SharePoint External User Help
This page is for SharePoint users who have been invited to collaborate with MDH via an MDH SharePoint page or site.
On this page:
Getting started
Setting up your browser
Your Microsoft account
Contacting MDH for help
Getting started: Initial email invitation
- When you get your first invitation from SharePoint Online for an MDH site, instead of clicking on the links to set up a new account try logging in with your work email and your regular work password- copy/paste the URL of the site into a different browser than you use for any other SharePoint site and see if you can log in with your existing account.
- If you click on the link, it will open the site in your default browser. If this is not your main/only Microsoft or SharePoint account, we recommend that you paste the link instead into a different browser – one you will designate for use with this SharePoint instance (see Setting up your browser).
- Your initial invitation will be an email from SharePoint Online, with the subject line “(MDH Employee name) wants to share (SharePoint site name)
- The body of the email contains instructions from your contact at MDH about the specific site you are accessing.
- Below that will be the words Go To followed by the name and URL of the site that has been shared with you.
Setting up your browser: Designate a browser for MDH’s SharePoint
Advice: Designate one browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) to use with MDH’s SharePoint.
Reason: Lots of agencies and projects have their own SharePoint sites. Many end up with their own variations of your credentials (your username and password), and since SharePoint caches your credentials to “make things easier for you”, mixing different SharePoint sites in one browser can also mix up those cached credentials – and make quite a hash of things. One browser should be able to handle multiple credentials, but in practice, it doesn’t go well, and users have to clear their cache a LOT. Separate browser help a lot.
In Private Browsing mode and Incognito mode also help make sure your browser uses the correct credentials with the MDH site you are accessing.
In Chrome or Edge, you can switch to incognito/private mode by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N on the keyboard.
Your Microsoft account
In order to login, you will need a Microsoft Account associated with the email address that got the invite.
- Work/School account: Many IT departments have created Microsoft accounts for you. If you don’t know if you have an account – try this first before creating a personal one.
- Username: your work email
- Password: your regular password you use for work things (often your AD or Active Directory password)
- Personal account: You may also have created a Microsoft account associated with your work email, which is called a Microsoft personal account (because you created the account personally).
- Username: your work email
- Password: A password that you set yourself
- Both accounts: You may have created a personal account, then later their IT department created a work/school account for you.
Contacting MDH for help
It is best to contact the person at MDH who gave you access, or ask a colleague who gave them access who to contact.
If you aren’t sure who to contact at MDH, use our Feedback Form and we’ll get you in touch with the right person.