Beginning SharePoint® 2007 Administration: Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 and Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007

10.6. Using SharePoint as a File Share

So far, you have used the web client to view and open documents. But SharePoint can display its information just like any file share, using either the traditional file share (for example F:) or by your defining a web folder. The main difference between these two options is that file shares only allow you to use one character for this share, while web folders allow you to type a name, including blank spaces. This is much easier to read and understand, but not all programs understand how to use a web folder. You have to test this to see whether web folders work in your environment. All recent MS Office products understand web folders.

To create a traditional file share link to a document library, you do follow the process in the next Try It Out.

Try It Out: Create a File Share Link to a Document Library Assume that you have a document library named Shared Documents in the team site http://srv1/sitedirectory/it. You want to access that library using the F: disk label. Start Windows Explorer. Click Tools Map Network Drive. Set the Drive = F. Enter the following address: \\srv1\sitedirectory\it\shared documents

Now you will find F: listed in Window Explorer and any program that has an Open and Save feature. Note that this will only work directly for Windows XP clients; if you do this on a Windows 2003 server, including the SharePoint server itself, ...