How to collaborate on a document(s) with others using software provided by the college

Article Type: How To

Question: How to collaborate on a document(s) with others using software provided by the college

Steps:

OneDrive is the cloud file storage solution that the college provides for its students. To effectively collaborate with other students using Office 365 you need to have configured OneDrive and the Office 365 application you wish to use. If you are using a Chromebook or a device where you can’t or don’t want to install the software, see the KB article for Web-based Office 365. To install the OneDrive client on Windows 10, see the article How to install Microsoft OneDrive on a personal computer.

This article provides 2 options for sharing a document: Sharing a single document and Sharing multiple documents

Option 1: Share a document through the Office application

Using this option will save the document at the top level of your OneDrive folder and share just this document with other students. If you wish to share multiple files with others, see Option 2.

1. Open/Create your document
2. In the upper-right corner click the share button

             Microsoft Word: 

Microsoft Excel: 

Microsoft PowerPoint: 

3. Select your student OneDrive account.
   1. Most students will only display one option: their <email address>@go.minnstate.edu.
   2. For collaboration purposes, it is best not to select the “Attach a copy instead” methods.

4. Enter the filename you wish to use

5. Follow the steps for Sharing

Option 2: Share a folder

Sometimes multiple files are needed to collaborate. Maybe there’s a PowerPoint presentation, audio files, images, and other supporting files. In this case, it is easier to create a folder to contain your project files and then share that folder.

1. Open OneDrive and create a project folder
   1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to OneDrive
   2. Click the New Folder button (red arrow)
   3. Enter the name of the folder

2. Right-click on the project folder and click Share
   1. You likely won’t have many of the menu options shown in the screenshot
   2. The Share option should have a blue cloud icon to its left

3. Follow the steps for Sharing

Sharing

1. Click on To: Name, group, or email and enter the email addresses or StarID of each student with whom you wish to share the document./ folder.

2. Click on the text that reads Message… and type a message that you wish to send to the people with whom you are sharing the document / folder.
3. Click the Send button. This send a message to the people you specified for sharing
4. Click on the X in the upper right of the Success window. This sends an email that will contain a link to the document / folder you have shared.