Getting
Started
with SharePoint 2010
How-To Guide
Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
This guide accompanies the Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 training session. It covers the main
points of the training session in a step-by-step “How To” manner. You can use this guide as an aid
when completing workbook tasks during the session, or as a reference source after you have
completed the training.
All resources used in the training session, including this guide, are available on the IT Training
website:
http://study.cardiffmet.ac.uk/Help/Training/
A Note on Conventions:
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Menus and menu options appear in bold italics. E.g. Site Actions  Site Settings means
choose the Site Actions menu then the Site Settings option.
SharePoint features appear in bold.
E.g. “Choose Team Site from the list of available templates”.
Hints, tips or asides appear within a box. E.g.
TIP: Hints, tips and asides will appear in boxes like this!
Contents
Navigating SharePoint............................................................................................................................. 3
Searching SharePoint .............................................................................................................................. 4
Uploading a Document ........................................................................................................................... 5
Uploading Multiple Documents .......................................................................................................... 6
Using Explorer View ............................................................................................................................ 7
Problematic Files ................................................................................................................................. 8
Saving from an Office Application to Your My Site................................................................................. 9
Saving From Office to a Team Site Document Library ...................................................................... 10
Restore a Deleted item ......................................................................................................................... 11
Team Sites ............................................................................................................................................. 12
Document Management ................................................................................................................... 13
Document Properties ............................................................................................................................ 13
Check Out a Document ......................................................................................................................... 14
Version History...................................................................................................................................... 16
Alert Me ................................................................................................................................................ 17
Send To ................................................................................................................................................. 18
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Navigating SharePoint
Portal Navigation
Top-level menus provide access to the main areas of SharePoint.
Breadcrumb trails show you
where you are and allow you to
move back to previous pages.
Team Site Navigation
The Team Site Navigator is usually located on the
right hand side of most team sites. It provides
another method of navigating between sites.
The Quick Launch task pane appears on the left
hand side of most team sites. It provides links
to sub-sites and document libraries
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Searching SharePoint
The search facility can used to search for documents or web pages, enter what you are looking for in
the search box located at the top right of most pages.
Your search can be refined by using the filters available on the left of the Site Search Results Page.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Uploading a Document
To upload a single document:
1. Navigate to the document library you wish to upload a document to.
TIP: Remember if you’re using your My Site everyone can see Shared Documents, only you can see
Personal Documents.
Image 1: Selecting a document library
2. Under Library Tools on the ribbon select the Documents tab (Image 2).
3. Click the Upload Document button.
Image 2: Upload a document via the Documents tab.
4. Click the Browse button.
5. Navigate to the file you wish to upload (e.g. from your local hard disk or USB pen drive).
Select the document from its location and click Open. (Image 3).
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Image 3: Select the document
6. Click OK, the document will upload.
Uploading Multiple Documents
1. Click on the pull down arrow from the Upload Document button (Documents tab) and
choose Upload Multiple Documents.
2. You can drag ‘n drop files into
the dialogue window or select
the Browse for files instead
option.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Browsing for Files
1. Navigate to the folder
where the files reside by
clicking on the locations in
the left pane
2. Choose the files you wish
to upload
3. Click Open
TIP: Hold down the control key (Ctrl) to choose multiple documents.
Using Explorer View
Windows Explorer can be used within SharePoint to manipulate files
1. On the Library tab under the Connect & Export group select Open with Explorer.
2. Click on the Allow button on the window that may appear.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
3. It is now possible to rename, delete, drag ‘n drop and copy and paste files as you would
normally in Windows Explorer.
TIP: To copy files using drag ‘n drop: Open with Explorer, then drag the window to one side of the
screen – this will be your destination. Leave that window open. Use the Start button in Windows to
navigate to Computer. Find and select your source files then drag them to the destination window.
TIP 2: Right-click on a file to get access to the usual set
of file options, e.g. rename or copy & paste.
Problematic Files
SharePoint is intended, primarily, to work with Office
files: Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and
PowerPoint presentations. It is also capable of storing a
wide array of other files, including PDFs, HTML, text files,
XML data and images of all types. There are a few
exceptions, however. SharePoint will not accept:
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Access databases
Program files (executables)
Internet shortcuts (.lnk files).
Additionally, SharePoint will not accept file names that are over 128 characters long or that contain
certain characters, the most common culprits are:
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Ampersand (&)
Tilda (~)
Hash sign (#)
Colon (:)
Quotation (“)
Full list available at http://tinyurl.com/Invalid-SP
TIP: If you experience problems copying files to SharePoint, remember to check:
 the file type is valid
 the file name is less than 128 characters long.
 there are no invalid characters in the file name.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Saving from an Office Application to Your My Site
By default when Save As is selected from the office menu the save location will be your My Site. The
correct document library will then need to be selected from the right hand pane, usually My Pictures,
Personal (sometimes called Private) Documents or Shared Documents.
Select the library you want to save in and give the file a name:
There is also a link to your My Site in the left navigation of the save dialogue entitled My SharePoint
Documents.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Saving From Office to a Team Site Document Library
You are able to save directly to a team site document library by creating a link to the library in the
form of a Windows Favorite.
1. Open a document from the library you wish to save to (in this example we are opening a
Word document).
2. In Word, click File  Recent to display a list of recent documents and places.
3. Click on the name of the pertinent document library in the list of Recent Places in the right
column:
4. The open menu now appears. Drag ‘n drop the icon that appears in the address bar into the
Favorites group in the left column:
5. You will now be able to save directly to that
library when using an Office application by
selecting the location from the list in the left
hand pane (under the Favorites section) of the
save dialogue:
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Restore a Deleted item
SharePoint team sites have a Recycle Bin just like Windows; any items that are deleted will be stored
here for 180 days before permanent deletion. Until that time an item can be restored.
The Recycle Bin is located at the bottom left of the screen.
To restore a document tick the box next to the item you wish to recover and select Restore Selection.
Confirm you wish to restore the file; the file will be restored to its original location.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Team Sites
Why use a team site over your My Site? Team Sites are a great way to work on shared documents
and coordinate team activities with collaboration and document management tools.
Team Site Document Libraries
You will find document libraries in the left column of a team site, click on one to view the files
contained.
TIP: Documents stored on team sites should be for work
purposes only and not contain any personal data.
Click on a file name to open the file, you will be prompted
to open it as Read Only or if you wish to modify its content
choose Edit.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Document Management
There are a number of document management options available when using documents stored in
SharePoint document libraries.
To use these options click the drop down menu next to the name of the document. (You will also
find these commands on the ribbon, if you prefer)
HINT: This menu will only appear if you hover your mouse over the name of the file.
Document Properties
Edit Properties enables you to modify the properties of the file. This may include items such as title,
keywords and expiration date.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Check Out a Document
Checking out a document makes others aware that you are editing it and prevents them from
making any changes.
When the document is checked out the name of the person who’s using it will appear in the checked
out to column.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Check In a Document
Once you have finished editing a document it needs to be checked in. Until the document is
checked back in no changes can be seen by other users; they will see a read-only version of the
document as it was before it was checked out.
When a document is checked in, make sure that you do not retain your check out.
Select No and give a brief description of the changes made.
Click OK to confirm.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Version History
You can view and restore previous versions of a document by selecting Version History from the
document drop down menu.
The version number, date and time the version was last modified and the person who last modified
the document are displayed:
Hover over the date and time and click on the drop down menu to access the options to view,
restore or delete that version.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
Alert Me
Alerts can be setup to inform you when a document or document library has been changed.
You can choose who to send alerts to by using the global address book to search for people; this
would normally be done if a group of people are working on a document or a range of documents in
a library.
HINT: The ability to send alerts to multiple people is only available to team site administrators.
The frequency of alerts can be specified:
TIP: Be careful specifying “Anything Changes” this will bombard specified users with email for every
single change made to the document, no matter how small.
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Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 – How-To Guide
The timing of the alert can also be set; immediately, daily or weekly.
TIP: Send a summary rather than immediate notification to stop unnecessary emails going to your
group.
Send To
Send to enables a link to the document be sent by email or a copy of the document to be
downloaded for offline viewing.
E-mail a Link opens your email program and inserts a link directly to the document.
Download a copy lets you download a copy. This can be useful if you taking the document offline,
for example a presentation that needs to be run on a computer that doesn’t have web access.
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