Any plans to save directly to Teams sites in Office 2016 apps?

[Ed Hansberry]

In current office apps like PowerPoint, Word,  and Excel, if we click File|Save As, if I go to our Team Site (not a teams site, but the default sharepoint created for each tenant), I can then browse all "sites and workspaces" and save files directly where they belong, but it only shows Sharepoint sites, not Group sites and therefore, not Team locations.

So we are saving files to our desktop then uploading to Teams. A round about way of doing it.

This is mainly an issue when we get files from email or create new in various office apps, especially PPTs which always come from Templates we have.

It would be nice if we could save them straight to Teams regardless of whether or not that team or any channel in that team is sync'd to our hard drive. 

[#2]

I recall that we had last year some discussions about having the ability to save files in Group sites and I really thought this was already done, but it seems that's not the case at least in production @Christophe Fiessinger can you light us here

[#3]

That is fantastic news that it is at least on someone's radar

In Outlook, you can save attachments to the group's root, but that should be prohibited as Teams cannot see those files. Hoping that only allows saving to folders off the root (i.e. channels)

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Yes this is something we are working on, stay tune for more details.

[#5]

I agree have started to use teams more and more and right now you first need to save to one location and then drag and drop to the team to get the file there.

One more thing. It would be nice to have the possibility to drag and drop an attachment from Outlook directly to the team folder as well.

BR

Dag

[#6]

FWIW this feature is now available in the Fast Ring build of Office apps for Excel, Word, and PowerPOint. 

Outlook still saves files to the ROOT of the Team/Group, which means the Teams app cannot see it.

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[#7]

Is there any update on this? 

I know you can save directly to Teams channels/folders in sharepoint from Office 2016 by typing in the path i.e. //tenantname.sharepoint.com/sites/teamname , but this is a manual faff. I can't find a way of adding the team/group folder as default. It always goes to the default tenant sharepoint area.

[#8]

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@Steve Thacker wrote:

Is there any update on this? 

I know you can save directly to Teams channels/folders in sharepoint from Office 2016 by typing in the path i.e. //tenantname.sharepoint.com/sites/teamname , but this is a manual faff. I can't find a way of adding the team/group folder as default. It always goes to the default tenant sharepoint area.

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They are contining to fiddle with it. It works well in the latest Fast Ring build of Office 365 apps, but in the last month, most "groups" (and therefore teams) vanished and only pure Sharepoint sites showed up. Then they all came back. Then a few days ago only my favorites were there, but today it looks like most if not all are back. 

So it seems MS is messing with the code on their side that returns the group list to you. No clue when they will roll this out to the slow ring (current channel), but I too hope it is soon. It is insanely handy.

[#9]

I wonder if the following can be a workaround: I have synced my Teams files, as stored in SharePoint, to my PC. In that way I have a copy of the files even when I am offline. This creates a SharePoint folder in my file system, very much like OneDrive. If I choose, I can save to this folder on my computer and it will be available in Teams as well. It is actually quite nice, because you can quickly move a lot of files to your Teams' Channels, using your file explorer.

[#10]

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@Marius Pretorius wrote:
I wonder if the following can be a workaround: I have synced my Teams files, as stored in SharePoint, to my PC. In that way I have a copy of the files even when I am offline. This creates a SharePoint folder in my file system, very much like OneDrive. If I choose, I can save to this folder on my computer and it will be available in Teams as well. It is actually quite nice, because you can quickly move a lot of files to your Teams' Channels, using your file explorer.

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That will let you save to specific team sites, but we have dozens, hundreds of channels, and hundreds of Gigs of files. I do sync my key sites to my PC so I have offline access, but at least 80%-90% are not sync'd, so a direct way to save and open files from within Office apps is critical without being forced to use the Teams UI or the Sharepoint UI.

[#11]

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@Ed Hansberry wrote:

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Outlook still saves files to the ROOT of the Team/Group, which means the Teams app cannot see it.

FYI disallowing save of files to the ROOT is *NOT* a good idea. Not all users access files through MS Teams. If you go directly to OneDrive or if you use Outlook Groups then putting things in the root makes perfect sense. Please do NOT disallow saving files to the root of the team/group onedrive folder.

[#12]

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@Peter Bowers wrote:

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@Ed Hansberry wrote:

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Outlook still saves files to the ROOT of the Team/Group, which means the Teams app cannot see it.

FYI disallowing save of files to the ROOT is *NOT* a good idea. Not all users access files through MS Teams. If you go directly to OneDrive or if you use Outlook Groups then putting things in the root makes perfect sense. Please do NOT disallow saving files to the root of the team/group onedrive folder.

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I can see that, but putting them in ROOT is a train wreck for Teams users. So perhaps this could be at least a tenant setting, or a group setting, and if a group setting, something that the creation of a Team from the Teams app would disable by default.

[#13]

Any update on this? It seems something that will be key for adoption of Teams, but it's been a couple of months, and work-arounds such as pasting in the URL of the documents site or waiting for files-on-demand aren't really workable.

thanks

Angus

[#14]

No, but my understanding is it is coming.

Right now, Office Fast Ring doesn't allow it but it will in the next fast release build, again. It is pretty good when it works. Since they have said it is coming back to fast ring, that tells me it is still moving forward. But who knows when it will see GA.

[#15]

For anyone who is curious about how to get the "Fast Ring" releases of Office, you can follow the instructions here.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3185078/how-to-switch-from-deferred-channel-to-current-chan...

[#16]

When I give my workshops about Teams, this is a essential feature that is missing for users to change their habbits. Now they need to save to their computer and then copy it a teams enviromnent. Really looking forward to a solution. 

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[#17]

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@Deleted wrote:

When I give my workshops about Teams, this is a essential feature that is missing for users to change their habbits. Now they need to save to their computer and then copy it a teams enviromnent. Really looking forward to a solution. 

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This feature exists in the current Fast Ring build of Office, but it unfortunately lets you save to the root of the team in the Documents folder, which is invisible to Teams. I wish there was a way to block that in the Admin panel so it forced you to save in the existing folders/channels.

That small issue aside though, it works pretty well. Just train them to to save to the Documents folder.

[#18]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the fast reply. I installed the current fast ring build of office.

If I understood you correctly you can save from Word to the Root folder of the Team but this is not advised as it is invisible to Teams.

Can you explain to me how that you exactly to this?

Do you have any idea when MS will come up with a solution?

Thans and have a nice weekend.

Roel

[#19]

Perhaps 'invisible' is a bit of a strong word here, you can add a tab to see all of the files in a team site, or add Cloud storage to the Teams files to point back at the root. I think the point is that neither of these are especially intuitive.
For me, I think the 'general' groups in any team should store it's file in the root anyway, then the problem goes away.

[#20]

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@Steven Collier wrote:
Perhaps 'invisible' is a bit of a strong word here, you can add a tab to see all of the files in a team site, or add Cloud storage to the Teams files to point back at the root. I think the point is that neither of these are especially intuitive.
For me, I think the 'general' groups in any team should store it's file in the root anyway, then the problem goes away.

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That is confusing though, having a Sharepoint storage to the root of the team. 

Having General storing in the root will also cause a problem as the root has the other channels, so the channels are available from two places, general, and the channel itself. Again, confusing.

[#21]

Still no news on this feature?

Others complaining similar problems:

• https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Groups/Saving-to-Groups-from-Office-Desktop-Applic...
• https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint/Saving-files-to-SharePoint-Online-is-HARD/m-p/1245...

[#22]

It's in Insider Fast, will be heading down the other rings shortly. All my different locations appear neatly under File ... Save ... Sites

[#23]

This has been in and out of Insider fast for a few months, but the latest update made a few significant changes that will make it much easier for the average user, so I am hoping that it will hit the targeted channel soon. Deferred channel you are at least 3-6 months out, even if targeted were to get it today.

[#24]

Hi

Any idea how these sites are sorted?  I've had a look on this on Insider and it looks promising, but my list is a bit of a mess as I'm following quite a few sites.

thanks

Angus

[#25]

No idea. It isn't that I can tell. Some of the top ones on my list are top sites I use, but a few near the top are also groups/teams I rarely go to.

There needs to be a "SEARCH" box on that screen, not only for sites, but folders, and files in the "Recent" section.

As it stands, I am just thankful that the site I use the most is at the top, but it doesn't explain at all why #3 on my list is one I rarely go to, and certainly haven't gone to since I visited #4, #5, and #6.

[#26]

Can you also choose your channel? Because files I save from outlook to a teams are not visible in teams, only in the sharepoint online site.

[#27]

Ed,

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm on the Office team and working on the integration between Groups and Office. The sorting in the Frequent list is based on activity, with greater weight being placed on a Group that you have saved or opened a file from. 

Does that correspond with your activity in the Groups?

Regards,

Patrick

[#28]

Hi

I think the problem is the frequent list also includes any site I've visited on SharePoint - so Wikis, communication sites etc. which aren't places I'd ever save a document. It's hard for Office to know this (some of the SharePoint sites do have document libraries in them I use), but it's pretty much a list of every site I've ever visited. (Acknowledged this may be because our SharePoint is a bit of a mess with a site-per-team and site-per-team-wiki!).

I've reduced down to the sites I'm following to make it easy to find the key group sites, but they're lost down underneath the frequent list.

thanks

Angus

[#29]

Not really @Patrick Gan. My items are as follows:

1. Very common, so top is fine.
2. Fairly common, so #2 is fine.
3. Opened 1 file there 2 weeks ago. No clue why it is #3.
4. Open files here all of the time, so not sure why it isn't #2. It is not my #1, but definitely above #2.

Beyond that, I don't open files enough in the other sites to say I could priortize them, but 5-10 are probably ok, and 11 and below are probably ok too as I rarely if ever open stuff there, mostly just participate in team chats.

[#30]

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@Deleted wrote:

Can you also choose your channel? Because files I save from outlook to a teams are not visible in teams, only in the sharepoint online site.

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Yes, mostly. Channels are just folders. THe problem is if you change the name of a channel, it does not change the folder name in SharePoint, and if you do change the SharePoint folder name, it breaks the channel. 

Apparently at channel creation, all tabs, conversation threads, etc. are hard-coded to that original name in SharePoint. If you want to rename the channel (or team I suppose) you can, but it doesn't change the Sharepoint site name, which means when you go to save/open a file in that channel, you might be in the "Quality Control" channel, but the folder has the original channel name "Testing Processes" so people will find it difficult to work with in that regard unless MS masks what you see in the File Open/Save dialogs to mirror the Channel name.

[#31]

The documents I store from outlook into a teams, are stored under documents and not under any folder/channel I created. I believe this is the reason why they do not appear in teams. If I copy them under the general folder via sharepoint online, they are visible in teams. I did not change any folder/channel name. Maybe @Patrick Gan of Microsoft can clear this out. Any idea when this feature of saving office documents directly into teams channels will released?

Thx.

Roel

[#32]

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@Deleted wrote:

The documents I store from outlook into a teams, are stored under documents and not under any folder/channel I created. I believe this is the reason why they do not appear in teams. If I copy them under the general folder via sharepoint online, they are visible in teams. I did not change any folder/channel name. Maybe @Patrick Gan of Microsoft can clear this out. Any idea when this feature of saving office documents directly into teams channels will released?

Thx.

Roel

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the Teams apps cannot see anything in the root folder of a group/sharepoint site. Any files under Documents are not visible,  and any folders in Documents that weren't created by Teams in the creation of a channel aren't visible to Teams. Any folder created by Teams as part of a channel and renamed in the Sharepoint UI will become invisible to Teams, and will take down all of the conversations and tabs with it for that channel until you fix the name back to what it was.

[#33]

Hi there

Is there any update on this/when it will make it into the Monthly channel? I thought I'd seen it in there, and was ready to start rolling out to users, but it seems I was mistaken and it's still only on insider.

thanks

Angus

[#34]

Hello and Happy New Year!

We have begun enabling the feature for Production users on Monthly channel this week, (builds >8730.) It will be a staged rollout, so we won't reach 100% for another week or so.

Let me know if you have questions!

Patrick

[#35]

Happy New Year to you too...

That's great news - thanks for the quick reply! I'll keep an eye out for it this week and let you know if we have any issues.

[#36]

Our entire office has it, but we are on on the "first release" or "targeted" release. It isn't Insider only. We all got it before Christmas IIRC.

[#37]

If we're on the semi-annual, does that mean we won't see this until July?

[#38]

Hi Ed,

What is the version/build number of Office your team is running? I ask because we did not turn the feature on for Production until last week, so I am a little concerned we might have some issue with the feature control software we are using.

Thanks!

Patrick

[#39]

Peter,

It actually may be later than that for semi-annual but let me confirm and will let you know.

Patrick

[#40]

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@Patrick Gan wrote:

Hi Ed,

What is the version/build number of Office your team is running? I ask because we did not turn the feature on for Production until last week, so I am a little concerned we might have some issue with the feature control software we are using.

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We are using 1712 Build 8827.2117. I know for a fact it was also working with  Office Version 1712 Build 8827.2082 when that was released around Dec 18 as that is when I wrote it up on our internal Office 365 OneNote tips notebook and announced it to our entire office. That probably means it was really out there that Thurs or Fri before that as I had to test it with a few people, as I am on Fast Ring and have had it for months.

[#41]

Happy to report that this functionality has been added (though I'd love to it under a Teams menu rather than a SharePoint menu)

EDIT 1/23: I was wrong. It only works if you've already opened files from those teams into the Office app you're using. I can see a few channels in Excel to save to, but none in Word. Not incredibly helpful...

[#42]

Hi

That's great - we are seeing this too.

I've posted elsewhere on this topic, but my other highly desirable feature is better Outlook -> SharePoint sites integration (i.e. the ability to save/load attachments from SharePoint sites, in our case not team sites, just standard ones)...anyone on this thread have any knowledge of whether this may happen?

Thanks

Angus

[#43]

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@Deleted wrote:

Happy to report that this functionality has been added (though I'd love to it under a Teams menu rather than a SharePoint menu)

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I agree. I've told our people to stay out of "sharepoint" so they don't create files in the channel root folder, nor manually rename any folders that are the main channel folders. All of which have been done until I told them to say out of Sharepoint.

[#44]

I updated my earlier reply to add that users can only save to channels if they've opened documents from those channels before. Not incredibly helpful...

[#45]

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@Deleted wrote:

I updated my earlier reply to add that users can only save to channels if they've opened documents from those channels before. Not incredibly helpful...

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No. we've not seen that issue here. I just saved a test file to a channel and sub-folder I've never saved in.

[#46]

Ed,

What does it look like? Perhaps a screenshot of the "save as" screen could help.

Obviously, feel free to blur out any private info.

Thanks,

Nathan

[#47]

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@Deleted wrote:

Ed,

What does it look like? Perhaps a screenshot of the "save as" screen could help.

Obviously, feel free to blur out any private info.

Thanks,

Nathan

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It doesn't look any different than saving to any other folder in Sharepoint. It is just a folder. 

[#48]

Ed,

Thanks for the quick reply.  

Our teams' SharePoint sites don't automatically appear under our company's root SharePoint folder along with the other, purely-SharePoint sites that we have. Are yours appearing side-by-side?

Thanks.

[#49]

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@Deleted wrote:

Ed,

Thanks for the quick reply.  

Our teams' SharePoint sites don't automatically appear under our company's root SharePoint folder along with the other, purely-SharePoint sites that we have. Are yours appearing side-by-side?

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Yes. You cannot tell visually for us which is the old classic style Sharepoint sites vs the new Teams Sharepoint sites.

But we are all on Monthly Targeted (first release) build, and I am on fast insider.

You might be on the deferred channel, and you wouldn't be seeing it the same way yet.

[#50]

Okay, thanks for letting me know. I'm not on Insider, so I'll have to wait it out.