Office 365 SharePoint

Setup and Admin Guide

Contents

About this guide..............................................................................................2

Introduction to SharePoint.................................................................................2
SharePoint sites..............................................................................................3
Team sites, Websites and personal sites...................................................3
Site structures......................................................................................................4
Choosing a site structure...............................................................................4
Access and navigation.......................................................................................6
Admin access to SharePoint in Office 365.................................................6
Navigating sites...............................................................................................8
Setting up and adding SharePoint sites........................................................10
Creating a site using Site Creator..............................................................10
Creating sites using SharePoint.................................................................10
Adding a subsite in SharePoint..................................................................10
Customising sites..............................................................................................13
Adding a page...............................................................................................15
Using web parts and apps...............................................................................15
Built-in apps and web parts.........................................................................15
Adding an app to a site................................................................................16
Adding web parts and app content to a page..........................................17
Moving web parts and app parts in a page...............................................18
Editing web parts and app parts.................................................................19
Deleting an app or web part........................................................................20
Using libraries....................................................................................................21
Document libraries........................................................................................21
Picture libraries.............................................................................................23
Other libraries................................................................................................24
Using Newsfeeds..............................................................................................24
Using lists...........................................................................................................26
Using a Links list...........................................................................................26
Using surveys....................................................................................................27
Using Alerts.......................................................................................................29
Using templates................................................................................................32
Saving templates..........................................................................................32
Using saved templates................................................................................33

v1.0 Document feedback1

Office 365 SharePoint

Exporting and importing templates............................................................34

Permissions and groups..................................................................................35
Giving permission levels to users...............................................................37
Editing permissions......................................................................................41
Creating custom permission levels............................................................43
Using approvals and versioning.....................................................................44
Configuring document approvals and versions........................................44
Publishing and public websites.......................................................................47
Save and/or publish......................................................................................47
Page and version history.............................................................................48
Configuring a publishing site.......................................................................49

About this guide

This guide is written for network administrators who are setting up and
® ® ®
managing Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint at a school or college
establishment.

It gives instructions for setting up, managing and using a school Team
site. To carry out the tasks in this guide you need to have appropriate
administrator access to your Office 365 account.

SharePoint is a powerful software platform with many features which are

beyond the scope of this guide. Further help is available via the? (Help)
icon on the SharePoint menu.

Introduction to SharePoint
SharePoint is a platform that makes it easy for people in an organisation to
make websites, collaborate on work, and simplify administration by
providing a central repository of documents and resources. Because
SharePoint is not an application but a platform – think ‘Office’ instead of
‘Word’ or ‘Excel’ – it isn’t easy to define its purpose briefly. Broadly
speaking, it can offer your school or college establishment these different
kinds of benefits:

 Communication
SharePoint makes it easy to create websites! These can be
personal portfolios or work spaces, shared team or school intranet
sites, or public websites that anyone can see. You can easily
create and maintain consistent style and branding across sites.

 Collaboration
SharePoint helps people to share and collaborate on documents.
Students, teachers, non-teaching staff and governors can each
work on their assignments, plans, reports and other tasks as a
team.

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 Storing information
SharePoint libraries provide convenient repositories for all types of
content, in secure areas with access restricted to appropriate groups
and individuals, replacing paper documents and procedures.
Students, teachers, non-teaching staff and governors can access the
resources they need, anywhere and anytime.

 Searching
SharePoint provides flexible searching tools which can be used
across all the establishment’s resources, subject to access and
security controls appropriate to each user.

 Combining information
SharePoint web parts bring together information from different
sources to display customised dashboard summaries, providing
insights for the management team.

 Developing new workflows and applications: SharePoint is very

extensible.

Use SharePoint in the way that best suits your establishment; it gives you
a wide range of choices.

SharePoint sites
SharePoint sites are constructed in hierarchies. A subsite can inherit
permissions, resources and security settings from its parent site, making
it easy to create new sites quickly. If you use a site template created
from the parent site, the subsite can also inherit visual styles and page
layouts. Thus you can maintain consistent styles and policies, and apply
any changes efficiently.

The top level in the hierarchy is the site collection. Each site collection
can have its own database and security model. There is always one top-
level root site in the site collection, under which you can build a hierarchy
of subsites. You could think of the school site collection as a building, and
sites within it as different rooms in the building.

Team sites, Websites and personal sites

When you begin, your SharePoint Online site includes two main site
collections, the Team Site and the Website (also referred to as the
Public Site).

The Team Site is an internal site designed for collaboration – perfect for
your school site. Use it to store and share documents, post internal
announcements, track tasks, store information in lists, and so on. It
includes ready-made templates to create subsites within the Team Site,
for example a team blog or a social workspace for organising events.
When your SharePoint Online site is created, a default site collection
http://tenanxxname.sharepoint.com is created for the team site.

The Website is designed for a public Internet presence – good for a school
website aimed at members of the public looking for information, including
prospective parents. When your SharePoint Online site is created, a
default site collection is created automatically for public sites,
http://tenanxxname-public.sharepoint.com.

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Personal sites are useful work spaces for individuals in your organisation.
They include useful features for organising documents and links, and
networking with other users. When your SharePoint Online site is created,
a default site collection is created automatically for personal sites,
http://tenanxxname-my.sharepoint.com, which includes 25GB of
personal storage space on SkyDrive, web apps and a newsfeed.

Site structures
Choosing a site structure
There is no right and wrong way to create sites, but before you create a
school site it’s sensible to decide on a basic structure that will be clear to
users and easy to maintain. As a general guideline:

 Don’t let the structure get more complicated than it needs to be.

 Don’t let the structure get too deep. The deeper it gets, the more
potential confusion there will be about inheritance of permissions
from level to level (see ‘Permissions inheritance’ on page 36).

Here are a few examples:

Year, then subject and class

School

Year

Registration group

Subject

Class

Staff

Subject

For Site Creator users, this is one of the default site structures. Each year
is used for both registration groups and subject sites. This gives a nicely
stable structure: the top level is unlikely to change, and if a teaching
subject is added or removed, only the lower level is affected. There are no
subject-wide sites for students, who will find all the resources for all their
different subjects in the same part of the site. Here it doesn’t matter too
much if a subject is given a different name in different years – for example
‘Environmental Science’ or ‘Biology’, rather than ‘Science’.

Additional sites, e.g. for Governors, can be added. These can be created
either within the same site collection or in one of their own.

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Subject, then year and class

School

Subject

Year

Class

Year group

Registration group

Staff

For Site Creator users, this is another default site structure. The top
category is the subject: choosing a subject brings up a menu of year
groups in which that subject is taught, and there is also a staff site for that
subject. This organises the information logically, and the site is convenient
for staff that teach a particular subject. The students then visit different
parts of the site to find resources for their different subjects. If there is a
change in the subjects offered, the top level of the site may also have to
change, and perhaps the page layout too. Think carefully about the labels
for subject names, if the subject is not obvious from each of the course
titles.

Additional sites, e.g. for Governors, can be added. These can be

created either within the same site collection or in one of their own.

Simpler structures

School School

Year group Subjects

Staff Staff

Governors Governors

You may prefer to keep the structure very simple. For example, in a
primary school you might use only subsites for each year group/class and
the staffroom (and one for governors if required). In a secondary school
you might use only subsites for subjects and the staffroom (and
governors if required), with different pages in the subject subsites
providing areas for groups or years.

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Access and navigation

Admin access to SharePoint in Office 365
SharePoint admin tasks are performed in several different areas:

 Site admin tasks are performed from the Sites menu in Office 365.

 Most other SharePoint admin tasks are performed in the

‘SharePoint admin center’ in Office 365.

 Security group management tasks are performed in the

‘Office 365 admin center’.

1. Follow the instructions that apply to you:

 If you’re not using Unify, open a web browser and enter the
URL https://portal.microsoftonline.com

Enter the full email address and password of the global

administrator account for your establishment’s Office 365 tenancy.

 If you are using Unify, log in via Unify, entering your Unify
username* and password.

Note *To access the SharePoint admin center (see step 3), your
user must have been granted the Office 365 Global
Administrator role.
Unify administrators are not automatically made Office
365 Global Admins.

2. If you need to create or manage a site, choose Sites from the

Office 365 menu.

o The top left area lets you enter and share profile information.

o The right side of the page gives you quick access to sites you
can manage and sites you’re following.

o The + new site link can be used to create a new subsite.

See also ‘Adding a subsite’ on page 10.

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3. To access the SharePoint admin center, choose SharePoint from the

Admin menu.

o The left-hand pane lists the main admin options.

o When you choose an option from the left-hand pane, the

centre pane displays the appropriate information and controls
for your selection.
For example, when the site collections option is selected,
you could start creating a new site collection if required, by
clicking New on the Site Collections ribbon.
You would also use this area if you needed to clean the
content from an existing site collection for re-use with Site
Creator.

4. Global Admins and User Management Admins can manage Office

365 security groups in the ‘Office 365 admin center’. This is a
recommended approach to managing your SharePoint users (see
‘Permissions and groups’ section starting page 35).

i. From the Admin menu choose Office 365.

ii. From the left panel choose ‘Users and groups’; then select the
‘security groups’ tab.

From here you can manage the Office 365 security groups (see page
40). Alternatively, if you want to manage Exchange security groups,
click the text link to ‘Manage security groups in Exchange’.

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Navigating sites
When you have selected a site, the SharePoint ribbon gives you access to
commands and tools. If you can’t see the ribbon, click Edit.

SharePoint ribbon

The tabbed SharePoint ribbon is just below the Office 365 toolbar. The
navigation layout is very similar to that used in recent versions of Word
and Microsoft’s other Office applications. What tabs are displayed will
depend on what you have selected. For example, on a site page there are
Browse and Page tabs, but for a Documents list there are tabs for Browse,
File and Library.

Clicking a tab gives you access to a ribbon of controls for that function,
with related controls grouped together on the ribbon. The Browse tab is
an exception to this, as it has no associated ribbon tools.

What controls you see will vary according to the context and what item on
the page is selected. If a user can’t see a particular function or control,
that control might simply not be relevant to the selected page.
Alternatively the user may not have been granted the level of control or
permission within the site to access the control.

In some sites the ribbon may be hidden by default. For example, in an

Enterprise Search site, the ribbon is hidden on the Home page unless you
select the option to show it.

Settings menu

When you are on a SharePoint page, the Settings icon on the Office
365 toolbar displays an important menu:

You’ll probably choose two of these items a lot:

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 Site contents – for components of the site, and creating subsites

 Site settings – for many management options.

Quick setup tiles

When you create a new subsite, the Home page displays a selection of
default quick setup tiles, which give quick access to common setup tasks
such as setting a site theme, adding a title and logo, adding users, and
adding lists, libraries and other apps.

These tiles can be removed or the selection customised as required.

Note Site home pages made by Site Creator do not display quick setup
tiles. Like other web parts they can be added to a page if required
(see page 17): the part is ‘Get started with your site’, in the ‘Media
and Content’ category.

Site Creator button

If your establishment has Site Creator, a button above the search box
gives quick access to Site Creator, for adding new sites and pages.

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Setting up and adding SharePoint sites

Creating sites using SharePoint

It is beyond the scope of this guide to give detailed instructions for the
design and creation of your SharePoint school site. Microsoft provides
comprehensive help and instructions for building corporate sites, which
you can access from the Office 365 toolbar. Choose Sites or Admin,
SharePoint, and then click the ? (Help) icon. A good starting point is
‘Plan sites and manage users’.

Adding a subsite in SharePoint

There can only be one top-level site in a site collection. Therefore any
additional site will be created as a subsite – either a direct subsite of the
top-level site, or a subsite of an existing subsite.

To add a subsite you need to have a permission level at least equal to the
Designers group of that site (for more information, see ‘Permissions and
groups’ on page 35). If the new subsite link is not displayed, you do
not have permission to create a subsite.

1. Make sure you are at the location in the site where you want to create
the new subsite.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
contents.

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3. At the bottom of the Site Contents page, click new subsite.

4. Complete the following information on the New SharePoint Site page:

 Enter a title and description for the new subsite, and complete the
URL address with a descriptive folder name, which must not include
any spaces or special characters.

 Under Template Selection, select a language and a template. For

example, your new subsite of the School site could be another
Team Site or a Blog.
(See also ‘Using saved templates’ on page 33.)

 Under Permissions, choose either to maintain permission inheritance

‘Use same permissions as parent site’ or to break the inheritance and
‘Use unique permissions’.
For ease of management it’s best in most cases to maintain the
inheritance (see also ‘Permissions inheritance’ on page 36).

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 Under Navigation and Navigation Inheritance, you can make settings

to determine navigation links to, from and within your new subsite.
For most purposes we recommend that you choose Yes.
This displays the links and maintains the navigation inheritance.

5. When you have finished, click Create.

6. If you selected ‘Use unique permissions’, an additional ‘Set up groups

for this site’ window is displayed.

In most cases you can allow SharePoint to create the suggested

new groups (you can choose an existing group instead if you want).
Click OK to finish.

Note You might also want to modify a group’s permissions. For

example, Visitors groups have only Read access by default, but
you might want this Visitors group to be able to contribute to a
discussion board on the subsite, for which they will need the
Contribute permission. For instructions, see ‘Editing permissions’
(page 41).

The new subsite is displayed. Its appearance depends on the site

template you chose. It may include a removable ‘widget’ displaying a set
of shortcut tiles for common setup tasks, as discussed earlier on page 9.

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SharePoint gives you a very wide range of options for customising your
sites with content, layouts, libraries, lists and other apps. Many of these
are discussed in the following sections of this guide.

Customizing sites
To access a site to customize it:

1. In the Office 365 menu, browse to the site you want to change.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Change
the look.

A menu of ‘looks’ is displayed.

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Editing the look and feel, colours, layout and fonts

3. From the menu of style templates, choose either the current one or
a new one.

4. When you’ve selected a style template, you can customise it in many

ways, for example by changing the colours, layout, fonts and
appearance of each heading level.

5. When you’ve made the changes you want, click Try it out to preview
the results. You can then confirm the changes or go back to try
again.

Editing text and text layout

6. In the Office 365 menu, browse to the site you want to change and click Edit.

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The tabbed Office 365 ribbon displays the text layout and editing
controls.

7. When you’ve made the required changes click Save.

Adding a page
1. Make sure you are at the location in the site where you want to create
the new page.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose
Add a page.

3. In the ‘Add a page’ window, enter a name for the page and click
Create.
The new page is displayed ready for editing.

Using web parts and apps

Web parts are modular components for building pages on SharePoint
sites. Users who have editing permissions for a SharePoint page can use
them to display content or establishment data from different sources on
that single page, much faster and more conveniently than by coding. Web
parts can display information from external sources, such as news or
RSS feeds.

With Office 365, SharePoint have shifted their emphasis from web parts
to ‘apps’, which can provide similar benefits, but run outside the
SharePoint environment and are browser-based. This makes it easier to
add and remove third-party or custom-made components.

Using an app in a site is often a two-step process. First the app is ‘added’
to a site. Then, if the app includes one or more ‘app parts’, you can add
them to your site pages as required, to display the app’s data or
information.

Built-in apps and web parts

A wide range of built-in apps and web parts are available to display
information. Here are just a few examples:

 Document library

 Picture library

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 Links

 Announcements

 Contacts

 Calendar

 Pictures

 Charts

 Extracts from other Web pages

 Lists of documents

 Custom views of data.

You can use multiple instances of the same app in your site, for example
several document libraries.

Adding an app to a site

1. In the Office 365 menu, browse to the site you want to change.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose
Add an app.

2. Click on the app you want to add. (If you can’t see the app you want,
use the search box to find it.)

To buy a third-party app, click the SharePoint Store link, find the app
you want, and follow the on-screen instructions to add it. You’ll need
to sign in to your Microsoft account to add a paid-for or free app from
the SharePoint Store.

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3. Enter a name for this instance of the app, which users can search or
browse for.

You can also click Advanced Options if required; this allows you to
enter a description and make further settings, depending on the app
chosen.
For example, if you’re adding a Calendar app, if it’s a team calendar
you will probably want to enable the calendars of team members to
be shared:

4. When you have finished, click Create.

Adding web parts and app content to a page

This method can also be used to add a library or list to a page.

1. In the Office 365 menu, browse to the page you want to change and
click Edit.

2. Click in the location on the page where you want to add the Web Part.

3. On the Insert tab, choose Web Part.

(If the Web Part control is disabled, you may not have clicked a valid
location in step 2. Try again.)

4. Under Categories, select the category you want (e.g. Community).

A list of available parts for that category is displayed to the right.

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Apps are treated here as a sub-category of Web Parts. If you want to

add app content, choose the Apps category.

Alternatively, you can select App Part directly from the Insert tab in
step 3 above (if the App Part control is disabled, you may not have
clicked a valid location in step 2; try again).

5. Select the part you want (e.g. Join) and click Add.

6. When you have finished editing the page, on the Format Text tab click
Save.

Moving web parts and app parts in a page

You can move web and app parts to rearrange them on the page, as
follows:

1. On the page you want to change, click Edit.

2. For the page you are editing, choose the appropriate action:

 On a web part page, simply select the web or app part and drag
it to the location you want.

If you cannot see the part of the page where it should go, for
example if you need to move a web part to the bottom of a long
page, minimise each of the web or app parts before you start the
move.
To do this, point to the web or app part to reveal the down-arrow in
the top left corner, click it and choose Minimize.

After the move, you can expand each part to restore the page
appearance in the same way.

 On content pages such as wiki pages, use cut (Ctrl-X) and paste
(Ctrl+V) to move the part to the required location.

5. When you have finished editing the page, on the Format Text tab click
Save.

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Editing web parts and app parts

SharePoint is very flexible and allows a wide range of customisation. A
Settings page lets you configure a web part or app part in all sorts of ways,
to help you display information in the way you want.

You can access this from the Site Settings page. To see what’s possible,
under Site Administration, choose Site libraries and lists.

Then choose, for example, Customize “Policies”.

The Settings page, and the dialogues that link from it, seem to offer almost
limitless options!

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Deleting an app or web part

Deleting an app or web part from a site

If you want to delete an app or web part from an entire site, do as follows:

1. Ensure that the app or web part’s Edit window is closed.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
contents.

3. Locate the app or web part you want to remove, select its description
and click Remove.

4. Click OK to confirm.

Note You can’t use this method to delete a Newsfeed (see page 24) from
a site: see the following section.

Deleting a web part from a page

If you want to delete a web part from a page but not from the site, do as
follows:

Note A Newsfeed cannot be deleted only from a page: deleting it from

the page will delete it from the entire site.

1. On the page you want to change, click Edit.

2. Point to the Web Part to reveal the down-arrow in the top left corner,
click it and choose Delete and click OK to confirm.

3. When you have finished editing the page, on the Format Text tab click
Save.

This deletes the web part from the page, but not from the site.

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Using libraries
A SharePoint library is a location on a site where you can create and
store files, and update and collaborate on them with other team
members.
Different types of library are used for different purposes, and Office 365
SharePoint provides a built-in app for each type. Libraries are highly
configurable.

Document libraries
Use a document library for a wide range of files such as text documents,
spreadsheets and presentation files. Some file types may be blocked for
security reasons. Like other apps, picture libraries can be added to
individual pages. Each new site you create will include a default document
library.

 To create a new document library

1. Navigate to the site where you want to create the library.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose
Add an app.

3. Select Document Library.

4. Do one of the following:

 If you want to enter a description for this library, or to set up

document versioning in it, or to set a particular document
template for new files created in it, click Advanced Options and
go to
step 5.

 Otherwise, just enter a name for this instance of the

Document Library app (which users can search or browse
for) and go to step 6.

5. A Site Contents window for the new library is displayed.

 Enter a Name and Description for the new library.

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 By default, a new version of a file in the library will overwrite the

existing file.
If previous versions could be important – for example, for
particularly important documents, or where multiple authors are
editing the same file – you may want to enable versioning.
To do this, under ‘Create a new version each time you add a
file…’ choose Yes.
(See also ‘Using approvals and versioning’ on page 44.)

 By default, new documents created in the library are created in

Word format. You can set a different default template if
required.

6. When you have finished, click Create.

You will need to navigate to your new library before you can add files to it;
this is described in the following section.

 To add a document to a document library

You need to navigate to a library before you can add documents to it.
There may be a navigation link to Documents, or you can choose
Settings, Site Contents, and then choose the document library you
want.

You can add an existing file to a document library by drag and drop, or
create a new document in the document library.

Note Not all browsers support adding files by ‘drag and drop’. It should
work on Chrome or recent versions of Internet Explorer.

1. Navigate to the required document library on your site.

2. You can add an existing document to the library either by dragging

and dropping or by browsing:

 Dragging: open an Explorer window, navigate to the file you want,

and drag and drop it across onto the ‘drag files here’ area.

Note Not all browsers support adding files by ‘drag and drop’. It should
work on Chrome or recent versions of Internet Explorer.

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 Browsing: click + new document and then Upload Existing File.

When you have selected the file you want, click Open and then OK.

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3. If you want to create a new file, click + new document and choose
from the list of available templates.
(You can also add a New Document from the Files tab of the Office
365 ribbon.)
The chosen template opens. As you create your new document, it is
saved automatically.

Picture libraries
Use a picture library to store, organise and view photographs and other
images, and to access them conveniently for use on other pages of the
site. Picture files can also be stored in other types of library, but picture
libraries provide convenient access to useful features such as dynamic
slide shows, picture editing, and setting the size and format in which
image files are downloaded to a computer. Like other apps, picture
libraries can be added to individual pages. Each new site you create
will include a default picture library.

 To create a new picture library

1. Navigate to the site where you want to create the library.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose
Add an app.

3. Select Picture Library.

4. Enter a name for this instance of the app, which users can search or
browse for.

5. When you have finished, click Create.

You will need to navigate to your new library before you can add
documents to it; this is described in the following section.

 To upload an image file to a picture library

1. Navigate to the picture library, for example by clicking Site Contents

and then choosing the picture library you want.

2. You can add a picture file to the library either by dragging and dropping
or by browsing:

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 Dragging: open an Explorer window, navigate to the file you want,

and drag and drop it across onto the ‘drag files here’ area.

Note Not all browsers support adding files by ‘drag and drop’.
It should work on recent versions of Internet Explorer and
Chrome.

 Browsing: click + new document and then Choose File.

When you have selected the file you want, click Open, OK.

Other libraries
SharePoint includes built-in apps for other types of library:

Wiki page libraries are used to store and organise a collection of

connected wiki pages, for example a set of tips and tricks pages for a
collaborative project wiki. (Actually, all SharePoint site pages are wiki
pages!) They can contain images tables and navigation links within and
outside the site.

Asset libraries are used to share and manage media assets for the site,
such as audio, photo and video files. Properties such as metadata
keywords are stored, and views for browsing are provided.

Using Newsfeeds
Newsfeeds are a messaging and ‘micro-blogging’ tool, useful for sharing
ideas and engaging in conversations. A newsfeed is included in many
site templates, and so provided automatically when the site is created.
The newsfeed on a personal site can be useful for sharing generally with
other people in the establishment. However newsfeeds on the school
site can be set up for particular user groups, providing specialised club
or subject discussions.

Important If you are considering allowing your students write access to

newsfeeds (i.e. the Full control or Contribute permission level;
see ‘Permission levels’ on page 35), you should first carefully
weigh potential e-safety and safeguarding considerations.

It’s easy to hide a newsfeed if desired (see page 26). If you

simply need a way of publishing news announcements on
the site, you could also use an Announcements web part
instead, with permissions set to allow staff to contribute.

If you provide both personal and team newsfeeds, these are tied
together, so that posts to a team site the user is following will appear
automatically in their personal newsfeed. They can also post to any of
their groups from their personal newsfeed.

To visit your personal newsfeed area, from the Office 365 toolbar choose
Newsfeed.

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Office 365 SharePoint

 At the top of the centre pane is a box in which to post a

message to start a new conversation thread.
Below that is a list of recent posts and alerts to read and respond
to. You can filter the list to show only the newsfeeds you are
Following, or Everyone (all visible newsfeeds), or Mentions
(posts where you are mentioned).

 The left-hand pane gives access to view and edit your user’s
profile information.

 The right-hand pane gives a summary of what you are

following in your newsfeed, and provides a search box to find
newsfeed posts.

 To start a new conversation

1. Click the Share with … down-arrow, and from the drop-down list
choose the destination for your post.

2. Type your new post in the message box.

If required, you can include one or more:

 Pictures
(Click the camera icon and browse to the file to upload.)

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 Setup and Admin guide

 Hashtags
(These can be used to promote informal discussion of a topic, by
making it easy to find related messages. Enter a descriptive name with
no spaces, e.g. #assemblyideas – note that suggestions will be
displayed as you type, to help you avoid creating new hashtags where
similar ones already exist.)

 Mentions of people
(Enter @username – tagging people in this way helps to ensure
they’ll see your post.)

3. When you have finished, click Post.

 To hide a newsfeed on a page

If you don’t want users to see a newsfeed on a page, you can easily hide it
from view. On the page click Edit, select the newsfeed web part, and from
the pop-up menu choose Minimize.

Using lists
Built-in apps are provided for quickly creating various types of list,
including announcements, contacts, and custom lists. Custom lists
can draw from external data sources; for more information see
‘Create and update an external data column…’ in the SharePoint
Help.

Lists are highly configurable.

Using a Links list

One particularly useful type of list can serve as an example: the Links list
for adding navigation to your sites.

 To add a Links list

1. Navigate to the site where you want to create a Links list.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose
Add an app.

3. Select Links.

4. Enter a name for this list, which users can search or browse for.

5. When you have finished, click Create.

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Office 365 SharePoint

 To add a link to the list

1. Click the tile for the Links list you have created.

2. Click + new link.

3. In the list window:

 Enter the URL of the link you want to add.

To check you have entered it correctly, use the Click here to test
link.

 Type a descriptive title for the link, and add any required notes.

4. When you have finished, click Save.

 To add a Links list to a page

You can add the Links list to a page like any other app.
See ‘Adding web parts and app content to a page’ on page 17.

Using surveys
The built-in Surveys app gives you an easy way to collect information from
site users and view the results in a graph.

Tip Surveys are very easy to set up, but they can easily be spoiled
by poor design. Be clear about the purpose of the survey, and
keep it short and to the point. To ensure the questions are clear
and unambiguous, get a colleague to review them before use.

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 Setup and Admin guide

 To add a survey

1. Navigate to the site where you want add a survey.

2. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose
Add an app.

3. Find the Survey app and click it.

4. Enter a name for this survey, which users can search or browse for.

By default, the respondents’ names are not displayed and multiple

responses are allowed. If you want to change these settings or add
further descriptive notes, use Advanced options.

5. When you have finished, click Create.

 To add a survey question

1. Point at the tile for the survey you have created, and click …

2. Click Settings.

3. In the bottom left of the survey Settings window, click Add a question.

4. On the next screen, enter the details of your first question. You can use
a wide variety of open and closed question formats, and each question
can be made optional or compulsory.

5. When you have finished click Next Question at the bottom of

the screen.

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Office 365 SharePoint

6. Repeat steps 4–5 to add more questions as required.

When you have finished, click Finish.

 To add the survey to a page

You can add the survey to a page like any other app. See ‘Adding web
parts and app content to a page’ on page 17.

Note Your site settings may not give students or other users the
Contribute permission they need to respond to the survey. If so, you
need to edit the permissions for this particular survey app: see the
41 section on page 41.

 To respond to a survey

1. Browse to the page with the survey.

2. Click Respond to the survey.

3. Complete your survey responses.

When you have finished, click Finish.

Using Alerts
Users can get email or text notifications when content on a site is
changed. All users can set up their own alerts for content they want to
monitor. Site managers can also follow and cancel alerts for other people.

 To add an alert for a page

1. Browse to the page where you want add an alert and click Edit.

2. Click the Page tab. On the ribbon, click Alert Me and choose Set an
alert on this page.
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 Setup and Admin guide

A New Alert window is displayed.

3. Enter the settings you require for this alert.

You must enter the username or email address of one or more

recipients for the alert. You can also set a title and specify the delivery
method, the conditions for triggering it, and the frequency and timing
of notifications.

When you have finished, click OK.

 To view and manage your alerts

1. At the site on which you want to manage your alerts, click Edit.

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2. Click the Page tab. On the ribbon, click Alert Me and choose Manage
My Alerts.
A My Alerts page lists your current alerts on this site.

2. If you want to cancel any alerts, tick the checkboxes for the alerts you
want to cancel and click Delete Selected Alerts.

3. If you want to add a new alert, click Add Alert.

A My Alerts … New Alert page displays the pages, lists and document
libraries you can set alerts for.

i. Select the item you want to keep track of and click Next.

ii. On the New Alert page, enter the settings you require for this alert.
You can set a title and recipients for the alert, and specify the
delivery method, the conditions for triggering it, and the frequency
and timing of notifications.

iii. When you have finished, click OK.

4. If you want to edit an alert, click its name. In the Edit Alert window,
make the changes you want and then click OK.

 To view and cancel another user’s alerts

Only an admin user with site management permissions can do this.

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.

2. On the Site Settings page, under Site Administration choose

User alerts.

3. Click the ‘Display alerts for‘ down-arrow, and select from the list
the user whose alerts you want to view.

4. Click Update.
The selected user’s alerts are displayed.

5. If you want to cancel any alerts, tick the checkboxes for the alerts
you want to cancel and click Delete Selected Alerts.

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Using templates
SharePoint Online includes a selection of templates – for example site
templates, which you can use when creating a new site. By selecting a
site template that is designed for a specific purpose, you can give users a
head start on their work.

As well as the built-in templates, you can also save a site, list, library or
survey as a reusable template, fine-tuned to your requirements. The
template always includes the structure, and can also include the content
where required.

You can export templates – for sites, web parts and apps – from one
tenancy and import them into another.

We recommend that you make full use of templates throughout your

SharePoint sites. They help to assure consistency, reduce work, and
make it easier for new users to get started. The more collaborating
users you have, the more beneficial templates become.

Saving templates
 To save a site as a template

At the site that you want to use as a template:

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.

2. On the Site Settings page, under Site Actions choose Save site as
template.

3. Enter a name and description for the template.

By default, the content of the site’s lists and document libraries is

excluded. However if you want your template to apply a custom look to
the new site, you will need to include content.

If you want to include content, tick the Include Content box. Then
before you save the template, ensure you delete any specific content
that you don’t want to be part of it, for example unwanted items in lists.

4. When you have finished, click OK.

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 Setup and Admin guide

The template is saved to the solutions site template gallery of the

current site collection. You can now use it to create another site.

 To save a list or library as a template

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
contents.

2. On the Site Contents page, point at the tile for the list or library you
want to save, and click …

3. Click Settings.

4. On the Settings page click Save list (or library) as template.

5. Enter a name and description for the template.

By default, the content of the site’s lists and document libraries is

excluded. If you want to include it, tick the Include Content box.

6. When you have finished, click OK.

The template is saved to the appropriate template gallery (list or library) of

the current site collection.

Using saved templates

You can share templates across sites, site collections and tenancies.

 To use a saved site template

At the location where you want to create a new subsite using the saved
template:

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
contents.

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2. At the bottom of the Site Contents page, click new subsite.

3. On the New SharePoint Site page, enter the settings you require as for
any other new subsite (see ‘Adding a subsite in SharePoint’ on page
10), but under ‘Select a template’ click the Custom tab and choose the
saved template you want.
If the new site is not a direct child of the site where you saved the
template, you may need to access the template via the top-level Team
site, if your admin permissions allow this.

4. When you have finished, click Create.

5. If you selected ‘Use unique permissions’, an additional ‘Set up groups

for this site’ window is displayed. Enter the settings you require and
click OK.

 To use a saved list or library template

Saved templates are used just like the built-in templates.

At the site where you want to create the new list or library from a template:

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.

2. Under ‘Apps you can add’, find the list or library template you want
to use, and click on it.

3. Enter a name for the new list or library, and click Create.

You can now insert the new list or library where required on a site page.

Exporting and importing templates

It is worth noting that site and list templates can be exported from one
tenancy for use in another tenancy. On the Site Settings page under
Web Designer Galleries, you can find the list templates and site
templates (under Solutions). These can then be downloaded and
uploaded in another tenancy where required. Please refer to the
SharePoint Help for details.

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 Setup and Admin guide

Permissions and groups

Office 365 SharePoint allows a lot of flexibility in controlling what users
are allowed to do with different sites and pages. Indeed there is so much
flexibility that management and maintenance can easily become
overcomplicated! This is one area where Site Creator makes it easier to
set up your SharePoint site.

This section will explain how SharePoint permissions work and how to
manage them. But first it may be useful to outline some good practice
rules.

Keep it simple

We recommend you follow these guidelines:

 Use a fixed set of permission levels (see below) across your

Team site.

 Let subsites (and items within them) inherit their permissions from
their parent sites, unless there is a good reason not to.

 Plan your site collection structure to accommodate unique

permissions. Manage permissions and group memberships as
high up the site hierarchy as is practical. For example, you might
create a special subsite for Governors, so you can manage
permissions for all content in that subsite with the same access
requirements at one time. This would be easier than trying to track
individual pages and documents spread across the site collection.

 Use security groups to bulk-manage user access. Add each

security group to the SharePoint Group with the appropriate
permission level for those users.

Permission levels

SharePoint uses permission levels to control users’ access. These are

collections of rights that allow users to perform a set of related tasks. For
example, the Read permission level includes the permissions to Open a
site, View pages and View items. SharePoint provides a limited set of
default permission levels.

You can access descriptions of all the available permission levels for a
site via the Permissions tab on the SharePoint ribbon (see ‘Editing
permissions’ on page 41). If required, you can add custom permission
levels (see page 43).

SharePoint Groups

Although you could assign permission levels directly to individual users,

such an approach makes management and tracking more difficult. It is
far more practical to assign users to a SharePoint Group associated with
the permission level they need. Then everyone in that group will have
the same access rights.

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Office 365 SharePoint

The core default SharePoint Groups for the Team Site include these
permission levels:
SharePoint Group Permission level

Owners Full control

Visitors Read
(view pages and list items, and download
documents)

Members Edit
(add, edit, update and delete lists; view, add, update and delete list items and d

These default SharePoint Groups help you sort people according to the
way they use the site. Some users (e.g. students) may only need to
read the site content: these belong in the Visitors group. Other users
(e.g. teachers) may need to create content as well as read it: these
belong in the Members group. A few users need to be able to do all this
and also change elements of the site itself: these belong to the Owners
group.

(For more detailed information about permission levels in SharePoint

Online, see the ‘Understanding permission levels’ article in the
SharePoint Help.)

Permissions inheritance

Whenever a child site or subsite is created, a new set of SharePoint

Groups is created for that subsite, one group for each permission level.

By default, SharePoint permissions are inherited down the site hierarchy,

so that any permissions set at the top level are copied to all sites, lists
and other items contained in it. SharePoint permissions are ‘granular’ –
they can be set at any level down to individual page components.

A rather complex Team Site example is shown below to illustrate the

concept. Permissions are inherited throughout the sites in the site
collection, except at point A, where Site D is created with unique
permissions, and point B, where unique permissions are set for page X of
Site C.

Top-level site
Owners
Members
Visitors

Site A Top site page Site B

Owners Owners Owners Members Visitors

Members Members

A
Visitors Visitors


Site A page Site C Site B page Site D

Owners Owners Owners Site D Owners
Members Members Members Site D Members
Visitors Visitors Visitors Site D Visitors

Site C page X Site E Site F

Page X owners Owners Site D Owners
B Page X members Members Site D Members
Page X visitors Visitors Site D Visitors

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Note that Site F inherits the altered permissions of its parent site D. This
example illustrates the potential complications that may arise when the
chain of inherited permissions is broken.

Preventing permissions inheritance

When a site or subsite is created, you can choose whether or not to inherit
its parent permissions (see page 11). It is also possible to disable and re-
enable inheritance when you edit permissions.

Giving permission levels to users

Instead of assigning permission levels to individual users, it is usually
more practical to assign users – better still, groups of users – to a
SharePoint Group that is associated with the permission level they need.

Security groups

Most usefully, members of existing Active Directory (Domain) security

groups can be assigned permissions by adding their group to the
appropriate SharePoint Group. Various types of security groups can be
used for this purpose:

 Office 365 security groups

Security groups can be created dynamically or manually in Office
365. For example, Unify creates security groups when it provisions
Office 365 users, for example, Teaching Staff (site number),
Students (site number), Administrators (site number). You can
also create your own custom security groups to fine-tune user
access.

 Exchange security groups

Mail Enable Security Groups, created dynamically or manually in
Exchange, can also be used to apply site permission levels.
(Exchange Distribution Groups cannot be used for this purpose.)

If required you can manage security groups from the ‘Office 365 admin
center’ (see page 40).

Domain Groups Creator

Site Creator assigns site permissions in a slightly different way. It adds

the security groups (identified as Domain Groups) to each subsite, and
assigns permissions directly to those groups. SharePoint Groups do exist
for each subsite, but they are not used by Site Creator for permissions
assignment.

The Permissions page for an Site Creator subsite looks similar to this:

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Office 365 SharePoint

(Note that this example includes a custom SharePoint Group, ‘Excel

Services Viewers’.)

If you needed to modify these settings so that only Year 7 students could
view a Year 7 Site Creator subsite, you could delete the permissions from
the Students Domain Group (see ‘Editing permissions’), create an Office
365 security group for Year 7 students (see ‘Creating and editing security
groups’), and add the Year 7 group to the ‘Visitors’ SharePoint Group (see
next section).

Using SharePoint Groups

New SharePoint Groups are created automatically during site creation. If

permissions inheritance is broken (see following section), their properties
can be different from those of their parent group.

Note Wherever possible we recommend that you allow group properties

to be inherited, for ease of management.

The site owner can also add or remove individual SharePoint Group
members, and or create new custom groups.

Note In most cases we recommend that you manage SharePoint Group

membership indirectly, via security groups (see ‘Creating and
editing security groups’ on page 40).

 To view and edit SharePoint groups

At the site whose group memberships you want to view:

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.

2. Under ‘Users and permissions’, choose People and groups.

3. In the left-hand column, select the group you want.

If you can’t see the group you want, click Groups in the left-hand
column to display all the groups.

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 Setup and Admin guide
The group members are displayed in the right-hand pane.

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Office 365 SharePoint

If required you can now manually add users to the selected group
(click New, Add Users, and enter details) or manually remove users
(select the user(s) and click Actions, Remove Users from Group), or
send emails or messages to its members.

 To create a SharePoint group

In most cases we recommend you use security groups to manage

users. However, if you require a new SharePoint group, do as follows:

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.

2. Under ‘Users and permissions’, choose Site permissions.

3. On the Permissions tab of the SharePoint ribbon, click Create Group.

4. The Create Group window lets you set a name, description and owner
for the group. You can specify who can view and edit the
membership, configure membership request settings, and choose the
permission level that group members are given.

5. When you have configured the settings for the new group, click Create.

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 Setup and Admin guide

Creating and editing security groups

To manage your Office 365 security groups, you must have Global Admin
or User Management Admin rights to access the ‘Office 365 admin center’.

 To create a custom security group

1. From the Office 365 Admin menu choose Office 365.

2. From the left panel choose ‘Users and groups’; then select the ‘security
groups’ tab.

3. Click + (New group).

A New Group window is displayed.

4. Enter a Display name and Description for the new group, and under
Members click + (Add member).

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In the Group Member Picker window you can select either Users or
Groups, and then select and add the new group members as
required. Click OK when you have finished.

5. Click save to save the new security group.

 To edit a custom security group

In the Office 365 admin center

1. In the Office 365 admin center, choose ‘Users and groups’ and the
‘security groups’ tab.

2. Select the custom security group you want to edit, and click the
pen (Edit group) icon.

Make the changes you want to the name or description or group

membership.

3. Click save to save the new security group.

Editing permissions
After a site has been created, you can edit its permissions. These edits will
also apply to any subsites and pages that inherit those permissions.

You can even edit permissions for an individual web part or app.

Note Wherever possible we recommend that you allow permissions to

be inherited, for ease of management.

 To edit a site’s permissions

At the site whose permissions you want to edit:

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.
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Office 365 SharePoint

2. Under ‘Users and permissions’, choose Site permissions.

A site Permissions page is displayed, listing the groups and users and
their permission levels

3. To edit the permissions for a group or user, tick their checkbox and
click Edit User Permissions.

Use the checkboxes to edit their permissions as required, and then

click OK.

Note This is a useful reference page for descriptions of permission levels.

In a typical education setting most users should only have
Read permission on shared sites.

4. You can also use the Permissions ribbon tools to:

o grant, check or remove permissions

o check groups’ or users’ permissions

o configure the ability of users to request access

o manage site collection administrators.

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 Setup and Admin guide

 To edit the permissions for a web or app part

You may want to change the individual permissions for some web or app
parts. For example, your students may have only Read access to the site,
but you may want them to contribute to a survey or discussion board on it.

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
contents.

2. Point at the tile for the part whose permissions you want to edit,
and click …

3. Under ‘Permissions and Management’, click Permissions for this

(part type).
A Permissions page for the part is displayed, listing the groups and
users and their permission levels

4. On the Permissions tab of the SharePoint ribbon, look for the Stop
Inheriting Permissions icon. If it is present, click it, and click OK to
confirm.

5. To edit the permissions for a group or user, tick their checkbox and
click Edit User Permissions.
Use the checkboxes to edit their permissions as required, and then
click OK.

Creating custom permission levels

If required, you can create custom permission levels and apply them to
groups and users across the site collection. This can only be done from
the top-level site.

1. From the Office 365 menu, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.

2. Under Users and Permissions, choose Site permissions.

3. Choose Permission Levels.

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Office 365 SharePoint

4. Click Add a Permission Level.

5. Enter a name and description for the new permission level, select the
features to be included, and click Create.

Using approvals and

versioning
Office 365 provides configurable approval and versioning for files and
other content items.

An approval system is very useful where a document is refined over

several versions before it is finished. Versioning creates consistently
named copies of the document each time it is edited, so that writers can
revert to an earlier version if necessary. It is particularly useful when
several authors are collaborating and might want to access the same
document at the same time. You can set up versioning to number every
version of a document in a single sequence, or to distinguish major
(approved) versions from minor (draft) ones.

By default versioning is turned off.

Configuring document approvals and versions

You can specify that content in a particular location requires approval
before it can be published, and set up versioning for drafts. You need Full
Control or Design permissions to do this.

 To set up approvals and versions in a document library

Suppose you want to publish a library of policy documents. Members of

staff need to collaborate on drafting and editing the documents, but visitors
should only be able to read final approved versions. SharePoint allows you
to set up a simple and robust process for approvals and versions for this
particular library or list, as follows:

1. Navigate to the site, click the Settings icon and choose Site
settings.

2. Under ‘Site administration’, choose Site libraries and lists.

A list of available libraries and lists is displayed.

3. Click the ‘Customize’ link for the library you want (for example,
Customize “Policies”).
A Settings window is displayed.

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 Setup and Admin guide

3. Choose Versioning settings.

4. Enter the settings you require on the Versioning Settings page:

 To enforce content approval, click Yes under ‘Require content

approval for submitted items’.

 Under Document Version History, you can choose to label major

versions automatically, or major and minor (draft) versions, if
required. You can also set a limit to the number of versions retained,
which can help reduce confusion and save storage space.

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Office 365 SharePoint

Note If the number of versions has reached your set limit, the oldest
version will be deleted automatically when a new version is
added.

 Under Draft Item Security, you can choose which users can see draft
versions, if you have selected Yes under ‘Require content approval
for submitted items’.

 You can also require documents to be checked out before changes

are made, to avoid possible confusion if two people edit the same file
at the same time.
For more details, please refer to the SharePoint Help topics.

5. When you have finished, click OK to return to the Settings page.

If you have set content approval as a requirement, draft documents in the

library have a status of Pending. Usually a Pending document can only be
viewed by the user who saved it and people who have permission to
manage the list or library.

Only list or library managers can then change its status to Approved,
which allows anyone with Read permission to read it.

 To view, restore or delete versions of a file or item

In a list or library where versioning has been enabled, you can manage
previous versions of a document (or other file or item) as follows:

1. Navigate to the library or list where the item is saved, and select the
item.

2. In the list click ‘…’ to open the flyout menu, click ‘…’, and choose
Version History from the drop-down menu.

3. The version history for the item is displayed.

Point to the version you want and click the down-arrow.

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 Setup and Admin guide

o Choose View to view the version content.

o Choose Restore to make this the current version.

o Choose Delete to delete this version.

Its number is also deleted.
(A link to Delete All Versions is also available).

Deleted files are sent to the site’s Recycle Bin, where they are kept for a
set number of days and then permanently deleted. To access the
Recycle Bin, click the Settings icon and choose Site contents.

When a user deletes an item from the Recycle Bin, by default it is sent to a
second-stage Recycle Bin, providing you with a second chance for
recovery before it is permanently deleted. For more information, see the
SharePoint Help.

Publishing and public websites

On a public website where your establishment’s public reputation is at
stake, it is important to avoid publishing incorrect or unfinished pages,
and to be able to quickly restore an earlier page version in the event of a
problem. While SharePoint makes it very easy to publish a website, it is
equally easy to save drafts without publication and roll back page
versions when required.

Save and/or publish

When editing a public site page, the SharePoint ribbon offers the option to
Save or to Save and Publish. The Save menu has further options:

The Stop Editing option allows you the option of discarding your changes.

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Page and version history

Saved versions of pages on the public site are retained, so you can view
successive versions and restore a previous one if necessary.

 To view page history, and restore or delete page versions

You can manage previous versions of a page:

1. At the page you want to view, choose Page from the SharePoint menu.

2. From the SharePoint ribbon choose Page History.

A Page History window is displayed, comparing the two most recent

page versions.

3. In the left-hand pane you can choose the comparison you want to
see. You can then click Edit Item to make edits to the current
version, or choose Version History for an overview of available
versions.

4. On the Version History page, point to the version you want and click
the down-arrow.

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o Choose View to view the version content.

o Choose Restore to make this the current version.

o Choose Unpublish this version (latest version only) to stop it

being public-facing.

o Choose Delete (all versions except the latest) to delete this

version.
Links are also provided to Delete All Versions and Delete
Minor Versions.

Configuring a publishing site

SharePoint also allows you to apply approvals and versions to a site or
page. A publishing site uses a publishing approval workflow to enforce
strict approval rules, to control the publication of new and updated web
pages, which can be useful for a large public website.

You can create a new publishing subsite or convert an existing site. In

either case it’s a two-stage process:

 First, create a new site collection based on the Publishing

Portal template. This allows publishing features to be enabled
in sites within the collection.

 Then, create the new publishing subsite.

Alternatively you can create a subsite first and activate its
publishing features later.

For instructions, see the ‘Build a SharePoint publishing site’ article in the
SharePoint Help.

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