SharePoint FAQs

Please see Requesting a Site. 

In order to use a SharePoint site, you need to be added to a user group by the site owner of that site.

Once you find out whom the site owner is, contact them and ask to be added as either a member or visitor depending on the level of access you need.

A request can also be made if you click on the site and you can submit a request to be added to the site.

The primary site is intended as the main or principle SharePoint site for a department; division or team. You can have multiple subsites below this site, but the primary site is the main point of control. Primary sites have the highest level of permissions and the nominated site owner of that site will have access to all subsites beneath it. Primary sites must be requested via IMT.

Subsites sit below primary sites and may be useful if you want to divide your workflow. For example, you might have multiple projects or business needs and you may wish to have separate sites to accommodate this. It would make sense therefore to assign a new site to each project to keep the work separate. This also makes managing permissions easier as you can provide people access to one site, but not another.

Yes, there is no formal limit on the number of sites you can have. If you are requesting a new primary site, you will need to fill out a new site request form and provide the relevant details.

However, subsites can be created without filling in a new request form and are created by the primary site owner.

If your work is usually contained within your own team or department, then it doesn’t really make sense to use another primary site as you can always create another document library or subsite from your main site.

However, if your work stretches across multiple departments or you are conducting research involving many different people, then you may wish to keep this work separate from your main body of work. In this case, it makes sense to create a different primary site to accommodate this.

Only primary site owners or those in the owners group can create a subsite and both the primary site owner and the recipient of the subsite are automatically added to the new subsite as owners.

This means that the primary site owner will have access and control over all subsites created under their primary site. The primary site owner cannot normally be removed from the new subsite, unless this request is made through IMT Customer services.

Only site owners are able to configure a SharePoint site so you will need to contact them to do this.

Site owners can change and rename document libraries; add or change view options; add apps; links; add user groups and so on. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of adapting your site to suit your needs.

Bear in mind, however, that large scale changes to the look and feel should be approved by IMT and the Design Unit first. This is to ensure that your site meets accessibility standards.

Contact the IT Service Desk with your proposals.

IMT have tested and piloted some of the functionality that we know will be most useful to people, but we haven’t yet piloted and tested every type of functionality. If the app you want to use doesn’t feature in the training guide, it means that we don’t yet support it.

However, you can still add unsupported apps to your SharePoint site, but we may not be able to support you in using these apps. We strongly advise you to only add apps that have been tested and will be supported by us. If there is an app that you think we should be supporting, then let us know as it helps us to gather your feedback.

Permissions are the means by which documents are shared with other people. Correctly assigning permissions is one of the most important aspects of using SharePoint as it determines the level of access and security on your site. A good grasp of permissions will make using your site safer and easier to use.

Please consult the training guides on how to use permissions.

The training guides provide more detailed information on this so please consult them. 

Owners are people with admin privileges that enable them to assign permissions; edit the site; add apps and so on. You should limit the number of people in this group. 

Members are able to view, add, and edit documents. Your colleagues are the appropriate people to add to this group. 

Visitors are able to view documents only and have no editing rights. All others should be added to this group.

SharePoint organises people into groups and then assigns permissions to those groups. You should first check that you have correctly assigned people to the right group i.e. owner, members or visitors. Try to avoid assigning permissions at a low level i.e. in folders or documents themselves as this can make permissions very complicated and lead to errors.

Permissions are best dealt with at the level of document libraries or higher i.e. at site level.

If you have consulted the training guides and are still unsure, seek advice from the IT Service Desk. It’s better to sort out permissions before they become too complex or unwieldy. 

Yes. Provided you have an LSE account, then you will still be able to login to the LSE domain and use SharePoint.

Sites can be monitored for usage, so sites that are left dormant for a long period of time may be closed down.

If you want to retain your data, you should contact IMT customer services and let them know so they can shut down the site. Only the nominated site owner can request their site to be shut down.

In the absence of the site owner, this request will have to come from the department manager, divisional director or research director of the site collection department in which the SharePoint site is located.

Your site will need to be handed over to a colleague or you can ask for it to be shut down.

You should contact the IT Service Desk with the name of a colleague who has agreed to be Site Owner and it will be transferred to their name once they have completed Site Owner Training.