Digitize Your Growth with SharePoint

The immense landscape that is SharePoint functionality is easy to lose track of. As a result, even those who don't make major mistakes can still fall well short of taking full advantage of the platform. To help you as you try to milk this magnificent Microsoft system for all it's worth, here are 7 simple ways you can use SharePoint to better your business.

1: Post all of your event-related tasks, documents, notes, and other files to the event itself. You can even sync this up with Outlook!

2: Centralize your task locations. This lets team members find their tasks more quickly, allows for easier synchronization, and lets management check in more quickly.

3: Use a company blog (set to private!) instead of time in your meetings to communicate advances, ideas, and updates. This prevents time-wasting while giving you a visible, hard-copy rendition of current company news.

4: Keep all your project management inside SharePoint itself. This gives you additional filtering and social options while minimizing your overhead; project management software can be pricey.

5: Set up your road-warrior SharePoint experts with mobile access through tablets and smartphones. For more on this process, check out our SharePoint for tablets series.

6: Use a "help ticket" resolution system for your company. This lets you organize and prioritize any issues, see what problems are common, and keep a written trail of the issue's history.

7: Create project dashboard that allows you to filter projects by the elements they contain. This will let you see projects with similar or identical documents, tasks, details, events, and more, and lets you easily track down and replicate projects in the future.

These are just a few of the literally thousands of ways you can use SharePoint to make your organization stronger, faster, and more effective. Keep up-to-date on further tips by subscribing to SharePoint Engine on Twitter and Facebook.

Cheers,

The SharePoint Engine Team

While the default print option for SharePoint 2010 is certainly useful, much of the included data can be done without; specifically, the inclusion of a header that gives document names, navigation, and other system-based details will often be useless when you have a document in print. One of the most effective and simple to implement solutions is a quick change to the CSS of a page.

Thanks to the SharePoint 2010 custom CSS functionality, as well as improved rendering from the 2007 edition of the same, users will be able to take care of the header quite easily. (Users of SharePoint 2007 should note that there are often hidden elements that prevent appropriate rendering when you change the CSS. As such, you will need to either re-enter full CSS or locate the hidden elements before proceeding.)

The primary piece of CSS you'll need is as follows:

#s4-topheader2, #s4-titlerow, #s4-statusbarcontainer { visibility: hidden; display:none; }

This code alone will hide the core header elements during print when you place it within the appropriate media signal (@media print). You can extend this functionality further by connecting the customized CSS with your print preview for a page. To do so, add the code <linl media="print">.

Additional helpful CSS for printing includes the following line: #MSO_ContentTable { margin: 0 }. This line centers the content on a page. You can further alter the page alignments and other visual features with the use of tags such as text-align (left, right, or center) and padding (where you can insert a specific size to determine how much space is put between objects).

If you have additional page elements, or page elements that are named differently than the items above, you can hide those items by inserting the element name with the code { visibility: hidden; display:none;  }. 


For more information on CSS coding, including what elements are functional inside SharePoint, visit w3schools.com.

There's no doubt that the SharePoint platform has evolved over time. From its highly technical and extraordinarily challenging early versions to the often seamless and intuitive SharePoint 2010, we've seen a great leap forward. Still, some companies have decided not to upgrade to SharePoint 2010 due to the migration process. A recent study showed, however, that adoption of the latest version is up and that more companies are considering use of cloud-based versions.

The study was conducted by Forrester and looked at 500 IT leaders. Among this more technically advanced cut of the field, 57% had adopted the most recent version of SharePoint (2010), despite the fairly new release of that product. Across all versions, 79% stated they were very satisfied with the service and 73% said the product meets the expectation of management. 75% reported that the IT staff were satisfied with the platform.

The most valuable tools for the companies surveyed were the collaboration tools and team sites / intranets, which saw a 78% and 73% satisfaction rating, respectively. The majority of respondents also indicated that they began using SharePoint with the "workloads" features, then moved into more advanced features over time.

Beyond an increased adoption rate for each subsequent version of SharePoint and an impressive 14-month migration rate for SharePoint 2010, the survey examined the question of alternate and upcoming versions. The big question was whether or not a cloud-based version of SharePoint was in the cards.

The majority of companies have considered using SharePoint in a cloud-based medium, with only 17% stating that they never considered using a cloud-based version. The remainder either have or are now considering the use of either SharePoint Online or the cloud-based version of SharePoint that accompanies the Microsoft Office 365 suite. However, only 19% of all respondents indicated that they are currently using a cloud-based version.

According to the study, SharePoint 2010 adoption should continue in full force while cloud-based versions will see increased growth in the years to come.

SP1 is officially out, which is great news for all of the tech-savvy SharePoint gurus who've been hovering over their keyboards, ready to blitz the Microsoft download site the moment the update pack was ready. However, many SharePoint users aren't quite so familiar with SP1, and may be a bit uncertain on how to install the updates. To make that process simple, this entry will give a step-by-step guide on installing the service pack.

Step One: Get the Service Pack Files


You can pick up SP1 on the Microsoft Download site, but you'll need to get the correct version for your system type (specifically, 32-bit or 64-bit) and you may need to install a language pack afterward. You can find a listing of SharePoint 2010 service pack options here. Meanwhile, the two most common files needed will be SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1 and SharePoint Server 2010 SP1.

Step Two: Prepare for the Update


A few preparatory steps are in order. First, make sure the account you're working from has all the administrative privileges enabled. Second, create a backup of the entire server farm, just in case something goes wrong during your installation process.

Step Three: Determine and Execute an Update Type


There are multiple update type options available, and different companies may find different alternatives preferable. Each option has different support (e.g., for reverse compatibility, etc.) and downtime requirements. Check out this Microsoft site summarizing the details of the update options and how to execute each.


Step Four: Install the Latest Cumulative Update


SP1 does not include some of the updates from the June 2011 cumulative update, so it's a good idea to install those immediately after you've installed SP1.

If you feel that you need help in choose the best option for your company, in executing the update, or in understanding the benefits of SP1 or other SharePoint Foundation and Server updates, we'd be glad to help. Just contact us by your preferred method to get in touch with a certified SharePoint expert.

Microsoft announced that SP1 for SharePoint 2010 would be released in "late June," which means – whatever the specific date – we're very close. While there hasn't been a monumental amount of concrete details, data was released at Tech-Ed 2011 concerning the nature of SP1. Here's a brief rundown of what it will contain:

• All current bug fixes. While many bug fixes were previously released in hot fix rollups (also known as cumulative updates), most users didn't receive these updates; they were "on request only." All those fixes will be present in SP1.
• Extended Office web app capabilities. A number of fixes, interface enhancements, and new features will be available in the Office web apps. This includes the ability to directly insert clip art in PowerPoint, print presentations and documents directly from the page (rather than just from previews), the ability to copy formulae from Excel cells, and support for the .ODF (Open Office document) format.
• Enhanced performance overall. Page indexing, navigation, and many other elements are receiving an enhancement buff.
• Support for IE9 Native. The native version of IE9 will now support all SharePoint features.
• Support for Google Chrome. Chrome, which previously worked fairly well, will now be fully supported.
• Support for SQL 11. SQL 11, aka Denali, has full support in SP1.
• Site recycling bin. Deleted items will not be retrievable by an admin without the need for a database restoral.
• Shallow copy. Any copied RBS database will now re-write the directions to files rather than copying all files over to disk.
• StorMan returns. The SharePoint 2007 analysis tool that examines where you're using space will be re-implemented.

The migration from SharePoint 2007 to 2010 is usually a challenging but pleasant experience. Yes, you may lose some of the work invested in SharePoint 2007, you'll have to do some re-configuration, and it's a good idea to re-train your employees on modified or entirely new features. However, the simplicity of SharePoint 2010 when compared to 2007 is like switching from pounding your head against a rock to pounding it against a mattress.

Regardless, certain configuration stages are going to present issues, and one that often gets complaints from those who run server farms (or who simply run off a shared server) is the Configure Your Farm utility. This assistance wizard is honestly designed to make your job simpler, but because of one little problem it often doesn't. That problem is that automatic population of a GUID on numerous service application databases.

Most people will have one of two gut reactions to this problem: 1) They're fine with the problem because they don't see how it will hurt them (such as for those running a private server) or 2) They're not okay with it and now have to manually configure the entire thing. Sadly, those who choose the second column are probably safer. This is because most database backup scripts will break when they run across the GUIDs issued by Configure Your Farm.


Oddly enough, that includes the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, which will return a "tag too long" error when it bumps into one of its own GUIDs. Microsoft's own configuration wizard is making it impossible to use a far more vital tool.

Now, the $500 question: What should you do about it? Sadly, server admins and DBAs will have to wait for new versions of these utilities (which are on their way, and can even be seen in beta format in the Office 365 suite), will have to work with external tools, or will have to enlist the help of SharePoint experts. This is one of those cases where Microsoft has simply slipped up and the servers admins have to make themselves aware of the issue, the consequences, and the work-arounds.

Each year, as we enter the month of January and companies contemplate their quarterly objectives, analysts take a look at their respective fields and make some predictions for the upcoming months.  This year, one analyst — Joe Shepley of CMS Wire — has made an important prediction when it comes to enterprise content management.

Specifically, Shepley says that 2011 will be the year that SharePoint 2010 becomes the core ECM resource on the market.  The reason is that SharePoint 2010 now overlaps more of the features of "traditional ECM," while also integrating features that are important in the present-day market, such as social site resources.  There are now very few resources in other ECM utilities that the current version of SharePoint doesn't cover, and most of those resources (e.g., those found in Oracle) can easily be viewed as complimentary services.

Of course, the greater need for information organization is also a big part of why this new version is SharePoint is likely to become core in the upcoming months.  In addition to the fact that more organizations rely on their knowledge-workers, knowledge-workers themselves are showing a greater push for content management resources.

Shepley reminds users that SharePoint 2010 doesn't work well as a standalone ECM right out of the box; rather, enterprise-class users need to invest in important customization and add-on features (plug-ins, web parts, customized infographs, etc.) to make the system work ideally at this large of a scale.  That's one of the reasons that SharePoint consulting is so crucial: it helps you figure out exactly what you need to add, integrate, or change, and companies like ours can also help you in actual customization as well.


2011 should be the year that brings companies out of the dark ages, as various organizations update from legacy ECMs, decide that it's high time to implement their first CMS, or vie for SharePoint due to its broader collection of solutions.