Tuesday, October 26, 2010

SPTechCon collection of info

So here's the first of a couple of blogger posts that contain all of my live-blogging statements from the conference. This first set is from the Power User half-day session.


Wednesday October 20, 2010

BrendanHorner: 
Hi, I'm Brendan and I'm a power user/site collection admin in the education industry. I've been working with SharePoint for a couple of years and and provided quite a bit of InfoPath support as well. I'll be taking classes to look at 2010 Power User info, business intelligence options, content types, data view webparts, governance, and more. My job is to focus on everything sharepoint up to coding - which is where I slam the breaks ^_^.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:11  

BrendanHorner: 
Sitting in the first session for my day - SP 2010 Power User with Joshua Haebets. This is a half-day session and should be interesting.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:21 

BrendanHorner: 
Hooray, conference rooms actually have power strips!! SPC09 Vegas - 0; SPTechCon Bostson - 1
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:24 

BrendanHorner: 
Most everyone in our class is running SharePoint 2007 and some are actually already on 2010
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:33 

BrendanHorner: 
new site template available in 2010 - Group Work site, which includes calendars, whereabouts, phone call memo, task, documents, and the ability to see exchange calendars within sharepoint
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:36 

BrendanHorner: 
Several basic database templates are available in Access like the assets, contacts, issues, projects, and chartable template. You can also create your own using Access Services to take your database and convert it into a subsite for 2010
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:38 

BrendanHorner: 
Things to consider on new sites: security, branding, logos, and navigation...these are listed under the "getting started" section on new team sites.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:38 

BrendanHorner: 
Note that SharePoint 2010 has a ribbon similar to office...hopefully you've seen this if you've seen 2010 demo'd anywhere
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:40 

BrendanHorner: 
Wiki pages in 2010 allow you to have more freedom where you place text, pictures, etc for your page layout whereas regular pages are more focused on picking specific layouts for your text
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:44 

BrendanHorner: 
For those who haven't dealt with it yet; there is a visual upgrade feature in 2010 that lets you keep your 2010 environment looking like 2007 and preview the updated look and feel
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:48 

BrendanHorner: 
Phone call memo on the new group site template allows you to collect and write memos but has a recipient field and a confidential field - if it's confidential, it is security trimmed so that only the recipients can view it. Kind of nifty for important phone calls that come in.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:54 

BrendanHorner: 
wiki wysiwyg allows you to add new pages just by typing the [[ like 2007 BUT, when you do, it will show you a list of all other pages in your library in a menu so you can just click the one you want!
Wednesday October 20, 2010 8:56 

BrendanHorner: 
Site usage reports in 2010 allow you to create custom usage reports instead of trying to hit the database directly (which is not supported in any way)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:03 

BrendanHorner: 
You can also get site usage reports emailed to you when certain conditions are met (basically a workflow)...pretty cool when you want to find things in your site that are used a lot
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:05 

BrendanHorner: 
You can block SharePoint designer at the site collection level in sharepoint 2010
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:06 

BrendanHorner: 
There is a "check permissions" option to let you see what access a user or group has to the site when you are looking at permissions on a subsite, list, item, etc.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:10 

BrendanHorner: 
Site collections have a workflow dashboard to look at multiple workflows, where they are associated, and how many in-progress ones are working.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:13 

BrendanHorner: 
"2010 looks really cool for the first week" - Josh Haebets lol
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:14 

BrendanHorner: 
You can create a site theme in powerpoint and publish it to powerpoint (color scheme basically)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:15 

BrendanHorner: 
To create a theme in powerpoint - go to design, pick a simple theme, change the colors, File->Save As->Office theme file type. This will package all the theme info as a packaged file for upload. Go to the site settings, themes, click "upload document" and you'll be able to upload your theme.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:19 

BrendanHorner: 
(creating a theme in powerpoint can be done in '07 or '10)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:20 

BrendanHorner: 
2010 allows you to setup versioning on webparts and the ability to checkout and checkin. Personal web parts are not version controlled.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:22 

BrendanHorner: 
Zones are no longer needed for webparts...YAY!!!!
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:22 

BrendanHorner: 
WARNING: if you have javascript/css in your content editor web parts, our speaker is saying that the new CEWP no longer lets you do that but it has to be migrated to the HTML form webpart...hope someone can speak to this
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:28 

BrendanHorner: 
Media webpart in SP2010 can play WMV, mp3, mp4
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:30 

BrendanHorner: 
2010 will let you, if you want, to update your mysite data and that information can be synced back to AD
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:32 

BrendanHorner: 
You can use managed metadata term stores to limit the job titles available for mysites and office locations and such
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:33 

BrendanHorner: 
New infopath form webpart similar to xml form webpart in 2007 lets you apply branding to blank infopath forms...honestly sure of its use unless it allows you to brand the site in SP and it auto-brand infopath forms...
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:36 

BrendanHorner: 
Lots of cool chart types for the charting webpart in 2010
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:37 

BrendanHorner: 
You can publish microsoft project files directly to task lists in 2010
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:41 

BrendanHorner: 
Media webpart will import videos from your computer into a library in sharepoint as a part of setting it up - makes it pretty easy to setup.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:44 

BrendanHorner: 
Outlook webparts will not work in SharePoint 2010 if you are using Exchange 2010...you will have to use SP2010 and exchange 2007 for those webparts to work correctly (authentication issue)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:45 

BrendanHorner: 
In theory, you could create really fun applications (whisper: games) in silverlight...which means they can be loaded into sharepoint in the silverlight webpart...I see recreational use :)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:47 

BrendanHorner: 
Webparts in 2010 will allow you to turn on auto refreshing as well as other AJAX options like enabling asynchronous loads, asyncrhonous updates, and a manual refresh button.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:48 

BrendanHorner: 
InfoPath form webpart lets you connect to an xsn file so that the form is loaded within the site instead of going to a separate page...great for relating static data on the page and a form itself.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:51 

BrendanHorner: 
Looks like you can add stuff to a wiki page like javascript/css/etc and an approval setup can be added to those pages...basically no need to add a CEWP/HTML form webpart to a wiki page.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:53 

BrendanHorner: 
Our session is about to hit a break; looking forward to continuing the liveblogging after we return.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 9:57 

BrendanHorner: 
To answer a comment from a user...from what it looks like, you can insert scripts/css within a wiki page if you click on the Edit HTML Source at the top-right of a 2010 wiki page. From there, the sky is the limit on what you do it seems.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:21 

BrendanHorner: 
InfoPath form webpart will allow you to setup closing options for the form so you can host a form within a page, get people to fill it out, they submit it, it "closes" the form by taking you back to a view or something
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:23 

BrendanHorner: 
2010 printing will strip out a lot of branding...great to print just what you want...possibly negative if you really wanted that look to show; give it a shot, see what prints and what doesn't in print preview
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:26 

BrendanHorner: 
If you haven't discerned this yet: pretty much EVERYTHING in sharepoint is a list :D
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:27 

BrendanHorner: 
you can setup validation information in a LIST....I'll let that sink in for a minute and listen for the cheers.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:28 

BrendanHorner: 
Managed Metadata...metadata = information about something instead of information in something (e.g. the size of a word document and its location, not what's actually said in the document). Managed metadata allows you to come up with your own list of attributes/metadata and its navigation at the site collection level.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:31 

BrendanHorner: 
Managed Metadata ends up being useful in searches to help you find specific items with a "keyword".
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:32 

BrendanHorner: 
Calendar improvements - UI improvements for dragging to alter an event and you can also do calendar overlays like Outlook 2007...SP 1, Entourage 0
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:34 

BrendanHorner: 
Validation settings with a list will act similar to an input mask in '07 - you setup the rules AND the message to display when you put something in wrong for that field. You can also upload documents via drag n drop (silverlight/ajax) and you can, if it is setup by the SP admin, have alerts go to your phone via SMS text message.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:35 

BrendanHorner: 
Office Web Apps will let you edit certain office documents in the browser - but it seems like it must be Office 2007 or 2010 documents. Also, in Word, you can co-author/edit a file because it locks things by the paragraph...you can work on one paragraph while someone else works on another and you can even see who it is if you are using Office Communication Server (Office Communicator).
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:43 

BrendanHorner: 
SharePoint 2010 allows you to customize list forms (like the new form) using InfoPath so you get a heck of a lot more power and control.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:43 

BrendanHorner: 
Why customize list forms? Change the name of a field on the page for end users, hide fields, enhance the appearance instead of using SP's default layout, and adding useful text on the page.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:45 

BrendanHorner: 
Additional form template type in InfoPath to accomplish changing list forms (in addition to browser form, client form, and managed/admin form). Custom list forms are used to create something quickly, taking info offline with SP Workspace, and filtering a list based on a person or group.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:48 

BrendanHorner: 
Managed terms for managed metadata can be centralized across site collections and even farms!
Wednesday October 20, 2010 10:59 

BrendanHorner: 
You can setup filters on the side of a page of a list using keyword filters (managed metadata terms)...pretty awesome feature.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:06 

BrendanHorner: 
Customizing list forms in infopath will let you add fields...hooray for no more SPD custom forms work!
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:11 

BrendanHorner: 
(at least for me)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:11 

BrendanHorner: 
Custom list forms using InfoPath is in MOSS Standard and above
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:12 

BrendanHorner: 
There is a new view option available to create new views in SharePoint Designer instead of using the standard gui
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:13 

BrendanHorner: 
This new view option using SPD will let you use conditional formatting on rows and doing some nifty stuff...basically, it's a Data View Webpart...very nifty.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:16 

BrendanHorner: 
SharePoint Designer is now more than a design tool and it lets people manage sites, lists, permissions, workflows, etc. Some of that stuff was in '07 but harder to find. You can create columns and content types within SPD instead of needing the browser
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:18 

BrendanHorner: 
SharePoint Designer's homepage of a site will show you how much space is used on a site, look at subsites, and look at users/groups for permissions purposes.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:20 

BrendanHorner: 
You can use the Content Type hub in 2010 to share content types across sites/site collections. Great for custom columns that you want to make available across the board.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:23 

BrendanHorner: 
"You don't need to be scared of SharePoint Designer anymore" - awesome quote from our presenter. Please pass that on to managers everywhere
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:24 

BrendanHorner: 
Visio and workflows - allows you to visualize the workflows...great when you have a super-complex workflow right now...upgrade to 2010 and then look at it in visio
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:30 

BrendanHorner: 
You can save workflows done in one place and deploy it to production with minimal changes in 2010 SPD.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:32 

BrendanHorner: 
Great workflow actions in SPD 2010:
Lookup manager of user (via AD)
Log to history list
Do a calculation (enhanced)
Pause until date
Find interval between dates
Start approval task
Impersonate steps (take a specific step in a workflow and impersonate the workflow author)...this might be a tad scary but will be very useful for migrating items to secure locations and other similar actions
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:35 

BrendanHorner: 
One problem - impersonate someone who then leaves the company :)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:36 

BrendanHorner: 
This can be fixed using Service Accounts but it's rare to have one that users can use. The impersonation will impersonate the person who last edited/published the workflow.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:38 

BrendanHorner: 
You can now copy and modify out of the box workflows.....oh yea
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:39 

BrendanHorner: 
If you have a workflow that is almost complete but will require a developer to mess with something specific, you can export the workflow and give it to a developer to open and modify in Visual Studio.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:43 

BrendanHorner: 
I'm hungry.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:44 

BrendanHorner: 
You'll want to use custom lists for lookup values in a reusable workflow because you can simply recreate that list in another site and the lookup will work great.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:52 

BrendanHorner: 
To use Visio with Workflows, you must purchase Visio Premium
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:52 

BrendanHorner: 
You can create workflow conditions for approvals based on a % of users who approve that item instead of a specific number of approvers. Nifty
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:54 

BrendanHorner: 
You can set specific actions when a task expires and it even has an action to escalate a task to that user's manager (assuming that info is in there from AD)
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:55 

BrendanHorner: 
Workflows can use lookup properties for a user's AD info (including custom properties)....basically the userprofileservice in a workflow....wow.
Wednesday October 20, 2010 11:56 

BrendanHorner: 
Initiation forms for workflows are DVWPs in SharePoint Foundation and InfoPath forms for MOSS. Both pretty powerful options for customizing the forms with validation, conditional formatting, etc.

Wednesday October 20, 2010 12:03

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