Drag Files to SharePoint

An Office 365 tutorial by Peter Kalmström

Drag and drop is a fast and convenient way to add files to SharePoint document libraries. This is the third tutorial about adding files to SharePoint document libraries. Please study the introduction if you have not already done that. It contains some general information about SharePoint file upload that you should be aware of.

Files can be added to SharePoint document libraries in several ways. In an earlier article we showed how to upload one single file to a SharePoint document library, and in this and two more articles we will look into different ways to upload multiple files.

In the demo below Peter Kalmström, CEO and Systems Designer of kalmstrom.com Business Solutions, explains how to add multiple files to a SharePoint document library with the Upload button in the SharePoint library and by using the drag and drop method.

Select multiple files

To select some files, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the files you want to add.
To select files that are sorted together, you can also hold down the Shift key while you click on the first file and then the last file.
To select all files in a folder, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the A key.

Drag and drop methods

Shrink the Windows Explorer window so that you can drag files from it into the SharePoint library.
With a maximized Windows Explorer window, drag the files to the browser icon, wait until the SharePoint library opens and drop the files. (You must of course have had the library open last time you had the browser window maximized.)
Put the Windows Explorer and the browser windows side by side by using the Windows button + the left/right key. Then drag and drop the files.

Drag and drop files works with the latest browser versions. If you are using Office 2013 or later, it also works with earlier versions of Internet Explorer. Refer to Microsoft's guidelines.

Note: all metadata is not kept when you transfer files to SharePoint.