While there are advantages to visiting Sharepoint sites regularly for updated information, it can be a little time-consuming and tedious to have to visit there to open, save, update, delete, etc a document. If you need to perform an action on many documents, there aren't bulk operations for everything you could need.
Fortunately, you can create a web-folder network shortcut that you can easily (ie, from Windows Explorer or a desktop shortcut) access Document Libraries on your Sharepoint sites. You can use this link/shortcut to access documents just like they were on your local hard drive or network share. To do this:
- Open IE (or your browser of choice) and navigate to the Document Library within your Sharepoint site. Make sure you're in the Document Library (or whatever deeper location you want) where you can see the folders contained therein. Copy the URL from the Address bar into your clipboard by selecting the URL and pressing Control+C.
- Open My Network Places (within Windows Explorer among other places).
- Click Add Network Place
- Paste (Control+V) the URL you just copied into the location text box. Click Next.
- Name the link something logical (or illogical if that works for you). Click Finish.
- The Network Place link will open a new window. Voila! You should see your directories.
- There's also a new shortcut within the Network Place folder. You can copy that shortcut to your desktop for easy access.