Design - SharePoint for End Users

9/25/2009

Cool Content Friday - Real World Branding with SharePoint Server 2007 Publishing Sites

If you work with SharePoint Publishing sites, you might be interested in the "Real World Branding with SharePoint Server 2007 Publishing Sites" series written by Randy Drisgill and Andrew Connell.

The first part covers how to plan for branding, and the second addresses how to how to deploy branding. Although the papers cover some advanced topics, you might find the planning information helpful in the first part, regardless of your experience level. And if you like hands-on technical details, you might like the detailed discussion of CSS and master pages in the second part.

You can read some background on the papers on Randy Drisgill's blog.

I hope you find these papers to be helpful. Cheers,

Toni

SharePoint Content Team

Posted at 11:56 PM by | Category: Cool Content; Design; Branding | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

9/15/2009

Using SharePoint Themes to Customize your SharePoint Site

by Rod Stagg, SharePoint Solutions Architect/Developer
http://www.rstagg.com

Overview

We recently started an effort to provide a centralized and secure collaboration space for information sharing and collaboration across the enterprise using SharePoint 2007 and WSS.

The first phase of the project consists of a complete site redesign to provide the organization a consistent navigation and “Look and Feel” along with a consolidation of all existing SharePoint sites into a unified and secure SharePoint platform.

As part of the site redesign effort we investigated which approach would be most efficient for implementing the “Look and Feel” while also avoiding disrupting our existing WSS sites and users.

Technical Approach

The two primary choices for customizing the look and feel of both MOSS 2007 and WSS sites we evaluated were using custom alternate CSS stylesheets or using SharePoint themes. These choices would not require making significant changes to the sites' existing masterpages and templates. For our approach we decided to start with one of the existing SharePoint themes and customize it to match our branding.

What is a SharePoint theme?

SharePoint themes represent a collection of graphics and cascading style sheets that can modify how a Web site looks. Themes can be customized using SharePoint Designer or using the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint.

Our customized theme for SharePoint 2007 and WSS sites look like this:

Home Page

News Template

Site Settings

Search

Advantages of using SharePoint themes:

The SharePoint site settings interface provides the ability for both site administrators and site owners to customize the look and feel of their site by selecting from a pre-defined list of available site themes.
The site settings interface provides the ability to display a preview/screenshot of the selected theme before they choose to apply it to their site.
Themes can be easily removed via the SharePoint site settings interface.
Themes packaged and deployed as a site feature simplify deployment across a SharePoint farm for IT administrators.
Developers can take advantage of the set of ten Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint projects containing design themes for SharePoint provided by Microsoft as a starting point for developing a custom theme.

Applying a site theme:

From Site Actions select Site Settings and then Modify All Site Settings. Under the Look and Feel section choose Themes.
You will find the selection of available themes to apply to your site.

Development of a custom site theme:

Developers can install the set of ten Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint projects containing design themes for SharePoint provided by Microsoft as a starting point for developing a custom theme.
You can download theme templates from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0a87658f-20b8-4dcc-ad7a-09ad22641f3a
Navigate to the installed theme folder (the default location is C:\Program Files\Microsoft\TenThemesForSharePoint)
Open one of the Visual Studio theme solutions in Visual Studio 2008
Modify the CSS classes directly in theme.css classes as needed.
Drop in the necessary graphics/images into the projects local image directory.
Build the project.

Source code for the customized version displayed above available by clicking the icon below.

Deployment

Copy the Visual Studio project’s bin folder to your production server.
Locate the setup.bat file in the debug folder.
Open the setup.bat file in Notepad and modify the DefaultWebUrl and DefaultSiteUrl to point to the web application where you would like to install the theme.
Save setup.bat and run as administrator.
Navigate to a site and from the Site settings page select Site features, locate your theme and activate the feature.
Open your portal site as Administrator and go to Site Actions>Site Settings>Modify All Site Settings. Under the Look and Feel Section, click on Site Theme and choose the newly installed theme.

Posted at 5:01 PM by | Category: Branding; Building Solutions; Design; Team Sites; Site Admin; User Experience | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (4)

7/28/2009

Use SharePoint Designer and Silverlight to create a video blog

by Rod Stagg, SharePoint Solutions Architect/Developer
http://www.rstagg.com | Allyis Inc., Kirkland, Wa

We have been looking at ways to increase the discoverability of internally produced video content and rich user experiences developed on Silverlight currently stored in various document libraries throughout our SharePoint intranet/extranet.

One area of particular interest is finding a way to easily incorporate rich user experiences and streaming video directly into individual blog posts taking advantage of the the built-in commenting form provided in the SharePoint blog template.

One challenge has been finding a "start small" approach that provides the performance benefits of streaming the video content vs. downloading from document libraries while being able to get started without the need to provision large media servers and associated infrastructure in the short-term.

Another challenge has been finding an approach to surface our rich user experiences developed on Silverlight onto our internet-facing website as well as our intranet.

To address these efforts we recently provisioned a Silverlight Streaming account and customized a standard SharePoint blog template using SharePoint Designer to display both our streaming video content and Silverlight 2 applications we currently have stored on the Silverlight Streaming Service.

Blog Home Page:

Features: Modified layout, video and/or Silverlight application plays inline, blog title linked to full post page, caption linked to full screen play.

Blog Full Post Page

Features: Video or Silverlight application plays inline, full screen link.

Benefits:

Continued ability to publish regular blog posts.
Ability to embed videos stored on Silverlight Streaming Service directly into blog posts.
Ability to embed your own custom Silverlight applications directly into blog posts.
Ability to categorize video posts.
Ability to comment on video posts.
Makes use of XSLT and CSS for customizations-no custom javascript to deploy or maintain.
Ability to add functionality to existing blogs.
Ability to further customize via centralized custom XSLT files and custom CSS.

Technical requirements:

You have access to edit the blog in SharePoint Designer, a free Silverlight Streaming account set-up with your Windows Live Id, and upload at least one video or Silverlight application to the service for use in your blog post.

What is the Silverlight Streaming Service?

Microsoft® Silverlight™ Streaming by Windows Live™ is a companion service for Silverlight that makes it easier for developers and designers to deliver and scale rich media as part of their Silverlight applications. The service offers web designers and developers a free (*) and convenient solution for hosting and streaming cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences and rich interactive applications that run on Windows™ and Mac. Combined with the ability to create content with Microsoft® Expression and other 3rd party tools, web designers and content publishers wishing to integrate Silverlight applications into their online properties can enjoy complete control of the end user experience.

More details and sign-up free here

Example video uploaded using the Upload Video feature:

Can I use my existing .wmv video files?

Yes, there are some exceptions and size restrictions but providing you have a valid Windows Live ID account you can upload your .wmv video files directly to the Silverlight Streaming Service using the Manage Videos, Upload Videos feature. For added features check out Expression Encoder 2 for encoding your videos to specific needs.

Can I use my existing Silverlight 2 .xap files?

Yes, there are some exceptions and size restrictions but providing you have a valid Windows Live ID account you can upload your Silverlight .xap files directly to the Silverlight Streaming Service using the Manage Applications, Upload Applications feature. For added features check out Expression Blend 2 for designing Silverlight applications without code.

What SharePoint Designer customizations do I need to make to add this functionality to my existing SharePoint blogs?

We added three new site columns on our blog's post list to allow users to add their own Silverlight Streaming videos and applications and a caption when creating a new post.

New columns added to Post list:

SilverlightStreamingServiceApplicationUrl (Text Field: Multiple Lines of Text, Plain Text)
PostImageCaption (Text Field: Muliple Lines of Text, Rich Text)
PostImageUrl (Text Field: Single Line of Text, Plain Text)

Modifications to blog pages:

We modified the default.aspx and post.aspx pages to use a customized version of each XSLT that both reformats the layout and incorporates an iframe to display the user-provided SilverlightStreamingApplicationUrl since the default SharePoint editing controls strip out any iframe, embed, or script references. To accomplish this we first saved back-up versions of our default.aspx and post.aspx pages and then opened each in SharePoint Designer in design mode and converted the appropriate dataview Web Parts to XSLT (right click, convert to XSLT option).

Source XSLT and CSS files:

Modifications to Default.aspx

Upload the provided default.xsl to the blog's root folder.
Convert the post dataview web-part to XSLT (right-click-convert to XSLT).
Apply the custom XSLT file provided: from the dataview web-part's Common Data View Properties pane choose DataView Properties, then select the XSLT Source tab and browse to the default.xsl file.

Modifications to Post.aspx

Upload the provided post.xsl to the blog's root folder.
Convert the post dataview web-part to XSLT (ignore @Author error message).
Apply the custom XSLT: from the dataview web-part's Common Data View Properties pane choose DataView Properties, then select the XSLT Source tab and browse to the post.xsl file.
Create a filter and parameter to filter the post DVWP by id : from the dataview web-part's Common Data View Properties pane choose Filter, if not displayed create a new URL parameter for ID and set the value to [id].

CSS Modifications:

We also created a custom version of the blog templates core.css and referenced the following from the default.aspx and post.aspx pages as a link:

Added custom style sheet reference in default.aspx:

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server">

<SharePoint:RssLink runat="server"/>

</asp:Content>

Added custom style sheet reference in post.aspx:

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server">

<SharePoint:RssLink runat="server"/>

</asp:Content>

Once my blog is configured, how do I create new blog posts that include this new functionaility?

Simply create your blog post as usual including your post title and post body.

Fill in the SilverlightStreamingApplicationUrl and PostImageCaption fields and save your post as usual (see Obtaining the SilverlightStreamingApplicationUrl below for details on the URL to use).

Obtaining the SilverlightStreamingApplicationUrl:

From Silverlight Administration Home upload your .wmv video or Silverlight 2 application to the Silverlight Streaming Service.

Example Screenshot

From Silverlight Administration Home select the link to the video or application.

From Method 1: Embed the video into a web page and obtain the embed link for the video or application.

Important: Copy only the URL inside the iframe (example in red) .

What's next?

Investigate how to add YouTube and MSN videos into the posts.
Simplify deployment for new blogs via site template (.stp file).
Create custom site definition with custom columns included.
Create SharePoint application page to allow users to upload videos/display in blog post in one step.
Investigate using Silverlight Streaming Services API and existing solutions to provide reporting on #downloads, video streaming data, etc.

Posted at 10:58 AM by | Category: Branding; Collaboration; Design; Lists and Libraries; Rich Media; Silverlight; Social Networking; Team Sites; User Experience | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (3)

7/20/2009

Planning Content Types for SharePoint Sites

by Sandra Tersteeg, Senior Project Manager/Business Analyst

Allyis | www.allyis.com

Introduction

The planning of content types begins with your requirements and is integrated into the design and specifications for your SharePoint content management system through your information architecture. However, before we dive into these areas, let’s begin by defining content types.

What is a Content Type?

Content types in SharePoint allow you to associate metadata, templates and workflow processes to assets found within your content management environment. Assets can include a body of text about a particular subject, an image, document, spreadsheet, video, presentation, form, web page or a page layout. An asset can be thought of as any resource that contributes to the successful rendering of useful information to the person viewing your content.

Turning Requirements into Content Types

During the gathering of the business requirements, several scenarios are good indications of where content types would be used. Such scenarios could be:

Associate similar metadata to multiple areas such as department, functional groups or subject area
Provide consistent processes across multiple areas or sites
Ability to find assets quickly
Implement and maintain consistency across multiple areas
A single template for multiple areas is used such as an absence request, presentation or a whitepaper
Approvals are required from a central area across all other areas such as an expense report that is to be approved by the manager, and then passed to an accounting department for final approval and reimbursement

Designing Content Types

Now that you have established what content types are required, you can then begin to see the need for specific properties about content types to be shared among other content types such as Department Name, Type of Document or a template shared among several content types. To accommodate this scenario, you would first create your most basic high-level content type, and then create the others by inheriting the first. This allows you to manage a template, process or site column (metadata) at a core level and have it automatically populate to all other content types inheriting it. For example, when a new expense report comes out for the upcoming fiscal year, a simple update to the core expense report populates to all other content types inheriting it from other departments. This allows a corporation to define specific metadata while allowing individual areas to further define additional metadata based on their group needs.

After you have determined your content types and their properties, you will need to capture this within your design and specification documentation for whoever will be actually building and configuring your SharePoint sites. For an example of how that might be done, click here to view a sample Content Type Design & Specification document.

Posted at 6:03 PM by | Category: Design; Lists and Libraries; Planning & Process | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/1/2009

Make your SharePoint pages pop with the Content Editor Web Part

I spend a lot of time managing and updating Web pages on our internal Microsoft Office SharePoint Web site. MOSS is great for displaying lists, libraries, and calendars of shared items and events using Web parts. When I first starting creating pages, though, it wasn’t clear to me how to do things like add headings, add explanatory content, or use formatted text to make a page look more appealing. Then I found the Content Editor Web Part, which is now one of my favorite Web parts. It allows you to add HTML, formatted text, tables, and images to a page to help clarify, explain, or add emphasis to whatever you’re trying to communicate. For example… here’s a typical default SharePoint page with an Announcements Web part and a Calendar Web part at the top of the page.

Default page

This a good start for a page, but it doesn’t quickly communicate what the page is about, grab the attention of your audience, or look very appealing. That’s where the Content Editor Web Part comes in. You can use this versatile Web part to add a heading, graphic, and introductory paragraph to your page, like this:

Content Editor Web Part

To create something similar with a Content Editor Web part on your Microsoft Office SharePoint Web page, follow this procedure (which assumes you have permissions to edit the page you’re working on):

1. On your page, click Site Actions, and then click Edit Page.

2. In the area where you want to add the Content Editor Web Part, click Add a Web Part.

3. In the Add Web Parts dialog box, scroll down to the Miscellaneous section, and then click Content Editor Web Part, and then click Add.

4. The Web Part is added to your page. Click the link that says open the tool pane...

5. The tool pane usually displays on the right of the page. You may need to scroll to find it. Once you find it, click Rich Text Editor to start adding formatted content and images. Or, click Source Editor to add HTML code. See the Tips and Tricks below for info on styles, graphics, and more.

6. Add your content, and click OK (in the rich text editor) or Save (in the source editor) when you’re done.

Tips and Tricks

· In the Rich Text Editor, use the buttons on the toolbar for formatting, adding tables, hyperlinks, and images.

· Images: Upload your image to your site before attempting to add an image to the Web part. Once you’ve uploaded your image to the site, you can add the image to the Web part by clicking the Image button (or CTRL+SHIFT+G) and click browse to find your image on the site. Then, you can choose how to display the image within the text. For example, under Alignment in the Edit Image Properties dialog box, choose Left to place the image to the left side of the text (as in the screenshot shown above). To add space between the image and the text, add a number under Horizontal Spacing (pixels) or Vertical Spacing (pixels). I always start with 10.

· Styles: Want to use predefined styles? Don’t click the Styles button. Instead, click the paragraph mark button and select a style such as Bulleted List, Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on.

· So what is the Styles button for? I use it when I paste content into the Rich Text Editor from another source, and it doesn’t look quite right. So I click Remove Inline Styles under Styles to remove stray formatting brought in from the other source, and then reformat the text in the Rich Text Editor.

· Title (Chrome): When you’re using the Content Editor Web Part to display a heading, you might not want the Content Editor Web Part title to show. To remove it, expand the Appearance section in the tool pane, and under Chrome Type, select None or Border Only.

· Height and Width: You can specify a height and width for the Web part by expanding the Appearance section and clicking Yes under Height or Width, and then entering the size you want. You can choose to represent the size in Pixels, Inches, Points, and more.

· Editing the HTML: If something just doesn’t look right and you can’t change it using the Rich Text Editor, you may need to edit the HTML directly. You can do this by clicking the Edit HTML Source button in the Rich Text Editor, or by closing the Rich Text Editor and clicking the Source Editor button in the tool pane. In cases where there is a lot of HTML to work with, I copy the HTML out into Notepad where I can wrap the text and use the Find tool to find what I’m looking for, make my changes, and then copy it back into the Source Editor. For especially complex HTML, I will copy the code into SharePoint Designer and work with it there.

For more information, see About the Content Editor Web Part on Office Online.

This post also appears on Inside Office Online, where you can find the helpful news and tips on using Office programs.

Loreen

Posted at 8:24 AM by | Category: Web Parts; Design | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

6/26/2009

HTML Dog: Cool content for a hot summer Friday

While surfing for cool content on this hot summer’s day, I came across Matthew McDermott’s SharePoint MVP profile. Turns out, Matthew and I share something in common besides SharePoint; we train dogs.

Matthew, and his dog Willa, Matthew and Willa founded K9 SEARCH, which serves the FBI, and Austin and San Antonio Police Departments. Looks like the K9 SEARCH website is running on SharePoint Server 2007. Pretty cool, on both counts, Matthew!

What do dogs have in common with SharePoint? It must have been this connection with dogs that led me to notice Matthew’s recommendation to HTML Dog: The Best Practice Guide to HTML and CSS, Patrick Griffiths' website and book.

HTML Dog: The Best Practice Guide to HTML and CSS

As you'll soon find out, there’s nothing doggie about the HTML Dog website! From the Beginner HTML Tutorial to the more Advanced HTML Tags and CSS Properties references Patrick provides easy to read, step-by-step instructions, unraveling the seemingly deep, dark mystery about how HTML and CSS works. He augments the tutorials and references with articles, examples, and an invaluable list of external links.

As you may already know, when you view content on a Web page in SharePoint you’re looking at HTML and CSS that's coming from page templates and style sheets that reside on the front-end web servers (unless the page has been customized, but that's another story). The content is arranged on the page depending on the site template or the Web Parts in which it appears. If you're viewing content in a list or library you can change the way it looks by using a view.

Many of these choices are available “out-of-the-box,” but in most cases you can customize the look and feel of SharePoint. That means that the team site that I use does not look like the team site that you use.

We think this is cool, because, let’s face it, one size, color, and shape doesn’t work for everyone, right? But, it seems as though this confuses people. I think that’s where Patrick’s site can help. You don’t have to be an expert on HTML or CSS to use SharePoint, but it does help to understand the basics of what’s going on; especially if you’re a site administrator.

If you’re new to SharePoint or just need a good reference, give Patrick’s site a try. Thanks for the tip, Matthew. Just in time for the “dog days” of summer!

…Renée

SharePoint End-User Content Team

Posted at 2:02 PM by | Category: Cool Content; Building Solutions; Design; Publishing; Site Admin | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

4/17/2009

Embed video in your SharePoint blogs and wikis - Friday Cool Content

Have you noticed lately that we’ve been embedding a lot more video in our regular blog posts? That’s because we found a great SharePoint solution, originally discovered by our good friend Michael Gannotti.

It’s called ERTE, the Enhanced Rich Text Editor for SharePoint, and you can download it for free on Codeplex: www.codeplex.com/erte

You might be wondering why this is such a big deal when, after all, people have been embedding videos in blogs for a long time. Well, when you create a blog in SharePoint, the rich text editor field strips out all embedded code, including video embedded code. Even if you use Live Writer, you’ll discover your embedded video turns into an embedded graphic that links to the video (where it's hosted).

How it works

Once you complete the instructions on Codeplex, you see a new button in your SharePoint rich text editor (next to the source HTML button), like this…

When you click the button, a dialog box like this opens…

Just add some alternate text, paste in the embedded code, and click Insert.

Embed videos from MSN, YouTube, and internal sources

You can easily embed videos from any video sharing site (MSN Video, YouTube, etc.) that includes an "Embed" option. You can also use this solution for videos internal to your organization. Just upload the video (like a .wmv) to a document library, note the path to the video, and embed it along with common HTML embed code.

This solution works for both SharePoint blogs and wikis, so you can use it in both places.

I hope you enjoy this solution as much as we have. It’s nice to provide inline videos without sending your users away to another site.

Thanks!

Tom

SharePoint End User Content Team

Posted at 2:24 PM by | Category: Design; Training; Education | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (9)

3/18/2009

Leveraging Card Sorting to Improve the Navigation of your SharePoint site

Building navigation structures and taxonomies is one of the most difficult parts of implementing SharePoint--or any other IT application for that matter. When building these applications we are most concerned with streamlining the experience for our users, to help improve ease of use and thereby increasing adoption. When we take the time to carefully investigate intuitive navigation structures and taxonomies it makes the adoption of SharePoint far more enjoyable for our end users.

Often times we build navigation and taxonomies within the confines of our design or implementation group. These groups aren’t usually a good representation of the end-users of the site. It’s better to receive feedback from the individuals who will be using the application regularly as part of their job, and this is where card sorting comes in.

Card Sorting Defined

While architecting how we want to lay out our information, card sorting helps better understand where the end-users would think a piece of content would be. We’ve all used applications and muttered to ourselves, “why did they put this here?” or “where did they put it?” By using card sorting we can hopefully minimize—if not eradicate—this problem. Let’s take a look at card sorting.

When most people are exposed to the idea of card sorting it seems too simple to be true, but in simplicity we gain value. Let’s look at a working definition provided by The Usability Company:

“[C]ard sorting is a categorization method where users sort cards depicting various pieces of information into categories. The results can then be leveraged to build a more intuitive navigational hierarchy.”

There are tools built specifically for card sorting, but in truth this is all we need.

1. Index cards, post-it notes, pieces of paper, or something similar (these will be referred to as “cards”)

2. A writing utensil

3. A desk or board to put the cards on.

Card sorting on a desk There are two main ways of approaching card sorting. We can either do bottom-up or top-down card sorting. The difference lies in what we provide to the participant.

In a bottom-up exercise we provide the participant with cards with different types of content written on them. For example if we were doing a navigational structure for a site on home furnishings we would have different products on them such as couches, dishwashers, tables, etc. We would then ask the user to group them in a way that makes the most sense to them. After categorizing them then we put a card at the top of each category and have the participant give a name to them such as “Kitchen,” “Bedroom,” or whatever else the user decides. This method allows us to not only let the user categorize the information but then give us a title that best describes the content therein.

In a top-down method we provide the user with category titles and then ask them to put the cards underneath each category that makes the most sense to the user. Here we’re not wanting a title for the categories simply the way the user makes the most sense to the content according to given category titles.

Top-Up or Bottom-Down?

You might then wonder which method you should use. Well, there is no right or wrong method to use it’s more a matter of necessity. If you already have defined a top level navigation structure and their titles then you probably only need the top-down method to see how the user would imagine content living within those categories. However, if you’re very early in the process then a bottom-up method gives a wider view of not only the categories but what they should be labeled.

I for one use them together and not mutually exclusive. I would start early with the bottom-up and allow input on the category contents and their titles. As we moved along and did iterations perhaps by that time we’re happy with our label choices and then only want to see how users would categorize inside our defined labels. Feel free to use them both to meet whatever needs your project and users have.

Conclusion

Card sorting has many benefits to building intuitive and usable interfaces with a more enjoyable user experience. It also brings your users in early for input which will help later down the project timeline with adoption. We all want our voices heard so listen to them and use them to make your next project successful!

Chris Poteet is a SharePoint Business Analyst currently workgin for Information Contril Corporation* in Columbus, OH. He blogs regularly at www.siolon.com.
* www.iccohio.com

Posted at 1:53 PM by | Category: Design; Site Admin | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

3/13/2009

A new SharePoint Designer book from Microsoft Press -- Friday cool content

For all you SharePoint Designer enthusiasts and aficionados out there, I just wanted to let you know that John Jansen, Test Lead for the SharePoint Designer product team, has recently published a book from Microsoft Press:

Titled "Building Web Applications with Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Step by Step," John covers a wide range of topics, including:

Get Started with SharePoint Designer

Customizing the SharePoint Master Page

Using ASP.NET controls with SharePoint Controls

Creating Workflows

Data Sources with ASP.NET and SharePoint

Integrating SharePoint Applications with Access

Creating Data Views in SharePoint Designer

Learn more about the book and find links to purchase it at Microsoft Learning.

You can also view John's free training videos on SharePoint Designer 2007 on Office Online:

A six-part series on getting the most out of SharePoint Designer 2007

SharePoint Designer 2007 Business Administrator Training

And there's more SharePoint Designer 2007 training available from John via Total Training (not free):

Total Training for Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007

So check out the book and the videos and learn how to get more out of SharePoint Designer 2007.

Cheers,

Stephen

Posted at 9:51 AM by | Category: Building Solutions; Design; Training | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

2/18/2009

Love at first site

A few years ago, the mega-company I worked for was bought by an even-more-mega-company. Soon after, my boss told me our new parent used something called SharePoint, and we were “encouraged” to use it, too. Because I was a tech writer, and SharePoint “has something to do with documents,” it was only natural that I was assigned to figure out how to use SharePoint in our group of about 150 people.

Without getting into the weeds, it was an 18-month exercise of trial and error – lots of ideas that sounded good but didn’t quite work out, lots of false starts and do-overs, lots of frustration and a bit of anger. We made it up as we went along, even as people in the group began to rely on SharePoint in their daily work and to ask for more functionality. At times, it felt like we were trying to change a flat tire while driving down the road: exciting but scary.

It turned out that, for our group at least, implementing SharePoint was technologically pretty easy and organizationally pretty difficult.

I vowed that if I ever had to do it again, I’d do a lot of things differently: Before I started building sites, I would spend a lot more time talking with people about what they wanted to do, planning the organization of the site collection, and working out the policies and practices that people would use.

Fast forward: Now I’m working for the very company that makes SharePoint. When the opportunity came up to write an article that could help people get started with SharePoint, I thought my experience might be useful. The article Planning for your first Microsoft Office SharePoint Server site is based on the lessons I learned, plus a lot of good advice from others. My aim in writing it was to help you avoid the missteps that caused a lot of frustration and rework. Think high-level roadmap. It isn’t techy, but it does give you links to resources you’ll find useful. If you’re in the same situation I was, I hope this article will help.

Dennis