whallify's blog

Whoa, seems simple, but how? Simple web mail form web part?

Unclaimed Blog — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 19:04:00 GMT

I saw Bil Simser's reply that one could use the Form Web Part, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to easily let users create email forms on their pages. I'm thinking of a web part that one could plop down somewhere and easily customize with their own forms, and have it work with the built-in email service.

I loaded up the Form web part and saw that it was some basic html at first, as follows:

<div onkeydown="BLOCKED SCRIPTif (event.keyCode == 13) _SFSUBMIT_"><input type="text" name="T1"/><input type="button" value="Go" onclick="BLOCKED SCRIPT_SFSUBMIT_"/></div>

I guess what I'm looking for is some concrete examples of what code can go here in order to let people send email with WSS and/or SPS.

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

I'd like to use Sharepoint list data in Microsoft Word - how?

Unclaimed Blog — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 03:11:00 GMT

You can see some of my older blogs on the Work Blog list template I created so that people can just enter quick blogs on a sharepoint list.

Now I want to know how to take items from that list and put it in a Word doc. For example, let's say I want to pull items from the list that are from [start date] to [end date] and want to take [field1, field3, fields 7,8,9] from the sharepoint list and insert them into the word doc. Maybe I'd like to take items that have a specific value in field10 and put them in one section of the Word doc, and a different value in a different section.

Is this something you know how to do? Then educate the rest of us!

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

WSS doc lib asking for column info (Web File Properties)?

Unclaimed Blog — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 20:33:00 GMT

Sometimes, when I add a new column to a document library, and I save a file in that document library from within an app, it will pop up a window and ask for the values. However, sometimes it doesn't.

For example, if I save a document into a document library with added columns from Word, it will ask for the extra properties. But saving a file to the same document library from Outlook or IE, and it does not.

I'm guessing this is either as-designed or the functionality either is not OS-driven or just plain hasn't made it into the Outlook/IE featuresets. Either way, if anyone knows otherwise or can recommend tweaks to enable this prompting of information more often, I'd appreciate it.

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Submit button at top AND bottom of survey? How?

Unclaimed Blog — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 18:38:00 GMT

One of the most annoying things to my users about the surveys (as great as surveys are) is that the banner that lists the Submit Form, Attach File and Back to List links are only at the top of the form, and that just goes against good web design.

In fact, every time there's a banner (like new item, etc) it should be at top and bottom.

So, now to the question -- is there a safe, approved way to put that banner at the bottom as well as the top on all forms and surveys?

I assume it's some Frontpage work or possibly changing some of the default forms, and I'd rather have some instructions from someone who's done it before.

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Would like to see tutorial on how to add graphs to some list data

Unclaimed Blog — Wed, 26 May 2004 21:39:00 GMT

You know how when you create an Issues list, it automatically gives you a link called “View Reports” under actions? And the links under there give some pretty neat graphs? Well, I'd like to make some of those, and I'd like to see a how-to or step-by-step on it.

Say I've created a list that has category, work minutes to complete, severity, person (from A/D) etc (much like the issues) and I want to graph, these entries based on count, time, etc per category, person, etc.

Assume I have Frontpage, Access, Visual Studio .NET, MSDN. Know of a tutorial for me?

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Freeze column or pane like in Excel -- available in Datasheet view?

Unclaimed Blog — Thu, 13 May 2004 19:24:00 GMT

I've had some users ask about whether or not they could get the “freeze pane” or “freeze column” type of functionality when editing in datasheet view. I've not seen it, and have recommended thus far that they use the Task pane, edit and link in Excel, and save off their excel spreadsheet when updating the data.

Anyone have an answer for this?

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Impressed with a small list feature when renaming columns in a list...

Unclaimed Blog — Fri, 07 May 2004 12:38:00 GMT

So I renamed one of the columns in a list, and I had already created a calculated column that referenced that column. It changed the formula for me!

Yes, it's the little things that can impress me. I'm glad they got it right.

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Wish I could display "totals" for a calculated field in a view...

Unclaimed Blog — Fri, 07 May 2004 02:14:00 GMT

So I have this “work blog” that I created for my team. It's meant to be very simple for all the admins to put in what they've done, from the menial (added user to distro list) to the major (implemented SMS 2.0). It has “entry”, “details”, Category (radio buttons) and importance (low/med/high). It helps me do the weekly status reports.

An optional field is “minutes“. I also have a caculated field which is minutes/60 so I can see estimated work hours.

I also have three views -- one which is just “most recent first“, which functions like a normal blog, another view which is some details by employee, and another which is Work by category -- which would show about how much work hours done in the week, by category.

Problem is -- I can't do a “total“ by this calculated field. I can only do it if I also display the minutes, and then total them up. But I don't want minutes displayed, I want work hours, and that's the whole reason I created the calculated field.

Any workarounds?

Here are some sample pics:

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

A fix for Annoying Date/Time fields in lists (Modified, Created, etc)

Unclaimed Blog — Wed, 05 May 2004 07:33:00 GMT

If you're like me, you probably don't like the fact that sharepoint will automatically show the date and time like

You should patch your system Wayne Hall 05/04/2004 12:00:00am

So, what you can do is create a new column with your list called “timestamp” that is a calculated formula with the following:

=TEXT(WEEKDAY(Modified),"ddd")&" "&TEXT(Modified,"h:mm")

That way it just prints “Tue 5:03”, which is a lot easier to read, especially when looking at, say a view that shows the most recent 5 documents added to a document library or something.

If I get time, maybe I'll figure out how to do something that analyzes it to say ... if it's < 7 days old, do the day and time, and if it's older, do MM/DD. The problem I run into is that it won't let you do [today] or [me] in calculated columns. Maybe I need to do that in xslt?

IE,

=IF([TODAY]-Modified<=7,
TEXT(WEEKDAY(Modified),"ddd")&" "&TEXT(Modified,"h:mm"),TEXT(Modified,"mm/dd"))

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Sharepoint Portal Server 2001 SP3 Released

Unclaimed Blog — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 20:28:00 GMT

I got this from kbalertz this morning.

837017 Description of Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Service Pack 3

Excerpt:

SUMMARY

Microsoft has released an update to Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001. Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Service Pack 3 (SP3) contains updates that are based on the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Initiative, and it contains the latest fixes for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001. Because this service pack is cumulative, it also contains all the fixes that are included in earlier SharePoint Portal Server 2001 service packs. Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 SP3 is divided in five parts. All five parts are required.

This article describes how to download and install Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 SP3.

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Inventory Tracking in a Sharepoint List?

Unclaimed Blog — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:54:00 GMT

I'm thinking about tracking inventory -- specifically servers, PCs, laptops, and other assets that have a clear value, user-assignment, serial numbers, and other things like service contracts, online information, tracking dates and stuff like that.

All of these things seem so easy for Sharepoint, but getting them all together seems challenging. A/D integration is already there, so it's not like I have to have an employee database. Having this information in a list seems very easy too.

Adding the maintenance contracts almost seem like it's within my grasp, because I could add the contracts in one list and reference them in the inventory list.
By “tracking dates“, I mean I'd want to have a button or some action I could take called “verify” so that when I saw a given asset and verified that it exists and is in the hands of x user, the timestamp would update so I would know how current my inventory list is.
By “online information”, I mean accessing a url with some of asset's information as part of the URL. One example is Dell equipment -- I know that http://support.dell.com/blahblahblah?serial=XXXXX will get me the warranty, downloads, system configuration and all sorts of stuff for that system. I want to be able to access it directly from this list.

So I wonder if 1) this is a Sharepoint Administrator task because it really is pretty easy, 2) this is a Sharepoint Developer task and will take a little or significant development work or 3) there's a 3rd party product already that will do this.... or that can do it in some other system and integrate with Sharepoint.

Come on, participate int the discussion.

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

How to use a Sharepoint list for Word 2003 Mail Merge?

Unclaimed Blog — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 08:29:00 GMT

Ok, so now I finally have a good reason to use mail merge, and I have this absolutely fantastic sharepoint list that I've been tracking my Exchange 5.5 -> exchange 2003 mailbox moveswith... and I'm wanting to send an email to each user after migrating them, telling them stuff like mailbox size, number of items, when the move started and how long it took. All of this data is in a sharepoint list that is updated from my migration actions.

However, when I go to mail merge to select the data sources and browse to the list location, I can't see it. There doesn't seem to be any way to access it.

Seems I have to export and link to excel and then export? That seems a waste of integration. Am I missing something?

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Various Sharepoint 2003 and Exchange integration points

Unclaimed Blog — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:00:00 GMT

I was recently asked about Sharepoint and Exchange integration (2003 on each). I decided to document a few that I knew of

1. Link to Outlook
This is a button on contacts or events lists that lets Outlook 2003 add a pst file named Sharepoint Folders and it links to the data on the site. It’s read-only, but you could make the home page for that PST be the Sharepoint site for easier viewing. The link to outlook feature seems more to me to be where someone can public a calendar, but not want too much collaboration. For example, a holiday schedule, company meeting schedule, etc, can be made available for people to be able to view from Outlook without having to go to a web browser. Another nice thing about OL2K3 is that you can compare these calendars with others side by side.

2. Searching Public Folders
With SPS you can index Exchange’s public folders with the search engine so that all that precious public folder content is searchable. You’ll want to look at content sources and indexing in Sharepoint administration.

3. Displaying Public Folders in a web part.
Since exchange web-enables public folders, you can create a web part that displays that content. IE, http://exchangeserver/Public/IT/Helpdesk will display the IT/Helpdesk public folder via OWA. So you add the Page Viewer web part to a page and point it at that URL. See http://www.spsfaq.com/customising.asp?postid=668 for more info. The key here is to add ?cmd=contents to the end of the url if you don’t want the navigator pane on the left.

4. Smart web parts (can't remember where these are in 2003)
Some of the web parts that come with SPS allow you to add a web part to a page that actually takes the users outlook info (calendar, inbox, contacts, tasks) and put them into the page.

If you have more, go ahead and let me know.

Posted on SharePoint Blogs