You shouldn’t need to create a shortcut on your desktop or map them as a network drive unless you are using some program that requires a drive path name, such as making a playlist in Winamp or making a remote back-up of a running data file.
If you need to do any work in those directories, just open the launch pad, and open the shared folders. If your sign in credentials give you read/write access, you’re golden. Just use them like any other directory.
