Today, Office 365 is available for the first time on the Mac App Store, making it easier than ever for Mac users to download Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and the whole suite of Microsoft’s popular apps. Users can also purchase a subscription for Office 365 from within the apps, so they can get up and running instantly. If you have Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or later, you can use the Finder's Go Connect to Server command to connect to SharePoint. In previous versions, you will only have read access to your site; write access is not available.
Will SharePoint even work on a Mac?
Yes! That was easy. With the Firefox (version 17 or above) or Safari (version 6 or above) browsers, you can access all the critical functions within SharePoint. Consider installing Office for Mac for the Office integration features that are available on a Windows operating system.
Office Integration features? Sounds very… Microsoft.
True, but even the most rabid Mac users have to admit that sometimes OneDrive just doesn’t meet all of the document sharing and collaboration needs that a large company (one that, say, may use SharePoint) has.
So, what is SharePoint?
Sharepoint Download For Mac
SharePoint is Microsoft’s highly flexible, configurable web-based platform, with all sorts of possible uses. It can be used as: a content management system; an intranet; a collaboration hub; a document repository; a blogging platform; a search center; a knowledge base; a workflow engine; even a business intelligence center. Your site administrator can enable any or all of this functionality, depending on the organization’s needs. How do I access it?
You will need to have the URL from the site administrator and login credentials (usually your email address and a SharePoint password).
What can I do from my Mac?
You can share and collaborate on documents, task lists, calendars, discussion boards, images, blogs, wiki pages…virtually any file type or collaboration method is supported on SharePoint. You can perform site administration, since SharePoint is fully operational on Safari and Firefox. If you have the Microsoft Document Connection software installed on your Mac, you can also do bulk uploads of files – a real time saver! See a useful tutorial here. If your site uses a lot of video, consider downloading Silverlight – this allows you to both view videos in their optimal format and access SharePoint Help videos.
Ok, what can’t I do from my Mac? Any showstoppers?
Some features require Internet Explorer, such as synchronizing content to Outlook, Excel, Access; this functionality is not required, though, to collaborate on the site. Itunes download for mac os catalina 10.15. InfoPath and OneNote use ActiveX, which is not Mac-compatible, so Mac users can’t manipulate InfoPath forms on the site – again, not something the average user would ever need to do. The Bulk Edit feature (datasheet view) is not enabled, but a workaround is available (enabling inline editing).
The advantage of having a Microsoft person on a team of Mac users is that we can cover every base, from creative products to MS Office and – of course - SharePoint. Are you a Windows or a Mac person with SharePoint questions? Either way, we can help!
There are a variety of good ways to access Sharepoint document libraries from your mac. Some, such as plain access via the web, don’t offer much in the way of native integration. While others provide a full native filesystem interface that lets you access Sharepoint as a mapped drive.
Sharepoint via the Web
Apps For Mac
Most users get to Sharepoint via the web. It has all features that Sharepoint offers, is managed by Microsoft, and is relatively easy to use. The biggest downside to this method is that there is no native integration with any of your existing workflow and applications you use to manage and generate content. In order to get the richest experience via the web you’ll want to make sure you have a modern version of your browser. Microsoft keeps this list of supported browsers.
Mapping a Drive via WebDAV
While mounting Sharepoint as a network drive you can use WebDAV in certain situations in a Windows environment, it doesn’t function correctly on Mac when connecting to Office 365. It doesn’t support modern authentication constraints like 2 factor auth or any login federation. Additionally, it only provides a simple read/write interface and none of advanced sharing functionality.
Microsoft Document Connection
In versions of Office previous to 2016 Microsoft included an app called Document Connection to move data in and out of Sharepoint, but it has been since discontinued in favor of more direct integration inside the office 365 apps.
Mapping a Network Drive
Third-party tools like ExpanDrive integrate directly with the Sharepoint API building in native access to any Mac. A user authenticates one time using the same login flow a they access Office 365 via the web, including MFA and SAML configurations. They can then access their entire Sharepoint setup as a fast, aggressively cached network drive that provides advanced features like smart-sync offline mode, integrated link sharing, and more.
OneDrive sync client
Sharepoint App For Mac
Another option is to use the OneDrive sync client to access Sharepoint on your mac. It provides reasonable integration and speed and is available from Microsoft. However, it doesn’t make managing a configuration with fine grained permissions and many different sites particularly. easy.
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