Generelle tips og triks for deling av filer på Teams/Sharepoint

Ting som egentlig har med Saros/Quarto å gjøre, men veldig nyttig å vite om likevel

General tips for your own sake

  • Use the Teams app installed on the computer, not the web app (the latter currently has less functionality, might not show all files, etc).
  • When using the Teams-app, you can switch from your own organization to NIFU’s at the top right, if you are external to NIFU.
  • Synchronize files to your computer, for easier access and easier to navigate in.

My opinionated recommendations for good collaboration

It is better to have a Teams-share which people use actively than one collecting dust. This implies:

  • Avoid repeating yourself. The more places information is documented (e.g. research questions), the more places must be updated - which will inevitably lead to inconsistencies, misunderstandings and double work. Much better to refer to the original location (e.g. “Based on our research questions (see document X) we decided to”). Sure, sometimes inconvenient to look up multiple documents, so smart exceptions can be made.
  • When you want others in our group to review a document stored in the share, share it rather than sending a copy. This can be done in multiple ways:
  • If you have synchronized files to your computer:
    • Right click the file in Windows Explorer 🡺 OneDrive 🡺 Copy link 🡺 Paste it into your email
    • Or, from your Outlook, when attaching a document, click “Share link” instead of attach as file.
    • Or, from within e.g. Word, you can also obtain the link from File 🡺 Sharing 🡺 Copy link
    • Or from within Teams,🡺 Files 🡺 Click three dots next to file/folder 🡺 Copy link
  • Feel free to create subfolders within the main folders to suit your needs. In worst case I (or a designated assistant) will tidy up but never remove files.
  • I’d rather have a document (Gantt-chart, questionnaire draft, etc) that has many comments from all of you, rather than you keeping your own version with comments that you forgot to share - or you thought was not good enough to be shared yet. This typically results in redundant work, which we do not have time for. Better to have continuous small improvements than each having their own “personal draft”. (the exception being signed agreements, please do not manipulate those).
  • Unsurprisingly, I’d rather have a Literature folder where all of you dump project-relevant literature, instead of it being empty because you think it might not be so relevant for other team members. (so selfish). Again, an assistant can tidy up if we get too much.
  • As for the main folders in the root directory, I might be a bit stricter to avoid chaos at first sight. But please suggest to me a new main folder if needed.
  • Have a main folder called Personal, which within contains a folder for each member. Feel free to use for own notes and wild ideas.
    • Be kind to not read others’ files there.
    • But also, do not overuse it for things that are actually important for others to know (e.g. meeting minutes are of general interest). Share as much as possible.
  • Version control: Teams-files are essentially stored in a cloud called Sharepoint, which supports version control. This is my personal preference, but I think that who edited, when and what is now collected in the Word documents so usually no need for creating a new document every day. However, Milestone/major versions (before submitting to external reviewers, validation steps, etc) deserve their own copy in a subfolder.

Troubleshooting

  • Feeling Word document gets cluttered with too many comments and tracked changes? Hide them without removing them! Click Review (Se gjennom) ==> Simple markup (Enkel markering) and turn off “Show comments”. Not really a need to make a clean copy just for you to read through - just hide these things when printing a paper copy.
  • Experiencing that synchronized co-authoring is lagging, unstable or slow? Consider temporarily editing in Word Online, split sections into separate files, temporarily hide large images, or kick out your co-authors (temporarily).

I would like to end with a very common public announcement in the most successful open-source software projects, which is what we should all think in our research or daily life: > “I’ve made an effort to improve things a bit, but did not have time to make it perfect, so feel free to improve my work.”

Gjenbruk