribbon in the Website

The ribbon in the Website enables you to perform basic tasks such as create, delete and edit pages, view page properties, view a page in the browser, upload documents, and add users as designers to the Website.

 Note    Most of the options in the ribbon are also available inside the Web Site Design Tool. For example, you can also add, edit, or delete pages, preview a page, or view page properties in Web Site Design Tool.

Options on the ribbon may be grayed out for any of the following reasons:

• The action depends on some other action. For example, when you are in the Web Pages list, some options on the ribbon such as Edit, Delete, or Properties are not available until you select an item in the list.
• The option may not apply in the context of the list or library that you are in. For example, the Upload File option is available only inside the Documents library; and Delete and Properties are the only options available in the Templates library.

 Note    The ribbon does not appear when you are inside the Images library.

Libraries

The Website includes a set of default Web pages and libraries to enable you to store the content relevant to your Website, such as images, templates, or documents. You can access these libraries by clicking the relevant link on the Quick Launch, which is the left navigation area in the Website. For information about adding files to these libraries, see Add a file to a library later in this article.

 Notes 

• The lists and libraries in the Website are visible neither to external visitors to the Website nor from within the Web Site Design Tool. To see the lists and libraries in the Website, click the File menu, and then click Save & Publish or Close the Web page.
• When opening Microsoft Office documents from a library, a dialog box may appear prompting you to enter your credentials. If this happens, close or cancel the dialog box. The document should open normally.

See the following table for more details:

Web Site Design Tool

The Web Site Design Tool simplifies the process of designing the public Website. With just a few clicks, you can perform designing or editing tasks such as:

• Selecting a theme and style for your entire Website to give it a consistent look and feel
• Designing site navigation so that site visitors can easily get the information they need from your Website
• Designing site pages by using the available color schemes and fonts
• Adding a header and footer text to your pages
• Adding and formatting text in Web pages, such as creating bullets and lists, fonts, alignment, and so on
• Adding page elements such as images, tables, and hyperlinks.
• Adding gadgets, which are modular units of information that display content from a wide variety of sources.

The ribbon in the Web Site Design Tool

The Web Site Design Tool has a ribbon with three basic tabs, Home, Insert, and Design and one contextual tab Image Tools with options relevant to a set of tasks.

 The Home tab has options to perform basic and frequently performed tasks such as creating new pages, formatting text and alignment, and so on.

 The Insert tab has options to allow you to insert page elements such as images, hyperlinks, tables, lines, and gadgets.

 The Design tab has options to allow you to work with elements to change the look and feel of the entire Website.

 The Image Tools tab has options to allow you to work with images. Unlike the other three tabs, the Image Tools is contextual, which means that the tab appears only when you select an image in a page in the Web Site Design Tool.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar appears above the ribbon in the Web Site Design Tool. Use the Quick Access Toolbar to perform the most basic tasks in the Web Site Design Tool, such as save and publish the current page in the tool, and view your Website in the browser.

Appearance of a page in the Web Site Design Tool

When you open a page in the Web Site Design Tool, the body of the Web page has several different zones with placeholder content inside of it. The content inside the zones are editable, so you can just click inside the zone, delete the placeholder content and type your own text. You can add text, images, hyperlinks, tables, or gadgets inside a zone. In the Web Site Design Tool, a Web page displays several zones depending on the page layout.

Each zone has two resize handles located on top, which allow you to control the zone’s width and placement on the page.

You can add or remove zones, depending on the page layout. To change a page layout, click the Design tab in the Web Site Design Tool and in the Zone group, click Layout, and then select the layout style that you want to use. Depending on the layout style that you choose, zones are automatically added or removed from the page.

Basic tasks in the Website

This section covers all the basic tasks you perform in the Website, such as opening the Web Site Design Tool, and adding or editing a page.

Open the Web Site Design Tool

You can open the Web Site Design Tool in the Web Pages list in Website.

1. In the Website, click Web Pages on the Quick Launch.
2. Click the Pages tab on the ribbon.
3. On the ribbon, in the Site category, click Design.

Add a page to your Website

You can add pages from different available templates, or use custom templates, if any, to your Website. By default, your Website includes a set of pages such as Home, About Us, Contact Us, and Site Map.

You can add a new page either from the ribbon or by using the Web Site Design Tool. For more information, see Add or delete a page.

Edit a Web page

You can edit a Web page by using the Edit option on the ribbon or from inside the Web Site Design Tool.

1. In the Website, click Web Pages on the Quick Launch.
2. Click the Pages tab on the ribbon.
3. Select the checkbox next to a Web page and then click Edit on the ribbon.

—OR—

Click Design on the ribbon, and inside the Web Site Design Tool, click the page links such as Home or About Us.

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Adding content to a site

In either the Team Site or the Website, you can add items to lists and files to libraries by using a Web browser. The buttons you use to perform the most common actions are on the ribbon, which is near the top of the page on most pages of a site.

Buttons on the ribbon may be grayed out for any of the following reasons:

• The action is not applicable or it depends on some other action. For example, you must select the check box for a document before you can check it out.
• You do not have permission to complete the task.
• The feature is not enabled for the site. For example, workflows may not be enabled on the site.

You can also save files to a library from some client programs that are compatible with SharePoint Online. For example, you can save a Microsoft Word document to a library on a SharePoint site while you work in Word.

To add an item to a list or a file to a library, you must have permission to contribute to the list or library. For more information about how your organization uses permissions and permission levels, ask your site owner or administrator.

When you add the item or file, other people who have permission to read the list can view the item or file, unless it requires approval. If the item or file requires approval, then it is stored in a pending state in the list or library, until someone with the appropriate permissions approves it. If you are already viewing the list or library when an item or file is added, you may need to refresh your browser to see the new item or file.

In addition to adding content to existing lists and libraries, you may have permission to create new lists and libraries. The list and library templates give you a head start. Depending on your permission level, you can also create and customize new pages and sites.

Lists (including calendars and contacts)

Although there are different types of lists, including calendars and contacts lists, the procedure for adding items to them is similar, so you don't need to learn several new techniques to work with different types of lists. A list item contains text in a series of columns, but some lists may allow attachments to be added to the item.

Add an item to a list

1. In the list where you want to add the item, click the Items tab on the ribbon. (It's the Events tab for a calendar.)
2. Click New Item (New Event for a calendar).

    Tip    Another quick way to add an event to a calendar is to point to the date on the calendar, and then click Add.

3. Complete the required fields and any others that you want to complete.
4. Click Save.

Edit or delete an item in a list

1. Point to an item and then select the check box that appears next to the item.

    Tip    You can perform actions on multiple items by selecting multiple check boxes.

2. On the Items tab on the ribbon, click either Edit Item or Delete Item, as appropriate.

On many types of sites, some lists are created for you. These default lists range from a discussion board to a calendar list. If you have permission, you can also create lists from several types of list templates, which provide structure and settings to give you a head start.

Create a list

1. To create a list, click the Site Actions menu , and then click More create options.

    Note    If you do not see the Site Actions menu or if the option to create does not appear, you might not have permission to create a list.

2. On the Create page, click the type of list you want to create. For example, Links.
3. Type a Name for the list, complete any other fields you want to complete, and then click Create.

Libraries

A library is a location on a site where you can create, collect, update, and manage files with team members. Each library displays a list of files and key information about the files, which helps people to use the files to work together.

You can add a file to a library by uploading it from your Web browser. After you add the file to the library, other people with the appropriate permission can see the file. If you are already viewing the library when a file is added, you may need to refresh your browser to see the new file.

If you are using a program that is compatible with SharePoint Online, you can create a new file based on a template while you are working in the library. You can also save a file to the library from another program such as SharePoint Workspace or Microsoft Word.

Add a file to a library

1. In the library where you want to add the file, click the Documents tab on the ribbon.
2. Click Upload Document.
3. Browse to the document and then click OK.

 Tip    If you are using a program that is compatible with SharePoint Online, such as Microsoft Word 2010, you can drag and drop documents from Windows Explorer into the Upload Document dialog box.

Edit or delete a file in a library

1. Point to a file and then select the check box that appears next to the file.
2. On the Documents tab on the ribbon, click either Edit Document or Delete Document, as appropriate.

A default library, called Shared Documents, is created for you when you create many types of sites. Shared Documents is a document library that you can use for storing several types of files. You can create more libraries, such as a picture library for storing images, if you have permission to manage lists.

Create a document library

1. To create a document library, click the Site Actions menu , and then click New Document Library.

    Note    If you do not see the Site Actions menu or if the option to create does not appear, you may not have permission to create a library.

2. Type a Name for the library, complete any other fields you want to complete, and then click Create.

 Note    To see the other types of libraries you can create, click Site Actions, and then click More create options. Point to a library option to see a description of it.

Sites and pages

A site can serve a general purpose, such as storing schedules, guidelines, files, and other information that your team refers to frequently. Or a site may serve a more specific purpose, such as keeping track of a meeting, or hosting a blog, where a member of your organization frequently posts news and ideas.

Your organization can divide site content into distinct, separately manageable sites. For example, each department in your organization may have its own team site.

You can add content to sites by adding lists and libraries. If you have permission, you can also add pages to your site. You may consider adding Web Part Pages (Web Part Page: A special type of Web page that contains one or more Web Parts. A Web Part Page consolidates data, such as lists and charts, and Web content, such as text and images, into a dynamic information portal built around a common task.), which enable you to use Web Parts to add dynamic content quickly.

If you need to create new sites, you can choose from several types of site templates to give you a head start on creating a new site. Whether you can create sites and subsites depends on how your organization has set up its sites and its permissions to create them.

Create a site

1. To create a site, click the Site Actions menu , and then click New site.

    Note    If you do not see the Site Actions menu or if the option to create does not appear, you may not have permission to create a site.

2. Select a site template from Featured Items or after clicking Browse All to see all the options.
3. Type a Title and URL name for the site.
4. If you are selecting a template from the Browse All gallery, choose any other options you want, and then click Create.

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Managing and working with site content

To help your team be more productive, there are several ways that you can manage and extend content in lists, libraries, and sites. Some features help your team to find and work more efficiently with information. Other features help you manage the access to the information.

Navigating to content

Navigation elements help people to browse through the content that they need. Two navigation items that you can customize are the top link bar and the Quick Launch.

By using the settings pages for each list or library, you can choose which lists and libraries appear on the Quick Launch. You can also change the order of links, add or delete links, and add or delete the sections into which the links are organized. For example, if you have too many lists in the List section, you can add a new section for Tasks Lists where you can include links to your tasks lists. You can make all of these changes to the Quick Launch from within a Web browser. You can even add links to pages outside the site.

The top link bar provides a way for users of your site to get to other sites in the site collection by displaying a row of tabs at the top of every page in the site. When you create a new site, you can choose whether to include the site on the top link bar of the parent site and whether to use the top link bar from the parent site.

If your site is using a unique top link bar, you can customize the links that appear on the top link bar for the site. Any sites that are created within the parent site can also be displayed on the top link bar, provided that the sites are configured to inherit the top link bar of the parent site. You can also include links to other sites outside of your site collection.

Managing access to content

A site owner or administrator can grant permission levels to users and to SharePoint groups, which contain users. The permissions can be applied to a site, the lists and libraries on a site, and the items in the lists and libraries.

You can assign different permission levels for different objects, such as a specific site, list, library, folder within a list or library, list item, or document.

Organizing lists and libraries

How you organize your lists and libraries depends on the needs of your group and on how you prefer to store and search for your information. Some planning can help you to set up the structure that works best for your organization.

Information in lists and libraries is stored in columns, such as Title, Last Name, or Company. You can use columns to sort and filter items as you would in a spreadsheet by clicking the column headings in a list or library. You can also use views to see the items in a list or library that are most important to you.

Change the view of a list or library

1. In the list or library where you want to change the view, click the List or Library tab on the ribbon.
2. In the Manage Views group, under Current View, click the arrow next to the views list, and then select a view.

If you need to store additional information about list items or files in a library, you can add columns to help you sort, group, and create multiple views of your list. For example, you can sort a list by due date or group the items by department name.

You have several options for the type of column that you create, including a single line of text, a drop-down list of options, a number that is calculated from other columns, or even the name and picture of a person on your site.

Create a column

1. In the list or library where you want to create the column, click the List or Library tab on the ribbon.
2. Click Create Column.
3. Type a name for the column and select a column type.
4. Select any additional settings and then click OK.

You can also use the columns in a list or library to create views to help specific departments find the information that they are most interested in, such as tasks with the highest priority or all the items assigned to each person. For information about creating and modifying views, see Create, modify, or delete a view.

Some features of lists can help your team to create and manage items efficiently across several lists or libraries. For example, you can create a column that provides information about list items and then share it across other lists. Or, if you want to make a file available in multiple libraries, you can easily copy it to other libraries on your site. You can be prompted for updates if the file has changed.

For information about managing large lists and libraries, see Manage lists and libraries with many items.

Using accessibility features

Sites are designed so that lists, libraries, and other features can be fully accessed by using only keystrokes. A More Accessible Mode enables users of accessible technologies to more easily interact with menus and various controls. Skip to Main Content links enable keyboard users to skip over repetitive navigation links to the more meaningful content on a page.

The markup of headings is designed to better define the structure and improve navigation for people who use screen readers. Images that are uploaded to the site allow for custom alternative text to be defined. For example, you can assign custom alternative text to the image that appears on the home page in the Site Image Web Part or to a picture that you add to a picture library. For viewing sites, the high contrast options in Windows work well for users with low vision.

For more information about browsing sites and using More Accessible Mode, see Accessibility features.

Tracking versions

Your list or library may be set up to track versions, so that you can restore a previous version if you make a mistake and view a version history of the changes. When versions are tracked, revisions to the items or files and their properties are stored. This enables you to better manage content as it is revised and even to restore a previous version if you make a mistake in the current version. Versioning is especially helpful when several people work together on projects or when information goes through several stages of development and review.

 The current published major version is highlighted, and the version number is a whole number.

 A version is created when properties or metadata changes.

 The first version of a file is always minor version number 0.1.

Versioning is available for list items in all default list types — including calendars, issue-tracking lists, and custom lists — and for all file types that can be stored in libraries, including Web Part pages.

Co-authoring documents

Two or more users can edit a Word document or PowerPoint presentation at the same time. This new feature enables you to read and write portions of a file stored in SharePoint. For example, you can work on one paragraph in a Word document while a colleague works on another paragraph in the same document and at the same time.

Staying updated on changes

RSS provides a convenient way for you to distribute and receive information in a standardized format, including updates to lists and libraries. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be viewed by many different programs. You can also subscribe to lists and libraries by setting alerts, so that you know when content has changed.

A team can use their feeds as a way to customize their content for team members who subscribe to their feeds and to offer links back to their sites. RSS Feeds are an easy way to keep track of team progress and project updates. Instead of browsing multiple team sites, you receive the latest news or updates from those sites automatically.

Managing workflow

Workflows help people to collaborate on documents and manage project tasks by implementing specific business processes on documents and items in a site. Workflows help organizations to adhere to consistent business processes. Workflows can also improve organizational efficiency and productivity by managing the tasks and steps that are involved in specific business processes. This enables the people who perform these tasks to concentrate on performing the work rather than managing the workflow.

Workflows can streamline the cost and time required to coordinate common business processes, such as project approval or document review, by managing and tracking the human tasks involved with these processes. For example, an organization can create and deploy a basic custom workflow to manage the approval process for drafts of documents in a document library.

Working with content types

Your list or library may support multiple content types. Content types enable organizations to organize, manage, and handle large amounts of content more effectively. If your list or library is set up to allow multiple content types, you can add content types from a list of available options that your organization uses frequently, such as Marketing Presentations or Contracts.

After you add a content type to a list or library, you make it possible for that list or library to contain items of that type. Users can then use the New Item button in that list or library to create new items of that type.

One of the key advantages of content types for lists and libraries is that they make it possible for a single list or library to contain multiple item types or document types, each of which may have unique metadata or behaviors. For more information about working with content types, see Use content types to manage content on a SharePoint site.

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