Explorer

This section describes specific features of Explorer.

Upload Documents/Folders
Easily drag and drop documents or folders from File Explorer into the Explorer tree, select a Content Type, and click “Proceed.” The upload progress for each item is displayed, with item names greyed out once they have been successfully uploaded. Unlike the standard SharePoint/OneDrive behavior, uploaded items retain their original modification date. Explorer supports incremental uploads by excluding existing items and offers a “retry” feature to re-upload only the failed items.

Sorting
The Explorer tree, by default, displays the same columns as File Explorer (Modified, Type, and Size) and offers the same sorting functionality.

The tool can be configured to display custom SharePoint columns such as GPS location, email sender name, presence of email attachments, or document version number. This enables the use of SharePoint metadata within Explorer, a feature not available in File Explorer or the OneDrive for Business client.

Quick Search
The “Quick Search” option in the context menu enables rapid selection of items by name, bypassing the need for a traditional search.

Copy/Move Folders and Documents
Explorer supports copying and moving folders and documents using the context menu (e.g., cut and paste) or drag and drop. Items can be copied or moved within a library, to a different library in the same site, or to a library in a subsite or another site.

Context Menu
Each item in the Explorer tree features a context menu with relevant options, functioning similarly to File Explorer. The menu includes options to preview, copy, move, rename, delete, and more. These menu options are configurable to suit your needs.

View/Edit Office Files
Users with SharePoint Online can choose to view and edit Office files using Office Online or their local Office application.

Edit Non-Office Files (e.g., pdf or dwg)
Explorer enhances SharePoint functionality by streamlining the process of editing non-Office files such as pdf and dwg files. The “Edit in app” option downloads the file with a unique name, allowing you to edit it using local client applications (e.g., Adobe Reader DC). Explorer then displays a dialog window with instructions to simplify uploading the locally modified file back to SharePoint as a new version.

Edit in app
The “Edit in app” functionality automatically checks out and checks in the file to prevent other users from making changes to the same file.
Explorer will display a dialog with files being edited by the user at the next startup if the locally modified files have not been uploaded.

Explorer also supports Nitro Pro, allowing direct editing of SharePoint PDF files via the “Edit in Nitro Pro” right-click option for PDF files.

Browse Zip Files
Click the expand icon to view the contents of zip files without downloading the entire file. This allows you to directly open or preview individual files, including Office and pdf files.

Email Support
Explorer can extract email metadata (e.g., To, From, Subject, Conversation) and capture these values into SharePoint columns for filtering, viewing, and advanced searching. The tool also supports previewing emails in a browser and viewing/opening email attachments (docx, xlsx, pptx, pdf, jpg, etc.) directly in the browser without downloading them to a local computer. This enhances SharePoint adoption and boosts user productivity. Additionally, it allows the use of SharePoint on devices without Office applications (e.g., iPad) and reduces compliance risks by keeping emails and attachments in the cloud instead of storing local copies.

Office Email Attachments
Office email attachments (docx, xlsx, pptx, and vsdx) can be directly viewed in the browser without downloading. This boosts user productivity, enhances adoption, and reduces compliance and security risks by keeping content off local machines where it is harder to control.

The attachments are also listed in the email’s context menu under “Attachments”:

The tool also supports attaching SharePoint documents or folders to a new email.

Search
Explorer features a search bar at the top of the page (available for SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams), providing users with a fast and robust way to access their content. The search bar works similarly to File Explorer, searching from the current location downwards. The search results list includes folders and documents, utilizing full text and metadata. The “Sort by” drop-down list offers common sorting options such as “Modified Date.” The filter pane enables advanced searches by filtering on “Name,” “Type,” “Size,” and/or “Modified Date.”

The “CSV” link enables you to download the search results in csv format. For files, a link is provided to open their location.

Document Properties
Explorer can extract properties from various file types (e.g., msg, eml, jpg, pdf, docx, dwg, doc, xls, …) during uploading and capture the values into SharePoint columns. The following document types are supported:

• Email file formats: msg and eml
• PDF file format: pdf
• Image file formats: jpg, png, gif, tiff, bmp, svg, psd, dng, heic, heif, jfif and cr2
• Office files: docx, xlsx, pptx, vsdx, docm, xlsm and pptm
• Binary Office files: doc, xls and ppt
• HTML files: htm and html
• Audio files: mp3 and wma
• Video files: wmv, mp4 and mov
• Drawing files: dwg

The context menu option “Properties” displays all properties present within the document.

The tool supports metadata from various schemes, including EXIF, XMP, IPTC, and ICS.

Support for Content Types
By default, documents and folders are uploaded using the “Document” Content Type and the “Folder” Content Type, respectively. Explorer allows users to select different Content Types and set values for metadata fields used in these custom Content Types. Properties in source files (e.g., keywords in pdf files, GPS coordinates in jpg files) can be mapped to columns in the Content Types. Administrators can map file extensions to Content Types to ensure consistent usage. For example, file extensions msg and eml can be mapped to the “Email” Content Type, while dwg and dwt can be mapped to the “Drawing” Content Type. The tool can also be configured to skip the “metadata dialog.”.

Explorer supports commonly used metadata types such as single line of text, choice, dates, and more. It also includes managed metadata (including Enterprise Keywords), lookups, and location columns. The tool can be configured to skip the metadata dialog and upload documents using the default content type.

Edit Properties
This is an optional feature. The “Edit Properties” option is added to the right-click menu, allowing users to edit SharePoint columns on one or more documents.

Editing properties using Explorer does not create a new document version, unlike the standard SharePoint edit properties form. This helps avoid unexpected storage consumption by versions. Explorer supports the following column types: Single line of text, Multiple lines of text, Choice, Currency, Number, DateTime, Lookup, Person or Group, and Yes/No. Support for Calculated and Image columns will be included in a future release.

Check In / Check Out
Explorer automatically detects if a library uses Check In / Check Out functionality. Checked out documents are marked and indicate which user has checked them out. The context menu provides options to check in, check out, or discard check out for each document. The tool also supports bulk actions. Site collection administrators can discard check out on documents checked out by other users.

Co-authoring
Explorer supports co-authoring, allowing multiple users to simultaneously update an Office document.

Sensitivity Labels
Sensitivity labels can be displayed as custom columns in the Explorer tree.

The ellipsis option “Properties” also displays the sensitivity label.

Thumbnail View (only available for SharePoint Online and OneDrive)
SharePoint content can also be viewed using thumbnails.

The breadcrumb at the top of the page allows for easy navigation through your content. Thumbnails can be sorted by name, modified date, type, and size. Clicking on a thumbnail opens a dialog window with the full file.

Google Maps Integration
The integration with Google Maps allows organizations to combine the power of SharePoint Online with the capabilities of Google Maps. The tool can automatically populate a location column when uploaded documents (e.g., photos, drone recordings) contain GPS coordinates. The Google Maps integration enables displaying one or more items on a map. The marker preview shows a thumbnail preview, key properties, and allows viewing of the file.

Items in the same location can be previewed using the “previous” or “next” links, or by using the keyboard’s left and right arrows. The thumbnail preview provides a link to view the full item with all metadata.

Explorer also supports extracting GPS location details from mp4 (e.g., DJI drone recordings), wma, and mov files.

Using Google Maps in SharePoint is simplified by eliminating the need to add web parts or scripts for individual libraries. The tool automatically detects if a library contains a location column and then displays the Google Maps option in the context menu.

Geotagging
This feature allows adding GPS location details to existing SharePoint documents. Coordinates can be added to any document format (e.g., pdf, msg, docx, jpg, dwg), enabling the association of documents with an object or location.

In the next version, Explorer functionality will be extended with geosearching capabilities. This feature allows users to draw a polygon on a Google Map and search for all documents within that polygon.

Hub Sites (only SharePoint Online)
Explorer supports hub sites. Hub sites have a distinct visual appearance, and associated sites are displayed as nested sites. Search functionality will automatically include the hub site and its associated sites.

Localisation
Explorer supports localisation through language packs. Contact mailto:info@slimapplications.com for a list of available language packs.

Reporting
The tool allows users to create a basic inventory of the content in a SharePoint Document library, Picture library, or Asset library. For example, it can list the number of documents, the number of folders, content types used, number of major versions, and disk space consumed by document versions. The inventory of documents and folders can be exported as a CSV file. Major and minor document versions can be deleted in a controlled way, such as deleting all major document versions except for the three most recent ones. Explorer also allows users to create an inventory report of the source system (e.g., file share), which can be downloaded as a CSV file.

Technical Characteristics
Explorer supports the migration of large document volumes (tens of GBs). Larger data sets can be easily split into smaller parts by excluding folders. The maximum file size supported is 100 GB on SharePoint Online, 15 GB for SharePoint 2019, and 10 GB for SharePoint 2016. For SharePoint 2013, the maximum file sizes are browser-dependent (see release notes at the bottom of the page). Unlike many migration tools, there is no limit on the data volume uploaded or downloaded.

Downloading Content
The SharePoint modern view allows downloading of folders, a functionality not available in the classic view or SharePoint on-premise. Explorer enables downloading multiple documents and/or folders into a zip file. Very large document volumes (e.g., tens of GBs) are supported by using multiple zip files. The “Export” feature extends the “Download & Zip” functionality by including the metadata for each document as a separate JSON file within the zip file(s).

5000-item List View Threshold (Large Lists)
The 5000-item List View Threshold prevents access to content unless special measures (e.g., views using indexed columns) are used. Explorer accommodates Document, Picture, and Asset libraries that exceed this limit. Content is retrieved in chunks without requiring any changes to SharePoint. Using Explorer, it is possible to browse through large lists, download the list’s contents, or report on the list’s content.

SLIM Companion Explorer App
The optional SPFx app adds an “Explorer” button to the standard SharePoint ribbon of Document, Picture, and Asset libraries.

This makes the Explorer tool easily accessible for users across an entire site or tenant. The Explorer SPFx App is available for SharePoint Online, SharePoint Server SE, and SharePoint 2019.

Supported Configurations: Explorer supports SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016, SharePoint 2019, SharePoint Server SE, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint Online.

The tool can be used with Document Libraries, Picture Libraries, and Asset Libraries. It supports the latest (N-2) versions of Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge on Windows clients, plus Safari on macOS, and iPadOS.