- The New File Formats in Office 2007
- Understanding and Choosing File Formats
- Setting Up Office File Storage Locations
- Managing Files and Folders Remotely
- Creating New Files
- Using and Customizing Common Dialog Boxes
- Storing Document Details
- Searching for Office Files
- Working with Multiple Files
- Setting Up Automatic Backup and Recovery Options
- Troubleshooting
- Secrets of the Office Masters: Folder Options That Make Your Life Easier
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Managing Files and Folders Remotely
Office 2007 lets you work with files over a network or on the Web in much the same way that you access files and folders on a standalone PC. If you are connected to a network, contact your network administrator to find locations on the network where you're permitted to read or write files. You should get a network share address for the location, using UNC syntax (\\Server_name\Share_Name\). Unless the network administrator has restricted your rights, you can create and manage your own subfolders in this location.
Although you can type UNC-style network addresses directly from within Open or Save As dialog boxes, doing so is usually more trouble than it's worth. For easier access, browse to the My Network Places (in Vista, just Network) folder and navigate to the correct server, share, and folder.
Aside from the additional navigation steps, there is no difference between using network shares and using local drives, assuming that you have proper authorization from your network administrator.
Using the UNC path that you are given, if you know how to, you can map a drive letter that's available on your system to a network folder. The concept is this: You have a C: drive, a D: drive, and so on. You can tell the computer that your G: drive (or whatever letter you have available, usually starting from Z backward to make sure it really is available) is now going to be such-and-such server and such-and-such folder (essentially the UNC path of \\servername\share). You do this by right-clicking the My Network Places (or Network in Vista), selecting Map Network Drive, and then putting in the information. You can choose to have this connection occur every time you reconnect.
Storing Files on the Web or an Intranet
Storing files on the Web—whether to a web server or to an FTP server—is almost as simple as working with files on a local network. You can usually open a web-based file by copying the URL from your web browser's Address box and pasting it into the File Name box on the Office program's Open dialog box. On servers that support the Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) standard, you need only the URL for the location (for example, http://www.example.com/someplace or ftp://example.com/incoming) and logon credentials (a username and password) to save files to that location. In Windows Explorer, collections of documents on a WebDAV-compatible server appear as folder icons in the My Network Places folder. (In previous Windows and Office versions, this feature was known as Web folders.)
To save a file to a web server or an FTP site on the Internet or an intranet, choose File, Save As, and click the My Network Places icon in the Places bar. If the list of available network places includes the location you want to use, double-click it and then enter a filename. If the location does not have an icon in the My Network Places folder, enter the full URL for the location and then fill in your logon credentials when prompted.
Save Documents to a SharePoint Server
Some editions of Office XP included an add-on called SharePoint Team Services. An updated version of this software, Windows SharePoint Services, is included with Microsoft Windows 2003 Server. Microsoft sells a more powerful version of this collaboration platform, called SharePoint Portal Server, for use on large networks. With a SharePoint server available (usually on an intranet), co-workers can share and discuss files on a web server, using an attractive web-based front end.
Office 2007 integrates exceptionally well with SharePoint servers. Depending on how the SharePoint administrator has configured the network, you can access SharePoint document libraries directly from Office common dialog boxes. Storing an Office document on a SharePoint server also allows Office 2007 users to take advantage of a number of collaborative functions.
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For more details on how to use SharePoint services with Office 2007, see, "Office Collaboration and SharePoint," p. 908. |
To save documents to a SharePoint site, you use the Publish options located off the Office button and then choose Document Management Server.