Using Microsoft Teams for Shared Files

What Is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool provided by GVSU through Microsoft 365. It gives departments, committees, and project groups a shared place to store files, communicate, and work together.

Teams is a great place to keep files that need to be accessed by multiple people. Unlike files stored in an individual's OneDrive account, files stored in Teams remain available to the group even if someone leaves the university.

With Teams, you can:

• Store files for your department, committee, or project
• Share documents with other team members
• Work on files together at the same time
• Access files from your computer, phone, or web browser
• Keep important files available to the group

What Should You Store in Teams?

Teams works best for files that belong to a group rather than a single person.

Examples include:

• Department procedures and documentation
• Shared spreadsheets
• Meeting notes and agendas
• Project files
• Training materials
• Forms and templates

A simple rule to remember:

What NOT to Store in Teams

Teams is not intended for personal file storage.

Consider using OneDrive instead for:

• Personal working files
• Draft documents that only you need
• Temporary files
• Personal notes

If a file is primarily used by one person, OneDrive is usually the better choice.

Why Use Teams Instead of OneDrive for Shared Files?

OneDrive is designed for individual file storage. Teams is designed for shared file storage.

When an employee leaves the university, access to their OneDrive account is eventually removed. This can create challenges if important department files were stored there.

Files stored in Teams remain available to the people who need them, helping departments avoid disruptions and reducing the need for file recovery requests.

Teams also makes it easier for multiple people to work on the same file and keeps everyone working from the most current version.

Best Practices

To get the most from Teams:

• Store department and project files in Teams
• Store personal work files in OneDrive
• Keep files organized in folders and channels
• Review Team membership regularly
• Avoid creating duplicate copies of the same file

Accessing Team Files

You can access Team files through:

• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint
• Microsoft 365 web applications

Eligibility

All current GVSU faculty and staff with Microsoft Teams access can use Teams to store and collaborate on shared files.