Uploading
a file to SharePoint is an easy process. There are three ways to do so.
If you are writing a document in a Microsoft Office application, an
easy way is to upload the document straight from the application by
saving it directly into SharePoint.
If the file you want to
upload is not an Office file, or if you prefer to upload the file
without opening it in an Office application, you can upload the file
using the web interface with your Internet browser.
The third option, which is a bit
more advanced, enables you to upload the file to a library as if that
library were a folder on your computer. This method is known as using web folders,
and it requires that some components be installed on your machine. When
these components are installed, web folders are easy and efficient to
use.
Upload a File from the Web Interface
To upload a file from the
Web interface using your web browser, browse to the library to which
you want to upload the file, and then go to the folder where you want
to put the file. If you have the required permissions to add files to
the folder, the Documents ribbon shows an Upload Document button. Some
document libraries also have an Add Document link at the bottom of the
list of documents.
You can use the Upload
Document button in the ribbon as a regular button (just click the
button) or as a drop-down menu to show more options for uploading, such
as the option to upload multiple files, as shown in Figure 1.
This option, available only for users of Microsoft Internet Explorer,
will open a different dialog window, which is explained at the end of
this section.
Clicking
the Upload Document button or the Add Document link opens the Upload
Document dialog, where you can choose a single file by using the Browse
button (see Figure 2).
If you are using a compatible
browser and have the required components, the option in the Upload
Document dialog to upload multiple files using the Upload Multiple
Files link becomes available. This button redirects you to the same
dialog you would have opened if you had clicked Upload Multiple
Documents from the Upload Document drop-down menu.
If you selected a single
file, click OK to commit the upload. This process can take a while,
depending on the speed of the network, the size of the file, and the
load on the server.
When the upload is done,
depending on the setup of the document library, you might be prompted
for properties for the file and see a Save button (see Figure 3).
Note
If you change your mind
about uploading the document at this stage, you have two choices
available in the dialog’s ribbon: Cancel and Delete. If you cancel, the
document is still in the document library, but it stays checked out to
you as a draft document. If you choose Delete, the document is removed
from the document library.
If the library supports
multiple content types for files, you might have to select what content
type this file belongs to, and that may change the properties that you
are asked for (see Figure 4).
If you selected to
upload multiple files, you have two options for the interface. The
default dialog that comes up allows you to drag and drop files and
folders to the dialog window. After you drag the files, the dialog
shows the list of files that are to be uploaded (see Figure 5).
To add more files, you can continue to drag and drop into the dialog
until you have all the files you want in the page. To remove a file,
click the Remove link in that file’s row. Click OK to finish uploading
the files. The dialog then uploads each file and updates the status in
that file’s row to Done when the file has completed uploading. Finally,
the dialog shows that it has completed uploading all the files (see Figure 6).
The
second option you have is to browse for the files you want to upload.
To use this option, click the Browse for Files Instead link in the
Upload Multiple Documents dialog. A dialog appears, in which you can
browse for files and select them. When you use this method, you are not
asked for properties for the files, and the files are all uploaded but
not checked in to the document library. You still need to check in each
file that you uploaded and set the properties for each one separately.
Of course, if check-in is
not required on the document library in question, you don’t need to
check in the files, but setting the properties (for example, the titles
for the files) might be a good idea.
