Save to a Sharepoint site

[petben]

We are moving Curriculum files to SharePoint. I have a 'landing page' of tiles that point to subject Document Libraries or Teams files.

 

Dragging and dropping new files from a local folder to the SharePoint location is fine, but how do you advise/setup for users to, for example, open Word/Save As.. and save direct to the SP folder?

[jmak]

For years I've advised users to sync from SharePoint to File Explorer, but apparently the new Microsoft preferred way to make files available is to put a link in OneDrive. I personally find that confusing as a concept - I think of OneDrive replacing home drive, SharePoint replacing file server - but it seems to work more reliably.

 

I think the best way to save from Office applications (and anywhere else it appears in the menu) is directly into SharePoint.

[DavR]

Which version of Office are you using? I've found the Office 2016/19 doesn't find SharePoint sites very easily, but, that the Office 365 client apps does.

 

As we were obliged to keep using Office 2019, I spent a bit of money and bought IAM Cloud Drive Mapper, which replicates the experience of mapped drives pointing to a file server that people were used to. I couldn't see any other way to sensibly do it for us.

[noelmm]

For those staff members who struggle with navigating our SharePoint, we generally advise them to sync the SharePoint area they need to, it's something they're familiar with and can use.

[petben]

we use Office365, errrr so how can users find the Curriculum SharePoint site? Can I not set up a shortcut or something?

 

We looked at Cloud drive Mapper but performance on big files was terrible.

 

Thanks

[Olliedawg]

we use Office365, errrr so how can users find the Curriculum SharePoint site? Can I not set up a shortcut or something?

 

We looked at Cloud drive Mapper but performance on big files was terrible.

 

Thanks

You could add a shortcut to the App Launcher in 365 (the 9 dots in the top left) Will need to provision users to it, otherwise it will appear for all users in tenant

 

Add custom tiles to the app launcher - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

 

Pin apps to your users' app launcher - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

[DavR]

For those staff members who struggle with navigating our SharePoint, we generally advise them to sync the SharePoint area they need to, it's something they're familiar with and can use.

 

We tried setting this up automatically through policy, but our larger shared areas took days to populate, and as a result synchronisation was unreliable. So either files wouldn't be there when they needed them, or, wouldn't sync back up when they logged off a machine, or, we'd get a lot of duplicate versions.

 

We ran in tandem with Cloud Drive Mapper for a while, but eventually had to junk the sync'd stuff, except for OneDrive folders.

[JDawgg]

Similar here - recommended to staff to sync sharepoint sites, when the migration from on-prem to SharePoint it wasn't planned. It has just been a drag and drop so some sites are sitting at 1TB+

Awful solution when syncing locally as files do not sync or take days as OneDrive has to file version EVERYTHING before syncing changes. Google Drive for Desktop works much better in this instance.

Whereas previous schools had a 'staff drive' containing everything, we've now recommeneded a sharepoint site per subject just to split up the masses of data which can then be synced if wanted to.

[petben]

We tried setting this up automatically through policy, but our larger shared areas took days to populate, and as a result synchronisation was unreliable. So either files wouldn't be there when they needed them, or, wouldn't sync back up when they logged off a machine, or, we'd get a lot of duplicate versions.

 

We ran in tandem with Cloud Drive Mapper for a while, but eventually had to junk the sync'd stuff, except for OneDrive folders.

 

Thanks, so what solution did you end up with? I am currently considering Sync (but been put off now really) and Cloud Drive Mapper, but their v2 is poor performance with large files (due to Webdav), and their long promised v3 seems still far away...

[DavR]

Thanks, so what solution did you end up with? I am currently considering Sync (but been put off now really) and Cloud Drive Mapper, but their v2 is poor performance with large files (due to Webdav), and their long promised v3 seems still far away...

 

We stuck with IAM Cloud Drive Mapper. We haven't found large files too big an issue, although yes, large video files don't always open successfully first time, but then, our Internet connection is a dedicated 400MB line. Which is not to say that we're not looking forward to something better than WebDav.

 

I honestly wouldn't consider SharePoint sync for anything beyond a) areas of only a few GB or b) manual syncs for users who know what they're doing.

 

It would be REALLY nice if there was a way of just dropping a list of SharePoint sites into the Open/Save dialogue box for Office, but that option just doesn't seem to be there, which is a real nuisance.

[adamsund]

We transferred all on premise home drives and shared areas into OneDrive and SharePoint what must be over 5 years ago now. One of my technicians created a script that added the desired SharePoint to sync in explorer which made it a lot easier for them to transition. We also created an online directory so they could add SharePoints to explorer at their leisure. Always worked brilliantly, and some of these shared areas are massive. If a member of staff gets a new device, we encourage them to sync through Teams rather than shortcuts. There is also the option to be able to add SharePoints to explorer through Intune or GPO, though it does come with caveats. These days I prefer to educate users how to setup their own environment rather than us dictate how it should look.

[petben]

Our school uses static 'computers in classrooms', so staff do not carry their own laptops around. I feel with all our staff movement around different machines (for cover, workrooms, classroom moves etc), combined with some unavoidable profile clean-up so disks don't fill up, the syncing option may not work for us..

[E_G_R2]

Train them away from the old file share and get them to embrace SharePoint and its search facilities and place all video's on a single sharepoint site and train them to create play lists etc..

 

Yes i know the old File Explorer is what they are used to but cloud computing has moved away from centralization.

[Frodo_Baggins]

Train them away from the old file share and get them to embrace SharePoint and its search facilities and place all video's on a single sharepoint site and train them to create play lists etc..

 

Yes i know the old File Explorer is what they are used to but cloud computing has moved away from centralization.

 

100% agree with this, we've done the same and did require a little bit of a "culture change" - I did play with force syncing certain libraries but too messy and as they were quite large meant that changes to departmental sites took longer to sync in file explorer... Moved away from this and most staff are now more than happy to use the web apps and sync certain sites\folders if needed.