Forum Discussion
Best Practice for replacing File Servers with Teams
Thanks for all your replies!
Hi Andrew Hodges ,
thanks for your example. You wrote
We also create the formal document libraries in the SharePoint sites per business team due to the messy nature of the linked folders to the Channels in Teams.
Could you further explain this a little to me - I'm currently unsure about what you mean. Are you creating an additional document library within the Team's SharePoint site and add that additional library to a tab afterwards?
I guess the most intuitive what users are gonna do is to place their documents within folders created within the files tab of each channel. That means all files and folders for that team are created within the site's/team's default document library. Is that something you would not recommend since you wrote about the "messy nature of the linked folders to the channels in Teams"?
Thinking about it, creating an additional document library for that team and placing files there should have the advantage that you could break permission inheritance for that library and set permissions differently from the Team. If members from other teams need access to a folder within that dedicated library, they just would have to add the URL to that library in their Team. Is that the way you are talking about?
The most drilling question I still have is the following:
I'm member of Team IT and need to access to a subfolder within the document library of Team Marketing. With conventional file servers and file shares I can access the subfolder of Marketing as long as I know the path of the folder and have access to it.
In Teams/SharePoint I'm still not sure. Of course a member from the Team Marketing could just share that folder and send me a link. But:
- If the link breaks / is removed I loose access to that folder
- I don't see a way to pin such links within Teams in a convenient way
In case I need regularly access to 25 folders from within 25 different teams - how would I organize this? I think bookmarking 25 different links in my browser that could potentially break is not really an option.
Might also be that I'm still too tied within the "old world" with that thinking about a "central folder structure" that is "hierarchically organized".
Thanks
Michael
As for making exceptions and collborating on private team files, you can share individual folders by utilizing the "Open in SharePoint" on the file tab in Teams, and then navigating up a level to share the channel folder. This should have been added and I hope they still do to the Files update they did recently by adding the Share or Copy link button there so you can share from within Teams.
That said, you can keep share links as favorites but the easiest way is to education users on OneDrive and utilizing the Shared tab on the left of the OneDrive page. This allows you to see all the documents and folders shared to you from others that are hidden away in these private sites.
As for making exceptions and collborating on private team files, you can share individual folders by utilizing the "Open in SharePoint" on the file tab in Teams, and then navigating up a level to share the channel folder. This should have been added and I hope they still do to the Files update they did recently by adding the Share or Copy link button there so you can share from within Teams.
Thanks, I guess you are describing the ability to share files and folders from within SharePoint. That is still not available within Teams, even not with the changes introduced by the new files experience. I hope Microsoft adds that option directly to Teams as well so users don't have to leave Teams for just sharing a file or folder.
That said, you can keep share links as favorites but the easiest way is to education users on OneDrive and utilizing the Shared tab on the left of the OneDrive page. This allows you to see all the documents and folders shared to you from others that are hidden away in these private sites.
That's what Andrew mentioned too but as written above I'd rather wish that there was an option to pin shared folders / files in directly in Teams as well so I have the ability to quickly find access to all pinned files / folders that are important to me.
Are you aware of a similar feature for files and folders placed in a SharePoint document that allow a quick overview of what has been shared? In OneDrive I'm able to quickly identify what folder and file has been shared, both by an icon next to the elements name and the "Shared by you" area. It would be great to have that option for document libraries in SharePoint as well so a Team was able to quickly identify all shared elements within a team site.
Thanks
Michael- Agree, I want a Shared with me / you view built into the chat files tabs in Teams. But Also think it could be useful to have that view on the Files app in Teams. I'll bring it up at Summit next week :).
Thanks Chris. It would also be helpful if we get the Shared view built into the SharePoint website since as written above there is way to find out if a folder / file as been shared without clicking the file / folder and choosing "Manage Access". Or am I missing something here?