Creating or Accessing a SharePoint Site

Before creating a site, you'll need to decide between a Teams site or Communication site.

  • Team sites are generally for collaboration between team members.
  • Communication sites are generally for intranets and sharing information with a broad audience.

More details and examples describing and comparing Communication and Team sites can be found here.

Tip: For faster access to sites you frequent, we recommend you follow the site by clicking the star next to Not Following in the top right; it will change to a filled star and the word Following. This is the equivalent of "favoriting" a site and will keep the site shown in the left sidebar.
Follow is in the right horizontal menu

  1. From any page in SharePoint, in the left sidebar, click the second icon for My Sites.
    My sites is the second item in the main sidebar
  2. If you see the site name, click the site name and you will be brought to that site’s homepage.
    A list of microsoft team sites is listed at the bottom of the panel
  3. Otherwise, at the bottom of the Frequent list, click See More to be taken to a list of sites.
  4. When you see the site name, click the site name and you will be brought to that site’s homepage.
If you are looking for an online collaboration space center for your team to collaborate, you may first want to create a team in Microsoft Teams. When you create a team in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft automatically creates a corresponding SharePoint site.
If you and your team started first in the Microsoft Teams application and already communicate via a Team in the Microsoft Teams application, SharePoint has automatically already created a SharePoint team site for you. Any documents your team shared with each other in the Microsoft Teams application are already stored in the corresponding SharePoint site.

To create a Team site in SharePoint online:

  1. In the top left of any SharePoint page, click the SharePoint icon to navigate to the SharePoint home page.
    SharePoint icon says SharePoint
  2. In the top left, click + Create site.
    Create site is in the first horizontal menu
  3. Choose the Team site option.
    Team site is the first option
  4. Choose a template. Create a team site from scratch by choosing the first option, Standard Team.
    Standard Team is the first option
  5. In the template description panel, click Use Template in the bottom right.
    Use template is blue and next to the back button
  6. Enter a Site name. This name must be unique across Tufts.
    A message will alert you if the name is available
  7. Optionally, you can edit the other fields on the page.
  8. Click Next.
  9. Choose your privacy settings. If you are not sure, leave your site at Private so that only members you specifically add can access to your site. You can change this later.
    Options are private and public
  10. Select a language for your site. The default is English.       
  11. Click Create Site.
  12. The next screen allows you to can optionally add team members to your site.
    Note: You can also add or remove team members and owners at any point after the site is created. You don’t need to add them all now!
    Add members is the only field
  13. To add a member, start typing a name. Names will automatically populate from the Tufts directory.
    A dropdown appears with Tufts suggestions
  14. To change a person from a member to an owner, click the arrow drop down under their name next to Member and pick Owner instead.
    Options are member or owner
  15. When you have added all members for now, click Finish.
  16. Your site will be created.
  17. You will be taken to your site home page, where you can start adding documents, notebooks, and other content to your site. 
    Main homepage has new sidebar menu on left and suggested sections populated
  18. Once your site is created, it will appear among the sites you're following.

For more information on customizing your new team site, see Microsoft's documentation on creating a team site.

When considering creating a communication site, consider if it would be better to create a page on an existing website or intranet with the same audience instead of a new site.

To create a communication site:

  1. In the top left of any SharePoint page, click the SharePoint icon to navigate to the SharePoint home page.
    SharePoint icon says SharePoint
  2. In the top left, click + Create site.
    Create site is in the first horizontal menu
  3. Choose the Communication site option.
    Communication site is the second option
  4. Choose a template. Create a communication site from scratch by choosing the first option, Standard Communication.
    A standard site is the first option in the top left
  5. On the template detail screen, click Use Template.
  6. A site creation wizard will appear.
  7. Enter a Site name. This name must be unique across Tufts.
    Text alerts you if the name is available
  8. Optionally, you can enter a Site description.
  9. Click Next.
  10. Select a language for your site. The default is English.
    Note: Once you select a default language for your site and create the site, you can't change it. You can, however, add alternate supported languages.        
  11. Click Create Site.
  12. Your site will be created. You will be taken to your site home page, where you can start adding documents, pages, and other content to your site. 
    The homepage has placeholder panels to showcase content
  13. Once your site is created, it will appear among the sites you're following.

For more information on customizing your new communication site, see Microsoft's documentation on creating a communication site.