Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sharepoint

Help me reduce the size of my Excel file based on Sharepoint query.

slavlin — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:26:35 -0800

I need some help with a situation where I have a bit of limited resources. Can you help me minimize the Excel file size while still keeping all data available for reporting use? Here are my resources:
Sharepoint Server 2007 (I am a user, not IT Admin, so I can only work with the base installation.)
Excel 2003

I do not have access to Sharepoint designer, but have already built my list to work from.

I have setup an Excel spreadsheet based around a query linked to a Sharepoint list. Using that, I have built pivot tables to analyze the data, but it is rapidly growing in size. I need to limit the amount of data in the file, but allow all the data to be pulled to the spreadsheet.

I have tried setting the Data settings to discard external data when saved, but it is losing the list since there is no data in the list when it is saved.

I have tried to delete rows off the list and build a macro to refresh it, but Excel tells users that there are un-synchronized changes. Knowing my team, all it will take is someone to click the wrong button and synch the spreadsheet without discarding the changes, wiping out hundreds of lines of data.

Low-cost, low-maintenance web infrastructure for volunteer group?

tel3path — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:37:00 -0800

I have been tasked with finding a web solution for a volunteer group associated with a university. There are already pages on one of the departments' websites, however, it will be months before any changes can be made to that as it's under the rule of a CMS which is about to be migrated and to which we won't be able to really do anything until November. We want all the usual stuff like a blog and a Twitter widget and latest news and yadda yadda, but anything we add - and possibly anything we remove - would have to wait till November if we use the existing hosting arrangement. This is why I want to stick up another web infrastructure for us somewhere else, probably not hosted by the university. Because of the slow change control process, it might be necessary to embed some of the existing page content in iframes rather than having it in two places at once.

Meanwhile, back on the intranet side of it, someone has started sharing documents on a hideous Sharepoint back end which is also part of the university's infrastructure.

Meanwhile, another person has started a Google Plus group.

We would like to pull together a beautiful, easy-to-maintain web architecture over which we have total creative control and which will cost little or no money. (Our budget is around the $0.00 mark.)

I am a programmer, have a good amount of web programming experience, but have not attempted to create an entire website end-to-end before. I have very little spare time, and I also don't want to be the only person capable of maintaining the site. So I'm looking for the fastest cheapest solution for front-end and intranet, that can be implemented quickly by an expert, but also maintained easily by a nonexpert.

Best practices for software development documentation

desjardins — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:06:23 -0800

I do some developery-type stuff at work and the more complicated it gets, the less organized I am. I often find myself wondering why I did this or that or what I was trying to accomplish with it. I reuse a lot of the same functions and bits of code but I don't have a good system of keeping track of them. I know about commenting within code, and I do that, but I'm looking for a larger system of general best practices more than a specific solution. I'm the only one who works on 95% of the stuff I'm doing so these notes are mostly for me right now, but later on it will be very important to be able to communicate Why Things Are The Way They Are and What To Do.

Spinning, exploding Excel-driven web app: How or should it be?

metajc — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 08:45:34 -0800

Sometimes, I am a front-end web developer. Frequently, I meet new people at work who want to turn really complicated Excel documents into dazzlingly interactive web applications. Besides Excel's "Save to Web App" or "Save to SharePoint" features, such people ask if I can tap into an industry to support this -- perhaps scads of agencies and web-based or downloadable tools that make "websites" or at least customizable, interactive reports from Excel spreadsheets, data, and calculations. I'm yet to find this an abundance of examples of this. Are there? If so, what do you call them? If you use Google Analytics, MailChimp or Hootsuite, you are familiar with bouncing, cheerful report graphs and charts.

I know that those specific tools required teams and years worth of custom programming. I assume that these apps also derive their presentations from databases that are not Excel files. People seem to passionately believe, however, that there has got to be an easy way to pour Excel spreadsheets into a machine that spits out more simplistic but nonetheless animated pie charts, line charts, map charts, bar charts, etc. You can customize the colors and fonts! Click here to add your logo!

I've been Googling all morning and I see a few discussions on StackOverflow about how to pipe data into and out of this or that via Ruby, Python, Django or PHP. I see a few homebrewed applications that sort of do something via Javascript.

For the sake of specification, say I have an excel file with multiple tabs. Each tab has thousands of rows and nearly 50 columns. The existing Excel charts are based on calculations of those tabs. Is there a web or intranet-friendly tool that will eat that spaghetti and excrete more colorful, JQuery-powered whirligigs?

I don't mean to come off as sarcastic to the believers or naive to those who know. It just seems a tall order to me. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

How do I create a product roadmap editable by multiple parties?

djfreex — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 13:46:28 -0800

How to create a new product development roadmap style document that allows people to corporate? I am tasked with creating a document that shows the status (launch dates, completion %, confidence level etc.) of different product launches/projects on a time and category axis. This document should allow different people to make edits and click on individual products/projects to get further information on specifics - where the project is.

I am inclined to use Microsoft Project in conjunction with SharePoint. I believe you can interconnect individual MS project files into a master file.

any other ideas?

What's the (share)point?

metajc — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:35:13 -0800

How do I evaluate the cost/benefits of migrating my org's front-end website from M$Sharepoint to an open-source platform? I have been given one week starting today to evaluate the cost/benefit of migrating a ~3,000 page / ~2,000 visitor/day front-facing website from $harepoint to WordPress, Drupal, Plone or something else.

The idea is to save around $40K/year in fees that we pay a group to administer site hosting, domain hosting, and occasional header/footer/layout updates but nothing more than copy/pasting Google Analytics scripts in and out. I manage the content, design (pre-sharepoint), and functionality. (I actually iframe the functionality (forms) in from another site because the group cannot make time to provide things like email registration.)

I have never taken on a migration of this size before. I have also never contracted a job of this size out to a design firm. I have built maybe 20 websites in WordPress but nothing larger than 20 pages and a blog. After the migration, I would be solely responsible for all aspects of the website.

What are the major considerations I need to make? Are there guides for a project plan this specific?

How to remotely access a doctor's office's files?

carolr — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:25:20 -0800

I am looking for advice to come up with a technological solution for a physician’s office in NB, Canada. The scenario is that I would like patient files to be accessible remotely while still satisfying health privacy laws (PIPEDA), especially the part about patient records having to be stored in Canada. I’m not really trying to use you all for free business advice. I am willing to pay someone to help me figure out this problem but how I’m at a loss for how to find such a person - Yellow Pages computing services? I don’t have much of a technology background: I’m a little familiar with using VPNs, SSH and FTP in a university setting and that’s about it.

All the computers involved use Windows Vista or 7. For word processors, either Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 or Google Docs (see below). I’m only concerned with documents and maybe PDFs.

I have seen this question asked from a private home perspective.

Here are the possible solutions I’ve come up with so far but feel free to suggest a better idea.

D-Link DNS-323

The idea of you have a firewall, punch a hole in it and then you can access remotely using a password theoretically makes sense to me but I would need help set it up. How do I find someone? Otherwise, this does seem like the simplest idea. If you have any recommendations for version control with Microsoft Word 2010, they would be appreciated. I have tried googling and got several options. What is the best backup solution for this scenario?

Secure VPN

I only understand the basic idea; I have no idea about how to get it set-up and the security concerns.

Google Docs

The pros are: intuitive, don’t need someone tech savy to set it up; we've already started using Google Docs for non-confidential documents; I like Google Docs revision history and ease for multiple users

The cons: Health Privacy concerns: encryption and health records must be stored in Canada. One possible solution is Perspecsys, which interfaces between, say, Google Docs and us. However, they don’t currently offer a small office version and won’t until 2nd quarter of 2012

Microsoft Sharepoint

Googling found me this about Microsoft Sharepoint for doctors’ offices. Concerns are still that we need a Canadian-based server. Parts of it seem like overkill, such as the Human Resources and General Discussion sections.

Thanks!

Online resources for SharePoint 2010 Analytics?

citywolf — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:54:01 -0800

Any good online resources for SharePoint 2010 Analytics? Does anyone have any good online resources for SharePoint 2010 Analytics training or tutorials? I'm looking for tutorial videos or blogs and not really coming up with anything specific to SharePoint 2010.

Should I try Visual Studio?

hotelechozulu — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:25:14 -0800

SharePoint filter: Hitting limits with SharePoint Designer; Should I dive into Visual Studio? I'm using SharePoint Designer to make some workflows that trade information between lists, auto-populate lists with information from other lists based on parameters, etc. I keep hitting limits on SP Designer--especially when I try to do stuff like group logical conditions in a step. I also want to use workflows for multiple lists (not possible in SP Designer).

When I research solutions, I keep seeing "use Visual Studio". I know I could probably think of different ways to do things and avoid the limits with SP Designer, but I'm kinda wondering if it would be easier if I just bit the bullet and started doing real programming. Not a programmer, but I think I know enough to be dangerous? I'm lusting some of the workflows I could build with Visual Studio.

I don't want to ask my work to pay for Visual Studio, and then I crack it open and it's WAY over my head. When I watch tutorials about VS, I think I could learn it and it looks like fun. I'm pretty good at learning on my own.

tech level--data manager, web experience, lots of SharePoint/Infopath "power user" stuffs, know some PHP, SQL, Oracle, blah blah, etc etc, not pertinent to this, but I wanted to illustrate my knowledge level. Not fluent in any programming language, I have the basic concepts and I want to level up. I think since I'm actually trying to achieve a means, I could learn a language more easily.

Am I going the right direction? Is Visual Studio the right tool? Any advice or resources?

(currently on SP 2007, upgrading to 2010 in the next year)

Why can't I cut text?

shaarog — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:51:36 -0800

[Sharopoint filter] When I work from home using a Secure ID RSA token to VPN into my corp network I cannot copy and paste anything from Sharepoint. Or should I say copy anything as copy comes before paste. While trying to get it to work one day I tapped the mouse about a dozen times and twice the word did highlight - but that is not a good way to work! And could not repeat it. Am I missing something?
My job requires a lot of cut and paste and if I cannot effectively do that my work from home 2 days a week could be over.

Which SharePoint power user training should I take?

Herkimer — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:25:49 -0800

Which SharePoint power user training should I choose? Please give me your recommendations about good training companies and courses, thoughts on aiim.org, and any thoughts or advice about training remotely--is there any reason I shouldn't do it? I need to take a SharePoint power user training course.

Context: I work with a very small organization, so this is NOT enterprise-level usage, and my training's very much self-guided. Money for training will probably also be limited, so I need to choose well. If I screw up and pick the wrong course, I may not get to take another one.

I've been working with SharePoint over the past few months, so I'm conversant with its basic capabilities. I'd still like a solid overview, though. And I particularly need training on:

1) integration with Word (still don't get the document workspace, really) and Outlook (I'd like to explore using RSS feeds instead of SP's clunky alerts)

2) strategy--e.g., integrating SharePoint with existing archiving systems, knowing how long to keep information on SharePoint, etc.

I live in a relatively rural area, so there is only one local IT training organization worth considering. Their courses sound "meh"--mostly information that I already know. On the other hand, there is something to be said for being in the actual same room with the trainer: interaction would be easier and I'd probably get more of it.

There are many more options for live remote training (done on your own machine using online training, but with Q & A and interaction with the trainer), but it's hard to find any reviews of those options. Sharepoint Bootcamp and Critical Path Training get some positive commentary, and their syllabi include Office integration.

I'm also curious about the aiim.org SharePoint Practitioner course, because the syllabus specifically mentions training on useful big-picture topics: functions that should and shouldn't be implemented on SP, retention and lifecycle, etc. But I am concerned that I won't get enough of the basic overview and that the content might be too enterprise-level for my very small organization. Also, I would only be able to take the canned web module--there's no chance for Q & A, which seems important.

Please give me your recommendations about good training companies and courses, thoughts on aiim.org, and any thoughts or advice about training remotely--is there any reason I shouldn't do it?

Data connections btwn Access 2002 and SharePoint 2007, how do they work?

desjardins — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:57:11 -0800

I need to pretty quickly get up to speed on how to integrate an Access database with SharePoint. I know Access well, but I don't know SharePoint at all and don't understand how data connections work. The really fun part: I have Access 2002. The scope of this thing has kind of exploded; it was supposed to be a small database with a few users, and now it's an indefinite size to be viewed by many people (but still edited by a small number). I'm sure Access was a really terrible idea and feel free to tell me so, but that's where I'm at. I'm fine with dumping the whole thing and starting in another program, but I don't think my bosses have the patience, and I'd have to um, learn a new program.

I'm good with HTML and CSS and designing stuff, but I have no idea how information gets from a Web form to its destination in a database, and how to pull that back out again. I think in normal websites this is PHP? Magic? But does that apply to SharePoint?

I have SharePoint Server 2007 and InfoPath 2010.

sorry my questions are so boring lately

Windows Mesh won't run on XP... options?

Mokusatsu — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 03:17:30 -0800

I'm looking for a good solution for syncing files across several computers with several users. Something like Windows Live Mesh, except I can't use that because several of the computers run Windows XP, which Mesh doesn't support. I run a small business with several "agents" out in various distant locations. We've been using MS Live Sync (previously Foldershare) to sync a number of files in a number of directories.

Unfortunately MS is deactivating Sync and forcing everyone over to Mesh. That wouldn't be a problem except that Mesh requires Vista SP2 to run. It does not work on XP. Several of the computers run XP.

I need the following features:

- able to add a number of different users with different levels of access permission. Some would be read-only access for example. There are about 10 different users and 13 or 14 different computers (i.e. some people Sync up laptops as well as their desktops).

- reasonably simple to use. I'm an IT enthusiast and I like bells and whistles. There are some users who are very wary of complexity who will simply refuse to use a product if it involves much setup and maintenance.

- not too costly. Some of the products I've looked at such as Dropbox charge a monthly fee per user. With all these users this product would end up costing us thousands of dollars per year, to replace something we previously got (Sync) completely free.

Most of the computers run Vista or Windows 7 and can thus use Mesh.

I was wondering if it might be possible to piggyback Mesh with something else like Dropbox so that the Mesh computers would sync with each other and we'd also run Dropbox on top of it to Sync some of those same directories with the XP computers. This, if it works, would seem to be an acceptable solution because then only a few users would need Dropbox.

Alternative:

Many of us have Groove 2007. Unfortunately many of us also have x64 machines and Groove 2007 doesn't completely work with x64 platforms.

Can someone knowledgeable of Groove let me know if it is capable of doing basic folder synchronisation like Mesh/Sync on x64 machines and furthermore would Groove conflict with Mesh if they were both running and syncing the same folders?

SharePoint for web site

the noob — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:59:19 -0800

The corporation I work for is investigating using SharePoint 2010 for both intranet and website/extranet. The business case for the intranet is pretty sound, and we have identified many applications that can and should be replaced by a tool like SharePoint 2010. We have been asked to look at a website refresh, and we’re actively putting together a business case to use SharePoint for the website. We’ve given the marketing department a preview of the CMS and content approvals/workflow process and they are on board. Here’s my question.

Has anyone had bad experiences in using SharePoint as a web site? I would like to provide the business with a good list of cons to match the many pro’s.

Not interested in recommendations of other CMS applications – just if you’ve had relevant SharePoint experience and have encountered some “gotchas” or road blocks, I need a devil's advocate.

Another alternative to SharePoint

otherwordlyglow — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:12:39 -0800

We're looking for an internal communication/file sharing solution for a long-term project, something that would have similar functionality to SharePoint but without the cost and (what I hear is) the hassle. Currently we're looking at Huddle, Central Desktop, and Basecamp. Can anyone provide me with pros and cons of each system? We need the system to allow for sharing files, collaboration on document creation, project calendars, and maybe handling some internal communication.

We're looking for something low-tech as we don't have a whole lot of technical support and it needs to be easy to use for all involved. Start-up and maintenance needs to be easy as well. This system will be used by admin staff at a large university and some faculty and outside consultants. I am not all that technically inclined myself but have been charged with investigating options and have narrowed it down to these three.

Open-source alternatives to SharePoint for small/medium businesses?

enrevanche — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:47:31 -0800

I'm looking for an open-source alternative to SharePoint for a small workgroup. The main thing we need is reasonably robust document management/distribution, but other features (workgroup calendaring, etc.) would be useful. We're using a wiki now to distribute docs and we need better metadata, version control, etc. The solution needs to run on Linux (ideally). The obvious candidates seem to be Alfresco Community Edition or Liferay, but I have zero practical experience using or administering either. Thanks in advance, hive mind, for any tips or advice you can offer.

Microsoft SharePoint - ability to file-share with outside companies/collaborators?

beammeup4 — Fri, 28 May 2010 09:23:09 -0800

Microsoft SharePoint - ability to file-share with outside companies/collaborators? My company is evaluating whether or not to migrate from eRoom to SharePoint. One eRoom feature that is very useful is the ability for an admin to easily provision password-protected file repositories that collaborators around the world can use to check-in and check-out files.

Does SharePoint have this functionality?

References and/or screenshots showing this functionality would be helpful as I'll be making a presentation about my findings, and as much as I trust MeFites, management is a different story.

Intensive Sharepoint Training

arniec — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:07:04 -0800

At my office we are preparing to deploy Sharepoint 2010 Enterprise-wide and I'm the lead architect. What training will best prepare me for this role? What they want:

They want me to be "the go to guy" for all things Sharepoint.
They want me to be able to totally customize the look and feel of the Sharepoint environment (beyond what Sharepoint designer can do from what I've seen)

They want me to build custom applications that work in the Sharepoint framework (such as web forms, interactive maps, etc)

My Current Background

I am a Software Engineer (Architect) with 7 years coding experience, 5 years teaching experience, and 4 years networking experience.
I am proficient in Java, Javascript, VB 6 (sadly my employer is still VB6 reliant), PHP, ASP, and VB.NET in ASPX.
I had some pretty sharp C++ skills back in the day but they have atrophied due to lack of use.
I know XML and RSS feeds like the back of my hand, and I'm good with CSS.
I have some familiarity with DOM, SAX, JQuery, and C#.

My Sharepoint Experience:
My company did a small Sharepoint 2007 roll-out and I attended 5 days of training. This was basic training, everything from how to upload documents to manage user permissions. The only real customization was how to modify the site theme, which is nowhere near the level of control they want to exert over our deployment.

The bottom line question: What type of training would best prepare me, a web developer and experienced coder, to become our company's Sharepoint guru? Sharepoint Designer seems useful but given that it is "Frontpage on Steroids" I am not sure if it would give me the degree of control necessary. Is that my starting point?

And where can I learn more about the actual coding of Sharepoint pages so I can customize them to fit our needs?

And finally, any certifications I should aim for?

(And, yes, my managers know I know none of this, they want me to learn to become this person for the company, they don't expect me to be it already, so no worries about their expectations)

Sharepoint Link changes...

fozzie33 — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:08:44 -0800

I need help either changing all links in a sharepoint(sql server) database to point to a new file server. Is there a way to do a find/replace in the sql server database for sharepoint to change the links? or do i have to do something else? In Sharepoint we have a bunch of lists that have links to one of our file servers \\server1\xxFolder

We are upgrading to a new larger file server \\server2.
We will keep the same folder structure, just different machines of a different name.

So is there an easy way to do this, or should i create some sort of redirector?

we don't want to break the links, nor break sharepoint.

How should we manage communication and documents for managing projects?

cacophony — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:11:25 -0800

What's a good, free project management system for coordinating developers, product managers, QA testers, etc. in remote locations? What do you recommend for archiving correspondence, storing attachments, and communicating project status? For several years at my company, we have primarily used SharePoint as a document repository for our projects. For some reason, people here don't seem to like it all that much. Various complaints I've heard is that it's too hard to find things, too slow, the search is broken, etc. Quite likely these are all complaints specific to our installation, but the fact is that SharePoint has very low credibility here and it's going to be hard to convince people otherwise.

We're looking to replace it with something else. Some of the alternatives being floated are a wiki (MediaWiki?), some sort of knowledgebase product, or Google Wave. They each obviously have their pros and cons.

The key problem here is that everyone prefers to use Outlook and just email stuff back and forth. It's going to be a hard habit to break. I thought maybe there'd be a product where you could store threads and attachments in the repository simply by copying a certain robot email address on the thread, to facilitate the continued use of company email.

This is for relatively small teams, but they're in remote locations and so casual conversation to update people is out. How is everyone else handling this?

SharePoint CQWP: How to use today's date to compare to another field

momzilla — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:38:31 -0800

SharePoint CQWP: How on earth can I use today's date to compare to another field in a calculated column or filter in SharePoint? (WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007) We have two subsites that have announcements lists which we are using to display deadlines. We are using the Content Query Web Part on the parent site homepage to roll up the deadlines from both subsites. Project manager only wants deadlines that will be expiring within the next seven days to display in the CQWP. This seemed like an easy task to complete ... just use the filter in the CQWP. However, I cannot figure out how to get it to allow for [Expires]-7 or otherwise use Today, Date or Now functions in a calculation.

My first solution was to create a calculated column to determine the beginning date to display the deadline (using the formula of [Expires]-7). The column displays fine in the list, but I wasn't able to get this to work in the CQWP filter because it didn't see this calculated column as a date field, even though I selected "Date" data type when I created it.

My second attempt was to try to create a "countdown" of days until [Expires], wherein I ran into the Today function limitation in calculated fields.

Am I going about this the wrong way or overlooking the obvious? What is the easiest way to achieve this? I'm new to SharePoint, and any guidance is appreciated.

Making SharePoint more like WordPress for my home page

blahblahblah — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:36:58 -0800

I have an academic homepage, and I want to have frequently updated content, but my university doesn't support anything but MS Office Sharepoint. How do I add WordPress, or WordPress-like elements, or some sort of easy CMS/theme solution to my site? So I have a nice new homepage at the university where I teach, but the university only supports Sharepoint and WebDAV and recommends Sharepoint Designer for faculty pages.

I really would like to use WordPress, or something like it, to drive my site, mostly because of the simple, elegant themes available and the easy light-weight CMS/authoring ability. Everything that comes out of Sharepoint Designer looks terrible, and rarely works across all browsers.

The problem is that I really want my site to continue to be www.university.edu/blahblahblah. Is there any way for a technically adept amateur to set up this page so that it looks or behaves like a WordPress site? Perhaps having the page pull things from an external site?

Or just some tips on making Sharepoint work better for someone like me?

Any help appreciated.

How to Delete Myself ...

keasby — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:59:19 -0800

How to transfer administrative control of a SharePoint subsite? I.e. I created the site, assigned new owners, but now need to remove my own access. This seems like it should be pretty straight forward. Unlike homemade chili, it is not.

We have a basic SharePoint team site. Admin asked me to create a private subsite where just the back office staff could store sensitive personnel files. Creating was no problem, and I assigned permission such that only those individuals can view. I even "removed" myself from all of the groups.

Or so I thought. I am not getting access denied when I log into the site.

Help! I don't want to coach a coworker, over the phone, how to do each of the trivial steps it took to make this subsite. Is this something my network admin should be able to do? It may help to know that we are a "virtual firm" so I don't have any tech folks on site to help me, nor can I just "hijack" one of the new owner's accounts.

Thank you!

Sharepoint weekly email

fozzie33 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:14:12 -0800

In Sharepoint, is there a way to send a weekly report(every monday) showing the status of a list? We are using MOSS 2007, I have sharepoint designer, and we have a particular list (plan of actions and milestones) that I want to send out every monday showing the status of any open POAMs.

Any suggestions, i am new to sharepoint, but i am a programmer, so if i can't find a solution here, i will figure something else out... i am thinking i can create a workflow or something... but not sure.
- Tim

Add views column in MOSS?

smelvis — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:53:52 -0800

microsoftfilter: Using MOSS, how can I add a column to a discussion board list to show the number of times an item has been viewed? Currently have #of replies, but also want to show # of views for each item. Seems like this should be easy, but I have dug around and don't see this option.

Thanks