Good and helpful small scale sharepoint solutions

This seems to be a sharePoint site for beautiful people who demand beautiful sharePoint sites with bijou SharePoint fixes and how to's - what's not to love: http://www.endusersharepoint.com. It says its not geeky but it is a little bit.

SPD workflow tutorial

Sharepoint designer workflow - it seems so easy, there is no code, it all point and click and yet and yet - it never goes as easily as your reckon its going to - mircrosoft have this really nice workflow tutorial http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA102564171033.aspx

Here is a whole series of stuff DWP and workflow related http://masteringsharepoint.com/blogs/beagle/archive/2009/02/05/DVWP4.aspx

tasy sushi

very useful tool for administering sharepoint

http://www.codeplex.com/sushi

Browsers and Sharepoint

Eli Robillard has done some testing with Chrome and Sharepoint http://weblogs.asp.net/erobillard/archive/2008/09/02/google-chrome-works-for-sharepoint-users-less-so-for-administrators.asp\

Lists to xml

Amazing little trick for getting lists into xml and where ever your hearts desire after that!

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/dwise/archive/2008/01/10/accessing-sharepoint-list-data-as-xml.aspx

Mail Merge using SharePoint data

Annoyingly this needs access 2007 but its a nice trick I came across while I was hunting for other stuff http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=101

Create word or excel or PDF documents from lists

In office 2007 this shouldn't be too hard just use those quick part thingies details below - but what if you have repeated content..... I am still hunting, it transpires that open office! has a trick for choosing which xslt you want to open an xml file with. Funny old office 2007 will only create a HTML from your XML not even XHTML.

I reckoned that FOP should allow me to build PDF documents from Sharepoint lists - but can I find anything to get me started - not a sausage, strange really. So use open office looks like it might be a good bet!

However in Office 2003 given a seed XML document which should't be so hard to get out of SharePoint see below and the url trick then you're all ready to rock using the XML inference toolhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa212886.aspx
and here is the inference tool http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2cb5b04e-61d9-4f16-9b18-223ec626080e&displaylang=en

Sharepoint and printing

If you want the ability to print web part pages it looks like there could be quite a few ways of doing this http://www.imakenews.com/mernstmann/e_article000435389.cfm
or
This is the whole bang shoot feature and all http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/01/how-to-add-print-list-option-to-list.html

If you must part with cash there is this http://www.sharepointprinting.com/

Great selection of videos

http://www.sharepointcommunity.com/Lists/How%20Tos/AllItems.aspx

To change the names of the Divisions in MOSS

Inside the site directory
View all site content
find the "sites" list
List settings
edit the divisions column

Sync a picture library with your profile

AD doesn't have a picture field so what to do? Itay Shakury looks like he has a very neat little process to solve this problem

Send to in Document library fix

To get "send to" to work in all instances you need to have a look at this knowledge base article 948957

Creating simple forms

Assuming that your form needs are simple, why not use a list..create the columns or content types that support that holiday request , site request or what have you, in a list with the required fields.

Then link to the list but append

NewForm.aspx?

to the url of the link. This way when the user clicks the link they are taken immediately to a new form rather than having to navigate the list.

after

NewForm.aspx?source=

and then the address of the page that the link belongs on or to a page with a thank you message. This way when the user clicks OK, after finishing with their form they are taken to this page,rather than the all items view of the list they have just added to, this allows for a more friendly user experience. This source trick is what I call a boomerang link

CMS on WSS

Like sharepoint but need a CMS solution and don't want to fork out for MOSS try WSS with this 3rd party trick

Use metadata inside the body of office 2007 files

If you're need to fill up the footer with the version number or the author of the file, or some other metadata- quick parts are what you are after Janis Hall has a good clear description

this is very good stuff http://www.u2u.info/Blogs/Kevin/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=6f246d9a-e4e7-4846-b776-f9a62112ffb7&ID=15

and here is a video of related tricks

http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/archive/2007/01/18/xml-mapping-with-word-sharepoint.aspx


And there's more,here is the opportunity to tweak the DIP Document Information Panel you can use infopath http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms545650.aspx

Accessibility Tool

As accessibility in MOSS and WSS is such a drag its nice to see someone out there doing there best to help everyone else out. Thanks spworks

Planning

Card Sorting - method of building and analyzing information architecture - from boxes and arrows

Nice looking tool for analysing card sorting data websort

Training avoidance

What if you don't want to train lots of users - or what if you'd rather do minimal training and then allow users to watch some videos. Well you could create your own or there are some people who look like they have done the work for you:

http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/
or
http://www.sharepointhosting.com/video_tutorials.html
or
Channel 9 a great source for various technical screencasts - the home of the required viewing content type and site column screen casts

ID and Calculated Column

If you find that you need to use the ID column to generate incremental invoice numbers and using a formal like =[ID]+1000

There is a problem check out Daisy Anands answer just here

http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2008/04/24/calculated-fields-don-t-leave-home-without-them.aspx

The nub of the problem is that ID's aren't assigned till after the item is created, with the upshot that you'll need a tiny bit of workflow to put the invoice number in retrospectively.

Calculated columns, formulas etc

Sharepoint calculated column Common formulas list http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA011609471033.aspx

You've tried [Today] and [Me] here are some more functions http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/CH100650061033.aspx

Introduction to the subject http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA101215881033.aspx

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/mkruger/archive/2007/06/26/howto-using-sharepoint-calculated-columns-to-display-a-list-item-as-quot-x-quot-days-old.aspx

Handy tools from Codeplex

Profile import tool from codeplex quick and dirty alternative to BDC's

Accessibility

Take heart it can be done:

http://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/Pages/Home.aspx - check out the source - look no tables.
or if you prefer why not admire:
http://www.wise-woman.net/Pages/default.aspx

Sharepoint and accessibility - two problems first what do you have to do ? and second how are you going to do it- well it depends who you ask:

as can be seen from this very clear article http://www.21apps.com/sharepoint/sharepoint-accessibility-is-moss-2007-accessible/ its a slightly mixed up picture.

But here is a check list for the various standards that one might hope to adopt http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990324/full-checklist.html

so can it be done?

well microsoft have a whole site dedicated to the proposition that you can http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/default.aspx

if you want something a bit more graspable have a look at this word document giving some best practice about the subject http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121877

The Microsoft/AKS accessibility standard lives here http://aks.hisoftware.com/index.html

My fear with some of this stuff is that it is really important one adopt A STRICT attitude toward editing pages. i.e. enforced change management, though notice that neither of the sites at the top use the STRICT tag in their XHTML - this is fine for public sites. Big intranets intranets are easily messed up by the keen user with a copy of SharePoint Designer - what is a fellow to do?

Using [Today] inside a calculated column

Well there is a bit of a problem is that you can't - not really though this looks like it does the trick
http://blog.gemsolution.co.uk/2008/01/05/calculated-column-using-today/.
BUT the big problem is this

"the formula will not calculate all list items on refresh but rather by the addition and deletion of a new Today column or by editing each of the list items individually."

So this formula - pretty though it is won't cut the musturd

IF(TEXT(Today,"mmm yyyy")=TEXT([Meeting Date],"mmm yyy"),"Yes","No")

nor can you use this to organize items in a list or library by year by using this formula http://glorix.blogspot.com/2007/07/filter-by-year.html

But to the rescue comes pathtosharepoint

http://pathtosharepoint.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/countdowns-a-second-method/

I

Information Architecture book for free from google books http://books.google.com/books?id=OM3DvakML-MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=information+architecture&sig=LelzZLT1Aolhlji9f9II4jOv0qE

item level permission fix for document libraries https://blogs.pointbridge.com/Blogs/morse_matt/Pages/Post.aspx?_ID=8

N

What is in a name : Knowledge Worker, Structured Task Worker, Data Entry Worker definitions to help in the design of SharePoint solutions try working out the ratio of these groups in designing SP solution. Very handy introduction to the subject

T

Training video's for end users http://www.sharepointhosting.com/video_tutorials.html

Very nice Sharepoint training kit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=673dc932-626a-4e59-9dca-16d685600a51&displaylang=en

content types explained in a video http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/In+the+Office/Creating-and-Using-Content-Types-in-Windows-SharePoint-Services-30/

very extensive sets of video training http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/

Sharepoint Designer Videos but still nothing like proper documentation http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb421303.aspx