Earlier this week I got an invite to a private press release scheduled for July 16^th in San Francisco. The invitation didn’t provide many details; just that Steve invites me for an in-person invite-only event. I made the last minute travel plans I will be covering the event through several different social media channels, including Twitter, Yammer, the Rackspace Blog and CMSWire. Some of my content will be posted live from the event and then some will be covered in follow up blogs.

These types of events are my favorite! I am hoping to hear great things from them at the event. I of course don’t have any of the details, just my speculations, but there is no use in sharing those! Be sure to check in today to the various social media streams to be the first to hear the latest news. If you have questions on anything that I post, be sure to reach out to me and we can discuss more.

Over the past several months I have been giving a presentation on getting started with Visio Services. Each time I give the presentation I get asked for a collection of links that people can use to get additional information. In this blog post I just wanted to pull together a summary of those resources so that you can reference them as you dig deeper into Visio Services. I am sure that there are many more resources than the ones that I am listing, so if you know of any ones that I should add please respond with a comment and I can update my post.

I hope that you will find these links helpful! Two of the blog posts are step by step examples of what I have presented in my session, I hope over time to add some more blog posts that show step by step the rest of my examples from my session and I also hope to eventually incorporate some screencasts. I will be sure to update my blog post once I have those generated. For now, these links should help you get started 

I am very excited to be presenting this week at SPTechcon. This is one of my favorite conferences of the year and I look forward to each one I get to participate in! I have included my schedule below. I hope that you will stop by and say hi so we can chat 

Sunday

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM: Building Business Solutions: InfoPath & Workflows

Jennifer Mason and Laura Rogers

Business Processes and forms are everywhere. In your organization, there are always forms to be filled out, and these forms usually entail some type of automation such as a workflow. Microsoft Office InfoPath is a powerful form-creation tool that lets you create highly customized and professional-looking business forms, without writing any code. When you use this product in conjunction with SharePoint and SharePoint Designer, you have all the tools you need to build a no-code automated business solution.

In this all-day session, Laura and Jennifer will teach you everything you need to know about creating a full-blown business process using SharePoint, InfoPath and SharePoint Designer. Some basics will be covered, along with common practices for form-submission approval processes and SharePoint Designer workflows. When you walk away from this session, you will be confident that whatever processes the business throws at you, you will be able to create a solution using the tools and best practices that you learned during this workshop.

Monday

10:00 AM – 11:15 AM Working with Lists and Libraries

Do you know all of the different things you can do using SharePoint lists and libraries? In this session, we will take a look at the different out-of-the-box list features and how they can be combined to build powerful no-code business solutions. We will look at the new features available in SharePoint 2010 and how they can be used to increase productivity. Some of the new features include working with lookup columns, new list settings, new view settings, inline editing and custom form creation.

11:30 AM – 12:45 PM Introduction to Visio Services

Visio services is a powerful new addition to SharePoint 2010. In this session, we will look at different ways that you can incorporate Visio into your SharePoint projects. Once we have the diagrams published to our SharePoint site we will look at different ways to connect the diagram to SharePoint lists and web parts.

This session will allow you to see Visio services in action using real world examples, such as an interactive process diagram. If you have ever wondered if you would use Visio services or if it would provide value to your organization then this intro session is just want you need! This session will help you see how integration with SharePoint can really take your drawings to the next level.

Book Signing 1:00 – 1:15 PM

Stop by and get a copy of our book!

1:45 PM – 3:00 PM Working with Lists and Libraries (Repeat)

Do you know all of the different things you can do using SharePoint lists and libraries? In this session, we will take a look at the different out-of-the-box list features and how they can be combined to build powerful no-code business solutions. We will look at the new features available in SharePoint 2010 and how they can be used to increase productivity. Some of the new features include working with lookup columns, new list settings, new view settings, inline editing and custom form creation.

3:15 PM – 4:30 PM Creating Simple Dashboards Using Out-of-the-Box Web Parts

In this session we will look at some basic out-of-the-box ways to create powerful dashboards for managing teams and projects. Our dashboards will be created using multiple connected Web parts all configured from the browser. This session will give you a good overview of lists, views, Web part pages and Web part connections. This is a great session for those just getting started with SharePoint and want to push the limits of out-of-the-box configuration.

AND…don’t forget about the Rackspace SharePint on Monday night! Be sure to use this link to get registered!

Today marks an exciting day for the SharePoint911 team as we have joined forces with Rackspace. I won’t spend too much time going into all those details because, hey, that’s what all the press releases are for 

• Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch – http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2012/02/16/rackspace-buys-up-sharepoint911-to-gird-for-cloud-fight/
  
• Marketwatch – http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rackspace-acquires-sharepoint911-to-provide-industry-leading-sharepoint-expertise-2012-02-16
  
• Press release – http://www.rackspace.com/blog/newsarticles/rackspace-acquires-sharepoint911-to-provide-industry-leading-sharepoint-expertise/
  
• StreetInsider – http://www.streetinsider.com/Mergers+and+Acquisitions/Rackspace+(RAX)+Acquires+SharePoint+Consulting+Firm+SharePoint911/7186832.html
  
• Business Wire – http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120216005434/en/Rackspace-Acquires-SharePoint911-Provide-Industry-Leading-SharePoint
  
• FAQ- http://www.sharepoint911.com/AboutSP911/Pages/About-Rackspace.aspx
  

But I did want to take a few minutes and chat about why I am excited to be a Racker! This partnership really brings us the opportunity to bring a Fanatical line of service to the SharePoint community that is bigger and better than what we currently do at SharePoint911 (although I think we are already awesome…we will now be more awesome) 

The biggest question most people probably have is what happens now….and the answer is simple…the same! I am still going to be focused on the Business User and how they use SharePoint. The where isn’t really a concern to me! You can be hosted internally, at Rackspace or in Office 365 and I still want to help you get the most out of SharePoint! I want to see the business really take advantage of the out of the box features within SharePoint to build powerful everyday solutions. Over time, as the transition evolves you will start to see more and more around this concept. As new things are available I will be sure to post them to the blog so you know where to access the resources.

In order to be closer to the action, I will be joining the Rackspace team in San Antonio Texas in early April 2012. My time in Ohio has been wonderful, but I am very excited about my future in Texas! I have loved the time I have gotten to work with the local community here and I promise that I will be back to continue to be part! I am also looking forward very much to jumping in with both feet to the group in San Antonio!

I am so excited about what’s to come!

This is our final post in my series about the example Intranet Marketing site. In this post I just wanted to cover some of the simple design tricks I am using when I build out the site. These are very simple items, but over time I have found that users like the simple look and feel. So consider these easy changes that can have a big impact.

The first thing to note is that these changes can be done on wiki pages by just editing the text styles. If you are using a web part page, you can achieve the same effect you just have to start by inserting a content editor web part and then make your changes within the web part.

The primary goal of what I want to accomplish with these changes is to create a simple visual for users when they access the page to draw their eyes to specific areas. Below are two home pages that I will be using in my example, the first is the Marketing home page that we have been using in this series.

The second is another areas home page. The big difference between the two styles is the use of images in this one. I avoided using images in the headers on the marketing site because I didn’t want to compete with the existing images on the home page.

The effect to get the bold and underlined headings just involves using the existing styles when configuring the text. When the page is in edit mode, insert your cursor where you want the text to be.

First, insert your picture.

Then use the settings in the Ribbon to configure the size and style of your image. Keeping all the header images you use the same size is a good idea for consistency. Another key setting is to change the position to middle so it aligns properly with the text.

Next, add your title next to the image. Highlight the specific text and use the Ribbon to set the Markup Style to Header 1.

The text will be updated in appearance. You may notice that the image becomes off centered though. If this happens repeat the position configuration for the image that we completed above. For the last step, just move your cursor past your title and insert the Markup Style called Horizontal Line. This will place the line directly below the header and image you just added.

Now, you can add the web part to the page and simply hide the chrome on the web part. This will display the web part content, but not the standard header. In design view you will see both, but when you browse the site you will only see the content.

Design View:

Browser View:

So there you have it, a simple way to add some splash to your page. Hopefully you have enjoyed this series on the sample Intranet site! I will start a new series soon so check back for new content later.

This is the sixth post in my series about a sample Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be adding a Marketing video to the home page using the Media Web Part. This web part comes out of the box with SharePoint and can be used to display media files on any web part page. There are several configurations you can make that will allow you to customize how the video is displayed.

In our example we just want to display the most recent marketing campaign video on the Intranet site. Whenever the page loads we want the video to start to play. We can do this by adding the Media Web Part to the home page of our Intranet site.

Once the web part is added to the page, we will edit the web part properties to configure our video.

Once we click the option to configure the Ribbon will display the various configuration options available to us:

Here is a breakdown of the various options we can configure:

For my example Intranet site I have the media web part displayed in the top right corner of the page. I have it configured to play automatically but not to loop. This means it will play when users first hit the page but it won’t keep looping. I figure they really only need to see it once. Each quarter when we have a new media message we will update the home page. This will be a good way to get people coming back to the site because they will want to see the new quarterly marking message. Here is a screenshot of my home page.

Something to Consider

Not all file types are supported in the Media Player web part. To see a list of what is supported, check out these links.

• Forum Post
  
• FAQ Blog Post
  
• MS Documentation
  

The most common asked out file format that isn’t supported seems to be flash. If you have a flash video that you want to display on the page, here are some links for some alternate options:

• Using HTML
  
• Using a Custom Solution
  

This is the fifth post in my series about a sample Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be covering an example for having a set of discussions on the marketing intranet site. In this post we are simply going to be utilizing the standard out of the box discussions list. From the screenshot below you see that the discussions list has been added to the home page, as well as a link on the Quick Launch. This will allow us to highlight the most recent discussions as well as allow a link to see all of the past discussions.

To create the list, we just need to select the More Options link in Site Actions and then select the Discussion Board list template.

By creating this list we are creating a location where users will be able to add their comments to the site. The purpose of this list is to share ideas from the entire organization about things that can be done in the marketing aspect. Since this is an Intranet site, we want to be careful what is published, so we will implement a way to approve discussions before they are started. This will allow us to moderate the conversations and take certain requests offline that are more appropriate for a different communication medium.

Users will be able to see either a threaded view or a flat view of the various discussions. An example screenshot is displayed below for each.

Flat:

Threaded:

In our example we are using the default views and such for this list, but we are adding the configuration that requires approval of content. We configure this in the List Settings option in the List Ribbon.

Once in the List Settings area we will be modifying the Versioning Settings for the list:

In the versioning settings page, select the option that requires content approval.

Now, whenever a user adds a new item, they will see the following message:

Users will be able to see any items they have created (approved or not) and all other approved items. Users will approval rights will see all items, and can select the item in the Flat view to approve or reject it.

As a further customization (not detailed in this blog post) you could also configure an approval workflow that would email the approvers and automate the process through an email.

*A Note on Permissions* – This blog post wouldn’t be complete without a note on the permissions for this list. Since this is an Intranet example, it would be expected that only people with Marketing have contributor access to the site and the rest of the organization would have read permissions. Since we are wanting the entire organization to participate in these discussions we will use custom permissions on this list to allow the site readers to contribute to this this. If you need more assistance on setting the list permissions, here is a link that should help you get started.

That concludes this post in the series! I hope you have found these samples helpful as you are looking for ways to use the OOTB tools in SharePoint to help you build some business solutions.

This is the fourth post in my series about a sample Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be covering an example for storing common marketing brochures. In my example, my content is just pdf files that could be referenced by others. We want users to be able to easily see the most recent content, as well as provide a way for them to review the materials from previous releases. We are doing this by creating a document library within our site. We will use metadata columns to tag and classify the data so that it is easy to find in the future. We will also be implementing the Managed Metadata Navigation to allow for easier filtering within the list.

To get started, here is a screenshot of our home page. We have added the document library web part to the home page and have limited the view so that only the most recent items are displayed on the home page. If users want to see additional or legacy items they can click on the link in the Quick Launch menu.

Within the library we have created 3 columns that we are using to tag and classify the data.

1. Year: This is a single line of text field that allows the team to classify what year the content was used. We went with single line of text vs. any type of calculation because we wanted to have more control over adding legacy data from previous years.
   
2. Quarter: This is a choice dropdown that lets us select the appropriate quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4).
   
3. Brochure Type: This column is a Managed Metadata column with a local term set. This term set is also open so that users who are adding content will be able to add classifications as needed (an example of this is below).
   

When a user (one that has permission to add content, likely someone within the marketing department) adds new content to the library, they will be able to use the metadata to classify the content:

Since we are using the Managed Metadata column type, we should take a few minutes to review the extra functionality available to the users who are classifying the data. If they select the icon next to the text field they will open an additional menu that allows them to select the value they want.

From these menus they can easily find the value in the tree structure or they can even add a new item if they don’t see what they need. The value they add then becomes part of the term store so that other users can reference it. Keep in mind; this is configurable, so if you don’t want them to be able to add items, you can simply make it a closed term set. This is the beauty of SharePoint – you can customize it to fit what you need it to do, where you need it to do it. The tools are just a way for you to implement your process.

The final configuration that we are using in this example is Managed Metadata Navigation. By enabling this on the library we are able to display some additional filtering navigation elements that users can use to help filter and refine their view of the brochure library.

When a user selects the various filters in the navigation pane, the list view will be filtered to match the selected criteria.

Multiple filters can be selected at once, which simplifies the search for the users.

So there you have it. In this blog post we covered a simple example for storing content. On the home page we wanted to make our users aware of the most recent content. When they opened the full library, we gave them additional functionality to help them quickly locate the content that they were looking for.

This is the third post in my series about a sample Intranet Marketing Intranet site. In this post we are going to be covering what I think is one of the most under-used features in SharePoint. I think it is mostly because people are not aware of what it can do for you. So in this post we will cover the features in detail and hopefully encourage some of you to start to utilize this functionality.

What is it?

The Slide Library is one of the default list type templates available in SharePoint. You can access it when you are creating new content.

The purpose of this library is to create a centralized location that allows you to easily find, manage and reuse existing slides. The idea behind it is that you can have a central store of slides that can be reused in any PowerPoint presentation.

When would we use it?

Some common example of when you could use this, include the following:

• Boiler Plate Content
  
  • About Us
    
  • Company Information
    
  • Contact Information
    
• Common Training Slides
  
• Header Slides
  
  • Demo
    
  • Thanks for Coming
    
  • Questions
    

How does it work?

The slide library works using a concept of publishing slides to the library.

When you choose to publish slides you will be prompted to select a presentation. Once the presentation loads you will be able to select what slides from that presentation you want to load into the library.

Once the slides are published completely (this tends to take some time, so be patient!) you will see them as items in your slide library.

Now users will be able to select the slides from the library and the reuse them in their presentations. They do this by selecting the slides they need and then clicking on “Copy Slide to Presentation”. A menu will then be displayed that asks you where you want to put the slide (into an existing presentation or a new one), what to do with the formatting and then if you want to be notified when the slide changes.

The slide will be downloaded to your presentation and will be formatted based on your selection. You can continue working on your presentation and then save the presentation to its final location. The next time you open the presentation you will be prompted to check for updates to the slides.

If there are updates you will be prompted on how you would like to incorporate them into your presentation.

You can:

• Replace: replace the existing slide with the new content
  
• Append: add the updated slide as a new slide and keep the original
  
• Skip: Take no action for the current slide, review the next change
  
• Cancel: Exit the process
  

How is it being used in our sample Marketing Intranet Site?

For our example in this series we are using the slide library to store the “approved” set of slides provided by marketing. This includes the common boiler plate slides and company information slides. User will be trained to access the boiler plate slides here and to incorporate them into their presentations. By doing this we can provide an easy way to “push” updates to all of our presentations when we want to change one of the common slides.

This is the second post in a series about a sample Intranet Marketing site. In this post we want to look at some various options we have for storing a collection of common images that we want our users to use as the standard images. The easier we make for them to work with, the more chance we have of our users returning to the site and always grabbing the latest and greatest. We want to be able to highlight the latest approved images as well as provide a repository of older images. The way we have chosen to implement this is by creating a Picture Library and then using the Picture Library Slide Show web part to display the images on the home page of the site.

This allows us to provide a way for users to access an entire library of images, as well as display the images on the home page. This slideshow web part is a way to grab the reader’s attention as they are browsing the site. To get started, we will create a new Picture Library. (Site Actions -> More Options):

For the most part we will use the default settings of the library. We will upload any of our images to this library and then train users on how to best work with the content. In the remainder of this post we will highlight some of those out of the box features.

Views

So the first thing that I want to highlight in this post are the default views that you get when you create a Picture Library:

• Details : This view is similar to what users would see in a typical Fileshare.
  

  
  

• Thumbnail: This view is the default view and shows a thumbnail of each of the images.
  

  
  

• Filmstrip : This view allows you to see the thumbnail as well as a larger image in a filmstrip type format.
  

  
  

The beauty of having so many options is that users can select the view that best fits what they are trying to accomplish. In all of the views you may have noticed that there is an item selection box.

This is also a great feature in this type of library that allows you to select multiple images and then complete common tasks. The actions that you can perform are included in the Actions menu on the library (yes I said menu and not Ribbon. This is one of the list types that doesn’t yet support the ribbon).

Some of the most powerful features of this library include:

• Ability to download multiple images at once to your local machine. You simply select the items that you would like to have downloaded and then select the option in the Actions menu. When you do this, you are presented with a screen that allows you to configure the download properties.
  

  
  

• Ability to select images and then send them to a document or email. You select the image(s) that you want to send and then from the actions menu select the Send to option.
  

  
  

  Using this feature allows users to quickly add content to their open documents. This makes the process of getting the most up to date images nice and simple!
  

• The final item I want to discuss is the feature that allows you to view a slideshow. From the Actions menu if a user selects this option they are able to see in a new window, a slideshow presentation of the content.
  

  
  

That covers some of the OOTB features I wanted to highlight for the list, and now we will move on to the Picture Library Slideshow web part. This web part allows a slideshow of the images to run on the page where the web part is configured. To get stared, insert the web part on the home page:

Once the web part is loaded, open the tool pane to configure the web part settings:

These settings allow for you to configure the settings such as order and duration to meet your needs. I encourage you to play with the different settings until you find the ones that work best for your scenario.

So that concludes this blog post. Hopefully this gives you some insight on some of the ways that you can manage images within your site. Add to the comments any thoughts or additions you might have! Would love to hear your feedback!