The vast array of applications offered in the Office suite
provides various ways of properly editing documents and content so that
you can not only take advantage of the technology at your fingertips,
but also allow SharePoint to interact and assist in editing and
managing this content. Today’s workers are highly mobile and often need
to collaborate from different physical locations. When Office is used
in concert with SharePoint 2013, users can create and collaborate on
content simultaneously with other members of the organization.
When you edit documents with Office, you have the option of locking
the editing to a single user at a time or opening the file to multiple
users for real-time coauthoring. By using the collaborative
functionality found in SharePoint, you can cross departmental,
cultural, and organizational hurdles to receive feedback and additional
ideas from a much larger audience quickly.
Office allows for similar editing of content in Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, Visio, and OneNote files stored within SharePoint. Not only
can users edit content in document libraries from within the Office
application, they can also use SharePoint’s collaborative editing
features to enable users to work on content in an environment separated
from the main SharePoint site. Office applications can initiate ad hoc
knowledge management around a particular document or piece of content
to gain insight from other users and take advantage of their best
practices, lessons learned, or in-depth knowledge on a topic. Office
applications have the Save To SharePoint functionality in the Backstage
view under the Save As tab, as shown in Figure 1.
The new look to the Save As tab lists SharePoint and SkyDrive before
the Computer option. The position of Computer in this list reflects the
trend that you may use many different devices, so it makes no sense to
save files in folders on a specific computer.
Note
Publisher 2013 is a
notable exception. This is because the tools’ functionality makes the
collaborative feature of no substantial value.
1. Opening and saving files in SharePoint libraries
SharePoint and Windows offer several ways to save content directly
into SharePoint. The File Open and File Save As dialog boxes are the
most popular and well-known options for saving content, and they will
continue to be the most popular methods to save content directly in
SharePoint. To save content directly in SharePoint, use the following
steps:
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In any Office program, on the Backstage view, select the Open or Save As tab.
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There are several options for locating the SharePoint site where you would like to save your file:
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In the right pane, under Recent Folders, click the link to a
document library. This list contains SharePoint libraries where you
have recently opened documents.
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When the Recent Folder list does not contain the required library, click Browse to open the Save As dialog box.
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When the SharePoint option is not available on the Open or Save As
tab, click Computer, and then click Browse to open the Save As dialog
box.
When using the Save As dialog box, you can do either of the following:
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Under Favorites, click SharePoint, and then click one of the
libraries that you synchronize between your computer and SharePoint, as
shown in the following graphic.
This option is available if you have SkyDrive Pro installed and you
have clicked Sync on the global navigation bar of any SharePoint site.
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Alternatively, type or paste the site’s URL into the File Name input
box and press Enter. The Save As dialog box will switch into Web view,
displaying the site’s content. All the site’s document libraries will
be displayed in addition to all related sites and workspaces, as shown
here.
Double-click the library that you would like to open and browse to
the appropriate location within the library to save your file. In this
example, the file is being saved at the top level of the document
library. The user is able to view the other files that exist within the
library, as shown here.
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If
you want to overwrite an existing file, double-click that file.
Otherwise, type in the name of the file in the file name input box, and
then click Save.
Saving documents directly from Office applications to a SharePoint
is a best practice when a file is to be shared with other users, as it
allows for one definitive copy of that file and users do not have to
worry whether they are looking at the most up-to-date copy of that file.
