What is SharePoint Online?
Microsoft SharePoint Online is a cloud-based collaborative environment.
Microsoft SharePoint Online is what organisations use to store documents and create websites and intranets. You can use it as a secure place to store, organize, share, and access information from any device. All you need is a web browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox to access it.
What are the different types of SharePoint site?
There are 2 types of sites in SharePoint Online:
- team sites
- communication sites
Team sites
Team sites are private spaces in which you can work on files with colleagues in the same Microsoft team.
Every team and private channel within a Team, has a private SharePoint Online team site in the background. It contains files that have been shared in the Teams app in channels.
By default, all Team members can view and edit content in the site. Team members can also create and edit pages in the site. These pages are like web pages. Site owners have some extra permissions, such as adding members to the team.
Communication sites
SharePoint Online communication sites are more like websites. Only a few of the people with permission to view the site will have permission to edit it. These sites are better suited if you want to create web pages of information rather than storing your files for your team.
Communication sites can either be open to all users with a University account or restricted to a group of users.
What SharePoint gives you
- Data compliance
- Business productivity
- Access your content at any time from any location
- Latest security features
- Centralised administration
- Documentation management and collaboration
What you can store on SharePoint
SharePoint communication sites used for intranets or internal websites
SharePoint communication sites which include web pages and document libraries are suitable for low impact data (level 1). This covers information that is open to a wide group of students and staff within the University. Files and folders that need to be restricted to a smaller group of users should be saved in a SharePoint site connected to a Team in Microsoft Teams.
SharePoint team sites
A SharePoint site created as part of a Microsoft Team can also store high impact data (level 2). However, it is only suitable for this kind of data if you manage the SharePoint permission settings carefully.
SharePoint is not suitable for:
- health data where individual patients are named or can be identified
- data that is subject to a specific contractual agreement that specifies a particular storage method (that is not SharePoint)
- data that is subject to a specific contractual agreement that prohibits storage in a public cloud service
Find out about University data classifications
How to access SharePoint?
Your SharePoint homepage can be accessed via https://universityofcambridgecloud.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/sharepoint.aspx?
Your most frequently and recently visited sites will be listed, you can also 'Follow' a site to add to your list of Followed Sites:
Find and follow Sites on SharePoint Online
Each Microsoft Team has an underlying SharePoint site, the URL will be in the format:
https://universityofcambridgecloud.sharepoint.com/sites/TeamName
You can also open from Teams under the Files tab of a Channel using this button:
Request a new SharePoint site
Find out how to request a new SharePoint team site or communication site.
SharePoint site organisation
We have disabled the creation of new subsites as this is against best practice, having separate sites avoids issues with inherited permissions leading to sensitive information being shared more widely than intended. Please refer to this guidance from Microsoft on SharePoint information architecture for further details and recommendations.
Get help using SharePoint
Our help pages
- Set up SharePoint site permissions
- Monitor SharePoint site permissions
- Create user-friendly pages in SharePoint
- Migrate files and folders over to SharePoint
Learn how to use SharePoint
If you are not familiar with SharePoint Online already, use the training resources on LinkedIn Learning.
- Collaboration Tools - Team Collaboration in Office 365 - Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive
- SharePoint 365 Online - Essential Training, The Basics
- SharePoint 365 Online - Essential Training, Beyond The Basics
- Learning SharePoint Online - Document Libraries
- SharePoint - Creating Communication Sites
Microsoft support pages
- Create a document library in SharePoint
- Create and share files in a SharePoint library
- Share SharePoint files externally
- Restore a previous version of an item or file in SharePoint
Further help is available on Microsoft SharePoint Help and Learning Centre.