SharePoint Frequenty Asked Questions (FAQs)

Got a question about SharePoint or just want to know a little more about it. Below you'll find the most common questions we get asked about Microsoft SharePoint.

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint has been described as the "Swiss army knife" of Microsoft products because it can do some many different things that it’s very difficult to say what SharePoint is. However, we always say that at its heart it’s a document management and collaboration solution. For over 20 years SharePoint has been used to manage documents and information in a very structured way. SharePoint is very often used as a company Intranet and the landing page for employees to find out news, events, polices etc... People also create lists to manage tasks or assets using the product. Microsoft have moved many of the features that used to be part of SharePoint into other 365 services. For example, Forms are now mainly done in PowerApps, while workflows are Power Automate. Even the Files tab in MS Teams is SharePoint in the background. So if you’re a Microsoft 365 user your probably using SharePoint even if you don’t realise it!

Is SharePoint free?

SharePoint is part of a Microsoft 365 subscription so most people will have access to it

How does SharePoint and OneDrive work together?

Generally, a company will save their departmental documents onto a SharePoint site, however people often want to access them from their local PC instead of logging online. So OneDrive can be used to connect to the departmental SharePoint site and SYNC the data down to the desktop.

Can I used SharePoint as a Intranet?

Yes, this is probably the most common uses of SharePoint. You can see examples of some of the SharePoint intranet sites we have built here

Can I invite external user into SharePoint?

Yes, you can invite a external user into a SharePoint site or just to document so you can collaborate together.

Can I use SharePoint with MS Teams?

Every time you create a MS Teams site you get a Files tab - that tab is connected to a SharePoint site. You can also publish your SharePoint Intranet as a button on the left-hand menu bar in MS Teams.

Is there a SharePoint mobile App?

Yes there is a SharePoint mobile app that can be downloaded.

How do users’ access PowerApps?

Most people will put a button on their intranet to launch the applications. However, you can download PowerApps to your device and access directly via that or just go to PowerApps from within Microsoft 365.

Can I customise the look of SharePoint?

You used to be able to make SharePoint look anyway you wanted, very much like WordPress. However, while you can still do this, since SharePoint went online Microsoft no longer recommend making big structural changes. They now have guidelines on what you can and can't change so as long as you follow these you can certainly make SharePoint follow the company branding guidelines.

SharePoint doesn't have a feature that I need - what can I do?

SharePoint is also a development platform and can be extended using custom webparts and other extensions to display or follow any type of company process. It’s very common in even small Intranet deployments to add a custom webpart for say a company directory or help with searching metadata.

Can SharePoint connect or integrate with systems outside of Microsoft 365?

Many external systems like will use SharePoint as their document repository and have connections into it. SharePoint itself also has several inbuilt webparts that connect to external systems and display information from that system into SharePoint.

Can you help us with our SharePoint deployment?

Yes - we would love to help you get the most out of SharePoint for your business - why not contact us to discuss this further.