Getting users to adopt SharePoint SharePoint Intranets and portals, no matter how well built can easily fail if your employees are not happy to use it. This is most noticeable when building a new SharePoint environment to the company’s users. People generally find the easiest way to accomplish their tasks at work and the route they take is not necessarily the best way. Two conditions must be met if you want them to use a better approach. Number one, the new method should be easier and show clear advantages over the old routine, and number two, the new approach should include training so they can fully appreciate how easy it is. However what happens quite often, is a new model is brought in with impressive features and tools but along with a lack of planning and training. Users will seldom take the time to learn this new functionality and in many cases, might not even be aware it exists. This article will help explain some of the pitfalls of SharePoint implementations and the steps you can take to avoid them to encourage great SharePoint user adoption. Reasons for Using SharePoint SharePoint at its core is an application that helps improve productivity and decision-making power of the users. Well developed SharePoint Intranet […]
SharePoint Online Managed Metadata Managed Metadata in SharePoint helps users tag and structure content in a more meaningful way, in essence it is information that describes information. SharePoint Metadata Term: Is a word or a phase that is associated with a SharePoint item. Some examples would be New Hire, Asset Tracking, Help desk etc. SharePoint Metadata Term Set: Is a grouping of the terms above. In our case IT would be the Term Set. There are two types of Term Sets: Local: This type pertains to only one Site Collection Global: Associated with one or more site collections and can cross multiple farms Also a term set can be configured as closed or open. In a closed term set, users can’t add new terms unless they have appropriate permissions. In an open term set, users can add new terms in a column that is mapped to the term set. Setting up the SharePoint Term Sets and Terms Using our IT department as an example for this article let’s dig a little deeper into Managed Metadata and how it can benefit your company. In this example we’re going to track IT Assets such as laptops and who they […]
Recently there have been some improvements in how Microsoft is communicating the current and future state of Office 365. I thought I would share a couple of useful links. Check out this Garage Series video for an overview of what Office 365 is and where it’s going. If you’d like a more in-depth picture of everything that’s currently on the roadmap, read this article. It includes several useful links as well as an FAQ.
Sometimes, you just have to code for old browsers because of corporate policies. This is easy since you know what browser to code against. However, when you have to code for any and all browsers headaches usually ensue. If you want to help encourage your audience to update their browsers, there’s a plugin that will help you with that. It’s called Outdated Browser and it was created by Büro, a brand identity and digital design creative agency out of Portugal. It’s pretty simple to add to your site and detailed instructions are available on their website. Just add a few lines of code to your page and the plugin will detect whether the user’s browser supports a CSS3 property. If not, the user will see a nice-looking message encouraging them to update their browser. Sure, not everyone is going to update their browser, but at least you can say you tried.
You’ve heard the news; Microsoft has pulled the plug on InfoPath. As soon as this was formally announced, IT organizations everywhere started scrambling to find a replacement. At the SharePoint conference it was the talk of the town. I listened to conversations while standing in lines and walking the halls and they generally went like this, “we need to visit all the vendors who have an InfoPath replacement and decide on one before we go home.” Here’s my take on the demise of InfoPath, it may be dying, but it’s not dead yet! Why bury a perfectly good tool while it’s still breathing? I know, it’s fun to buy new software and play with all of the shiny new features. I’m just as guilty of loving my new toys. However, I would argue that many of you should hold off on buying an InfoPath replacement. Here’s why: InfoPath will be supported through 2023. Why spend your precious budget dollars on an InfoPath replacement now when you still have InfoPath at your disposal? Instead, spend your budget dollars elsewhere until it’s necessary to spend it on an InfoPath replacement. In Microsoft’s own words, “If you’re an InfoPath customer, we want […]
