Microsoft SharePoint Tutorial (2025)

Hi everyone, Kevin here. Today we're  diving into Microsoft SharePoint, a powerful platform that helps teams share,  organize, and collaborate all in one place. Think of it as a central hub for storing documents,  building websites, and working seamlessly as a team.

Let's get started by exploring how to  get SharePoint. To get to Microsoft SharePoint, you can be in any Microsoft 365 online app,  like Outlook, Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Here I'm on Microsoft365.

com. On this website or in any  app, in the top left-hand corner, you'll see this waffle icon. If you click on this, this will show  you all of your different Microsoft 365 apps, and here I see SharePoint.

Let's click on this icon.  This drops us on the SharePoint start page, and you'll use this page to get back to the SharePoint  sites that you care about. Here at the very top, we see news from sites.

This includes all of the  latest updates from the different SharePoint sites that you're part of. Later on in this tutorial,  we'll look at how you can publish your own news, so it shows up here. If we scroll down a little  bit more, we'll see another category with frequent sites.

Think of this as the SharePoint sites  that you go back to time and time again. So here, these are likely the sites that you're interacting  with the most. Within each one of these SharePoint sites, you'll also see recent activity related  to those sites.

If we scroll up the page over on the left-hand side, we'll see two additional  categories. Following is a curated list of sites that you care about. Here, if I scroll down a  little bit, let's say that I really care about this communication site, but I may not necessarily  go back to it all that often.

I can click on this star icon. Now if we go up, here we see it's  now pinned on this list with following. So, in a sense, this is a pinned list of sites.

Down below,  you can also click on See All to see all of the different sites that you're following. Here, I can  see my list. I'll click on Back.

Under Following, we have another category called Recent. And this  is a list of all the different sites that you've visited recently in chronological order. With  all of these different views, you have plenty of ways to get back to the SharePoint sites that  you care about.

Over on the left-hand side, we have this SharePoint navigation menu, and  you'll see this on any SharePoint site. At the very top, if we click on this Home icon, this will  bring us right back to where we are right now, the Start page. Over on the left-hand side, we can  click on this icon, and here too, we can also get back to our frequent sites and our followed sites. 

The exception though, you can't get back to any recent sites from here. If we click on this icon,  you can see an aggregation of all the news from all of your different SharePoint sites. Right down  here, you can view all of your different files across your SharePoint sites, and this is ordered  by Recency.

Right here, you can also get a recent view of all the different lists that you've worked  with on SharePoint. Then at the very bottom, if we click on this icon, we can create new content. For  example, we can create a new news post.

That way, you can have news show up on the Start page. Right  over here, you can set up a page, a site, you have different office document types, like Word, Excel,  PowerPoint, and so on. Let's click out of this.

At the very top of the page, we have a search field,  and you can use this to search for sites, files, and people across all of SharePoint. Of course,  for an item to show up in search, you also need permission or access to those different items.  Let's say, for example, that I'm looking for the employee handbook.

I could type in employee,  and here, one of the files that shows up, it's a Word document, it's called the employee handbook,  and I could click into it and access it. Now that we've talked about some of the capabilities of the  Start page, I actually need to get some work done. At the Kevin Cookie Company, we're launching  a new cookie called the Mint Condition Crunch, and I think a SharePoint site would be perfect  to organize all of the content that the team is pulling together.

To create a new site, in the top  left-hand corner, we have this icon here that says Create Site. Let's click on this. This opens up a  dialog where you can select the type of site you would like to set up.

You can set up either a team  site or what's called a communication site. So, what's the difference? A team site in SharePoint  is designed for collaboration.

That's where team members come together, and you can share, edit,  and work together on documents and projects. A communication site, on the other hand, is meant  for broadcasting information to a wider audience. Think of things like company news or updates  or announcements, and it's not focused on team collaboration.

In this case, we're launching a new  cookie, and I want to collaborate with other team members, so a team site is the right type of site  for me. Let's click on this. On this next screen, you can choose a template for your SharePoint  site, and there are lots of different options that you can start from, and a lot of them look really  nice.

Of course, with any of these templates, you can go in and you can modify the images,  the text, and even the different web parts or components of the SharePoint site. I'd like  to show you the core functionality. So right in the top left-hand corner, I'm going to start  with the standard team, basically just the core capabilities of SharePoint.

Let's click on this  one. This shows me a larger view of the template. In the bottom right-hand corner, let's click on  Use Template.

On this screen, I could give my new SharePoint site a name. Right up above, let's  call this the new cookie launch. I could also type in a site description.

I also get a group email  address. It's simply called new cookie launch, and down below, I can see the site address. So,  this way, if anyone with permission to this site navigates to this address, they'll be able to see  this SharePoint site.

In the bottom right-hand corner, let's click on Next. On this last screen,  I can set the privacy settings, and when I click on this dropdown, I have two different options.  I can set it to Public.

And that way, anyone in my organization has access to this site. Or  alternatively, I can set it to Private. So, I have to select who has access to this site.

I'd like  to limit who has access, so I’ll select Private. Down below, I can choose a language. I'm fine  with English.

Now, let's click on Create Site. SharePoint has now created the site. But before we  jump into it and look at our new SharePoint site, we can also define who else should be able to  access this SharePoint site.

Of course, I don't want to work on this site alone. It's a lot more  fun when you have other people to work with. Right here in this text field, I can start typing in  other people's names from my organization.

Now, I think it'd be good to have Patti work on this.  She's my manager, she's also the president. I'll select her.

And let's also add Nestor. I'll select  him. So, I have these two members.

Underneath their names, here we see a dropdown where you can  set their permissions, and you have two options. You can be either a member or an owner. So, what's  the difference?

Well, right over here, you can see what a site owner can do and what a site member  can do. As an owner, you have full control over the SharePoint site. You can change the layout of  the site, the theme, you can set permissions, all these different items.

As a member, on the other  hand, you can add and remove site content, you can add files, pages, lists, but you cannot change the  SharePoint site layout, the permissions, and these different items. Now for this, I'd like Patti to  also be an owner. So, I'll set her as an owner, and I think it's appropriate to leave Nestor as a  member.

So, I'll leave it set to that. Now you can always go in and you can add additional members  in the future. For now, I think this looks good, so in the bottom right-hand corner, let's click on  finish.

Look at this, we now have a new SharePoint site. Nice work. Now I just remembered I left  off one critical team member.

Of course, it's very easy to add additional people after you've  created your site. In the top right-hand corner, I see this icon that says three members. So, me,  Patti, and Nestor, but I'd like to also add Adele.

Over here, I can click on members and I have the  option to add additional members. Let's click on this and let me type in Adele's name. I don't know  how I forgot her.

She's our retail manager. I'll click on her name. Here too, I can also set her  permissions, but I think member is fine for her, and down at the bottom, I’ll click on save. 

And just like that, we now have four members who have access to this site. Now remember, I  set this SharePoint site to be a private site. What that means is that only the four of us have  access to the site.

In the top right-hand corner, I’ll click on the X icon. On this SharePoint  site, some things may look familiar. Over on the left-hand side, we have this left-hand navigation  again that we saw on the start page.

This way, here, if you click on this icon, you get back to  that SharePoint start page and you have all these different items. Up on top, we also have a search  field similar to what we saw on the start page, but there's a key difference. On this page, you  can search within this SharePoint site.

On the start page, that search field searches across  all of your different SharePoint sites. Over on the left-hand side, we have a navigation  menu for this SharePoint site. Currently, we're on the home view, and this is the page  that we currently see.

Underneath that, there's something called conversations. And if we click on  this, this will take us to a shared Outlook inbox for this team site. We also have something called  documents, and documents are really the heart and soul of SharePoint.

In fact, when SharePoint first  started, it was a tool to find and retrieve files. In a moment, we'll take a look at some of the  amazing capabilities that you'll find here. You can place documents in here to collaborate  with your different teammates.

Underneath that, we have something called a notebook, and clicking  on this will open up a shared OneNote where you can collaborate with your team. You also have  something called pages. Right here, you could click in and you can view all the site contents  that are part of this team site, and then you also have a recycle bin.

So, let's say you delete  a document, you could always go back and recover it. Now, let's start by jumping into documents.  I'll click on this item right here.

There are currently no documents in this document view,  but we can very easily change that. Up on top, I can click on this new icon, and I can create a new  folder, and here you have all your standard office document types. For example, a Word doc, an Excel  workbook, a PowerPoint presentation, and the list goes on.

When I create one of these files, anyone  else who has access to this team site will also be able to come in, and they'll be able to review and  edit and work on those documents. Right up on top, you can also upload content directly into this  SharePoint site. Here, you can upload files, a folder, or even a template.

Now, I have a file  on my computer. I have a Word document where we pull together plans for this new cookie launch.  So, I'll simply drag and drop it in, and here we now see my new Word document is part of this team  site.

As a quick aside, you can also save from your different Office apps, like Word, Excel,  and PowerPoint, directly into your SharePoint site. Here, I have that cookie launch plan open in  Microsoft Word. In the top left-hand corner, I can click on the File menu, and let's go down to Save  a Copy.

Over here, I see OneDrve is an option, and down below, I have quick access to all of my  different SharePoint sites. If I click on Show More, here I see all the different SharePoint  sites that I have access to. So over here, I can choose one of my SharePoint sites, and  then I can save it directly to that team site.

Back now within SharePoint, over here, I see  these eyelashes next to the title name. This lets me know that this is a new file on this  SharePoint site. I want Patti, my manager, to review the launch plans, so I really need to  bring her attention to it.

Over here, I have the Share icon. I'll click on this, and this opens up  a Share dialog. I can now type in someone's name.

I'll type in Patti, my manager, and let's add a  message here. Can you review this document? And I'm going to include a quick summary, and one of  the neat things is I don't have to summarize it.

I can click on the Copilot icon, and this will  insert a file summary. Copilot will review the document and then pull together a summary of  that document. This looks great.

Over here, you also have control over the permissions of  this individual file. Now, I want her to have edit capabilities, but I have all these different  options as well. Down below, you also have more settings.

I could copy the link, but over here,  I just want to send it to her, so I'll click on Send. And look at that. I've now invited Patti to  edit this document with me.

Up above, I'll close out of this. Let's now jump into this document.  Over here, I can click on the document name, or alternatively, I can click on the three dots,  and up at the top of this context menu, I can open in my browser, or I could open in my desktop  app.

I'm happy opening it on the web, so here, let's open in browser. This now drops me into the  Word document, and one of the really neat things is I can work together and collaborate with Patti  on this document. If we look at the top bar here, I can see that Patti's currently in this document. 

It looks like she's on page one. Let's go to the location. I'll click on this, and oh, it looks  like she's right there before objectives.

It looks like she just typed in some feedback that  we should build out the overview section more. I think that sounds good. Let's now go back to  the team site.

Back within the team site, here, I can see that Patti was the last one to modify  this file. Patti also asked me to keep track of who owns what document as part of the launch.  Now, ideally, I'd like to add some additional metadata to all the different documents that  we'll have.

We'll also have some PowerPoint presentations. We'll have some Excel workbooks.  One of the neat things about SharePoint is it's truly a file powerhouse.

Right up on top, we can  add additional columns of metadata related to the different files within the document repository.  Right up on top, let's click on Add Column. Here, I can choose all sorts of different data types  for this column.

For example, text, choice, date and time. And here, it's a very expansive  list. I want to indicate the owner of a file.

And here's the option for a person. I think  that's perfect. I'll click on this.

Down below, let's click on Next. This opens up a pane on the  right-hand side. Right up on top, I can give this column a name.

I'll call it Owner. I could type  in a description, and I'm happy with the type of person. Right down below, I also have the option  to show the profile photo.

I think that's a nice touch, so I'll turn that on. You also have some  more advanced options. However, I think for now, I'm fine with all the defaults.

At the very  bottom, let's click on Save. Right up above, we can now see that there is a new column in  this document repository that contains the owner, but it doesn't currently list an owner. Let's  change that.

Up on top, let's click on this button that says Edit in Grid View. Within the grid  view, let's click into the cell for the owner, and I'm on point to own this document. I'll start  typing in my name.

Now, this is one of the really neat things. Because we selected person as the  data type, here it looks against my organization's directory, and it finds me. I'll select me, and  look at that.

It also associates a photo. Right up on top, let's now exit the grid view. SharePoint  has lots of rich document functionality.

Let's take a look at what some of that is. Here I have  my new document called the Mint Condition Crunch Cookie. If I click on the ellipsis, or appear the  three dots, I have all sorts of different options within this context menu.

Here, for example, you  can set up automations. Let's say you have some type of approval process, or you need sign off on  a document. You can set up a flow to request sign off.

Here, if we go down a little bit more, you  could also get version history on a document. So, you can see all the different changes that have  happened over time. You could even set up alerts.

So, let's say someone comes in and modifies this  document. You could get a text message or an email message telling you about those changes. That  way, you're always on top of the latest updates to a document.

Let's click out of that menu. Let  me now add a few more documents to this view. I've now added more content to this repository.

Of  course, as you start adding more and more content, it may become more difficult to get back to what  you're looking for. That's where search comes in. Right up on top, you can search against just  this library.

You also have a variety of different sorting and filtering tools. Right down here, you  can sort any one of these columns. Right on top, you can also adjust the view.

Here, you  could adjust how compact the view is, whether they're tiles. Over here, you could also  filter the view. So, let's say I'm just looking for Word documents.

I'll click on Word. Once you  filter this view down, over here, you can always save this view so you can easily get back to  the different sorting and filtering that you've applied. Right over here, I'll turn it back so we  can see all the document file types.

Let's now go back to the main team site. Over here, I'll click  on Home. Back on the homepage of this team site, personally, I think it looks just a little bit  bland, so let's change that.

In the top right-hand corner, let's click on this edit icon to edit  what this team site looks like. This now drops me into the editor and I can modify everything  about this page. The page itself is made up of sections and also web parts.

So right over here, I  have a section with two columns. I have one column with the news, one with quick links. And within  this section, I have what's called a web part.

So over here, I have a news web part. This is a  quick links web part. Here, I have a documents web part.

And over on the right-hand side, we can see  all the different types of web parts. Now here, I see some of the more popular ones like text,  image, or form. But here, we can click on see all web parts.

And here we get a very comprehensive  list of all the different types of web parts that you could insert onto your team site. In fact,  one of my favorites, and it's the one in red, you can even insert a YouTube video directly into  your team site. This way, you can insert one of my videos onto your team site.

That way, you can  really elevate the quality of your team site. Right up on top, let's click on back. I  think it would be a nice touch to include another section on this page with some type of  banner that tells everyone what this team site is even about.

Let's click on add a section.  And here, you'll see all the different types of sections that you can add to a team site. You  could add one column, two columns.

Right here, we see two columns down below, three, and  so on. Now I want a banner on top. So, let's go with the full width section.

I'll select  that. And here, I now see my new section. And it looks like this section can only include one  type of web part, and that's a banner.

So, let's click on the banner here. This is now  inserted a banner. Let me type in the title.

With any web part that you insert on a page, if you  click into the web part, you get this context menu that allows you to modify different properties  of that web part. Now, I don't know if this blue background gradient works. So right up on top,  I can click on this to modify the background.

Let's click into stock images, and let's search  for mint to see what shows up. And look at this, I love this green background with the mint on  it. I’ll select this.

Let's click on insert, and that is looking beautiful. As you're  designing your team site, you may decide that you want some inspiration, and this is where  AI can help. With this section selected, over on the right-hand side, we have this icon that  contains design ideas, and when I click on this, this will pull up all sorts of different ways that  I can present my header.

So here, for example, maybe this looks nicer. Or down here, I can even  see more ideas. Let's try this one right here.

I like that. It makes the text stand out a little  bit more, and it's easier to read. I like that.

You can use these design ideas for any sections  that have images and also text content. Right up on top, let's close out of design ideas. Since  we're launching a new cookie, it probably makes sense to have some type of countdown timer that  shows when we're launching the new cookie.

So right over here, let me go into this section  right here. And let's add a new web part into this column. I'll click over here, and I see all  the different web parts.

Now, I could go through this list to try to find what I'm looking for, or  I could simply search for it right up above. Now, I want a countdown timer. So let me type in  countdown, and here it is.

Let me click on this one, and that inserts a countdown timer onto  my page. Right up on top, let's type in a title, Countdown to Launch. Just like we saw with the  header, you can also modify the properties of the countdown web part.

With this web part selected,  over here I get this context menu, and let's click on Edit Properties. Over on the right-hand side,  let's select a new date. 24 hours really isn't that much advanced notice.

So over here, let's set  it to the end of February. I'll select the 28th, then I'll close out of this, and here we now  see the countdown timer has been updated. Once you're all done editing what your team site  looks like, in the top right-hand corner, let's click on this button that says Republish. 

Right over here, let's click on Republish. Now that I've republished this page, anyone  who has access to this team site will now see the new updates that I published. This is  looking pretty nice.

As part of this launch, we'd like to keep track of who is on point for  what. And it turns out SharePoint has something called Lists, which is really perfect  for this. In the top left-hand corner, let's click on this new menu.

And here we can add  all sorts of different items to our SharePoint team site. Right up on top, we have the option  for a list. Let's click on this.

On this page, I have a few different options for creating a list.  I could start with a blank list, an existing list, or even from an Excel spreadsheet. Down below, I  also have various templates that I can start from, and you have lots and lots of different options. 

Now, I'd like to keep track of this project, and I think a Work Tracker might be the  right option. So let me click on this. And here, I see a preview of what this looks  like.

I think this will be perfect. In the bottom right-hand corner, let's click on Use  Template. This name here, Work Tracker, that works for me.

And over here, I can also choose  to show this in the site navigation. So that way, it'll show up in this list on the left-hand  side. Let's click on Create.

This drops us into a new SharePoint list. Now, you might  be wondering, what exactly is a list? Well, it's a great way to organize, store, and manage  data in a structured format all within SharePoint.

It's really like an online spreadsheet, but  you could use it to track tasks, contacts, or any other information, and you get advanced  features like sorting, filtering, sharing, and you could even add different views to your  list. It has some really incredible functionality. Up on top, let's click on Add New Item.

Let me  go through and add the first work item. I've now filled in all the details. Down below, I'll click  on Save.

I've now added my first work item, and we see it here. I need to reserve a blimp to promote  our new cookie. It turns out blimps are still very effective at promoting new product launches. 

And here, we see all the different details. Now, what makes this even more powerful than an Excel  spreadsheet is you can view all the items in your list in many different ways. Now, currently, I'm  viewing all items, but here, you could group by priority, and here, it automatically groups all  of them by high.

Or here, I could see just my work items. So now, it's filtered down by the  assigned person who's on point. You could even pull up what's called a progress board.

Now, I put  this in progress, but I really haven't started, so I should probably pull this back to not  started. You could also add additional views. For example, currently, it's in a list view, but  you could pull in a calendar, a gallery, a board, and you get all these different views that you  could create and easily jump to.

So, you could visualize all of the data in your list in all  these different ways. There's so much power here. In this video, we're just scratching the surface  of what's possible.

In the top left-hand corner, let's go back to the home team site. Now that  the main team site has come together, I'd like to publish some news that lets everyone know what the  launch date is. Over here, let's click on this new dropdown.

And if we go down just a little bit, we  have the option to create a news post. Let's click on this. For this news post, I can start from  a template.

And I think this visual one works really nicely. I’ll select this. And over here, I  can see a preview of what this page looks like.

I think this looks great. Down below, let's click  on create post. This drops us into a news post, and you can build this out the same way that  we built out the team site.

I have all these different sections that make up this news post.  And here, you can also add different web parts within all of these different sections. Right up  on top, let me just type in a quick title.

Let's call this the Mint Condition Crunch launches  on 2/28. That way, everyone will know about the launch date. Of course, I could come in here and I  can modify all the text, but for now, I think this looks great.

In the top right-hand corner, let's  click on post and send. The news has now been published on SharePoint, and you'll also see this  on the SharePoint start page. However, one of the realities is, is that people tend to spend a lot  of time in their email inbox.

So here, I can also send out this news post as an email. And what's  really neat, the news post itself is optimized for email. Here, I can preview what this looks like. 

For now, I'm fine not emailing this out, so down below, let's click on skip. Let's now go back  to home in the top left-hand corner, and if we scroll down the page just a little bit here, I can  see my news post. I've now loaded up all of these different files within this SharePoint site, and  they all have valuable insights, but it's a little hard to unlock all of them.

Recently, SharePoint  launched something called SharePoint agent. You can use AI to reason over all of this content  within this SharePoint site. Up on the top bar, here we have the Copilot icon.

And when I click on  this, this opens up a pane on the right-hand side with a SharePoint agent. Here, I see a few starter  prompts, but I can also ask my own questions. And again, it'll use all of the content of this site  to answer my different questions.

So, let's try asking something. How much do we expect sales to  increase by with the Mint Condition Crunch cookie launch and see if the AI can figure this out.  It nailed it.

Here it says we're expecting to achieve a 25% increase in sales within the first  month. And here, if I hover over this annotation, it tells me that it came from the Mint Condition  Crunch cookie launch plan. And I remember that we had that 25% number.

So, it was spot on. The  beautiful thing here is you can use this agent to pull out insights from all the content that  you have stored within SharePoint. With agents, you can also query specific files or a specific  set of files.

If you'd like to learn more about how you can use AI agents within SharePoint, check  out the video down below in the description. I set up this team site to track the launch of this  new cookie, but we're probably going to also be chatting back and forth quite a bit in Microsoft  Teams. So, it'd be nice to have a team site and channels for this specific project.

Now, right up  on top, let's click on this icon on the toolbar. And here we have the option to add real-time chat.  Let's add this to Microsoft Teams.

Down below, let's click on continue. Let's go with the  homepage. I can also go through and select what elements I want to bring into Microsoft  Teams, but I think home is fine.

Down below, let's click on add teams. Within Microsoft Teams,  over within Teams, I now have a new team for the new cookie launch. And everyone who's part of that  team site will also have access to this new team.

Here I can click into posts, and we don't yet have  any posts, but here's a really neat thing. If I click on files up on top, this shows me all the  different files within the SharePoint site. Now, currently I'm in the general folder, but here  let's click back into documents.

And here I can see all those different documents that I have on  the SharePoint site. Right up on top, I can also click on this tab for site, and here you probably  recognize this. This is the team site that we just put together.

It's looking really nice, and this  is now all available directly within Microsoft Teams. Now, you may want to add a team site to an  existing Teams channel. Let's have a quick look at how you can do that.

Back within SharePoint,  go to your browser and then copy the URL of your SharePoint site. To add this SharePoint site to  an existing team, select the team that you would like to add it to. Here I'm in the Kevin Cookie  Company University under general.

Right up on top, I see all these different tabs. Let's click on  the plus icon to add a new tab. Then you could either search for SharePoint, but I see it right  here, so let's select SharePoint.

Right over here, I can add content from the Kevin Cookie Company  University, or I can even add any SharePoint site. Let me select this and then I'll paste in  the link, and then let's click on save. And look at that, I've now added a new tab directly within  Microsoft Teams with this team site that we just put together.

This is looking really nice. Now  I could also click on this dropdown and I could rename it just to make it clear where this  tab goes. Now that I've started spreading the word about this SharePoint site, and I've invited  other people to work with me on all the different content here, I might be interested in seeing,  are people actually coming?

On the homepage of SharePoint, we have this option to click  into the analytics. And when I click on this, I can review how many people are coming to  this page to view it, what my page views are, how much time they're spending on the page on  average. And here I could go down and I have a variety of different analytics.

That way I can  tell, was my page efficient and is it getting people to come? All right, that was a high-level  overview to help you get started with SharePoint. Let me know if you have any questions or  comments down below.

And before we go, here's a little something to leave you smiling. Why did the cookie go to the doctor? It felt a little crumby.

Ooh, that was lame.