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A plain-English introduction to Microsoft SharePoint — what it is, how it differs from OneDrive, and how your team can use it to share and manage files together.

SharePoint is the team file-sharing and collaboration part of Microsoft 365. If OneDrive is your personal filing cabinet, SharePoint is the shared office library — a central place where everyone can find and work on the same documents.

Quick summary

SharePoint is where your organization stores, organizes, and shares files as a team, in a browser. It's included with the Microsoft 365 business plans that come with email. You reach it by signing in to Microsoft 365 and opening SharePoint from the app launcher, or by going straight to a site's own address, which looks like https://yourcompany.sharepoint.com/sites/project-x. Teams in your organization each get their own site, with document libraries, lists, and pages.

SharePoint vs OneDrive

This is the question most people have first:

	OneDrive	SharePoint
Who is it for?	You personally	Your team or organization
Best for	Your own work files	Shared files, templates, policies
Access	Only you (unless you share)	Everyone in the team
Think of it as	Your desk drawer	The office filing cabinet

Use OneDrive for drafts, personal projects, and files only you need. Use SharePoint for anything the whole team needs — shared templates, company documents, project folders, and HR policies.

Accessing SharePoint

Go to microsoft365.com — it now opens at m365.cloud.microsoft — and sign in with your work account.

Open the app launcher (the grid of nine dots). In the top-left corner, hover over the Copilot icon and select it to expand the navigation, then select the app launcher icon.

Select SharePoint. You land on the SharePoint start page, where you can search for sites, files, and people. If SharePoint isn't in the launcher, search for it in the Search box; if it's still missing, your admin controls which apps you see.

If you already have the address of a site, you can skip all that and paste it into your browser — site addresses look like https://yourcompany.sharepoint.com/sites/project-x. You'll be sent to the Microsoft 365 sign-in page first. And if you sign in to Windows with your work account, you're signed in to SharePoint automatically.

What is a SharePoint site?

A SharePoint site is a workspace for a team or project. Think of it as a mini-website just for your organization. Each site can contain:

Document libraries — folders of files, like a shared OneDrive
Lists — tables of information (tasks, contacts, approvals)
Pages — informational pages with text and images, like an intranet

A team site is the kind you'll meet most: it connects a team to shared content, and it's where you store and co-author files. Microsoft's other kind, a communication site, is for broadcasting information out to a wider audience rather than working together on it.

Sites are marked private (only approved members can view) or public (anyone in your organization can view), and your organization may already have sites set up for different teams (e.g., "Marketing", "HR", "Finance") or projects.

Document libraries

Document libraries are the most-used part of SharePoint. They look and behave similarly to OneDrive — you can upload, organize, and share files.

To access a document library:

Open a SharePoint site from the SharePoint home page.

Click Documents in the left-hand navigation (or whatever the library is called).

Browse the folders to find the files you need.

To upload a file to a SharePoint library:

Navigate to the folder where you want the file to go.

Use the upload command in the toolbar above the file list — depending on your view it reads Upload or Add new — then pick the file on your computer. You can also drag files from your desktop straight into the file list.

Syncing SharePoint to your computer

You can sync a SharePoint document library to your computer using the OneDrive desktop app — this makes files appear in File Explorer or Finder, just like local files, and lets you work on them offline.

Open the SharePoint document library in your browser, or navigate to the subfolder you want.

Select Sync. You only need to do this once per computer; after that, files sync automatically. If your browser asks permission to use "Microsoft OneDrive", say yes.

Wait for the first sync. The files land in a folder on your computer named after your organization, which is added to the left pane of File Explorer. You can't choose a different location.

Microsoft now recommends shortcuts over Sync

There are two ways to get SharePoint files into File Explorer: the Add shortcut to My files command (Microsoft also calls this a OneDrive shortcut), and the Sync button. Both put the files in front of you, but a shortcut follows you to every device while a sync belongs to the one computer, and Microsoft says shortcuts perform better. Use a shortcut where you have the option.

Think twice about syncing enormous libraries

Microsoft recommends syncing no more than 300,000 files in a single library for good performance. Disk space is less of a worry than it used to be: OneDrive Files On-Demand is on by default in current versions, so synced files show up as online-only and don't download until you open one. To push a file back to online-only, right-click it and select Free up space.

Common questions

How is SharePoint different from Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint work together. When you create a team, a SharePoint site is created automatically behind it to store the files. The Files tab on a standard channel is a folder in that site's document library — so whenever you add or update a file there, you're really working in SharePoint. (Private and shared channels are the exception: each gets a site of its own.) You can work in either place.

Can external people (clients, partners) access SharePoint?

Files and folders can always be shared with anyone inside your organization using a link. Sharing outside it depends on whether your admin has turned guest sharing on; when it is on, "Anyone" and "Specific people" links can go to people outside the business, and guests can be given access to a whole site. Talk to your admin or contact us for help.

Who manages SharePoint sites?

Each site has owners who manage its settings and access — for a team created in Teams, the team's owners are automatically the site's owners. Beyond that it's your Microsoft 365 admin's call. If you need a new team site set up, ask your admin or contact us.

Can I edit files directly in SharePoint?

Yes — select any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file in SharePoint and it opens in the browser for editing. Several people can work on the same file at once, which Microsoft calls co-authoring; everyone needs edit permission, and the file needs to be in a modern format (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx).

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

SharePoint basics