This article demonstrates two of our preferred methods of accessing documents stored in your Microsoft SharePoint/OneDrive account.
For the purposes of this article, let's assume you have more documents "in the cloud" than would fit on your local hard drive, but you have a handful of documents you work on regularly and would like to have easy and offline access to.
First, we'll go to your SharePoint site, which is where all your documents are stored. Think of it as your server in the sky. (No, it's not in the sky, but that's the metaphor people have gone with, so we'll just perpetuate that nonsense.) The address (URL) of your SharePoint site is something Bionic Cat should have provided you. If not, just ask! In this example, we'll go to Bionic Cat World HQ's SharePoint site.
It's important to "follow" your site as it makes access later easier.
Once following, let's sync some of these folders to our local hard drive for easy access. Click the "sync" button and OneDrive should open and prompt you to login if you haven't already. You will login with your Microsoft Office login and password. This is your email address and password.
We're going to assume you've already logged into OneDrive using your email address and password and you'll be presented with a dialog asking you which folders to sync to your hard drive. Please do not sync everything to your hard drive! Rather, let's pick and choose the folders you most frequently use.
Once you click "Start Sync," your selected folders will sync down to your computer's hard drive so you can have quick and easy access to them. Anything you update or add in those folders will magically sync back to your SharePoint server so others can have access to the latest version as well. Note the location listed in the sync dialog to show where on your hard drive the documents are being saved (point 5 in the above screenshot). You should probably make a shortcut to this folder in your Finder for quick access.
Say you want to sync additional folders or stop syncing some you're currently syncing. In this case, click the OneDrive icon, click the gear icon and select preferences.
Next, select "account" and then click "choose folders" and you'll be back at the location where you can select your desired folders and uncheck ones you no longer wish to take up space on your computer.
Note: OneDrive is a bit pedantic about file names. Avoid using any of the following ~ " # % & * : < > ? / \ { | } as documents or folders containing these characters will not sync!
As we've established, you have lots of documents--too many to sync to your local hard drive, but how then do you access the occasional one-off document you need? You could take the steps listed above and sync the document to your local hard drive, or you can return to the SharePoint website for easy access.
Simply navigate to the document you need to access. Assuming it's a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, you can click on it and edit it in your web browser or optionally edit it on the Office software installed on your computer. Any changes you make will be saved back to the server so others can enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Within your SharePoint site, you'll also have additional options for a document or folder, including sharing, downloading, deleting, renaming and more! If you're interested in sharing files, read this article.
Need to upload a document to your SharePoint server? Simply navigate to the folder you want to copy a document (or documents) to and drag and drop said document (or folder) into the web browser. In my example below, I want to add the folder "Great Nerd Bands" to the top level of my server. All I need to do is drag and drop the folder into the web browser and it will be uploaded.
