Outlook 2010 & SharePoint 2010 Integration

Outlook 2007 with SP 2010 – nearly identical to using Outlook 2010

Outlook 2003 with SP 2010 – cannot connect to document libraries, cannot overlay calendars, one way synchronization in calendar and contacts (sharepoint -> outlook)

Linking SPF 2010 document libraries to Outlook 2010

Benefits:

• Take files offline to work with them in Outlook
• Use Outlook’s built in viewer to see in documents (for supported formats)

Note: Functionality available in 2007 but not 2003

How to link to a document library:

1. Open Document Library you want to connect to in SharePoint 2010
2. Click on the ribbons “Library” tab
3. Connect & Export section > Click Connect to Outlook icon (labels may be hidden by screen size/resolution)
4. Popup window > Click Allow (to allow Outlook to be used)
5. Popup window > Click Allow (to allow transfer of content-may not appear)
6. Outlook 2010 will open and popup asks if we want to connect > Click Advanced
7. Change name and description of document library if desired > Click OK
8. Click Yes
9. Verify access by logging into SharePoint from Outlook
10. View documents in library in Outlook

How to delete a connection to a document library

1. In Outlook 2010, scroll down left column to SP lists
2. Select name of linked library you want to remove
3. Right click > Delete Folder >ok (go ahead, click it! Don’t be scared!)
4. Library is removed from Outlook Account

Linking SPF 2010 Calendars to Outlook 2010

Benefits:

• Snynchronization is two-way – so you can add a new item to a SP calendar in Outlook. Make sure you have only the SP calendar visible so it is on the correct calendar. Note: Synchronization occurs at a specified interval – you may need to refresh the calendar page to see it.
• Overlaying multiple SP calendars is a good way to keep track of SP groups when you are involved in many different projects or areas of operations.

Link to SP calendar

1. Go to a Calendar List in SP 2010 > Calendar Tab
2. Select “Connect to Outlook”
3. Ok
4. Advanced > name & description > ok
5. Yes
6. Connect to site with password if needed
7. You have a link to SP calendar in the new Other Calendars section – Outlook will display the new calendar by default, so you will see two side-by-side calendars.

Overlay calendars in Outlook

1. At the top of the SP calendar in Outlook, Click on the left-facing arrow
2. You will now see the overlay view
3. Click on the right arrow on the SP calendar tab to undo
4. Click on the checkboxes in the left column to hide and show specified calendars & calendar groups

Note: on the right of the ribbon is “Calendars Overlay” – you can overlay SP Calendars. In Outlook you can overlay SP and Outlook Calendars.

Linking SPF 2010 Contacts to Outlook 2010

Create a new contacts list

1. Site Actions > More Options > Contacts
2. Call it MySPContacts and select Create
3. Add some new names with AddNewItem

Connect new contact list to Outlook

1. List Tab > Connect to Outlook
2. Go through the verification logins and name/description process
3. Outlook menu > view > change view > list

Contacts Features in sp 2010

Note: views are individual to contact list – contacts cannot be an overlay like outlook and sp calendars

Share Outlook Task list pulled in from SP

Tasks list > Highlight list > Folder tab > share tasks > send email to task list

Overlay SP Calendars

1. Calendar page > calendar tab > Click on Calendars Overlay
2. Click on New Calendar
3. Type in name & click on resolve
4. Select color for overlay
5. Select calendar on SP calendar you want to overlay
6. Select calendar list view you want to overlay
7. Click OK

Overlay Personal Outlook Calendars in SP

1. Calendar page > calendar tab > Click on Calendars Overlay

2. Click on New Calendar

3. Type in name and click on Exchange radio button

4. Click on Find

Note: This should work automatically – users must have corresponding Exchange email in SP Profile – ensure that profiles are in sync with Active Directory and exchange for email – This will get the current users email from the profile information and use that to pull in correct Exchange calendar(s) – doesn’t work with outlook 2010 – needs service pack 1 – or may need ssl applied appropriately

5. Outlook Web Access URL & Exchange Web Service URL should appear

https://mail.mysite.com/owa/

https://mail.mysite.com/ews/exchange.asmx

6. Click OK

Create an alert or subscribe to RSS feed – up to date changes  on documents, lists, list items, etc.

Create an alert

1. Click on list, item, etc. you want to get alerts for

2. Click on Tools tab > Items > Alert me > manage my alerts

3. Click on radio button next to selected list

4. Fill in alert specifications

Note: In particular, you may want to consider whether to send an alert immediately, daily, or weekly

5. Click ok

6. You can add as many alerts as you want

Note: You can also go to Tools > List > set an alert on this list. You will get a popup dialog rather than be sent to a different page.

Subscribe to rss feed

1. Navigate to the list or library or view  you want to set up feed for
2. Click on feed button in ribbon
3. Click on subscribe to feed link
4. Synchronize Outlook and Common Feeds list in Windows
   1.  
      1. Outlook > File > Options > Advanced
      2. RSS Feeds section > Check off “Synchronize RSS feeds to the Common Feeds List (CFL) in Windows”
      3. Click ok
5. Close and reopen Outlook; feed should now appear in RSS Feeds in left column

Note: for a view feed, click on View > Modify this view > Feed button

Outlook Web parts

They don’t appear to work properly with 2010, supposedly works fine with 2007

Outlook Social Connector

linked-in does not work with 64 bit yet

1. May need to download social connector and add-ins http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/outlook-social-connector-partner-listing-FX101812910.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA101794273
2. Outlook > Expand people information pane
3. Select a user and click on “+Add”
4. Click on the SP My Site checkbox
5. Fill in url, username and password (and information for any other social add-ins)
6. Restart outlook
7. Should be a folder called News Feed (I do not get one, get email)

Meeting workspaces

Note: When you get a reminder for a meeting with a workspace, there is a dropdown list on the reminder called “Meeting Services” with the option to “View meeting workspace”. Clicking on the option opens a new tab/page in your browser to the  associated workspace!

Add a meeting workspace button to the quick access toolbar in Outlook 2010

1. Go to an outlook calendar
2. Click on any meeting
3. In quick access toolbar(top toolbar), click on the arrow > select “More Commands”
4. Click on Meeting Workspace in the left box and click on the add button
5. Click ok

Add meeting workspace button to the ribbon in Outlook 2010

1. Right click on ribbon menu
2. Click on “Customize the ribbon”
3. With Appointment highlighted, click on the “new group” button below the right list box
4. With the “New Group (Custom)” group highlighted in the right box, click on the Meeting Workspace item in the left box to select > click on the add button
5. Right click on the New Group item in the left box and click on “rename” > name it SharePoint or anything else you wish
6. Click on OK

Create a meeting workspace from Outlook

1. Create a new upcoming meeting called “test sharepoint workspace”
2. Click on “Invite Attendees” and add one attendee
3. The “Meeting Workspace” buttons will no longer be greyed out (the workspace buttons will not be available – will be grayed out – until attendees are added)
4. Click on the Meeting Workspace button
5. You can click on create to make a default workspace or
6. In the Meeting Workspace pane, click on “change settings”
   1.  
      1. Location: Select other, type in SP web address in popup box Ex. http://dev-sp2010/sites/ebruce
      2. Select a workspace
         1.  
            1. New workspace
               1.  
                  1. Select language
                  2. Select template
                  3. Click ok
            2. Existing workspace
               1.  
                  1. Select desired workspace from dropdownlist
                  2. The dropdown list will be populated from the SP site you specify
                  3. Click ok
                  4. Click on Link
                  5. The meeting workspace and link now appear in the content of the meeting invitation > click on send

Remove a meeting workspace from Outlook

1. Open meeting
2. In workspace pane > click on the “Remove” button

Participate in Discussions in outlook

RSS Feed

Just like any RSS feed – updates you

Alerts

Receive email alerts on specified items

Connect to outlook

shows up in SharePoint Lists folder in Outlook – View and work with content of discussion board

Create a new topic

1. Click on SharePoint Lists > select your list
2. Click on Today (just to make sure you are at the root level of the list)
3. In the upper left, click on New Post or right click on center posting list pane and click on New Post at the top of the menu

Post a reply

1. In Outlook > SharePoint Lists > click on discussion
2. View posts and responses in the email list and preview pane
3. Double click on a post
4. Click on Post Reply in the ribbon
5. Type your reply and click on Post ( you may want  to delete quoted text)

Reply via email rather than post

1. Click on the Reply button rather than Post Reply – this sends an email only to the poster, does not post to the board
2. Drag an email item to start a new topic in a discussion list
3. Use proofing tools (spelling, grammar, thesaurus)

Simple Url Rewrite For Moved Folder

Occasionally, restructuring of your website or CMS can require the move or archive of folders.

 

To avoid lots of broken links and bookmarks, you can quickly use the URL Rewrite module for IIS 7 and IIS 7.5 to redirect this traffic to the appropriate location. For example, moving a website into a content management system which allows multiple portals, such as DNN.

(.*)myfolder/(.*)

portals/0/myfolder/{R:2}

Multiple Logins Required on SP 2007 and 2003 in Internet Explorer 10

Again, the cause of this is IE 10 not using it’s usual quirks mode formatting. SP 2007 is created to display in quirks mode, but not IE 10’s new updated quirks mode which is more like chrome or firefox. It was developed for the “old” quirks mode interpreter, which is really IE 5 (or what IE 10 refers to as IE 5 Quirks Mode).

You may want to know How To Force Old Quirks Mode in IE 10

Option 1 – Rollback IE 10 to IE 9

1. Start >Search > Control Panel

2. Programs > View installed updates

3. Search for “internet”

4. Right click “IE 10” > Uninstall

Option 2 – Use The Built In IE Developer Toolbar

1. Go to site

2. Hit the F12 button on the keyboard

3. In the developer toolbar that pops up on the browser do one of the following:

a. Set Browser Mode to IE 9

OR

b. Set Document Mode to IE 5 Quirks

How to force IE 10 to Display Old Site Designs in Quirks Mode Correctly

IE 10 now renders quirks mode differently (yeah, I know, doesn’t make much sense).

Microsoft decided to now render quirks mode as webkit/chrome, etc. style quirks mode, not IE quirks mode. Ummm…. OK.

So what about that old site clients are happy with or don’t have the budget to change? Well, you would think you could change the browser mode with EmulateIE8, but this does not work, since it renders in IE8 mode, NOT QUIRKS MODE!

Well, in reality, Quirks mode renders as IE 5 – this happens when documents do not have a doctype, since the browser assumes the page is older or if the page is intentionally “broken” by designers to initiate quirks mode in IE browsers using a number of tricks.

How to Fix It in IE 10

Above the first Meta tag in the head, type the below text:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=5" />

That’s right, we are telling the browsers to pretend they are IE 5, which is the same as the “old” Internet Explorer Quirks Mode.

DotNetNuke Fix

Unfortunately, you have to alter the default.aspx of the DNN installation to get this to work and put the Meta tag in the correct place. You may be able to do this on a page by page basis, by adding to the Meta section in page settings, but luckily, I have not had to do this.

Another option, may be to use jquery, etc. to affect the DOM by adding the Meta property and value to the page within the skin – however I have not tested this.

Please let me know if you have found another solution which works.

Useful Tools for the UI/UX Professional

Snipping

Windows Snipping Tool

SnagIt

Video

Expression Encoder 4 – free windows tool to encode to .wmv

Screenr – record and host in the cloud for free

Camtasia Studios – high quality videos

Mockups

Balsamiq – sketchy looking layouts with some functionality on viewing/publication (good for clients who see something too polished and think you are done)

Axure – Mockup to code output with a “sketchiness” option!

Alter a Custom Master Page For Meeting Workspaces

If you see an error when trying to navigate through multiple recurring meetings on a workspace in SharePoint 2010, you probably need to make some changes to your customized master page.

Error

‘g_instanceId’ is undefined

Solution

This error is caused because the customized page is missing a few things required by Meeting Workspaces. We just need to add them in.

Add register tag for Meeting Workspace to top of page after other register tags:

<%@ Register Tagprefix="Meetings" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Meetings" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

Add meeting Property Bag (weird name huh?)

Put the following above Top Nav or Current Nav as desired

<Meetings:PropertyBag ID="PropertyBag1" runat="server"/>

Save, Publish, and Approve master page as needed.

Meetings:CustomToolPaneManager

Here is another control specific to MWS’s, but I have yet to figure out what it actually does. May be for the MWS specific Menu.

<Meetings:CustomToolPaneManager runat="server" __MarkupType="vsattributemarkup" WebPart="true" Height="" Width="" __WebPartId="{835267A9-C9F3-452F-BC2C-E90E9B468005}" id="g_835267a9_c9f3_452f_bc2c_e90e9b468005"/>

SPUG of Maine Event: Tuesday March 12, 2013 Tips & Tricks for SharePoint 2010 Administrators & Power Users

Register here! | Directions to UNE

Find out how to leverage SharePoint more effectively!

Please join us for a Tips and Tricks session to answer helpful and commonly asked questions about SharePoint functionality. As big as SharePoint is, there is always something more to learn! Find out a new trick that can help you leverage built in SharePoint functionality, gain user adoption, or streamline your business process.

• How to find your SharePoint Error logs
• Create a list from an Excel sheet
• Find the size of your Site Collection & % of Quota used
• Folders for unique permissions
• Columns for filtering & grouping in views
• Increase Lookup columns allowed in lists
• Multiple calendars and overlays
• Modifying a specific SharePoint form – New, View, or Edit
• Using the SharePoint Recycle Bin
• More!

Speakers

Emerson Bruce & Andrew Engebretson – both from Winxnet, Inc.

Location & Time

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

UNE campus – Goddard 09

716 Stevens Ave, Portland, Maine 04103

Itinerary

SharePoint can make your life easier, if you know what it can do!

1. Pizza and Welcome
2. Tips and Tricks for SharePoint 2010
3. Open Question & Answer forum after presentation.

See you next Tuesday!

Add a Quick Print Button to a Form Display In SharePoint 2010 Using Simple jQuery Snippet

Want to add a quick print button to your SharePoint when viewing a single item in SharePoint? Well here is a quick and easy way to do so.

Add a content editor web part to Display Form

NOTE: This works with dialog form views as well as in page form views

1. Library > library tab > or List > List tab
2. Ribbon > Form Web Parts > Default Display Form
3. Add a web part > content editor web part > edit html or link to .txt file in a library all users have read permissions to (I prefer this as SP will remove code layout and often break and/or rewrite it). Click OK to update
4. Stop Editing
5. Test print button

The Code

NOTE: if you already are linking to a version of jQuery, you do not need the first <script> tag – there should only be one version/instance of jQuery on a page or you will break it!

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script>

$(document).ready(function() {

  $(‘.printMe’).click(function() {
  window.print();
  return false;
  });

});</script>

<style>
.printMe{
    color:#666666;
    font-weight:bold;
    cursor:pointer;
}

.printMe:hover{
color:#333333;
font-weight:bold;
cursor:pointer;
}

</style>

<button class="printMe">Print</button>

NOTE: You do not have to use a button tag for the “button” – it can be a div, a span, or an image if you like! Adding cursor: pointer and :hover pseudo class styles can give you interactivity that is more flexible than a button.

NOTE: You can use more advanced print plugins to print just the content of a specific div or even create a print preview dialog

How to Deploy a SharePoint 2010 Farm Solution

Deploying a Farm Solution actually has a number of steps, but can be a fairly simple process if you know what you are doing.

Add the Solution to the Farm

1. start > all programs > Microsoft 2010 Products
2. Click on SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
3. Type: add-SPSolution –LiteralPath \mysolution.wsp
4. The branding will be Added at this point but not Deployed

NOTE: Replace the path with your actual path to the .wsp, but make sure you prepend the “\” as needed.

Deploy the Solution to the Farm

1. CA > System Settings > Farm Management > Manage Farm Solutions
2. Click on the link to the solution you Added, this will open the solution properties page which has links to Deploy and Remove solutions as well as displaying solution information.
3. Click on Deploy Solution
4. Set the Deploy When option as desired, for minimal interruption of service, you may choose to deploy at a specified low usage time, such as 2:00 am – you will also see information on where it can and cannot be deployed to:
5. Click ok
6. The solutions management page should now show deployment status

Activate the New Feature on the Site Collection

You will likely need to activate the feature on individual site collections.

1. Site Collection > Root Site
2. Site Actions > Site Settings
3. Site Collection Administration > Site Collection Features
4. Find the feature and click on the Activate button
5. Your feature should now be active and the additional functionality either working or available to use (for example, custom web parts and master pages)

Errors with Null Date Time Fields in SharePoint 2010 Workflows

Error:

The workflow could not update the item, possibly because one or more columns for the item require a different type of information.

Cause:

In my case, the cause was a null or empty datetime I was using in a Created and Change start option workflow. The issue is that SharePoint may start the workflow prior to the item being fully created, and null datetimes are actully set as 1/1/0001. Strangely, you cannot test for this specific date or a null/empty datetime field.

SharePoint Null DateTime fields are “1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM”

If you are getting an inconsistent error when creating a document or item via a workflow, it may be due to the workflow kicking off prior to the item being fully completed or created. an easy way to fix this slippery error (since there is no “Is Empty” or Null value you can use in SharePoint Designer workflows, is to check an out of bounds date:

The Logic

Option 1

pause for duration set to 1 minute, do something

NOTE: This allows the workflow created item or document to finish setting properties, the setting of which at this stage does not seem to set off wait or other “change” events.)

NOTE: SharePoint actually checks these pauses every 5 minutes, so your actual wait time can be 1-6 minutes.

Option 2

If the created date is less than Jan 1900, wait for it to be greater than Jan 1900, Then do everything else.

NOTE: if there is another field you are using than datetime or created, make sure that has a value or is required in the list/library. You can create similar waits for these fields, though I recommend using waits sparingly, as they seem to be buggy in my experience.

Related Issue: Workflow Starting Before Properties of Document are Updated by User

a similar issue has to do with workflows starting prior to document properties being set. The solution is similar.

Option 1

Make an item, or the item used in a workflow required (this causes the workflow to kick off only when the property is filled in by the user on the edit view!)

Option 2

If modified is equal to created, wait till modified is greater than created, then do something.

SharePoint Explorer View Uploads Running Very Slow

Error:

Experiencing Poor Performance and Files Uploading slow

Solution:

Explorer – uncheck automatically detect settings (issues can be caused by specific LAN settings, firewalls, proxies, etc.) – document uploading slows to a crawl.

NOTE: Explorer View appears on document libraries.

1. Internet Explorer > Tools > Internet Options > Connections Tab
2. Click on Lan Settings > Uncheck Automatically detect settings
3. save and close all popups
4. Close and reopen all IE windows
5. Reconnect using the “open with explorer button”
6. If this does not work try closing all file Explorer widows as well
7. As a last resort, restart your machine