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SharePoint 2010 vs with FAST for Search

Sharon Richardson — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:35:27 +0000

One of the new features with SharePoint 2010 is the option to add-on FAST for advanced indexing and search capabilities. The short presentation below gives an idea of the extras you get with FAST versus just using SharePoint. The focus is on internal indexing/search solutions. FAST offers a lot more over SharePoint for use with public facing web sites but that’s a whole other scenario.

SharePoint 2010 Content Types

Sharon Richardson — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:16:15 +0000

The presentation below contains a walkthrough the basics of what are content types in SharePoint 2010 and what’s new. Enjoy!

SharePoint 2010 What’s New

Sharon Richardson — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:22:03 +0000

This week I presented at the SharePoint Evolutions Conference and one of the sessions I delivered was an interactive tour around some of the new and improved features being introduced in SharePoint 2010, from the end-user’s perspective.

The conference session didn’t have any slides as it was all demo and discussion, including tips to consider when planning to deploy SharePoint 2010. If you attended or registered but were unable to get there due to a certain volcano, the recorded session will be included on the post-conference DVD. Here’s a presentation that summarises some of the demonstration:

This entry is also posted at www.sharepointsharon.com

Microsoft’s Productivity Hub

Sharon Richardson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:19:53 +0000

Microsoft has released the Productivity Hub – a SharePoint Server 2007 site collection available for download that includes training materials for end-users. Ready to be installed on any internal SharePoint Server 2007 deployment, the Productivity Hub includes:

SharePoint site collection pre-loaded with content – documents videos etc. – for end user productivity training
A blog offering tips and tricks that can be used ‘as is’ or customised by training staff
‘Train the trainer – IT/Management section for deploying the site collection and developing a coaching programme

Interesting concept – I’ll be adding it to my SharePoint 2007 demo for evaluation and will report back here.

Hat tip to Mark Harrison for posting.

SharePoint 2007 – Managing Site Permissions

Sharon Richardson — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:51:00 +0000

This is the first post in a series based on a training course I have delivered over the past three years. The course is a half-day workshop covering the basics of what is SharePoint through to managing a site. Designed for business users rather than IT, the course is very hands-on with a few slides followed by practical exercises. For the past two years, I’ve been meaning to convert it into a book for reference. Here goes for starters, a little later than planned…

Managing Site Permissions

The presentation below walks through how to manage permissions and control access to a SharePoint site. It assumes you are the owner of your own site, i.e. you have permission to change permissions:

Some additional notes and reminders:

Always check with your IT department regarding the policy for managing SharePoint permissions. They may prefer to create directory groups for you that can then be added to SharePoint groups. This approach lets you decide what permissions each group is given without having to manage the users. It’s also great if you use a distribution list to send out email to everyone, as the same membership is used for both activities. IT can’t prevent you from applying your own permissions (short of not letting you be a site owner), but a good identity management system makes life easier for everyone.
Do keep permissions as simple as possible. In most projects, I find people treat a lot of information as more sensitive than it really is. SharePoint is at its best when used for collaborative working. You can’t collaborate when documents are kept secret. Be sure there is a good reason for locking down access.
To quote a good book, Don’t Panic! It’s easy to reset permissions by simply re-inheriting from the parent site. If you lock yourself out of your own site, after laughing for a while, IT can sort it all out using the SharePoint system account. Not ideal and they won’t thank you for the extra workload but all is not lost.

If you have any feedback or questions, please leave a comment here. Would a video be helpful to show setting permissions in practice?

Download the presentation (PDF)

Approving items in a list

Sharon Richardson — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:16:00 +0000

This post is just a simple tip that I keep forgetting myself when configuring SharePoint lists…

With SharePoint Server 2007, you can easily set-up workflows to require items in a list to be approved. (Go to the list settings, click on Workflow settings and fill in the boxes.) However, if you are going to the trouble of requiring all items to be approved, you probably only want those items to become visible to everyone once they have been approved. The workflow will not control visibility of the items. To do so, you need to go into the list settings and click on ‘Versioning settings’.

Within the list versioning settings, check the button for Content Approval. By default, draft item security will then be set to ‘Only users who can approve items (and the author of the item). That’s all there is to it (assuming you’ve set up the workflow correctly).

Note: creating workflows within the browser user interface is only available in the full SharePoint Server product (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard or Enterprise edition). If you are using Windows SharePoint Services, you have to create the workflows from scratch.