Get to SharePoint from an Office Application

5/31/2011 9:47 AM

Note:  This article is part of a collection of posts from four years of the Get the Point blog for SharePoint end-users.

Maybe you've heard about connecting to SharePoint from your favorite Office applications but you're not sure how it works. Or maybe you don't know about this capability. In either case, if you enjoy the familiarity of your local Office apps and prefer not to log on to a SharePoint site every time you want to upload a document to or retrieve a document from a SharePoint library, you'll be glad to learn of this convenient way to tap-in to your team's SharePoint site libraries, without leaving the Office application, be it Word, Excel, PowerPoint...

First, you do need to visit a SharePoint site to open a library - but only once to set things up. Once you've identified the library where you want to post or access your content, you simply select it, click the Library tab under Library Tools, and click the Connect to Office command in the Connect and Export group on the ribbon. Select Add to SharePoint Sites and you're done.

This command adds the library path to the SharePoint Sites folder that appears when you use the File ->Open or Save As commands in an Office application. This folder also appears in your Windows Explorer Favorites list.

Using the Add to SharePoint Sites command on a library lets you do the following tasks easily:

• Open a SharePoint library document from your Office application and update it.

• Share or publish a new document directly from your favorite Office application to a SharePoint site library.

• Insert images, videos, and audio files from a SharePoint Asset Library into Office documents. ​

• Find a connected SharePoint library document in your Windows Explorer file system.

Try the following approaches to see how easy it is to get your documents into or out of a SharePoint site without leaving an Office app.

First, connect the library to Office:

1. Open a SharePoint site library from the browser.

2. Click the Library tab.

3. Click the Connect to Office command in the ribbon and select Add to SharePoint Sites.

Repeat this process any time you want to add another library link to the SharePoint Sites folder in your file system. After you've connected a SharePoint library to Office, you can work on a SharePoint library document from Office or save a new Office document to the SharePoint library.

To open and edit a SharePoint library document from an Office application:

1. After you've connected a SharePoint library to Office, as described above, start an Office application, such as Word.

2. Click the File tab and then click Open.

3. Select SharePoint Sites from the Favorites list.

4. Select the desired library from the sites list, such as Shared Documents in this example. Notice that the site name, Contoso Team 2011 in this case, precedes the library name.

5. Choose a document, such as Contoso 2011 marketing plan in this example.

6. Double-click the document to open it in your Office application.

7. Edit and save the document as you would any other Office document.
   The document will save to the SharePoint site library by default.

8. If you want to confirm, go to the SharePoint site library from your browser and open the document to see your updates.
   When you open the document in the future, it will reflect any changes that other team members may have made.

To create a document in an Office application and easily upload it to a SharePoint library:

1. After you've connected a SharePoint library to Office, as described at the top of this post, start your Office application, such as Excel, and click New to create a new document. For instance, start Word and create a new spreadsheet.

2. Enter a title, such as Metrics, and add some content.

3. From the Office application, click File ->Save As, then click SharePoint Sites from the Favorites list.

4. Select the library you need, such as Shared Documents, preceded by the site name, which is Contoso Team 2011 in this example. Your new document will be saved to the selected library.
   When you access the document again, it will reflect any updates that others may have made since you last saw it.
   If you want to confirm the upload, go the SharePoint site library from the browser to see the new Metrics document.

To easily insert images and videos from a SharePoint Asset Library into an Office document:

1. Identify the SharePoint Asset Library that contains the assets you want to add to a document.

2. After you've connected a SharePoint library to Office, as described above, start an Office application, such as Word.3.

3. Click the File tab and then click Open.

4. Select SharePoint Sites from the Favorites list.

5. Identify the Asset Library in the sites list and click it to display its contents.

6. When the contents page opens, you can see the assets that you need, conveniently accessible to your Office document.

7. Copy the image, video, or other asset that you want and paste it into your document.

8. Edit and save your document as you normally would.

To find a connected SharePoint library document in your file system:

1. Open Windows Explorer.

2. Click the SharePoint Sites item at the bottom of the Favorites list to see connected library paths.

3. Click the link to the appropriate library.

4. Double-click the document you want and open it in its native Office application, such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Tips:

• When you need to access another site library, use the Add to SharePoint Sites command again, as described at the top of this post. Just remember, one connection – one library.

• You can make a library-to-Office connection at any time, even while a document is open in your Office application is open. As long as you use the Add to SharePoint Sites command before trying to connect to the library, you'll be fine. •If you have trouble accessing or editing a site library document, make sure you have the necessary SharePoint site permissions, the same as you would need if you were working in the site from a browser.

• If you made a connection in error, you can remove it by using the same Connect to Office command described above. But select Remove from SharePoint Sites instead of the Add option.

mp

Comments

• Re: SharePoint Site does not appear under favorites 11/29/2012 8:41 AM.
  Let us know if this helps...

• It might be that your My Site and profile hasn't been setup. This feature depends on My Site to work properly. To address your issue, make sure you've visited your My Site and clicked on "Content" to create your My Site site collection for the first time. If this doesn't solve your problem, or if you can't access your My Site, check with your SharePoint admin to make sure you're running an O365 SKU that supports My Sites and to verify that My Site has been set up for you.
  Hope this helps.
  mp

• SharePoint Site does not appear under favorites 11/29/2012 6:43 AM
  I have connected to office and it said library added but when i check under Favorites SharePoint Sites does not appear. please assist.