Create a shortcut in SharePoint - Website

Owned by Dan Jakubiak
Last updated: Feb 21, 2024
4 min read

Students, faculty and staff can create shortcuts to other locations in 365 (OneDrive and Sharepoint). These shortcuts, named “links”, will reside in a SharePoint but can bring you to another SharePoint or a OneDrive.

These shortcuts are to be created for users who use the web app (website) version of SharePoint. These shortcuts will appear on connected computers that are synchronized with the SharePoint site, but they will only function in the web app.

Enable Links in your SharePoint Document Library

These steps are a one-time setup for your SharePoint Document Library.

  1. Visit s.uconn.edu/sharepoint and sign in with your Email Address and NetID Password.

  2. Find your SharePoint site and click on it to enter it.

  3. Click on Documents in the left-hand navigation menu.
    Note: Choose another Document Library if desired.

  4. Once you see your files and folders appear, it may take another second for the settings gear to appear. Click on this gear and then click on Library settings.

    image-20240221-180208.png

  5. Click on More library settings.

  6. Click on Advanced settings in the first column.

    image-20240221-180330.png

  7. Choose Yes for the “Allow management of content types?” option.

  8. Click OK at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

  9. After clicking “Ok”, you should have been brought back to the Library Settings page. If not, follow the instructions above to return to this page.
    In the “Content Types” section of this page, click on Add from existing site content types.

  10. Find “Link to a Document” in the list on the left and click on it. While it is selected, click on Add so that it appears in the list on the right.

  11. Click OK at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Add Links to other locations

These links can bring you to specific documents, folders in this SharePoint, folders in other SharePoint sites, or folders in a OneDrive.

Creating a link to another location does not change the permissions of that file/location. If a user does not have access to the file/location, the shortcut will not work for them.

1) Find the item you would like to link to

  1. Visit s.uconn.edu/onedrive or s.uconn.edu/sharepoint and sign in with your Email Address and NetID Password.

  2. Navigate to the file/folder you would like to be the destination of your link. Right-click on this item.

  3. Click on Copy link. This copies the URL of the item.

  4. This link will use the existing access to the file. Only those who already have access to this item will be able to access it when using the link.
    If you need to update permissions on the item, do so now. The link will always use the up-to-date permissions of the item.

  5. Now that this link is in your clipboard (copied), continue below.

2) Create the link

  1. Visit s.uconn.edu/sharepoint and sign in with your Email Address and NetID Password.

  2. Find your SharePoint site and click on it to enter it.

  3. Click on Documents in the left-hand navigation menu.
    Note: Choose another Document Library if desired.

  4. Navigate to the location in which you would like the shortcut to reside.
    This shortcut can be moved after creation.

  5. Click Add and choose Link to a Document.

  6. You will be brought to a new page. Enter a name for this link.

  7. Next, paste in the URL you copied in the previous steps.

  8. Click OK to create the link.

If you create a link to a specific file, it will look like the file itself is residing in this location. This is only a link to the file; the file is still residing it its original location.

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