How to Discover Content Using Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint is a fantastic tool for most organizations. For end users, SharePoint can be a royal pain, however. The biggest reason is that SharePoint is a complicated, turn-key application that’s difficult to understand because it can be molded to be used in so many different ways. 

Because SharePoint has so many faces, it can be hard to explain where and how to find information in it. Until now. Learn how you can discover content in Microsoft SharePoint.

An Overview of How to Find Content in SharePoint

In this video, CBT Nuggets trainer Simona Millham explains how the search bar in SharePoint works — and how you can use it to easily find content you are looking for.

How to Find Items in SharePoint

Go ahead and open SharePoint from your Microsoft 365 dashboard. For most people, this is how SharePoint is accessed.  If you use an older version of SharePoint, speak with your IT team. They can show you where to access your local SharePoint intranet. 

Once your SharePoint start page opens, you’ll notice various things about it. The start page includes a search bar, a left-hand panel with useful links and bookmarks, and pre-populated cards in the central part of the site. Let’s focus on that search bar at the top of the page. 

An Introduction to SharePoint’s Smart Search

The smart search in SharePoint is similar to a Google search. If you search for something in SharePoint using the smart search bar, SharePoint will return a variety of content just like Google does. That content may be files, contacts, other SharePoint sites, images, and even Power BI information. 

So, go ahead and search for something in SharePoint.  Search for something you know will be in SharePoint, like a file or a person’s name. 

In a split second, SharePoint will populate the search screen with any results it finds. Each search result includes a couple of features you should be aware of.

First, the subject line of the search result is a direct link to the document, site, person, or resource. Clicking that subject line will take you directly to that resource to interact with it. For instance, if the search result is a file, clicking that subject line will take you to a page to download that file directly. 

How to Find Files in SharePoint Using Breadcrumbs

Under the search subject line are breadcrumbs. These breadcrumbs can be very useful. They tell you directly where a search result lives in SharePoint. For example, let's say you searched for a file called ‘Customer Metrics 2021.’ That file is located in a support team SharePoint site. So the breadcrumb might look like this:

• Customer Support > Metrics > Files and Reports 

From that breadcrumb, we now know that the customer metrics file is in the Customer Support Site Communications SharePoint website in a folder called Metrics and a subfolder called Files and Reports. If we need to find other files relating to metrics, there is a good chance those files might also be in that folder. 

The SharePoint Search Bar is Your Friend

The smart search bar is deterministic, too. Let’s explain this further. SharePoint has two primary types of sites:

• Site Communication

• Team Site

A Site Communication site will function like a blog or a regular website. You’ll typically use these kinds of sites to post announcements, news articles, updates, etc…

A Team Site is more of a repository for tasks, files, employee information, conversations, etc…

Searching for items on both types of SharePoint sites will return different types of results. For instance, if you search for metrics on a communications site, you’ll most likely find articles explaining metrics or what those metrics mean. On the other hand, a team site will more likely return Excel files full of metrics, conversations regarding metrics, or the lead name for the person that manages metrics for your organization. 

The smart search bar will change how it searches based on the content currently loaded on the SharePoint website. For example, if you are on the start page in SharePoint, the search bar will return results for both news and articles as well as files and contacts. The search bar is smart enough to understand that SharePoint needs to search both types of sites system-wide.

On the other hand, if you are on the metrics team site, the search bar will only return results specific to that team site. So, the search bar will only return Excel files or team member information. It won’t search for news articles.  Likewise, the search bar won’t return financial data from the financial SharePoint team site if you are currently on the Metrics team site.

Start Learning SharePoint Today

SharePoint is an extensive, monolithic application that can be used for many things. For many organizations, SharePoint is the local intranet and document management system. It’s a necessary evil we must all learn. Get started with an online SharePoint course right now!