SharePoint Team Site

What is a SharePoint team site?

A SharePoint team site connects you and your team to the content, information, and apps you rely on every day. For example, you can use a team site to store and collaborate on files or to create and manage lists of information. On a team site home page, you can view links to important team files, apps, and web pages and see recent site activity in the activity feed.

You can access your team site from the SharePoint start page, from the Files section of your Microsoft 365 group if Microsoft 365 Groups is enabled, or on the go with the SharePoint mobile apps. You can also find your SharePoint files in OneDrive.

Note: Some functionality is introduced gradually to organizations that have set up the targeted release options in Microsoft 365. This means that you may not yet see this feature or it may look different than what is described in the help articles.

Let's take a look around

Site header   

At the top of a team site, you'll see the site logo, the name of the site, and whether the site is private (only approved members can view) or public (anyone in your organization can view).

If you have permission to edit the site, there's also a link at the top of the team site to add a new list, document library, page, news post, or web app to the site.

Left-hand navigation pane   

On the left-hand side of the site, at the top of the navigation pane, you'll see a search box where you can search for files on your team site. Suggestions are shown, as you type, based on files you've recently worked on or viewed. Press Enter to view a full list of search results displayed on a separate page where you can expand what's shown to include results for all SharePoint sites or refine the results to show only certain file types.

Under the search box, you'll also see links to the default team document library, the team OneNote notebook, site pages, site contents, and the site recycle bin. If you have permission to edit the site, you can add additional links or change the order of the links as needed.

Home page   

The team site home page contains various default web parts. For example, there is a News section where you can create and display posts about important or interesting items for your team. Just click +Add, create your story, and then click Publish to display the story at the top of the team site home page. To view the entire article, just click the headline.

You can find older news stories by clicking See all in the top right corner of the News section. Here you can browse all news articles published by the team. For more information about Team News, see Keep your team updated with News on your team site.

You may also see a Quick Links section where you can add a link to files or web pages to the top of the page. Just click +Add and either enter the URL or select an item from a list of recent files or web pages. For more information about this web part, see Use the Quick Links web part.

The home page also contains an activity feed that lets you see, at a glance, when someone adds or edits a file, page, or list on your site. For more information about this web part, see Use the Site Activity web part.

There may also be a section that displays links to files on the team site home page. For more information, see Use the File viewer web part

Editing the home page   

If you have edit or owner permissions on the site, you can edit the home page by clicking Edit in the top right corner of the page, making your changes, and then choosing Save and close to save your changes and close edit mode. Click Publish if you're ready for users to see your changes. For more information about editing the home page of your team site, see Using web parts on pages.

Integration with Microsoft 365 Groups in SharePoint in Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Groups is a powerful and productive platform for SharePoint in Microsoft 365 users that brings together conversations and calendar from Outlook, information and files from SharePoint in Microsoft 365, tasks from Planner, and a shared OneNote notebook into a single collaboration space for your team. If Microsoft 365 Groups is enabled, all new and existing Microsoft 365 Groups get a team site.

Important: Currently, integration with Microsoft 365 Groups is only available with SharePoint in Microsoft 365 and only if Microsoft 365 Groups has been enabled by your administrator. If you're an administrator, see Manage who can create Microsoft 365 Groups for the steps to enable Microsoft 365 Groups for your organization. Without Microsoft 365 Groups integration, you will not have access to Microsoft 365 Group resources such as a shared Outlook inbox or shared Outlook calendar.

If Microsoft 365 Groups is enabled, when you create a team site, a Microsoft 365 Group is automatically created. Any users you add to your team site are automatically added to your Microsoft 365 Group. Similarly, when you create a Microsoft 365 Group in Outlook, a SharePoint in Microsoft 365 team site is automatically created and any users you add to your Microsoft 365 Group get added to the team site.

All members of the Microsoft 365 Group have access to the team site and all members of the team site have access to the Microsoft 365 Group. Members can add additional document libraries, lists, and web apps as needed. There's no need to create a distribution list or a SharePoint group.

In addition to accessing your document library files directly from your team site, you can also get to them by clicking Files in the top navigation bar of your Microsoft 365 Group in Outlook. To get to the team site associated with your Microsoft 365 Group, just click Site.

To get back to your Microsoft 365 Group from the team site, click the site title to open the Group card and then click the icon for the app you want to go to.