Which Tool When: Microsoft OneDrive, Teams or SharePoint


Work Smarter with Office 365

This infographic will give you some ideas on how you can best use OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint.

Guide to OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams described in the text below

Editing and collaboration

OneDrive

Your private working space that remains private until you share. 

What can I use OneDrive for?

Your University OneDrive can be used to store your University work or study related documents. If you need to collaborate on documents consider using SharePoint instead. You will have access to your University OneDrive for as long as you work or study at the University.

You must not use your University OneDrive for non-University work or study related storage. There are a number of free cloud-based services you can use instead for personal files, such as Microsoft personal OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.

Use OneDrive when you...

University OneDrive vs OneDrive

The University provided OneDrive (which may also be known as OneDrive for Business) is different from the personal Microsoft OneDrive you may also have. You log on to the University OneDrive using your normal University username and password.  A personal OneDrive account will be linked to your personal email address (eg personal Microsoft email).

Remember - don't use the same password on multiple accounts, and don't use your University email address to sign up to non-University systems.

Teams

All Microsoft Teams have a SharePoint backend to store files, but Teams are usually used for smaller groups of people and people in the Team will  usually have edit permissions . For example:

Publishing - SharePoint

Use SharePoint when you want to share documents and other files with large groups of people, and where most people will usually have read-only permissions. For example:

Permissions to a site are usually controlled on a site basis, instead of individual documents. If people have access to the SharePoint site, then they have access to documents stored in the site (unless you have specifically change the permissions on individual documents or folders).

Remember - all highly confidential files must be password protected when stored in any Office 365 application.