SharePoint Workspace in SharePoint 2013 And Office 365

Today I'll show you a new feature in SharePoint 2013, SharePoint Worskpace.

A very powerful feature in SharePoint 2013 that helps you to sync your libraries and lists to your local workspace thereby allowing collaboration of all your documents with you even if you are offline.

Yes you can use it when you are even offline.

How ? Let's see it.

  • Here on the screen below you can see a Document Library.

    file liberary option in sharepoint

  • On the tab of the library we can see a sync icon. If you want to sync this library to your local system then click on it.

    sync liberary option in sharepoint

  • You will have an option to sync now or an option to use OneDrive instead of a SharePoint workspace since it contains more new updates but we will sync with the Workspace.

    sync liberary to your device in sharepoint

  • So click on Sync now.
  • If you have an older account you can check the radio button accordingly.
  • I will here fill in "Create a new account" and click on “Next”.

    create a new account in sharepoint

  • It will fetch all my details from my Outlook.

    create an account using email in sharepoint

  • Click on "Finish".
  • Now it will initiate the set up for your email id, it will also be populated through your Outlook.
  • If you don't have one you can set up an account using Account Configuration Code.
  • Click on "Next".

    create an account using account configuration

  • Once you click on "Next" the account will be created as in the screenshot below.

    create account in sharepoint

  • Click on "Finish".
  • You will see the screen as in the following where you will be asked to sync your document library and lists.
  • You can customize your settings as you want to download all the data to your local or from a specific Document Library or a list.

    customize sharepoint account settings

  • Once that is done you will see the following screen of the SharePoint Workspace.

    SharePoint Workspace

  • Here it is divided into two default categories as Unread and Read.

    search page in sharepoint

  • We have an option to create a new:

    • SharePoint Workspace: Using this you can create a new workspace that will sync to your local system with default settings.

    • Groove Workspace: By creating a Groove Workspace you can share your content with other workspace members.

    • Shared Folder: By creating a shared folder you can create a folder in your local system that can be shared with other systems or people in the workspace.

  • Add Contact

    You can add a contact to your workspace.

    add a contact to your workspace
  • Then you can have a look at all your contacts, whether they are Active, Online and Offline as well.

    Online and Offline status in sharepoint

    Hence here we conclude with the SharePoint workspace.

It is not being recommended in SharePoint 2013 since OneDrive provides better functionality but still Microsoft has not removed this functionality since it knows there are many users who will still prefer using workspace rather than OneDrive.

So, Keep Learning.
Cheers.