The correct way to add documents to the Quick Links web part

Providing quick access to important and frequently accessed documents on your intranet or team sites is one of the most valuable and essential features.

Using this feature saves users valuable time and clicks, eliminating the need to navigate through folders and libraries to locate the desired document.

In this article, we’ll explore how to add documents to the Quick Links web part in SharePoint Online.

There are many ways to add a document to a Quick Links web part. However, there are some pitfalls that you might be not aware of so we will explain how to do it the right way and why.

Do not: Upload directly to the web part

The Quick links web part allows you to upload a document of any format directly from your computer. While this sounds easy and straightforward, this method creates an issue with finding the actual location the document later. Documents will be saved in the Sites assets library in individual folders for each page, along with other assets published on the page (e.g. images, videos, icons).

Plus, there is a risk of creating duplicates of the same document on different pages. From a document management perspective, it creates inefficiencies, as there is no centralised location to review and manage all uploaded documents.

So, uploading documents to a centralised SharePoint library is the first step that you should do.

Do not: ‘Copy link’ or ‘Share’

When documents are uploaded to a centralised library, you will need to get a link to the document to add it to your Quick Links web part. Using ‘Copy link’ or ‘Share’ to generate a link to the document is the most common method I see people are using and describe on the internet but unfortunately this is not the most effective or secure way, in some cases it may cause security issues.

Getting a link to a document this way may actually change access permissions and break permission inheritance so that a document can be opened and even edited by people who previously had ‘read-only’ access.

Also, it generates a long and not user-friendly URL.

So we don’t recommend using this method of adding a quick link to a document.

Do: Browse from the web part

Another way to get link to a document is to find the document directly from the Quick Links web part by browsing your site content.

1. Click +Add links.
2. Select Site from the menu.
3. Find the library where the document is stored.
4. Find and select the document.

This method doesn’t break permission inheritance and it provides a ‘clean’ URL to the document.

Do: Copy path to the document

The final method is to get a direct link to the document by copying the path.

1. Go to the library where the document is stored and select the document.
2. Open the details pane and scroll down to find Path.
3. Click the copy icon.

This method also preserves the default permission settings and generates a user-friendly url.

Final notes

So, these are the methods to provide shortcut to documents on your pages using the Quick Links web part. With these best practices in mind, your SharePoint site can become a powerful tool for effective document management and collaboration.