SharePoint - How to open a file

There's a couple of ways to open files within SharePoint, and each way has its pros and cons. 

Opening files on the web

Doing this is much faster than downloading the file to your machine and opening it using its respective program. You can view it instantly from within the web browser you're using. This saves lots of time, especially if you're strictly viewing the file rather than working on it. If you do choose to work on it, you'll be sacrificing the broad functionality you get by using the full version. For example, if you choose to work on an Excel spreadsheet from within SharePoint, you won't have access to the same level of complexity with its functions as you'd expect from using Excel. If you require this level of functionality, you'll want to open files from your desktop.

Opening files on your desktop

As mentioned above, doing heavy amounts of editing on a file may require you to save a file to your local computer and open it from there. Here's how to do this:

From within your team site, look for the file you want to download. Hit the  icon and then select 

The file will appear at the bottom of your web browser once it has completed downloading. By default, files you download from SharePoint will be available in the Downloads folder on your PC. You can drag and drop this file to any location as you please, and will be able to open it with the program it is compatible with. If you can't find a program to open the file with, feel free to raise a ticket on the Support Portal and we will assist.

• Related Articles

• SharePoint - How to upload a file or folder

  From within your team site, you can share files to your colleagues quite easily. All files that are uploaded will be collated in a list which can be viewed from your web browser and within your office programs (Word, Excel etc.). To upload any file, ...

• SharePoint: Sharing Files / Folders

  If you have access to the folder, You can share these files yourself. Navigate to the folder/file you wish to share: Select the folder as shown above. Select the folder with the arrow (Share this item with other people). In the Share Box, Enter the ...

• SharePoint - A quick tour

  SharePoint is a Microsoft built platform that was designed for seamless collaboration across an organisation. For Pedders, it acts as our Intranet, where a plethora of information is available in one space. This guide will give a brief overview of ...

• Sharing SharePoint content (Internal and External)

  Internal Emailing content from SharePoint in most cases will bounce back, either because the item/s you are sending are too large for the email system to handle or, if multiple files downloaded to be sent, they are put into a ZIP file, most if not ...

• SharePoint - Version Control: Checking in and out

  SharePoint requires users to utilize the check-out and check-in premise when working on documents in some Document Libraries (setting dependent). There are a few notable benefits of this such as: Authors of a document being able to save what they're ...