Teams: Collaborate on Documents Together

Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive are all tools that can be utilized when you want to Collaborate with individuals, groups, or team members. Similar to Google docs, documents stored within one of these 3 solutions enable you and others to access the same documents and workbooks at the same time.

This guide will show you how to setup a document within Microsoft Teams and get started collaborating on your documents.

Document Creation

There are two methods of getting started, you can either start from scratch or you can use an existing file. This section will show you how to start from scratch.

Open up Microsoft Teams
Go to the Team that you want to collaborate with or set up a new team. For this guide I am using an existing team, HandStands Promo
Select a channel or create a new channel. For this guide I am using the General channel
Select the File tab
Click New and Select Folder
Give your folder a name and click Create
Click your new folder's name to enter it
Click New and select a file type from the list. For this guide I am using Excel
Provide a name for the new File and click Create
Click on the new files name to open it
The file will open within Microsoft Teams by default. But you do have the ability to open it in the desktop application by clicking Open in Desktop App, located top center of the file page

The file will open in Excel

Note: Macro's and some advanced functions will not work outside of the Desktop App.
Any member of the Team you created the file under is able to view and edit the document by Default. All you need to do is tell them where it is in the Team's file store or Provide a link to them.

To provide a link, close the document by clicking Close.

Now click the Actions menu icon for the file

Select Copy Link

Click the Copy button to copy the link to your clipboard. You can now paste (Ctrl + z) the link into any chat or message.

Note: Only Team members can access links stored in a Team. Consider using OneDrive if the file needs to be shared more broadly. i.e. Multiple Teams or Non-Employees.
There is nothing special you need to do for Collaborating with multiple people. Simply access the documents along with your team. When multiple people are accessing the document, you will see Icons on both the application Ribbon and at the location the other team members are positioned within the document.

Existing Documents

For existing documents, simply copy and paste the file into the Teams file folder. For Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio files there is no additional steps required.

Exporting from Google Docs
You can export your Google Docs and Sheets and place them into Teams, SharePoint, or OneDrive with a few simple steps.

Open the file that is store in Google
Click File and Go to Download and select the Microsoft Document type.
This will download the Microsoft version of the Google file. You can copy and paste it (or drag and drop it) into the desired Microsoft Teams file store.