SharePoint 2003 User's Guide
Contents
1. ooooooo 129 Standard Lists ci iaa 129 IHS aaa ie beaten ae obras aa OR use inet ie 130 Announcements 0 00 ccc cece cence sete een se ee 131 CONTACTS ue ntn thee etc he de he a um bale de ae A 132 BE ER 136 IE GR tbe bb e ee bbb bs 143 ISSUCS p 145 Meeting Workspace Lists n n nnnnnnnn ananuna 148 Agenda 5 attese teu last eather NA 149 Decisions Z a Ra P aT ee da cet ce R ace teg 150 ODJECIVES gt EE N AA NE GEK ET 151 TE BO ER ln rana E ca 151 Things to Bring is ss ae EE ER RE DE Re t RR RS Hea ER YS 152 Altendees cL Eo Ka Rg O 153 Special List rreren Tiin EE SS EE A EE es 155 Discussion Board 155 DUIVOYS ta oe aai 157 Advanced Office 2003 Integration ooooooooooo 159 Exporting SharePoint Lists to Excel 160 Advanced Datasheet Features annuun naaa 161 Libraries cos e a or 163 Document Library ESE Ee Se ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee 163 Creating Document LiDrarieS EE Se SE ee ee ee 164 Working with Document LibrarieS 165 Managing Document Libraries oo oo ooooo o 175 Formi LIDA ia A iv aged a EE 182 Creating Form Libraries ee EE GR ee ee cece eee 182 Working with Form Libraries ESE SE Ee Se ee ee ee 183 Managing Form Libraries ee ee ee ee ee ee ee 186 Picture UMD FAY ies rca rtu tm us rabia e e ti 189 Creating Picture Libraries nananana 12. 287 Meeting Management Overview 0 00 cece eee ees 287 Challenges of Meeting Management 288 Needs for Meeting Management cc cece eee 290 SharePoint Meeting Management Solutions 290 Quarterly Business Review Meeting Requirements 291 Quarterly Business Review Meeting Process Definition 291 SharePoint Environment Layout o ooooooooo 292 Quarterly Business Review Meeting Walk Through 299 Benefits of SharePoint Meeting Management Solutions 305 Tips for Creating Effective Meeting Management Solutions 305 CHAPTER 11 SharePoint Information Center Solutions 307 Information Center Overview sss esee 307 Challenges of Information Centers 308 Needs for Information Centers anunue naana 309 SharePoint Information Center Solutions 310 HR Information Center Requirements 310 HR Information Center Environment Layout 310 HR Information Center Walk Through 323 Benefits of SharePoint Information Centers 325 Tips for Creating Information Centers ununun 325 lisque ET e e denle cn 327 ix Foreword A DataLan Corporation we spend a significant amount of time discussing a select group of people that we refer to as Professional Information Wor
3. Chapters 1 to 7 provide the funda mental knowledge of SharePoint that users need in order to successfully utilize the capabilities supplied by the technology This group can be used as a reference guide allowing you to easily look up specific SharePoint topics and includes step by step instructions figures tables and examples The capabilities described in these chapters are important and act as the building blocks for the second group of chapters xxii INTRODUCTION The second group consists of Chapters 8 to 11 These four chapters present business solutions commonly deployed through SharePoint Each of these chapters contains an exam ple scenario that will help you understand the challenges faced along with the benefits that SharePoint provides to the situation The scenarios also include the necessary steps for creat ing these solutions within a SharePoint environment Chapter 1 Introduction to SharePoint Technologies This chapter introduces you to the world of Microsoft SharePoint It contains an explanation of the technology its uses and related terminology Chapter 2 Using the Portal This chapter provides an understanding of portals and areas making up Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 We cover security content structure personalization and search capabili ties using detailed examples Chapter 3 Using Windows SharePoint Services Sites This chapter focuses on the use of sites and workspaces created from Wind
4. combine them into useful Information Worker solutions CHAPTER 2 Using the Portal A SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SPS portal is the entry point into a SharePoint environ ment A portal acts as the centralized access point for locating working with and managing an organization s information The portal allows you to do the following Search for information such as people sites and documents regardless of the infor mation s location or format This enables you to retrieve all relevant information you have access to on a topic or containing specific references Organize information into meaningful structures using areas so that portal users can easily browse through this information Maintain personal sites that enable you to create personal views of portal information for your use and public views of your information to share with others Create alerts that are personal notifications you can configure to be notified when rele vant information is added or changed in SharePoint areas or sites Target specific content to groups of individuals for whom the information is particu larly relevant In this chapter we will familiarize you with the general layout and structure of SPS We will describe the elements that make up a SharePoint portal including areas listings portal search and My Site We will review the layout of these elements and discuss how they are used CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL Portal Areas Areas are t
5. moment that you are a Professional Information Worker asked to assemble all available information pertaining to your top ten customers How many different data stores would you have to visit in order to complete a profile for these customers You might start by searching the file system for all known documents concerning these important cus tomers Then you might search your e mail inbox for related messages You d also ask other people to search their inboxes for messages and forward them to you While everyone is searching for messages you might ask them to make a list of pertinent contacts they have in Microsoft Outlook and forward them to you as well Finally you might request the IT depart ment run a series of reports to assemble financial information about the customers Profiling your top ten customers turns out to be a significant project that can take days or weeks to complete Now imagine that you are a Professional Information Worker responsible for publishing the quarterly financial report internally to executive management This report is a Microsoft Word document that pulls together information from several different lines of business and includes analysis by key sales and operations managers Clearly you have many of the same information issues as I discussed previously but you now have the additional burden of coor dinating several contributors to the same document In most organizations this coordination is accomplished by sending
6. of alerts which give you a powerful way to notify SharePoint users of changes to information within SharePoint Chapter 8 SharePoint Document Collaboration Solutions One of the most common ways SharePoint is used is to create document collaboration solutions This chapter describes the challenges SharePoint document collaboration solutions can address the benefits you can receive by creating these solutions and tips to be mindful of when creating these solutions We construct a sample document collaboration solution and describe how the solution would be used Chapter 9 SharePoint Project Collaboration Solutions Project collaboration is another common use for SharePoint In this chapter we describe how to create project collaboration solutions through SharePoint We construct a sample solution and describe the benefits that can be received by creating these solutions Chapter 10 SharePoint Meeting Management Solutions SharePoint provides strong meeting management capabilities We discuss meeting manage ment and how a SharePoint environment can be configured to support meeting management processes We also build a sample meeting management solution and describe the benefits that can be received by creating these solutions Chapter 11 SharePoint Information Center Solutions SharePoint is commonly used to create intranet or extranet solutions We refer to these solutions as information centers We describe the value of creating Share
7. security rights Security rights are assigned through roles called site groups Users can be assigned to site groups individually or based on their membership in Active Directory groups Role assignments determine who can view areas manage content in areas edit areas 9 10 CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL create areas etc A standard set of site groups is available by default with a portal However it is possible to create additional site groups in order to provide customized permission levels Itis also possible to change the permissions associated with existing site groups However this should be done sparingly and only when creating a new site group will not meet the security requirements The following are the standard site groups defined in an SPS portal Readers Can view SPS areas and area content Readers cannot add or edit content or perform any management functions on areas By default Readers cannot use personal features of the portal such as creating alerts or maintaining a personal My Site Members Have all the rights of a Reader as well as the ability to view and personalize areas and area content Members can use the personal features of the portal like alerts and My Site Contributors Have all rights of a Member as well as the ability to add edit and delete content items within an SPS area Contributors can also browse directories and create and manage personal views of areas Contributors cannot create new libraries a
8. site group assignment is listed Changing Existing Site Group Assignments To change an existing site group assignment 1 From the portal home page click the Manage Users link under Actions 2 On the Manage Users page check the boxes in front of the site group assignments that you will be updating and click the Edit Site Groups of Selected Users option If you are updating a single site group assignment you can simply click the name of the assigned user or group 3 On the Edit Site Group Membership page update the site group assignment by check ing and unchecking the site group options and then clicking the OK button to save the changes The updates to site group assignments are saved The Manage Users page is displayed and the updates made are reflected in the site group assignment list Deleting Existing Site Group Assignments To remove an existing site group assignment 1 From the portal home page click the Manage Users link under Actions 2 On the Manage Users page check the boxes in front of the site group assignment s that you will be removing and click the Remove Selected Users option 12 CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL 3 Confirm the deletion of the site group assignment by clicking the OK button on the displayed message box The selected site group assignments are deleted The Manage Users page is refreshed to reflect the changes made Managing Areas One of the most significant benefits of a SharePoint po
9. 2 Using th Portal Less bod stro e porra eps 5 CHAPTER 3 Using Windows SharePoint Services Sites 45 CHAPTER 4 Custom Lists and Data 91 CHAPTER 5 Template USS 129 CHAPTER 6 Libraries cuo oso ce po e xa a ri bi has Wa eee 163 CHAPTER 7 Pages Web Parts and AlertS 211 CHAPTER 8 SharePoint Document Collaboration Solutions 243 CHAPTER 9 SharePoint Project Collaboration Solutions 269 CHAPTER 10 SharePoint Meeting Management Solutions 287 CHAPTER 11 SharePoint Information Center Solutions 307 INDEX AA Herm 327 Contents A OE xi About the Authors iim m a a SERE ER a SR GG PRG ER Ee el XV About the Technical Reviewers EE EE SE EE SE EE IRI III xvii Acknowledgments isi iae osos eco ur uM ev EVE LN DR eR E EN edo due xix Introduction sene EE OR EE OR RAE DEG RR ere xxi CHAPTER 1 Introduction to SharePoint Technologies 1 What Is Microsoft SharePoint 0 0 0 ccc cece cence eae 2 Why Is ItValuable 2 0 0 ccc IRR 2 What Are the Building Blocks 0 ccc SE Ee ee ee eens 4 CHAPTER 2 Using the Portal ooooo 5 Portal Areas coa A e Conte eL eet 6 Navigating Through Areas 00 cc ccc cece eee 9 Portal Site GrOUDS 7 1 stern bint dai LA s 9 Managing Areas e e e e SE IRR 12 Port
10. 89 Working with Picture Libraries 190 Managing Picture Libraries ooooooooooooo o 200 Advanced Office 2003 Integration anaana 202 Open and Save As Integration o ooooooo o 202 Shared Workspace Task Pang nuena enana 204 Creating Form Libraries Through InfoPath Form Publishing 207 Exporting Library Metadata to Excel 208 Advanced Datasheet FeatureS cee eee eee 209 vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 Pages Web Parts and Alerts 211 PAGES ii Ad Cotes 211 Basic Pages ria it aa 212 Web Part Pages ie EE K SS EE EE ER e mm 214 WED PANS 5 ME o o toe halle te ba tr E ue de De ad 218 Adding Web Parts to Pages 00 0 cece cece eens 219 Managing the Web Part Page 0 0 cece eee eee 220 Exporting and Importing Web Parts 225 Standard Galleries and Web ParfS 227 Further Customization 00 0 0 ccc ccc cece een ee 230 ANGUS EER Ce a bd bes drei herbed 232 Alerts in the Portal 232 Alerts in Sites ee ee ee e eee eens 237 SharePoint Document Collaboration Solutions 243 Document Collaboration OvervieW 0 0 ccc cece ees 243 Collaboration Teams 00 ccc ccc ccc ee ee nee 244 Collaboration Resources ESE eese 244 Challenges of Document Col
11. Debolski Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Springer Verlag New York Inc 233 Spring Street 6th Floor New York NY 10013 and outside the United States by Springer Verlag GmbH amp Co KG Tiergartenstr 17 69112 Heidelberg Germany In the United States phone 1 800 SPRINGER fax 201 348 4505 e mail orders springer ny com or visit http www springer ny com Outside the United States fax 49 6221 345229 e mail ordersfspringer de or visit http www springer de For information on translations please contact Apress directly at 2560 Ninth Street Suite 219 Berkeley CA 94710 Phone 510 549 5930 fax 510 549 5939 e mail info apress com or visit http www apress com The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis without warranty Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work neither the author s nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work Contents at a Glance CO A EO ER OD EE OE Vd OE xi About t Authors x aK RE SEE ARE SERE 4E BRE AS PUDE ARR REY s XV About the Technical Reviewers 00 00 cece cece ete ee Ee ee Ee ee ee xvii Acknowledgrerts se cscs RR A even hci EEG RU xix Introduction OO GE EE oa OE EO OE EE Xxi CHAPTER 1 Introduction to SharePoint Technologies 1 CHAPTER
12. In addition to the creation of collaborative web sites WSS can be used as the foundation for the development of business applications and to provide the information management capabilities needed by these applications Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SPS is a set of technologies designed to unify systems and information from different sources into enterprise solutions to effectively bring together people information and processes SPS includes navigational capabilities that help guide business users through enterprise resources including WSS sites documents applica tions processes and data SPS contains powerful searching and indexing capabilities which allow for relevant high quality information to be easily located and accessed regardless of where this information is located in the enterprise and in what system this information resides Targeting particular information to groups of users and allowing users to create their own customized spaces within the portal are also features of SharePoint Portal Server SPS expands on the development capabilities of WSS allowing application developers to use virtually all of the capabilities of SPS and WSS within their custom applications Why Is It Valuable Together Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server provide the next step in the evolution of the Microsoft information management and collaboration platform They provide an application solutions foundation a document mana
13. Point based information centers and discuss the capabilities to include and create a sample information center solution CHAPTER 1 Introduction to SharePoint Technologies M SharePoint technologies are the foundation of the Microsoft Office System The Office System is a new term Microsoft has coined to describe a collection of applications servers and services that work together to improve user and team productivity These prod ucts are tightly integrated and can be combined to address a wide range of business needs The Office System contains Office 2003 including new applications like InfoPath and OneNote Windows SharePoint Services SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Project Server and Live Communications Server The goals behind the Office System are to Provide business users better access to information This includes not only making more information available but also providing capabilities to locate the information most relevant to a business user s needs Enable groups of individuals within a company and between different companies to work together effectively and more easily share information Improve individual and team productivity by making it easier to create information and provide this information to the appropriate people allowing them to make informed business decisions The Office System products and services are brought together to create Information Worker solutions An information worker is anyone who contrib
14. SharePoint 2003 User s Guide SETH BATES AND TONY SMITH Apress SharePoint 2003 User s Guide Copyright O 2005 by Seth Bates and Tony Smith All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher ISBN pbk 1 59059 514 9 Printed and bound in the United States of America987654321 Trademarked names may appear in this book Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark Lead Editor Jim Sumser Technical Reviewers Martin Reid Cherry Tun Smith Editorial Board Steve Anglin Dan Appleman Ewan Buckingham Gary Cornell Tony Davis Jason Gilmore Jonathan Hassell Chris Mills Dominic Shakeshaft Jim Sumser Associate Publisher Grace Wong Project Manager Beth Christmas Copy Edit Manager Nicole LeClerc Copy Editor Ami Knox Production Manager Kari Brooks Copony Production Editor Katie Stence Compositor and Artist Diana Van Winkle Van Winkle Design Group Proofreader Liz Welch Indexer Michael Brinkman Interior Designer Diana Van Winkle Van Winkle Design Group Cover Designer Kurt Krames Manufacturing Manager Tom
15. al listings EE a DE e es 17 Adding B ls iss a a ER ian KANS de 18 Adding a Person Listing ESE ccc Se ee ee ences 20 Editing Listings a SE Se Se ee tence eens 21 Editing a Person Listing ESE ccc cece cece ence eae 23 Deleting Listings 0 0 EE EER RE ee RE Ee ER banaai 24 Managing Grouping and Ordering of Listings 24 Special Argas 3 2 te c cu Pe iaa 27 Home ACA LEE rt eru m vt 27 TOPICS ACA odor ei ce ta PAUL s eint EDE S 28 News Alcan dea da edis 29 Sites AICA Cia ia dia Id 33 Portal Search cte tette rete Ht De dalt e du 38 Performing a Simple Search 0 0 cece eee eee eee 38 Performing an Advanced Search oo oooooooooooo 38 Working with Search Results n n nnnnnnaaa nunna 40 MEE EE a A a tad 41 Private View ee ee ee ee ee een en ee ee nr 42 Public VIEWE seh ee BAG AD hits ole Skene ME EA ut 44 vi CONTENTS CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 Using Windows SharePoint Services Sites 45 MM A A A A RE a 46 Site Layouts meridia a a dit 48 Navigating Through WSS Sites annuun 60 Creating SITES EE A ad 63 Managing Site Security EE ESE SE Ee ee ee ee ee 69 Changing General Site DetailS 78 Site Templates core rv er a Sae hs 80 Creating Site Templates nanunua aaan 80 Editing Site Templates 00 ccc ccc ccc eee eee 82 Deleting Site Templates 0 ccc cece c
16. amily and friends scuba diving snowboarding and exploring new cultures xvii Acknowledgments 0 experience writing this book has been a very positive one The people at Apress have been great to work with and we would like to specifically thank several of them We would like to thank Jim Sumser for managing the partnership between authors and publisher being the initial sounding board for our ideas and handling any questions we had along the way We would also like to thank Beth Christmas the project manager for coordinating the many efforts that went into creating this book on an increasingly tight schedule Also thanks to Ami Knox for copy editing and Katie Stence for production editing Both of them were instrumen tal in the quality of this book We are also appreciative to everyone else at Apress whom we were not fortunate enough to work with directly Along with the coordination and help provided by Apress we would also like to thank the technical editors Cherry Tun Smith and Martin Reid who did a great job reviewing this book Their constant vigilance and content ideas helped to ensure that this book would be accurate and beneficial for the readers We also would like to thank our colleagues at DataLan who work to successfully market sell and deliver Information Worker Solutions Our real world experiences there have contributed to our ability to organize and create this book I would like to thank Tony It seems like an eterni
17. brace SharePoint solutions since the product was released They are in aunique position to understand the difficulties faced by individuals and organizations when transitioning from a traditional work environment to a SharePoint solution They have used this knowledge to construct a logical learning path for Professional Information Workers and encapsulate it in a book Because a SharePoint solution is a dynamic system driven by the needs of its users Pro fessional Information Workers must become familiar with the basic building blocks of the system Seth and Tony have provided this information in the first part of the book which is essential reading for everyone The second part of the book focuses on specific business sce narios where SharePoint can be helpful These scenarios are excellent starting points and will undoubtedly help you visualize new ways to use SharePoint technology I d recommend that you review all of the scenarios even if they do not apply directly to your daily work In all my years of architecting and building solutions I have found that projects rarely fail because of the underlying technology The primary threat to any business solution is that the end users will not accept the system and refuse to change their work habits This is why the SharePoint 2003 User s Guide is so important to the industry SharePoint is one of the FOREWORD xiii fastest growing products in Microsoft history and promises to be as widespread as Mic
18. countless e mails with attachments as you attempt to get content reviewed and approved In all likelihood you will also need several meetings to coordinate efforts and manage the process Once again this turns out to be a significant project that will require days or weeks to complete xi xii FOREWORD The scenarios I describe are significant because they reveal a wide gap between the needs of Professional Information Workers and the information systems that support them Conse quently most Professional Information Workers spend the bulk of their day compensating for the weaknesses of these systems In fact many Professional Information Workers have simply become part of the overall information system and spend their entire day augmenting organ izing and managing information This strikes me as an incredibly poor use of highly talented people How did we arrive at this place where people are spending their day bridging data stores together through spreadsheets and e mail Well I suppose it was inevitable After all software vendors including Microsoft have historically been more concerned with selling discreet applications as opposed to creating an environment that supports Professional Information Workers All of these discreet applications have found their way onto our desktops laptops and servers to create the current mess This is where SharePoint technology comes into the picture SharePoint invites Professional Information Wo
19. e available through a SharePoint portal A portal area structure is made up of areas created by portal managers as well as some default specialty areas avail able automatically that are used to manage specific portal services These specialty areas include the following Home Portal home page designed to be the gateway or entry point into the overall SharePoint environment Topics Default area that includes a sample area hierarchy The Topics area is provided to allow for information to be organized by subject area News Area designed to contain corporate news postings Sites Area that organizes portal site listings The Sites area provides a complete list of WSS and web sites and allows users to sort filter and group these sites based on need The management of site listings is also handled through this area We will review the capabilities provided by these specialty areas later in this chapter First we will discuss the capabilities around creating and working with basic areas CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL 13 Creating an Area Areas can be organized to provide a navigation structure that makes it easy for workers to browse through enterprise resources when looking for resources Areas can be nested within each other to create any hierarchy necessary A nested area or subarea is created by doing the following 1 Navigate to the area under which you wish to create the new subarea 2 From the Actions list of the area c
20. ePoint resources Advanced users will be provided the foundation needed for building business solutions using SharePoint capabilities We have spent a great deal of effort putting our experiences working with a variety of organizations and knowledge of the product into an easily understood format for learning about SharePoint 2003 which we hope will enable you to gain the in depth knowledge you need to effectively use and manage these tools Further reading about the topics provided in this book can be found at http www sharepointextras com where we provide additional information about SharePoint including references to other resources Who This Book Is For The goal of this book is to provide the knowledge necessary for people to effectively use SharePoint Whether you have not yet used SharePoint just started using the basic features or have been using it for a long of time this book provides the skills you need to work effi ciently with the capabilities SharePoint gives you If you want to learn about these capabilities in a detailed yet understandable approach this book is for you Being a user guide this book does not require you to have any program ming knowledge It does assume you have a basic understanding of navigating web sites Some of the more advanced topics require prior working knowledge of Microsoft Office products like Word and Excel How This Book Is Organized The chapters in this book are organized into two groups
21. ece eee 82 WSS Site SearclIr eee oa me 83 Site Statisties ana oderat edes teat eed 83 Site Usage Statistics e e e K K e nana 84 Site Collection Usage StatisticS 86 Site HierarChy see EE EE Ee ee GE ER e m 87 Storage Space Allocation EE Se eee eee 88 Custom Lists and Data 91 Creating Custom Lists EE EE Ee Se Se ee ee RR 91 Working with Custom USS Se eee cence ees 92 Adding Editing and Deleting Items 92 Filtering and Sorting the UST ananuna anaana 94 USING VIEWS cis trike Sacra Mite os ER neue 96 Faster Data Manipulation Using the Datasheet 96 Managing Custom USS 97 OO S cated eoi laa te Pea c E t Me i 98 Content Approval ee cc cece ccc ence ee ee rites 98 SEGUIN a er EE de e aR dest ER 100 Managing Columns EE cece ee ee eee ee ee 102 Managing VieWS EE EE Ge Ge ee RI 113 Creating a List Template EE Se See ee cece 119 Deleting the US ee eee ee errms 120 Adding a Listing to the Portal o o 121 Differences Between Portal Lists and Site Lists 122 Advanced Office 2003 Integration oooooooooo 123 Exporting SharePoint Lists to Excel 123 Creating Custom Lists Using EXCEl 125 Advanced Datasheet FeatureS cece eee eee 127 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CONTENTS Template ListS
22. ess either from the Area Listings Bar or the Current Area Navigation section This will bring you to the selected area When you navigate to an area the content contained within the area is displayed and the name of the area is listed for easy reference at the top of the Content section Also the Current Area Navigation section will be updated to list the area hierarchy information for the currently displayed area Once you have navigated to the area any available area management options will be listed in the Actions list The options in this list will vary based on your rights within the area Table 2 1 presents the complete list of actions and the security levels or site groups for which the options are available When you select one of these available actions the options listed under the action will sometimes be further restricted based on your security rights In the fol lowing sections we will discuss the capabilities provided by the options available under the Actions section Note There are several third party navigation solutions that can be added to SharePoint to extend and enhance the existing portal navigation capabilities These options can allow you to provide alternative navi gation methods as well as ways to extend the default navigation capabilities if they do not completely meet your organization s needs Portal Site Groups As we mentioned many options that are available to users within the portal are dependent on the user s
23. gement and collaboration platform and the building blocks necessary to create Information Worker solutions Through the use of these products intelligent portal based solutions can be created to connect teams of business users with the applications processes and information they need to perform their jobs In the current work environment individuals often find it difficult to identify and locate information they need in a timely manner When they do find needed information it is often outdated and no longer relevant As multiple workers collaborate on content multiple ver sions are created and confusion occurs when workers become unaware which version is current Also when more than one worker is responsible for editing information there is a high risk of this information being lost in the transition These different versions of the infor mation get copied to numerous locations and are often e mailed to large groups of people unnecessarily wasting disk space and resulting in confusion about which version is the latest copy Conversely managers and other workers needing these materials are not notified that the information is available or when the information is updated after it has been distributed All of these issues result in time being lost to searching for information and verifying the accu racy of the information CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO SHAREPOINT TECHNOLOGIES In the first part of this book Chapters 2 through 7 we will discuss
24. hanging needs These needs may come in the form of restructuring the site requiring that areas be placed in different loca tions or in the form of an adjustment in the purpose of an area requiring that some attributes about the area like title or description be updated To make any of these changes to an area 1 Navigate to the area that needs to be updated 2 From the Actions list in the area click the Change Settings link
25. hapter 6 Change Settings Used to change the configuration settings for the currently dis played portal area Manage Security Used to manage the security settings for the area currently being displayed Manage Content Provides access to the area s Documents and Lists page where all of the content items available in the area including all listings libraries and lists can be accessed and managed Manage Portal Site Presents a graphical view of the portal area structure allowing for drag and drop management of the area hierarchy It also provides access to some of the more common area management features including editing area properties managing area security creating listings and creating subareas e Add to My Links Allows you to create a link to the currently displayed area that will be available within the My Links list in your My Site We will discuss My Site in more detail in the My Site section toward the end of this chapter Alert Me Allows you to create an alert that will notify you of changes made to materials within the currently displayed area We will discuss alerts in more detail in Chapter 7 Edit Page Gives you access to the area editing options including the Modify Page capabilities and the page content management options We will discuss page man agement in more detail in Chapter 7 Table 2 1 Actions Available by Security Site Group Reader Member Contributor Content Web Administrator Ma
26. he primary organizational units of a SharePoint portal They are used to group and structure content so that information can be easily located through browsing A defined area structure acts as a portal blueprint or site map enabling the creation of an information hierar chy that maps to the way people need to work with the information Figure 2 1 shows the typical layout of an area rarePoint Portal Server 2003 My Site Site Settings Help Topics News Sites 2 Portal metro Ed 2 Topics Current Location A 2 Topics enable you to organize your portal site s content by v Hom 4 d d Ma pe subject areas You can use this page as a starting point when Topics you browse for topics of interest to you Divisions Resources Browse Topics By Projects Leti Locations Divisione Resouces Sales Support Operations Human Resources Corporate Directory Vacation Management Actions Marketing B Create Subarea Locations a Change Settings Projects m Manage Security E Manage Content Manage Portal Site a Add to My Links m Alert Me m Edit Page Figure 2 1 Topics area Figure 2 1 shows the default layout of the Topics area The Topics area is one of the default areas created as part of a new SharePoint portal An area is organized so that navigation and management options are grouped within the banner and in the left hand bar leaving the remainder of the area for the presentation of content applications listings o
27. her management capa bilities beyond those you have access to may be listed however you will not be able to make changes to these other items Help The Help link is available to all portal users and provides online context sensitive assistance for SharePoint capabilities Search Tools Located in the upper right just below the Area Listings Bar the Search Tools allow you to perform basic and advanced searches for information available through SharePoint and crawled by the SharePoint index services The information available for searching usually includes all content stored in SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services and may also include content stored in other sources such as Exchange Public Folders network file shares or other internal or external web sites Current Area Navigation Located in the left hand section just below the Area Listing Bar the Current Area Navigation shows context centric navigation This includes the hierarchy of areas above the current location as well as any subareas within the current location For example if you are currently in the Divisions area which is located under the Topics area and this area has two children called Domestic and International the area navigation will show the hierarchy of areas above Divisions which includes Home and Topics and the list of subareas contained within Divisions which includes Domes tic and International Actions Located in the left hand sec
28. ject All interested parties including team members stakeholders and managers need visibility into the progress of the project and all associated resources These individuals need to be kept aware of project status timelines issues and any other pertinent information Meeting management Individuals spend a significant amount of time preparing for and participating in meetings Organizations often try to find ways to reduce the quantity and duration of meetings in order to reduce the impact meetings have on people s time To increase the effectiveness of a meeting all aspects of the meeting must be properly man aged This includes preparation tasks meeting facilitation and post meeting follow up Prior to a meeting objectives and agendas must be defined and meeting materials must be created These items must then be communicated to attendees so that they can ade quately prepare for the meeting During a meeting facilitators need to keep the meeting on topic decisions must be recorded and action items must be tracked Finally after the meeting follow up materials must be distributed and the progress of the identified action items must be managed Managing these aspects must also take into account remote meeting attendance so that remote attendees can effectively participate in the meeting Information centers Organizations often need to provide groups of individuals the abil ity to distribute items for use throughout the organizatio
29. kers We define this group as people who spend most of their working day creating documents and sending e mail Personally I use a simple litmus test to identify Professional Information Workers if you start your day checking mail in Microsoft Outlook then you are probably a Professional Information Worker I certainly fall squarely into this category As Professional Information Workers we are unique because we deal with data in many different forms such as documents e mails transactional information schedules contacts and task lists We are often expected to retrieve information from these various sources and synthesize it together so that decisions can be made in a business process What s more this usually involves coordinating the efforts of other Professional Information Workers The chal lenges of coordinating information people and processes within an organization are significant and frustrating In the vast majority of organizations information is stored and retrieved by type as opposed to business context In other words documents are stored on a file server simply because they are in document form Similarly e mail is stored on Exchange regardless of the business information the messages contain The same is true for transactional information which is all stored in databases The situation resulting from this seemingly logical decision to store information by type is chaos for the Professional Information Worker Imagine for a
30. laboration 245 Needs for Document Collaborati0n o o o 246 SharePoint Document Collaboration Solutions 247 RFP Response Requirements o oooooooooooooo 248 SharePoint Solution Components 0 0000 ee 248 RFP Response Process Definition 249 SharePoint Environment Layout oo ooooooooo 250 RFP Response Process Walk Through 260 Benefits of SharePoint Document Collaboration Solutions 266 Tips for Creating Effective Document Collaboration Solutions 267 SharePoint Project Collaboration Solutions 269 Project Collaboration Overview 0 0 00 cece cece cence ees 269 Challenges of Project Collaboration 270 Needs for Project Collaboration o ooooooooooo 271 SharePoint Project Collaboration Solutions 272 Service Plan Project Requirements 272 Service Plan Project Process Definition 273 SharePoint Environment Layout oo ooooooooo 274 Service Plan Project Process Walk Through 280 Benefits of SharePoint Project Collaboration Solutions 284 Tips for Creating Effective Project Collaboration Solutions 286 CONTENTS CHAPTER 10 SharePoint Meeting Management Solutions
31. lick the Create Subarea link 3 On the Create Area page a Enter the name for the subarea This is the name that will appear in the area listings You can also enter an optional description that is displayed at the top of the subarea when itis accessed b Enter the publication date information that is used to determine when the subarea should be available for users By default the start date is set to today s date and the expiration date is blank which will make the site available immediately and for an unlimited duration You can update these two dates to limit the availability of the subarea to within a specific timeframe c Choose the location where the area will be listed By default the subarea will be placed under the area in which you clicked the Create Subarea link If you wish to change this you can click the Change Location link and select a different area under which to place the new subarea 4 Once all of the options have been appropriately set on the Create Area page click the OK button The subarea is created and you are returned to the area in which you clicked the Create Subarea link The new subarea is listed in the Current Area Navigation Note Areas can also be created through the Portal Site Map We will discuss this in more detail in the Managing Areas Through the Portal Site Map section later in this chapter Editing Properties of an Area Areas that have been created in SPS can be updated to address c
32. n Information owners will create and then need to publish materials for use by others The information owners need to be able to effectively manage these materials keeping them current and verify ing that they are accurate These materials also must to be organized in such a way that they are easy to find when they are needed 3 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO SHAREPOINT TECHNOLOGIES What Are the Building Blocks Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 include many tools that can be combined to create a wide range of business solutions Sites and workspaces provide a cen tral place to consolidate a wide variety of information in a secure manner Lists and libraries allow users to create and edit documents and other information Alerts give users the ability to receive notifications when content has been added or changed Pages and web parts allow for the customization of sites so that data and documents are presented in ways that make it eas ier for workers to find the information they need Portal area navigation and searching capabilities provide the tools necessary to find relevant information when it is needed regard less of its location My Site allows you to create your own customized site in SharePoint Portal Server to store your documents tasks and other information and then make any of this infor mation available to others In this book we will further define what these tools are how they are used and how to
33. nager Dean Add Listing Y Y Y Y v Add Person v Y Y Y Y Create Subarea Y Y Y Upload Document Y Y Y Y Y Change Settings Y Y Y Manage Security Y Manage Content Y Y Y Y Manage Portal Site Y Y Y Add to My Link v Y Y Y Y Alert Me Y Y Y Y Y Edit Page Y Y Y Y CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL Content Located to the right of the Current Area Navigation and Actions sections and below the Search Tools the Content section is the main body of the portal page This is the part of the page that contains the elements for display within the area This may include documents lists portal based applications and references to sites or other content Note Portal areas can be customized by administrators through the use of available third party add ins and tools like Microsoft FrontPage If changes are made to the overall structure of an area or to an area tem plate the location or presentation of the preceding groupings of options may vary Navigating Through Areas Navigation through the portal can be a little confusing Portals can bring together a wide variety of information located in many sources Areas can provide access into Windows SharePoint Services sites web sites internal or external applications and content stored on network file shares or in Exchange It is important for the portal s area structure to provide a path that is logi cal and easy for portal users to follow To navigate through available portal areas you click the area to acc
34. nd lists or manage shared views of areas Content Managers Have all rights of a Contributor as well as the ability to create and manage areas and listings and create WSS sites Web Designers Have all rights of a Content Manager as well as the ability to apply style sheets to areas Administrators Have full user and administrative rights to all portal areas and content Adding Users to Site Groups To add a user or Active Directory group to a site group 1 From the portal home page click the Manage Users link under Actions 2 On the Manage Users page click the Add Users option 3 On the Add Users page a Select users to add in one of two ways The first way is to enter the Active Directory user ID in the form domain user user e mail address or Active Directory group name in the form domain group that you wish to add The second way is to click the Select Users and Groups option This option allows you to search for the desired users or groups To use this searching capability you would select a Find By value which allows you to choose what attribute to search for you then enter the search criteria and click Find The list of accounts meeting the entered criteria will be listed You can then add the desired users and groups to the Selected Accounts list Once all needed accounts are in the Selected Accounts list click OK to return to the Add Users page b Check the site groups membership that you wish to assign t
35. o the user or group C Click the Next button CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL 11 4 If the user or group information was not found in the Active Directory an error screen will be displayed If this screen is presented click the browser Back button to return to the Add Users page update the information so that it refers to a valid active directory user or group and click the Next button 5 Ifthe user or group was found in Active Directory the Add Users page containing step 3 and step 4 is presented On this page verify the account information and determine whether an e mail should be sent to the user notifying that user of the change in rights by checking or unchecking the send e mail option This option will be disabled ifa group account was selected If a user was selected and you wish to send a notification e mail to the user you enter the text to be sent in the Subject and Body fields Once the send e mail option information has been appropriately set click the Finish button Note The Confirm Users information in step 3 of the Add Users page should never need to be updated This information is pulled from the Active Directory as part of the user profile If this information is not accu rate it should be appropriately updated in the Active Directory by a network administrator instead of being changed in the SharePoint portal The user or group is added to the selected site group The Manage Users page is displayed and the newly added
36. ows SharePoint Services It contains the details you need to understand how to customize and use sites including the available templates security features and usage analysis Chapter 4 Custom Lists and Data This chapter provides the knowledge needed to work with lists within SharePoint We describe the use and management of custom lists in detail You also learn about the advanced integra tion with Office that SharePoint s custom lists provide Chapter 5 Template Lists This chapter contains a detailed look at the lists that are provided by SharePoint for you to use as templates when creating your own lists We discuss the use and management of each list in detail along with any advanced integration with Office that they provide Chapter 6 Libraries This chapter teaches the use and management of libraries within SharePoint Used to manage a variety of files from Office documents to images these SharePoint libraries encompass many collaborative features which we cover in this chapter Advanced integration between these libraries and Office products which can enhance your experience with SharePoint is also covered INTRODUCTION xxiii Chapter 7 Pages Web Parts and Alerts Pages and web parts allow for the customization of portals and sites This chapter uses detailed steps to show you how to customize SharePoint using the various types of pages and the functional components known as web parts Additionally we discuss the concept
37. r any other type of information an area manager chooses to make available We can break an area down into the following groupings of options Area Listings Bar Located across the top of the portal page the Area Listings Bar presents the list of top level areas which includes the home page and any areas directly under the home page When a portal is initially created this list will include Home Topics News and Sites However this list may differ in your environment as it will reflect the top level area structure of your SharePoint portal environment Portal Toolbar Located in the top right of the portal the Portal Toolbar contains portal management and help links The list of links in this area can include the following My Site My Site is listed for portal users that have been granted the right to have a personal site The My Site link gives you access to your personal site We will dis cuss My Site in more detail later in this chapter CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL 7 Site Settings The Site Settings link is available for users having some level of man agement capabilities within the portal which is typically someone who is at least a Content Manager for the portal The Site Settings link gives you access to the Site Settings page containing the portal management tools From this Site Settings page you will only have access to the management capabilities that have been made available to you based on your role in the portal Ot
38. rkers to organize and retrieve information differently Instead of storing data by type SharePoint provides an infrastructure that allows information to be stored by business context This means that you can have a single destina tion which contains all relevant information for a business topic Instead of assembling a customer profile manually for example you could navigate to a single SharePoint site dedi cated to providing a complete customer profile Similarly you can have a single SharePoint site dedicated to the creation of a document like the quarterly report in my scenario While not without some flaws SharePoint does have the power to transform the way Professional Information Workers access and use information While I believe that SharePoint can have significant positive benefits for an organization it is impossible to overstate the level of change required to bring it to fruition I have witnessed many organizations install a SharePoint pilot project only to see it fail because the end users did not understand how to use the system or embrace the required changes Ultimately the success of any SharePoint implementation is in the hands of the Professional Information Workers who use it Users like you must commit to mastering the SharePoint system and the SharePoint 2003 User s Guide has been written to help you accomplish that goal Seth Bates and Tony Smith have been working with Professional Information Workers and helping them em
39. rosoft Office itself Without a strong effort to educate Professional Information Workers many of these systems will not be successful I wish you all the best in leading the transformation of your organization Scot Hillier Author of Microsoft SharePoint Building Office 2003 Solutions and Advanced SharePoint Services Solutions About the Authors SETH BATES is a software architect and practice manager for DataLan Corporation the 2004 NY NJ Microsoft Platform Partner of the Year located in White Plains New York Seth performed the technical editing for Microsoft SharePoint Building Office 2003 Solutions and Advanced SharePoint Services Solutions He has also been published in Dr Dobb s Journal his article titled SharePoint Web Part Development appears in the April 2005 edition Seth has over 7 years of experience engineering business solutions primarily using Microsoft technologies With experience in all phases of the software engineering life cycle he brings a broad mix of analysis design and implementa tion expertise to his work TONY SMITH is a product manager for DataLan Corporation the 2004 NY NJ Microsoft Platform Partner of the Year located in White Plains New York With a background that includes business analysis network engineering and application development Tony has over 10 years of experience engineering business solutions and regularly presents to engi neers analysts and business decision makers Ton
40. rtal is that the business owners of con tent can be responsible for the management of the areas and sites in which their content resides Content owners do not need to rely on IT departments to manage portal areas post content or organize materials This allows the content owners to have control over the entire information management process and allows the IT group to focus on the management of the overall portal without needing to get involved in the management of business team resources When SharePoint is introduced into an organization a decision must be made concerning the level of ownership business teams will have around the management of SharePoint sites and areas In many cases the responsibility of maintaining the areas and the information contained in areas is given to the information owners That said itis often also true that the organization will want to maintain some level of consistency with navigation and layout of the overall Share Point environment To meet this goal the organization will incorporate certain restrictions or policies involving area management In this section we will discuss the structure of areas and how they are managed This information can then be applied to your organization in the way that best meets your desired balance between business owner control and navigation and layout consistency As we discussed earlier in this chapter SPS areas are the primary tools used to organize enterprise resources being mad
41. the components that make up a SharePoint environment and give you the information you need to effectively work with these components Then in the second part of this book Chapters 8 through 11 we will discuss some of the most common situations in which SharePoint solutions are used to solve a variety of business challenges The solutions that we will focus our discussions around include the following Document collaboration Often the goal of a group of information workers is to create materials based on enterprise information Often these individuals are geographically dispersed with each individual needing the same level of access to the materials being created and the enterprise information the materials are based on The group must know where the most recent copies of documents are located and be able to gain the appropriate level of access to these items In addition the ability to effectively commu nicate between team members is crucial to the efficiency of the collaboration process The management of responsibilities and deadlines around the creation of the materials is also important to the document collaboration process Project collaboration When teams of people are brought together to work on a project how well the project is managed will significantly impact its success All aspects of the project including the process communications deliverables timelines and tasks need to be properly managed to ensure the success of the pro
42. tion just below the Current Area Navigation the Actions section provides the list of area management and area content management tasks that are available to you for the currently displayed area This list only contains those options that are available to you based on your security rights within the area Table 2 1 shows the options that are available based on a user s site group assignment Assigning users to site groups defines the rights that those users will have within the portal We will discuss site groups in more detail in the Portal Site Groups section later in this chapter The following are the options that can be made available in the Action section Add Listings Allows you to add new portal listings to an area in the portal Portal listings are references to materials web sites etc We will discuss listings in more detail in the Portal Listings section later in this chapter Add Person Allows you to add a listing to a portal user with an area We will discuss people listings in more detail in the Portal Listings section later in this chapter Create Subarea Used to create a new portal area under the area currently being displayed We will discuss creating and managing areas in the Managing Areas section later in this chapter 8 CHAPTER 2 USING THE PORTAL Upload Document Takes you to the document upload screen for the default docu ment library created within the area We will discuss managing documents in C
43. ty has passed since we first began having grand ideas about publishing a SharePoint book and finally we have succeeded Lastly I would like to convey my love and appreciation for my wife Jennifer and son Dylan You have provided support and guidance when I needed it and I am now looking forward to being able to spend more time with you both Seth Bates I would like to thank Seth Working with you on this book has been a positive and enjoyable experience Finally I would like to thank my wife Lynn I could not have done this without your love and support You have encouraged and supported me through this entire process Tony Smith xix Introduction Scent 2003 is quickly becoming more prevalent in the workplace and all types of busi ness professionals are becoming involved in using and managing SharePoint based resources We have seen many situations where after SharePoint is introduced individuals struggle to leverage these resources without a good enough understanding of the capabilities to gain the most value possible SharePoint 2003 User s Guide was an outcome of this need and our book can serve as a reference for people working within a SharePoint environment The goal of this book is to deliver a tool to all levels of SharePoint users Beginners will be supplied with the information they need to most effectively use SharePoint s capabilities Inter mediate users will be given the information they need to manage their Shar
44. utes knowledge to a business process or uses that knowledge to make decisions This includes anyone who enters data into systems discusses that information with others or takes action based on the information Information Worker solutions are business solutions which include applications and processes that allow information workers to improve their productivity enhance collabora tion with others make information available to others and reduce the time it takes to make accurate informed business decisions Microsoft SharePoint technologies are an integral part of the Office System framework SharePoint is the next generation of Microsoft s information management and collaboration platform and provides the foundation on which Information Worker solutions are built CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO SHAREPOINT TECHNOLOGIES What Is Microsoft SharePoint Microsoft SharePoint is made up of two main products Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Windows SharePoint Services WSS is an add on service for Windows Server 2003 Through WSS Microsoft provides the platform and services necessary to build information sharing and collaboration solutions WSS is an individual and team produc tivity platform and a key component in the development of Information Worker solutions WSS provides web based team collaboration services needed to enable information workers to effectively create manage and share documents and other information
45. y has been working with a wide range of organizations including Fortune 500 and Fortune 50 companies to design and deploy Microsoft SharePoint 2003 and Office System solutions since these products were made available You can find additional information about Tony and topics discussed in this book at http www sharepointextras com XV About the Technical Reviewers MARTIN REID is an analyst at Queen s University Belfast He has coauthored two books SQL Access to SQL Server published by Apress and Beginning Access 2002 VBA published by Wrox and has been a technical editor for many others Martin has written several articles including some published by Microsoft on MSDN Martin s primary interest is in database technology NET and SharePoint Services to provide easy access to individual and corporate data to end users He is married to Patricia and together they have six children Aine Liam Maeve Emer Roisin and Eoin CHERRY TUN SMITH is a project manager for DataLan Corporation a consulting company based in White Plains NY Cherry has over 7 years of experience in managing commercial software development projects for organizations ranging from nonprofits to Fortune 100 firms Imple menting portal solutions and custom enterprise applications over the years has given her valuable insight into creating successful solutions for team collaboration and information sharing During leisure time Cherry enjoys spending time with her f
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