Overview
SharePoint Online, while available on Office 365, is a collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office. SharePoint Online, which can be configured for a company’s usage, allows an enterprise to store, retrieve, search, archive, track, manage, and report on digitized documents. Managing Microsoft® Office 365® SharePoint® at a school or college establishment. It gives instructions for setting up, managing and using a school Team site. To carry out the tasks in this guide you need to have appropriate administrator access to your Office 365 account. SharePoint is a powerful software platform with many features which are. Microsoft SharePoint in Microsoft 365 has been designed to make it easier for anyone to create dynamic sites and pages that are mobile ready. SharePoint is designed to be fun, flexible and faster to help create a modern experience.
Pitt Information Technology provides Office 365, a powerful set of online services that encompasses email, calendaring, file sharing, video, collaboration tools, and more. Pitt Email (Outlook) is part of the Office 365 platform.
My Sites (SharePoint Online) is included with Office 365. It allows students, faculty, and staff to create collaborative websites that can be used to share files, assign tasks, start blogs, and build workflows. Microsoft SharePoint Online is a powerful set of tools that allows you to create, share, and collaborate more effectively. My Sites (SharePoint Online) is available at no cost to anyone with a University Computing Account. You can get started right now at pitt.sharepoint.com or at My Pitt (my.pitt.edu).
Accessing a site that is hosted in SharePoint Online, part of Office 365, may be a little different than sites that are hosted on your network. You may access your site through the main Office 365 portal URL. Depending on how your company has configured its connection with Office. How to Open SharePoint Libraries in Windows Explorer. Watch this video or use the instructions below to learn how to open SharePoint document libraries in windows explorer for ease of use. To see this process demonstrated using the classic view in SharePoint, view the video at the bottom of the page. Microsoft; Office 365; Video.
What can you do with My Sites (SharePoint Online)? Almost anything you'd like.
Create Collaborative Websites
Create sites that you can use to store files, collaborate with others, create tasks, manage schedules, build workflows, or start a blog. You can share your site with others, even people outside Pitt.
In addition to personal My Sites, faculty and staff can request SharePoint site collections to facilitate collaboration for their department, team, or project.
Request a site collection.
Getting Started- Video: SharePoint Online Essential Training> (LinkedIn Learning video)
- Video: Getting Started with SharePoint Online> (Microsoft video series)
Your Profile
Sites
Office Sharepoint Server
- Video: Create a site or sub-site> (Microsoft video)
- Video: Create and set up a list on a site> (Microsoft video)
Newsfeeds
Follow People and Sites
Document Libraries
- Upload files to a library>
- Video: Create a library and add documents to it> (Microsoft video)
Share Documents
Permissions
Workflows
Accessibility
Detailed Help: Site Collections for Faculty, Staff, and Departments
Get Started
- Video: Managing SharePoint Site Collection Settings> (LinkedIn Learning video)
Workflows
- Video: Workflow Basics> (LinkedIn Learning video)
- Video: Using out-of-the-box Workflows> (LinkedIn Learning video)
Request a Site Collection for Your School
Store, Sync, and Work Together on Documents
SharePoint includes OneDrive for Business, which allows you to store up by 5 TB of files in the cloud. You can easily access the files across all of your devices. You can share your documents with anyone, and you can use sync to work with your files while you're offline. You can even work together on the same document at the same time, chat right from within the document, and easily revert to previous versions whenever you need to.
General
- Video: What is OneDrive for Business?> (Microsoft video)
Manage Files
Share and Collaborate
Sync
Mobile Devices
Use Office on Any Device
Office Online gives you access to Office products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, in the cloud. You can create and edit Office documents from anywhere on any device. In addition, Office ProPlus provides mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Apple and Android devices. It is available to all students as well as to all faculty and staff in departments with Microsoft campus agreements.
Get Started
Collaborate
Mobile: Install Office ProPlus (free Office apps for Android and iOS)
- Install Office ProPlus (students only)
LinkedIn Learning Training Videos
- Office 365: Outlook Essential Training>
- Office 365: Word Essential Training>
- Office 365: Excel Essential Training>
- Office 365: Publisher Essential Training>
- Office 365: Access Essential Training>
- Office 365: PowerPoint Essential Training>
Connect People, Documents, and Ideas
SharePoint includes Delve, a unique visual search tool that helps you find useful and interesting content anywhere in Office 365. You can use Delve to find documents you have worked on recently or documents your friends and colleagues have been working on. Just type a name and you will be able to see everything that person has given you permission to view. Sway is a tool included with Office 365 that can be used to create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more.
General Help
Frequently Asked Questions
Share and Manage Your Videos
Office 365 Video is included with My Sites (SharePoint Online). It allows you to upload, watch, and share videos anywhere, anytime, on any device. Spotlight recommendations and custom channels help you find video content that’s most relevant and helpful to you.
What Types of Data Can Be Stored on SharePoint?
Choosing the Right Collaboration Tools
SharePoint is a collection of many different tools that can be used in a wide variety of ways. Because SharePoint is so robust, some of its capabilities overlap with Pitt IT's already rich set of collaboration services. If you aren’t sure which tool best meets your needs, the comparisons below might help you decide.
Personal Websites (SharePoint and Andrew File System)
You can create your own personal website and host it on either SharePoint or the University’s Andrew File System (AFS) space.
| SharePoint may be better if... | AFS may be better if... |
|---|---|
| You prefer to use drag-and-drop tools to build your site | You don't mind doing some coding |
| You plan to use different types of content (e.g., documents, videos, blogs) | You plan to host only HTML content |
| You don't mind requiring people to log in to view your site | You want anyone to be able to view your site without logging in |
Departments must host their websites on the University’s Enterprise Web Infrastructure (EWI). However, SharePoint will allow departments to create and host site collections that can be used for team, project, department, or school-wide collaboration.
| SharePoint may be better if... | EWI may be better if... |
|---|---|
| You do not have in-house expertise to build your own site, or prefer to use drag-and-drop tools to build your site | You plan to use and support your own custom Content Management System (e.g., Drupal, WordPress, etc.) |
| You are creating an intranet | You are creating a public site |
| You plan to require people to authenticate to view your site | You want the option to make your site available anonymously |
My Sites (SharePoint Online) includes OneDrive. You can store files in the cloud so that you can access them from anywhere on any device. Box (pitt.box.com) offers the same service. Both allow you to share files with others so that you can work together collaboratively.
| OneDrive for Business may be better if... | Box may be better if... |
|---|---|
| You want the ability to edit documents from a web browser | You plan to edit documents within an application (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint |
| You want to work with others to edit the same document at the same time | You want to edit with others but don't need to work simultaneously on the same document |
| You want better integration with Office 365 | You want an easier-to-use interface |
| You have a resource account or sponsored account | |
| You want a rich collection of third-party apps | |
| You want to be able to use alternative file transfer methods, like FTP |
Ochweb Sharepoint
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Sharepoint Desktop App
Video Hosting and Sharing (Office 365 Video and Lecture Capture (Panopto))
Outlook 365
You can upload, manage, and share videos using Office 365 Video, which is included with My Sites (SharePoint Online). Or you can choose to use the University’s Lecture Capture service, which is powered by Panopto. Both enable to you to specify who has access to your videos.
Office Sharepoint Training
| Office 365 Video maybe be better if... | Lecture Capture may be better if... |
|---|---|
| You do not need to edit videos or plan to use another editing tool | You plan to edit videos using the Lecture Capture (Panopto) editor |
| You plan to create multi-camera videos, do live webcasting, or capture screen recordings | |
| You plan to integrate videos into your CourseWeb courses | |
| You would like your videos to integrate more easily with SharePoint and be discoverable throughout Office 365 |