Well, I have had three days of receiving texts from forgotten friends and acquaintances to gloat about the fact that the Villa let in SEVEN goals against Chelsea. Their worse defeat during my time supporting them.
Probably the funniest text was “Newsflash : Following Saturday’s events the Chelsea Villa Semi Final has been moved from Wembley Stadium to Lords Cricket Ground”. Now everywhere I go the number seven appears whether it is the highest scoring ball in snooker, the number of days in the week or just the picture here on my blog. So I have decided to go with the flow and use SEVEN as the theme for this week’s blog. I am going to talk about one of my favourite free applications ‘SharePoint Designer’and the SEVEN great uses of SharePoint Designer both the current version and the new SharePoint Designer 2010. The new SharePoint Designer 2010 will be available soon, but be warned it isn’t backward compatible and will not work on your current SharePoint sites.
1. Design Sites, Pages and Master Pages
Out of the box SharePoint is effective, but a lot of organisations want to really brand it and make it their own. With SharePoint Designer you can change columns, add text or pictures, add headers or footers and generally change the layout of the page. Each Site is linked to a Master Page and by changing the layout of the Master Page you can change the look of all sites that use that Master Page. Interestingly in the soon to be released SharePoint Foundation the Default.Master page is actually the Windows SharePoint Services ver 3 Master Page. So if you are an old fuddy-duddy like me you can make your SharePoint 2010 look like SharePoint 2007 and even lose the ribbon by just applying the Default.Master.
2. Develop Cascaded Style Sheets
All Graphic Designers these days think tables are old hat and that the world is a better place with CSS (Cascaded Style Sheets). They might just be a trend but SharePoint Designer lets you create and modify all these style sheets. Meaning that uneducated SharePoint Administrators will then not understand why when they try to change the font to that new trendy one it keeps changing back to the company standard font.
3. Data Views (Combine multiple SharePoint lists into one and link to external data sources).
With SharePoint Designer you can create so many more views of your data. You can link information from different lists even from different sites. You can take data straight from SQL and Oracle databases and display them in a snazzy SharePoint table. Then when you are confident you can add the power of ‘Conditional Formatting’. This means for example if your rating score in a SharePoint Survey goes below 6 out of 10 the entry could turn yellow, be a bigger font and even flicker.
4. Create Quite Advanced Workflows
Creating Workflow to automate those tedious jobs is one of my favourite features of SharePoint Designer. Straight away you can add over 50 Conditions and Actions to a SharePoint Library or List. For example,a new IT Helpdesk Form is submitter about a printer problem then use Workflow to set up an automatic Email to the person responsible for printers and move the form from the ‘Submitted’ to the ‘In Progress’ section. Send an email back to user saying call has been logged and who it has been assigned to. All with a simple SharePoint Designer workflow which works effortlessly in the background as the IT team debates whose turn it is to fetch the drinks from the vending machine.
5. Backup, Restore and move SharePoint Sites
Even Administration can be done in SharePoint Designer. The option to complete real-time backups of SharePoint sites simply by copying the URL (and having the appropriate permissions). Backup and Restore are simple procedures and it is also possible to transport sites across servers using SharePoint Designer.
6. Add big buttons
Nothing says press me more than a big button. So the easiest way of leading users is to put buttons on your SharePoint Site. The best way to do this is to insert them in SharePoint Designer. You have a choice of over 50 Interactive buttons in various styles and colours. All of these you can add hyperlinks to and appropriate text.
7. See how sites look in different browsers
I started up my Windows 7 PC the other day and was hit with a choice of all the different browsers I could install. As a Microsoft man I always have tended to use Internet Explorer but have now given myself a choice by also installing Google Chrome. I have to admit to been rather taken back by how fast the Google Chrome pages load. My Facebook now behaves three times better than it used to on Internet Explorer 8. So, more SharePoint users will start to vary browsers with more using Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome than before. When you create sites now in SharePoint Designer you have option to view them in any of the different browsers you have installed on your PC. You get to see the problems before the users start howling.
So as Chelsea stopped at 7 I will to but SharePoint Designer has many more hidden features. If you haven’t used it yet then I strongly recommend downloading it free now by Clicking Here.
SharePoint Designer Training courses are all available from all good leading SharePoint Trainers. I would recommend taking a look at Office Talk but then you might end up with me.
So a week on Sunday sees the Villa yet again face Chelsea. This time for a place in FA Cup Final and strangely I feel quite confident. Maybe I need a new pair of lucky pants though.
Don’t forget if you haven’t already voted in the Andy Dale SharePoint Awards 2010 that the closing date is 7th April. So vote now.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Monday, 22 March 2010
Why Do I Support SharePoint?
If you are visiting this site to vote in the Andy Dale SharePoint Awards 2010 please Click Here to view last week’s SharePoint blog, but before you do unless you are in a real hurry why not take a few minutes out to read this week’s SharePoint Blog. You can always vote later. I will put the link again at the end.
Office Talk were invited to do a short presentation about the use of SharePoint as a Document Management Tool to a group of College IT Managers last week. This gave me the chance to show my real passion for SharePoint and especially the ease and simplicity of Windows SharePoint Services, but to my surprise we weren’t the only Document Management Tool demonstrating (that will teach me not to read the itinerary before hand). Also demonstrating was a product called Alfresco which is an open source product and looked to do a lot of the functions of the Document Management side of SharePoint. It was interesting then that at a Q&A session after the presentations I had to defend my SharePoint corner and say why it was the best product available. This made me evaluate why I actually am a SharePoint supporter and why I was so passionate about the product. I will go into this in detail later on, but first I think I should say why I am an Aston Villa supporter. For none football fans, or people that don’t want to know a little about what makes Andy Dale tick, feel free to skip the next two paragraphs.
I don’t know if I have mentioned it before to regular readers, but I am a follower of one of the greatest teams in England Aston Villa. One of only four English teams to be crowned champions of Europe, but that isn’t why I support them. Now my dad, brother and my Granddad supported Wolverhampton Wanderers probably the nearest main football team to us. At the age of five I wanted a tracksuit and my Granddad obliged, but instead of it being gold and back (the colours of the Wolves) it was a claret colour. At the time I was disappointed, but always listened to my knowledgeable Granddad who said they were the colours of one of the finest teams in the land, Aston Villa, who had won the FA Cup a record seven times, which was more than any other team (the fact that now 37 years later they have still only won 7 is a major frustration, but hopefully that will change in May). So from that day on I was a Villa fan and have now had a season ticket for twenty eight seasons.
On Saturday the Villa were at home to the Wolves in a really entertaining game that ended as a draw (which would have pleased my mum). Yet I spent the whole day answering texts from my brother and other Wolves supporting friends claiming moral victories. I had to defend refereeing decisions, defend the singing of the famous Holte End, the tackling of Petrov and most of all defend my beloved Aston Villa. In the same way as at the Document Management Event last week I had to defend my beliefs.
So why am I a SharePoint Supporter? I think you have to start with the fact I am a Microsoft man and use Microsoft products. Yes, I know they all have their faults and don’t get me started on the Vista fiasco, but the truth is 80% plus of all companies use Microsoft products. They are well supported, well designed and there is loads of useful information out about them. I have been using SharePoint since early 2003 and have seen it develop. I like the fact it is so simple and easy to use. The way I can very quickly show people who have never seen it how they can easily gain benefits from it. Probably most of all I like the many many different things it does. Maybe the Open Source guys with their ‘Alfreco’ had a point in that their product was better if you purely wanted a Document Management system, but the SharePoint product opens so many more possibilities. It isn’t the filling of the pie that is important but the whole pie. The SharePoint Workflow capabilities lets you simplify almost any of your systems (i.e. Purchase Orders, Holiday Requests, Visitor logging, sickness absence and many more). Office Talk recently helped a company quickly be able to evaluate why people were leaving their company by simply using the SharePoint system they already had installed.
SharePoint might not be the master of any one task, but it is pretty good at many. If you were to choose the best solution each time you would have to employ so many different experts and offer such a wide variety of training. Yet with SharePoint if you know how one area works you know it all.
I do preach maybe a little too much to the unconverted on SharePoint, but struggle to understand why a company who uses Microsoft Server 2003 (or 2008) haven’t downloaded the free version of Windows SharePoint Services. It is so easy to install and start playing with. Unlike the Open Source which I struggle to follow when I first install I believe SharePoint is relatively straight forward. Please feel free to comment if you disagree. It has a Site Actions menu which includes either ‘Create’ to create new sites, libraries or lists. Then it has ‘Edit Page’ to let you edit the page you are currently viewing. Here you can simply move sections around and add new sections. Or last of all ‘Site Settings’ where you can get to all the other functions and features. In fact it is very tempting for IT Administrators to be ‘self taught’ and whilst this works Office Talk would very much recommend a one day training course so that you can see all the extra clever little tricks that are available and how to get the most business benefits from it.
You can probably see that I am passionate about both the Villa and SharePoint (especially WSS), but to show you why I think both are the best below is two lists of ten. You can decide for yourselves which list is which.
First Ten Reasons for being the best in no particular order
1. Has full version control.
2. With the free SharePoint Designer you can quickly add very effective Workflow.
3. Can stream videos direct from websites like YouTube.
4. Can easily create electronic forms to replace those paper ones.
5. Can create satisfaction surveys in no time.
6. Can easily create template from sites you create.
7. Can add the Office Document Templates you already have to any SharePoint. Document Library.
8. Can search any word in any document.
9. The way you can customise and filter views of data.
10. The way you easily update dropdown lists.
Second Ten Reasons for being the best in no particular order
1. Have won the top European trophy.
2. First ever winners of League Cup.
3. Where a founder member of the football league.
4. Made the Andy Gray, voice of Sky, famous.
5. Have played in every Premier League Season.
6. Director William McGregor founded the Football League.
7. Have won the double.
8. Hosted more FA Cup Semi Finals than any other ground.
9. Provided more England players (69 to date) than any other club.
10. The future King of England (Prince William), future Prime Minister (David Cameron) and Pike from Dad’s Army are all supporters.
Don’t forget to vote in the Andy Dale SharePoint Awards 2010 only two weeks left. Click Here
Office Talk were invited to do a short presentation about the use of SharePoint as a Document Management Tool to a group of College IT Managers last week. This gave me the chance to show my real passion for SharePoint and especially the ease and simplicity of Windows SharePoint Services, but to my surprise we weren’t the only Document Management Tool demonstrating (that will teach me not to read the itinerary before hand). Also demonstrating was a product called Alfresco which is an open source product and looked to do a lot of the functions of the Document Management side of SharePoint. It was interesting then that at a Q&A session after the presentations I had to defend my SharePoint corner and say why it was the best product available. This made me evaluate why I actually am a SharePoint supporter and why I was so passionate about the product. I will go into this in detail later on, but first I think I should say why I am an Aston Villa supporter. For none football fans, or people that don’t want to know a little about what makes Andy Dale tick, feel free to skip the next two paragraphs.
I don’t know if I have mentioned it before to regular readers, but I am a follower of one of the greatest teams in England Aston Villa. One of only four English teams to be crowned champions of Europe, but that isn’t why I support them. Now my dad, brother and my Granddad supported Wolverhampton Wanderers probably the nearest main football team to us. At the age of five I wanted a tracksuit and my Granddad obliged, but instead of it being gold and back (the colours of the Wolves) it was a claret colour. At the time I was disappointed, but always listened to my knowledgeable Granddad who said they were the colours of one of the finest teams in the land, Aston Villa, who had won the FA Cup a record seven times, which was more than any other team (the fact that now 37 years later they have still only won 7 is a major frustration, but hopefully that will change in May). So from that day on I was a Villa fan and have now had a season ticket for twenty eight seasons.
On Saturday the Villa were at home to the Wolves in a really entertaining game that ended as a draw (which would have pleased my mum). Yet I spent the whole day answering texts from my brother and other Wolves supporting friends claiming moral victories. I had to defend refereeing decisions, defend the singing of the famous Holte End, the tackling of Petrov and most of all defend my beloved Aston Villa. In the same way as at the Document Management Event last week I had to defend my beliefs.
So why am I a SharePoint Supporter? I think you have to start with the fact I am a Microsoft man and use Microsoft products. Yes, I know they all have their faults and don’t get me started on the Vista fiasco, but the truth is 80% plus of all companies use Microsoft products. They are well supported, well designed and there is loads of useful information out about them. I have been using SharePoint since early 2003 and have seen it develop. I like the fact it is so simple and easy to use. The way I can very quickly show people who have never seen it how they can easily gain benefits from it. Probably most of all I like the many many different things it does. Maybe the Open Source guys with their ‘Alfreco’ had a point in that their product was better if you purely wanted a Document Management system, but the SharePoint product opens so many more possibilities. It isn’t the filling of the pie that is important but the whole pie. The SharePoint Workflow capabilities lets you simplify almost any of your systems (i.e. Purchase Orders, Holiday Requests, Visitor logging, sickness absence and many more). Office Talk recently helped a company quickly be able to evaluate why people were leaving their company by simply using the SharePoint system they already had installed.
SharePoint might not be the master of any one task, but it is pretty good at many. If you were to choose the best solution each time you would have to employ so many different experts and offer such a wide variety of training. Yet with SharePoint if you know how one area works you know it all.
I do preach maybe a little too much to the unconverted on SharePoint, but struggle to understand why a company who uses Microsoft Server 2003 (or 2008) haven’t downloaded the free version of Windows SharePoint Services. It is so easy to install and start playing with. Unlike the Open Source which I struggle to follow when I first install I believe SharePoint is relatively straight forward. Please feel free to comment if you disagree. It has a Site Actions menu which includes either ‘Create’ to create new sites, libraries or lists. Then it has ‘Edit Page’ to let you edit the page you are currently viewing. Here you can simply move sections around and add new sections. Or last of all ‘Site Settings’ where you can get to all the other functions and features. In fact it is very tempting for IT Administrators to be ‘self taught’ and whilst this works Office Talk would very much recommend a one day training course so that you can see all the extra clever little tricks that are available and how to get the most business benefits from it.
You can probably see that I am passionate about both the Villa and SharePoint (especially WSS), but to show you why I think both are the best below is two lists of ten. You can decide for yourselves which list is which.
First Ten Reasons for being the best in no particular order
1. Has full version control.
2. With the free SharePoint Designer you can quickly add very effective Workflow.
3. Can stream videos direct from websites like YouTube.
4. Can easily create electronic forms to replace those paper ones.
5. Can create satisfaction surveys in no time.
6. Can easily create template from sites you create.
7. Can add the Office Document Templates you already have to any SharePoint. Document Library.
8. Can search any word in any document.
9. The way you can customise and filter views of data.
10. The way you easily update dropdown lists.
Second Ten Reasons for being the best in no particular order
1. Have won the top European trophy.
2. First ever winners of League Cup.
3. Where a founder member of the football league.
4. Made the Andy Gray, voice of Sky, famous.
5. Have played in every Premier League Season.
6. Director William McGregor founded the Football League.
7. Have won the double.
8. Hosted more FA Cup Semi Finals than any other ground.
9. Provided more England players (69 to date) than any other club.
10. The future King of England (Prince William), future Prime Minister (David Cameron) and Pike from Dad’s Army are all supporters.
Don’t forget to vote in the Andy Dale SharePoint Awards 2010 only two weeks left. Click Here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)