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February 16

Better Together! @SharePoint911 joins forces with @Rackspace
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 2/16/2012 8:58 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

Today marks an exciting day for the SharePoint911 team as we have joined forces with Rackspace. I won't spend too much time going into all those details because, hey, that's what all the press releases are for J

 

But I did want to take a few minutes and chat about why I am excited to be a Racker! This partnership really brings us the opportunity to bring a Fanatical line of service to the SharePoint community that is bigger and better than what we currently do at SharePoint911 (although I think we are already awesome…we will now be more awesome) J

The biggest question most people probably have is what happens now….and the answer is simple…the same! I am still going to be focused on the Business User and how they use SharePoint. The where isn't really a concern to me! You can be hosted internally, at Rackspace or in Office 365 and I still want to help you get the most out of SharePoint! I want to see the business really take advantage of the out of the box features within SharePoint to build powerful everyday solutions. Over time, as the transition evolves you will start to see more and more around this concept. As new things are available I will be sure to post them to the blog so you know where to access the resources.

In order to be closer to the action, I will be joining the Rackspace team in San Antonio Texas in early April 2012. My time in Ohio has been wonderful, but I am very excited about my future in Texas! I have loved the time I have gotten to work with the local community here and I promise that I will be back to continue to be part! I am also looking forward very much to jumping in with both feet to the group in San Antonio!

I am so excited about what's to come!

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February 14

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Site Design Tips & Tricks - Part 7
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 2/14/2012 9:18 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

This is our final post in my series about the example Intranet Marketing site. In this post I just wanted to cover some of the simple design tricks I am using when I build out the site. These are very simple items, but over time I have found that users like the simple look and feel. So consider these easy changes that can have a big impact.

The first thing to note is that these changes can be done on wiki pages by just editing the text styles. If you are using a web part page, you can achieve the same effect you just have to start by inserting a content editor web part and then make your changes within the web part.

The primary goal of what I want to accomplish with these changes is to create a simple visual for users when they access the page to draw their eyes to specific areas. Below are two home pages that I will be using in my example, the first is the Marketing home page that we have been using in this series.

The second is another areas home page. The big difference between the two styles is the use of images in this one. I avoided using images in the headers on the marketing site because I didn't want to compete with the existing images on the home page.

The effect to get the bold and underlined headings just involves using the existing styles when configuring the text. When the page is in edit mode, insert your cursor where you want the text to be.

First, insert your picture.

Then use the settings in the Ribbon to configure the size and style of your image. Keeping all the header images you use the same size is a good idea for consistency. Another key setting is to change the position to middle so it aligns properly with the text.

Next, add your title next to the image. Highlight the specific text and use the Ribbon to set the Markup Style to Header 1.

The text will be updated in appearance. You may notice that the image becomes off centered though. If this happens repeat the position configuration for the image that we completed above. For the last step, just move your cursor past your title and insert the Markup Style called Horizontal Line. This will place the line directly below the header and image you just added.

Now, you can add the web part to the page and simply hide the chrome on the web part. This will display the web part content, but not the standard header. In design view you will see both, but when you browse the site you will only see the content.

 

Design View:

Browser View:

2.png

 

So there you have it, a simple way to add some splash to your page. Hopefully you have enjoyed this series on the sample Intranet site! I will start a new series soon so check back for new content later.

 

 

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February 10

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Marketing Video - Part 6
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 2/10/2012 11:47 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

This is the sixth post in my series about a sample Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be adding a Marketing video to the home page using the Media Web Part. This web part comes out of the box with SharePoint and can be used to display media files on any web part page. There are several configurations you can make that will allow you to customize how the video is displayed.

In our example we just want to display the most recent marketing campaign video on the Intranet site. Whenever the page loads we want the video to start to play. We can do this by adding the Media Web Part to the home page of our Intranet site.

Once the web part is added to the page, we will edit the web part properties to configure our video.

Once we click the option to configure the Ribbon will display the various configuration options available to us:

Here is a breakdown of the various options we can configure:

Option

Description

Example

Change Media

When selected the file will you choose will be uploaded to SharePoint and then configured to play in the web part.

When you want to select the media file to be displayed or you want to change the existing video to a new video.

Change Image

This image is the preview image that is displayed in the web part prior to the video playing. This is what the web part will display if the video does not start automatically.

Use this option to select or change the preview image for the web part.

Title

Sets the Web Part Title (visible in Chrome).

If you want to have a custom title. In most cases you would set this to something other than Media Web Part.

Start Media Automatically

Plays the media on page load.

If you want the media to auto play you would select this, otherwise it users will have to push "play" in the web part for the media to start.

Loop Until Stopped

Keeps the media playing on a continual loop until the user stops in within the web part.

If you want the media to keep looping you would use this option. Be careful on this one because you don't want to annoy your site visitors.

Styles

Sets the color scheme for the media.

This is the strip above and below the media file on the page. You have two options, Dark and Light.

Size

Sets the height and width of the web part.

You can configure the horizontal and vertical width of the web part. You can also elect to use the Lock Aspect Ratio option to ensure that the height and width are expanded or shrunk at the same scale. This should keep your media file from displaying distorted.

 

For my example Intranet site I have the media web part displayed in the top right corner of the page. I have it configured to play automatically but not to loop. This means it will play when users first hit the page but it won't keep looping. I figure they really only need to see it once. Each quarter when we have a new media message we will update the home page. This will be a good way to get people coming back to the site because they will want to see the new quarterly marking message. Here is a screenshot of my home page.

 

Something to Consider

Not all file types are supported in the Media Player web part. To see a list of what is supported, check out these links.

The most common asked out file format that isn't supported seems to be flash. If you have a flash video that you want to display on the page, here are some links for some alternate options:

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January 25

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Marketing Discussions - Part 5
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 1/25/2012 8:23 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

This is the fifth post in my series about a sample Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be covering an example for having a set of discussions on the marketing intranet site. In this post we are simply going to be utilizing the standard out of the box discussions list. From the screenshot below you see that the discussions list has been added to the home page, as well as a link on the Quick Launch. This will allow us to highlight the most recent discussions as well as allow a link to see all of the past discussions.

To create the list, we just need to select the More Options link in Site Actions and then select the Discussion Board list template.

By creating this list we are creating a location where users will be able to add their comments to the site. The purpose of this list is to share ideas from the entire organization about things that can be done in the marketing aspect. Since this is an Intranet site, we want to be careful what is published, so we will implement a way to approve discussions before they are started. This will allow us to moderate the conversations and take certain requests offline that are more appropriate for a different communication medium.

Users will be able to see either a threaded view or a flat view of the various discussions. An example screenshot is displayed below for each.

Flat:

Threaded:

In our example we are using the default views and such for this list, but we are adding the configuration that requires approval of content. We configure this in the List Settings option in the List Ribbon.

Once in the List Settings area we will be modifying the Versioning Settings for the list:

In the versioning settings page, select the option that requires content approval.

Now, whenever a user adds a new item, they will see the following message:

Users will be able to see any items they have created (approved or not) and all other approved items. Users will approval rights will see all items, and can select the item in the Flat view to approve or reject it.

As a further customization (not detailed in this blog post) you could also configure an approval workflow that would email the approvers and automate the process through an email.

*A Note on Permissions* - This blog post wouldn't be complete without a note on the permissions for this list. Since this is an Intranet example, it would be expected that only people with Marketing have contributor access to the site and the rest of the organization would have read permissions. Since we are wanting the entire organization to participate in these discussions we will use custom permissions on this list to allow the site readers to contribute to this this. If you need more assistance on setting the list permissions, here is a link that should help you get started.

That concludes this post in the series! I hope you have found these samples helpful as you are looking for ways to use the OOTB tools in SharePoint to help you build some business solutions.

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January 24

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Marketing Brochures - Part 4
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 1/24/2012 9:41 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

This is the fourth post in my series about a sample Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be covering an example for storing common marketing brochures. In my example, my content is just pdf files that could be referenced by others. We want users to be able to easily see the most recent content, as well as provide a way for them to review the materials from previous releases. We are doing this by creating a document library within our site. We will use metadata columns to tag and classify the data so that it is easy to find in the future. We will also be implementing the Managed Metadata Navigation to allow for easier filtering within the list.

To get started, here is a screenshot of our home page. We have added the document library web part to the home page and have limited the view so that only the most recent items are displayed on the home page. If users want to see additional or legacy items they can click on the link in the Quick Launch menu.

Within the library we have created 3 columns that we are using to tag and classify the data.

  1. Year: This is a single line of text field that allows the team to classify what year the content was used. We went with single line of text vs. any type of calculation because we wanted to have more control over adding legacy data from previous years.
  2. Quarter: This is a choice dropdown that lets us select the appropriate quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4).
  3. Brochure Type: This column is a Managed Metadata column with a local term set. This term set is also open so that users who are adding content will be able to add classifications as needed (an example of this is below).

When a user (one that has permission to add content, likely someone within the marketing department) adds new content to the library, they will be able to use the metadata to classify the content:

Since we are using the Managed Metadata column type, we should take a few minutes to review the extra functionality available to the users who are classifying the data. If they select the icon next to the text field they will open an additional menu that allows them to select the value they want.

From these menus they can easily find the value in the tree structure or they can even add a new item if they don't see what they need. The value they add then becomes part of the term store so that other users can reference it. Keep in mind; this is configurable, so if you don't want them to be able to add items, you can simply make it a closed term set. This is the beauty of SharePoint - you can customize it to fit what you need it to do, where you need it to do it. The tools are just a way for you to implement your process.

The final configuration that we are using in this example is Managed Metadata Navigation. By enabling this on the library we are able to display some additional filtering navigation elements that users can use to help filter and refine their view of the brochure library.

When a user selects the various filters in the navigation pane, the list view will be filtered to match the selected criteria.

Multiple filters can be selected at once, which simplifies the search for the users.

So there you have it. In this blog post we covered a simple example for storing content. On the home page we wanted to make our users aware of the most recent content. When they opened the full library, we gave them additional functionality to help them quickly locate the content that they were looking for.

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January 20

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Slide Library - Part 3
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 1/20/2012 11:53 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

This is the third post in my series about a sample Intranet Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be covering what I think is one of the most under-used features in SharePoint. I think it is mostly because people are not aware of what it can do for you. So in this post we will cover the features in detail and hopefully encourage some of you to start to utilize this functionality.

What is it?

The Slide Library is one of the default list type templates available in SharePoint. You can access it when you are creating new content.

The purpose of this library is to create a centralized location that allows you to easily find, manage and reuse existing slides. The idea behind it is that you can have a central store of slides that can be reused in any PowerPoint presentation.

When would we use it?

Some common example of when you could use this, include the following:

  • Boiler Plate Content
    • About Us
    • Company Information
    • Contact Information
  • Common Training Slides
  • Header Slides
    • Demo
    • Thanks for Coming
    • Questions

How does it work?

The slide library works using a concept of publishing slides to the library.

When you choose to publish slides you will be prompted to select a presentation. Once the presentation loads you will be able to select what slides from that presentation you want to load into the library.

Once the slides are published completely (this tends to take some time, so be patient!) you will see them as items in your slide library.

Now users will be able to select the slides from the library and the reuse them in their presentations. They do this by selecting the slides they need and then clicking on "Copy Slide to Presentation". A menu will then be displayed that asks you where you want to put the slide (into an existing presentation or a new one), what to do with the formatting and then if you want to be notified when the slide changes.

The slide will be downloaded to your presentation and will be formatted based on your selection. You can continue working on your presentation and then save the presentation to its final location. The next time you open the presentation you will be prompted to check for updates to the slides.

If there are updates you will be prompted on how you would like to incorporate them into your presentation.

You can:

  • Replace: replace the existing slide with the new content
  • Append: add the updated slide as a new slide and keep the original
  • Skip: Take no action for the current slide, review the next change
  • Cancel: Exit the process

How is it being used in our sample Marketing Intranet Site?

For our example in this series we are using the slide library to store the "approved" set of slides provided by marketing. This includes the common boiler plate slides and company information slides. User will be trained to access the boiler plate slides here and to incorporate them into their presentations. By doing this we can provide an easy way to "push" updates to all of our presentations when we want to change one of the common slides.

 

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January 19

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Storing Images - Part 2
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 1/19/2012 11:54 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

This is the second post in a series about a sample Intranet Marketing site. In this post we want to look at some various options we have for storing a collection of common images that we want our users to use as the standard images. The easier we make for them to work with, the more chance we have of our users returning to the site and always grabbing the latest and greatest. We want to be able to highlight the latest approved images as well as provide a repository of older images. The way we have chosen to implement this is by creating a Picture Library and then using the Picture Library Slide Show web part to display the images on the home page of the site.

This allows us to provide a way for users to access an entire library of images, as well as display the images on the home page. This slideshow web part is a way to grab the reader's attention as they are browsing the site. To get started, we will create a new Picture Library. (Site Actions -> More Options):

For the most part we will use the default settings of the library. We will upload any of our images to this library and then train users on how to best work with the content. In the remainder of this post we will highlight some of those out of the box features.

Views

So the first thing that I want to highlight in this post are the default views that you get when you create a Picture Library:

  • Details : This view is similar to what users would see in a typical Fileshare.

     

  • Thumbnail: This view is the default view and shows a thumbnail of each of the images.

     

     

     

  • Filmstrip : This view allows you to see the thumbnail as well as a larger image in a filmstrip type format.

     

The beauty of having so many options is that users can select the view that best fits what they are trying to accomplish. In all of the views you may have noticed that there is an item selection box.

This is also a great feature in this type of library that allows you to select multiple images and then complete common tasks. The actions that you can perform are included in the Actions menu on the library (yes I said menu and not Ribbon. This is one of the list types that doesn't yet support the ribbon).

Some of the most powerful features of this library include:

  • Ability to download multiple images at once to your local machine. You simply select the items that you would like to have downloaded and then select the option in the Actions menu. When you do this, you are presented with a screen that allows you to configure the download properties.

     

  • Ability to select images and then send them to a document or email. You select the image(s) that you want to send and then from the actions menu select the Send to option.

     

    Using this feature allows users to quickly add content to their open documents. This makes the process of getting the most up to date images nice and simple!

     

  • The final item I want to discuss is the feature that allows you to view a slideshow. From the Actions menu if a user selects this option they are able to see in a new window, a slideshow presentation of the content.

     

 

That covers some of the OOTB features I wanted to highlight for the list, and now we will move on to the Picture Library Slideshow web part. This web part allows a slideshow of the images to run on the page where the web part is configured. To get stared, insert the web part on the home page:

Once the web part is loaded, open the tool pane to configure the web part settings:

These settings allow for you to configure the settings such as order and duration to meet your needs. I encourage you to play with the different settings until you find the ones that work best for your scenario.

 

So that concludes this blog post. Hopefully this gives you some insight on some of the ways that you can manage images within your site. Add to the comments any thoughts or additions you might have! Would love to hear your feedback!

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January 19

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department - Part 1
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 1/19/2012 9:14 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

In this blog post I wanted to cover some of the basic options you have for working with different types of content on your SharePoint site. The example solution that I will be covering is a Marketing Intranet site that contains shared files that can be used and accessed by internal employees. Basically the site is a repository of content that users access as needed. Here is a screenshot of the solution home page.

The solution includes several main components, including:

  • A place to store the approved marketing images. These are the images that have been approved and tested and can be used in materials created by internal employees.
  • A place to the store the approved PowerPoint slides. These are the common boiler plate slides that everyone should be using in their presentations.
  • A place to access the latest marketing brochures.
  • A place to discuss marketing initiatives with the team.
  • A place to showcase the latest marketing video.

In this series I am going to create a post that covers each of the items referenced above and then a closing post that discusses some tips for site design and layout. The purpose of this series is to spark some ideas of different ways that you can organize and store different types of content. All the solutions I will be presenting are out of the box items. I find that these features are often overlooked, so I think it is very important to cover them in detail so that everyone is aware of the different things that can be done out of the box.

As I complete the additional items in the series I will be sure to update the links in the table below so that they are easily accessible from one location. If all goes well, I hope to have this series completed in the next week or so.

Post

Link

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department - Part 1

  http://blogs.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=98

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Storing Images - Part 2

  http://blogs.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=99

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Slide Library - Part 3

  http://blogs.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=100

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Marketing Brochures - Part 4

  http://blogs.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=102

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Marketing Discussions - Part 5

  http://blogs.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=103

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Marketing Video - Part 6

  http://blogs.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=104

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: An Example Intranet Site for a Marketing Department- Site Design Tips & Tricks - Part 7

  http://blogs.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=105
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December 21

Merry Christmas!
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 12/21/2011 9:48 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

Merry Christmas everyone! It's been a great year and I am thankful for all the different ways I have been able to connect with the SharePoint community. As a thanks to all of my blog readers I have worked with my company to offer a discount on the upcoming Information Worker training to get you a $400 discount. All you have to do is mention you heard about it on my blog J You can click the link below for more details and to register for the training course.

I have also been hard at work this fall on a new book that is now available in rough cuts on Safari Online. For those unfamiliar with rough cuts, this basically gives you access to the book prior to it being publically available. I have worked hard on this book and to date it is one of my favorites! This book is focused on specific solutions and maps them out from start to finish (including tips on governing them once they are deployed). I definitely would love to hear your feedback on it! You can get to the book using the link below:

Starting in January I am going to start building some solution based blog series. This will be similar to some of the chapters in the book (just much shorter)! I am hoping that these will really be of use for people who are just getting started on their SharePoint implementations. If you have any requests for the blog series leave them in the comments below! See you again in January!

 

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November 28

SharePoint 2010, Office 365: Using InfoPath to Display a List Form on a Page
by  Jennifer MasonNo presence information  on 11/28/2011 9:43 AM
Category: Office 365 Grid

In this blog, I wanted to outline a solution that we recently implemented at a client. They were looking for a way to quickly display project information on the home page of the site. They wanted Project Admins to be able to easily update the information and wanted it to be as easy as possible. We looked at having them add the information to the home page; however we didn't want to have to teach our Project Admins to update SharePoint pages. While this is an easy task there still really wasn't any compelling reason to have our admins need to update pages. We ended up going with the solution of creating a simple Project list and then customizing the form in InfoPath. We then used the InfoPath form web part to display the form on the home page of the site. In this blog post I will walk you through the steps we took to do this.

  1. Create the Project List. In this list we added columns for basic project information that people could use as a reference throughout the life of the project. Some sample columns could include:
    1. Project Name
    2. Project Number
    3. Project Manager
    4. Description
    5. Estimated Completion Date
    6. Vendor

    Since your list is based on your specific needs, feel free to be creative on what items are included. Below is a screenshot of my list settings page that shows the sample list that I will be using for the remainder of this example.

  2. Next up, we will want to customize this list using InfoPath forms services.

     

     

     

    When the form opens in InfoPath, we will want to create a new View. This will allow us to create a view that we can reference as a read only view for displaying the information.

     

    Use the different layouts and styles to customize a display view of the form.

     

    When you complete the form layout, select the Quick Publish option to publish the changes back to the SharePoint site.

     

     

  3. With the form complete we will now add a list item that has our project information. This list will really only ever contain one item. We are just trying to make an easy way for users to access and update the project information without having to update the page.

     

  4. Now we are ready to add the web part to the home page.

     

    Once the web part has been added, use the Tool Pane to configure the web part to display the correct form.

     

     

    Your page should look similar to the screenshot below.

     

  5. The next step in this process is added a way for the form web part to know which list item to display by default. This is done by configuring a web part connection in the Form Web Part. We first start by adding the projects web part to the page and then we add a connection within the Form Web Part to get the form data from the Projects web part. An example of the connection is below.

    Now our home page displays the list web part and the form web part.

     

  6. The final step is to set the Projects Web Part to hidden so that it is not shown on the home page. There are two options for doing this:
    1. 1 - configure the web part in the tool pane to display as hidden (note: this isn't available on all sites, so if the option is greyed out, see b)

    2. 2- configure the web part in SharePoint Designer to display as hidden.

       

      Open the page that the web part is on and select the web part and edit the properties.

       

      Save your changes and close SharePoint Designer. When you navigate to the site in the browser you will now see the form on the home page with the information displayed and the projects list hidden. To update the information that is displayed you just need to update the list item.

     

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