Document Management in SharePoint allows you to find documents easily and determine information about the document before you open it. For example, using metadata allows you to tag documents with two different categories without having to make duplicates into two different folders.

I created this quick video to further explain how to simplify your document management with SharePoint metadata. I hope you find it useful!
 

Learn more about DMC's SharePoint solutions. 

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• Create the Document
• Save it to PC
• Navigate through SharePoint to find Desired Document Library
• Browse for document on PC to upload it to SharePoint
• Then delete the file from the P (if they remember).

Fortunately, there's an easy workaround.  In this video, I'll share how to quickly create a document and save it directly to SharePoint by adding SharePoint or OneDrive to your favorites. 

*Please note that this does not work with Adobe PDFs.  If you are often working with PDFs, I recommend using mapped drives.

Learn more about DMC's SharePoint and document management solutions. 

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We recently added a number of features to our OCR solution and I’d like to detail them here. But first, here’s a quick reminder of how our OCR solution works:

Our solution is configured to monitor any number of content sources. A content source can vary in size between a single document library and an entire site collection. Based either on a schedule or on demand, the solution will search all content sources for newly uploaded PDF files. It will then download the files it found, process them with the AquaForest OCR engine, and then upload them to SharePoint at the same location. The solution can be configured to archive the original files. The latest version of our solution supports SharePoint 2010, 2013, and SharePoint Online (Office 365).

So what’s new? Let’s take a look:

Run as a Windows Service
Our solution can now be installed as a Windows service. This means that it no longer requires an active user session to run, and also means that it will start up again automatically when the computer it is running on is rebooted.

Support for Advanced SDK
Based on our experience, we’ve found that AquaForest’s advanced SDK performs much better for customers that have low quality scans. For this reason, we have made sure that our solution now also supports using the Advanced SDK.

Recrawl
We added a “Recrawl” button to support fully reprocessing all PDFs in a given site (and subsites) or library. This can be useful for example when upgrading to the Advanced SDK in order to reprocess PDFs that were previously processed with the Standard SDK.

Priority
We can assign a priority to PDFs as they are found, so that more important files are processed first. The priority is assigned by content source. One use case is if a large number of files is added which might take weeks to fully process. In this case it may be desirable to still process new files that are added while processing the large batch of uploaded files. The priority system allows this by setting a low priority for the large group of files added while setting a higher priority for newer files.

New Image-Only check
Simply testing if a PDF has a text layer can cause false positives, because some scanners will add a text layer that contains only page numbers. With the existing check, these documents would be skipped. Our new logic will run the PDF through OCR and then compare before and after results. This new logic can be disabled, as it does require more processing time.

If this sounds useful to you, please contact us. We can also customize this solution to match your needs and integrate it into your workflows.

Learn more about DMC’s Microsoft Consulting Services.

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There is one key difference, which if you do not complete, your color code icon will not display. The new step is to change the list web part to a style of Basic Table instead of Default.  Follow these simple updated steps and you will be color coding lists on Office 365 in no time!
Here is a list of available colors.

Watch the video tutorial:

• Step 1 – Create a “Status Indicator” column in your list. This column can either be calculated using other data within the list or selected manually upon creation.

Example:

=IF(OR(Status=”Not Started”,Status=”Deferred”),”Yellow”,IF(OR(Status=”In Progress”,Status=”Complete”),”Green”,IF(Status=”Waiting on Someone Else”,”Red”)))

• Step 2 – Create a “Status” column that is a calculated value. The output is a single line of text. Copy and paste this into the calculated field:

=”<DIV style=’font-weight:bold; font-size:50px;margin-top:-30px; color:”&[Status Indicator]&”;’>•</DIV>”

• Step 3 – Add the list to your web part or wiki page
• Step 4 – Edit the web part to show the Status column and change the Style to Basic Table
• Step 5 – Add a Content Editor Web Part directly underneath the List/Task Web Part
• Step 6 – In 2010 and 2013, you will need to load the below code to a location on your site in a text file and point the content editor to the location. In 2007, you can copy and paste the below code into the content editor settings box itself.

<script type="text/javascript">
  //
  // Text to HTML
  //
  var theTDs = document.getElementsByTagName("TD");
  var i = 0;
  var TDContent = " ";
  while (i < theTDs.length) {
    try {
      TDContent = theTDs[i].innerText || theTDs[i].textContent;
      if ((TDContent.indexOf("<DIV") == 0) && (TDContent.indexOf("</DIV>") >= 0)) {
        theTDs[i].innerHTML = TDContent;
      }
    } catch (err) {}
    i = i + 1;
  }
  //
  // ExpGroupRenderData overwrites the default SharePoint function
  // This part is needed for collapsed groupings
  //
  function ExpGroupRenderData(htmlToRender, groupName, isLoaded) {
    var tbody = document.getElementById("tbod" + groupName + "_");
    var wrapDiv = document.createElement("DIV");
    wrapDiv.innerHTML = "<TABLE><TBODY id=\"tbod" + groupName + "_\" isLoaded=\"" + isLoaded + "\">" + htmlToRender + "</TBODY></TABLE>";
    var theTBODYTDs = wrapDiv.getElementsByTagName("TD");
    var j = 0;
    var TDContent = " ";
    while (j < theTBODYTDs.length) {
      try {
        TDContent = theTBODYTDs[j].innerText || theTBODYTDs[j].textContent;
        if ((TDContent.indexOf("<DIV") == 0) && (TDContent.indexOf("</DIV>") >= 0)) {
          theTBODYTDs[j].innerHTML = TDContent;
        }
      } catch (err) {}
      j = j + 1;
    }
    tbody.parentNode.replaceChild(wrapDiv.firstChild.firstChild, tbody);
  }
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
  //
  // Text to HTML
  //
  var theTDs = document.getElementsByTagName("TD");
  var i = 0;
  var TDContent = " ";
  while (i < theTDs.length) {
    try {
      TDContent = theTDs[i].innerText || theTDs[i].textContent;
      if ((TDContent.indexOf("<DIV") == 0) && (TDContent.indexOf("</DIV>") >= 0)) {
        theTDs[i].innerHTML = TDContent;
      }
    } catch (err) {}
    i = i + 1;
  }
  //
  // ExpGroupRenderData overwrites the default SharePoint function
  // This part is needed for collapsed groupings
  //
  function ExpGroupRenderData(htmlToRender, groupName, isLoaded) {
    var tbody = document.getElementById("tbod" + groupName + "_");
    var wrapDiv = document.createElement("DIV");
    wrapDiv.innerHTML = "<TABLE><TBODY id=\"tbod" + groupName + "_\" isLoaded=\"" + isLoaded + "\">" + htmlToRender + "</TBODY></TABLE>";
    var theTBODYTDs = wrapDiv.getElementsByTagName("TD");
    var j = 0;
    var TDContent = " ";
    while (j < theTBODYTDs.length) {
      try {
        TDContent = theTBODYTDs[j].innerText || theTBODYTDs[j].textContent;
        if ((TDContent.indexOf("<DIV") == 0) && (TDContent.indexOf("</DIV>") >= 0)) {
          theTBODYTDs[j].innerHTML = TDContent;
        }
      } catch (err) {}
      j = j + 1;
    }
    tbody.parentNode.replaceChild(wrapDiv.firstChild.firstChild, tbody);
  }
</script>

Contact our team today to get started on your next SharePoint project and learn more about our SharePoint expertise. 

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In SharePoint 2007 and 2010, you could get around this by customizing the task URL in a notification email, or by having users use the “Open this Task” feature of the Outlook client. Unfortunately, neither of these options work with 2013 workflow tasks. So I came up with a quick little trick to get around the issue. It is just a custom display form that secretly redirects to the EditForm. This code is tested with SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 / SharePoint Online.

One Click Approval for SharePoint 2013 Tasks:

1. Open the task list in SharePoint Designer and create a new List Form  

2. In the Create New List Form window, set the Filename as “RedirectToEditForm”, the type as Display, and check “Set as the default for the selected type”. Also pick your Workflow Task content type.

3. Open the Form in Designer so that the code is displayed, then click the “Advanced Mode” button in the ribbon bar. This will open the entire page for edits.

4. Insert the following javascript directly after the line <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId=”PlaceHolderMain” runat=”server”> (this is around line 15)

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var origUrl = window.location.toString();
var editUrl = origUrl.replace("RedirectToEditForm", "EditForm");
window.location = editUrl;
//-->
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var origUrl = window.location.toString();
var editUrl = origUrl.replace("RedirectToEditForm", "EditForm");
window.location = editUrl;
//-->
</script>

5. Save the form, accepting the change from the site definition.

That is it! Now whenever someone opens a task, the EditForm is automatically displayed and only one click is needed to approve or reject the task. The redirection should occur before the first form renders so end users won’t notice what is going on.

Contact Us

For more tips and tricks, check out some of our other DMC SharePoint Blogs.

For help on implementing your own workflow processes with SharePoint, please Contact Us. We would welcome the opportunity to make your workflow project successful.

Learn more about DMC’s SharePoint workflow services.

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Upon successfully passing correct CAML to the ProcessBatchData method, the return value will be more CAML denoting which items were modified along with a code denoting the success of the operation on that item. A code of zero means success.

To my great frustration I was passing well-formed CAML to ProcessBatchData and receiving confirmation via the return object that my updates to document properties in a document library had been successful. However upon viewing the document library, the properties had not been updated.

To resolve this, I had to add an extra element to each Method tag. (A Method tag corresponds to an operation on a list item.) The element format is as follows.

When formatting this string, pass the server-relative URL of the file associated with that list item, accessible via SPListItem.File.ServerRelativeUrl or if the item is a folder then SPListItem.Folder.ServerRelativeUrl. After passing in this additional element for each method, your operations should execute correctly on documents in document libraries.

Learn more about DMC’s SharePoint consulting services.

The post Using SPWeb.ProcessBatchData to Update Document Library Properties appeared first on DMC, Inc..

• A manufacturing company has documents related to design, testing, and fabrication for each product it manufactures.
• A sales team has documents related to requirements, subcontractor quotes, estimating sheets, and the resulting proposal.
• A marketing team has branding materials, brochures, and advertisements related to a new product launch.
• An IT team has system specifications, project plans, testing plans, deployment plans, and user guides.

Commonly, the solution to group these documents together would be to create a folder and place all relevant documents with in the folder. When dealing with multiple projects, the name of the folder may not contain enough information to determine the right project. You then begin your search only having the ability to sort through name and date modified to help you along the way.

SharePoint 2010 has introduced a better method for storing these documents in one of their new features, Documents Set. A Document Set groups files together but also give you the option to create additional attributes associated with each set enabling you to find the set of documents you are looking for more efficiently. These attributes are known as “Metadata” which can be synchronized between the Document Set and all the files with in it.

To better understand the value of Metadata, think about trying to find a car in a parking lot. If you could remove all the cars that weren’t 4 doors, white, and Fords, you would be able to find the car easier and faster.

*Click the image above for a larger view

Organizations can customize multiple types of document sets allowing for a different set of metadata depending on their needs. An Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) may need a “Product Set” and identify each unique set by release date, product type, price category, etc. Additionally the same OEM could have a need for “Proposal Sets” with metadata for the status, sales person, quote date, product type, and quote amount.

*Click the image above for a larger view

There are also several other features that you can benefit from using a document set that make it easier to create and manage multiple document projects.

• Capture Version – The current version of each file in the document set is captured allowing you to reference what version of any document one at the given time. An example would be when sending a Proposal Set to a customer. You would want to capture the set of documents used to finalize the proposal. Don’t worry, individual file history is still available!

• Default Documents – A default document can be part of a document set so that each time a new document set is created, the default documents are already inside the set. An example would be for Product Sets to have a testing procedure template automatically created.

• Welcome Page – A SharePoint web part page is created for each document set allowing for information about the set to be displayed to the members of the team who are working on it.

At DMC, we take full advantage of this new feature offered by SharePoint 2010 by creating a customized Document Set for each project that comes through our door. When sending the proposal set to a customer, we capture the set along with information of who it was sent to and on what date. Each file has version history along with set history to be able to quickly refer back to previous versions. All these features combined give us the ability to quickly locate information we are looking for and ultimately providing better service to our customers. If you want to learn more about Document Sets and other ways SharePoint can benefit your business, please contact me at Anjali.Bharadwa@localhost.

Learn more about DMC’s SharePoint document management services.

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The short answer is Google Docs/Sites is a great tool if you do not have an enterprise collaboration platform at your disposal, and you need to get a document sharing site up quickly. However, Google Docs/Sites falls way short in providing the breadth and depth of features that Microsoft SharePoint offers.

SharePoint is a true enterprise platform with capabilities that extend beyond document management and collaboration (e.g. Intranet, Extranet, Search, Workflow, and KPI Dashboards). If you have a dozen or more computer users in your organization who need tools other than email and network drives to collaborate, you should strongly consider an investment in the SharePoint platform. Office 365’s SharePoint Online subscription is a terrific value (a business with fewer than 300 users can get SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Skype for Business, and OneDrive for Business all for $5/user per month). Microsoft even offers a free on-premises version of SharePoint (SharePoint Foundation) for smaller organizations, along with premium versions for larger organizations.

Analysis Notes

I’ll try to keep my analysis short and simple by not debating the merits of cloud-based versus premise-based solutions (both Microsoft and Google offer cloud-based solutions for a monthly fee). A comparison of cloud-based document authoring tools (Microsoft Office 365 and Google Docs) is also beyond the scope of this particular blog entry. Instead, this blog entry will focus on providing a functional comparison of the document management and collaboration features of these offerings.

Document Management

From a document management perspective, Microsoft SharePoint and Google Docs have compelling offerings. Both provide a browser-based user experience for managing documents in a central location and keeping track of a document’s version history.

SharePoint includes a wider variety of document management features than Google Docs, including:

• Metadata tagging to help you organize and find documents quickly
• Check-in/Check-out to prevent multiple users from editing a document at the same time
• Document sets which allow a group of related documents to be treated as a single piece of content that share metadata and version history
• Records management for managing the lifecycle of documents and providing for the ability to place documents into a legal hold state
• Workflow processes may be triggered (e.g. approval/publishing of content) whenever a document is added, changed, or removed

Google Docs may be a better fit than SharePoint in some circumstances:

• Google Docs is quite a bit easier to set up and configure than SharePoint, so you should be able to get started in less time (although SharePoint’s Active Directory integrated same sign-on capabilities are probably well worth the extra setup time)
• Organizations with only a simple need to share documents may find Google Docs easier to use
• Google Docs is often a good fit for organizations with ad-hoc teams that must be brought together quickly (Microsoft’s Office 365 Groups offering is also very nimble and provides this capability)
• Google Docs will likely take less time to implement than SharePoint; you will likely need a Microsoft Partner to assist you with a SharePoint implementation

If you are looking for a document management solution that supports day-to-day employee and inter-departmental document sharing as well as special projects, then SharePoint will be a better fit for your organization in the long-run. If you just need a quick and dirty solution for an ad-hoc project, then Google Docs is probably a better way to go.

Collaboration

SharePoint and Google Docs with Google Sites are pretty far apart on the maturity scale – SharePoint has been around since 2001 and is a stable platform for small & mid-sized organizations, as well as large enterprises; Google’s Docs with Sites was released in 2008 and has seen limited adoption, primarily with smaller organizations.

Both SharePoint and Google product suites include document management systems and the ability to create collaboration sites, but SharePoint includes quite a few additional features. SharePoint is often referred to as a Swiss army knife of collaboration and office productivity features.

Feature Comparison

SharePoint features that are absent from Google’s offering include:

• Workflow to automate and manage business processes
• Enterprise search capabilities to index content on your network drive (as well as the content you store inside SharePoint)
• Configurable lists to capture metadata when storing documents
• Centralized task lists to replace spreadsheets (great for managing projects)
• SharePoint dashboards can integrate data from other systems to track your Key Performance Indicators
• Tight integration of Documents, Tasks, and Calendars with the Microsoft Office Suite (e.g. updates made in Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will automatically update the central copy inside SharePoint)

Permission Management

SharePoint and Google Sites now have similar capabilities when it comes to permission management. Prior to recent updates, Google Sites allowed you to only define who can view content and who can edit content on each site. Since 2007, SharePoint has allowed administrators to identify groups or individuals who may view some portions a site’s content, but not necessarily everything. Similarly, SharePoint allowed you to specify groups or individuals who modify some pieces of content, but not necessarily everything.

Market Share

The organization adoption level for Google sites is pretty tiny when compared to the adoption level of SharePoint. A few notable Microsoft customers switched from MS Office (Word/Excel/PowerPoint) to Google Docs a few years ago, but generally speaking, Google Sites will only be found in some smaller organizations.

Conclusion

Overall, SharePoint is still a category killer and the clear winner when it comes to document management and collaboration solutions. For good reason, there are over 190 million users of SharePoint across 200,000 organizations worldwide!

Learn more about DMC’s SharePoint Consulting Services and contact us to get started on your next PLC Programming project.

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In this video blog, I describe some key factors to closely consider when planning your SharePoint Portal.

Functional Planning:

• Features – Collaboration, Business Processes, Content Management, Search, Web 2.0, and KPIs/Dashboards
• Versions – SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Foundation, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0), and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007)
• Portal Taxonomy – Site map and structure to make it easy to find content on your SharePoint Portal

Technical Planning:

• SharePoint Farm Architecture – Single-server or Multi-server farm; Failover and redundancy
• Technical Infrastructure – Hardware sizing; SQL Server Express or Standard; 32-bit or 64-bit

Implementation Planning:

• Resources – Project Manager, Business Analyst, SharePoint Developer; Internal or External leadership
• Cost – Software licensing, Hardware infrastructure, and External labor
• Schedule – Phased or Big-bang; 6 weeks or 6 months

Related DMC SharePoint Video Blogs:

Automating a SharePoint Dashboard is Essential

Feature Comparison of SharePoint 2010, Foundation, MOSS, and WSS

I hope you found this video blog informative.  Please feel free to get in-touch with me directly (rick.rietz@localhost) if you have questions about planning your SharePoint Portal or need help implementing SharePoint to maximize its benefit to your business.

Learn more about DMC’s SharePoint consulting services.

The post Video Blog: Planning a Successful Microsoft SharePoint Portal appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Microsoft awards competencies to partners who have demonstrated expertise by certifying multiple developers in a particular technology and producing multiple customer references for successful work completed within the competency area. In addition to awarding this elite credential to DMC, Microsoft also grants DMC access to exclusive Microsoft training and support programs focused on the SharePoint platform.

Microsoft SharePoint is an enterprise portal that can be configured to run Intranet, Extranet and Internet sites for both small companies and large corporate enterprises. SharePoint is the fastest-growing product in the history of Microsoft, with over 17,000 companies adopting the platform and over 100 million licenses sold worldwide. With SharePoint, an organization can:

• Boost employee productivity by simplifying everyday business activities, such as document review and approval, project management, and issue tracking.
• Provide executives and managers with at-a-glance dashboard views of company goals and key performance indicators by consolidating business-critical information from multiple systems into one central location.
• Find information quickly with powerful search capabilities, including a full-text indexing of all documents on a network drive, as well as content added directly to SharePoint.
• Facilitate collaboration activities between employees, third parties, and customers without compromising confidential business information.

DMC has maintained its Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status for 6 consecutive years. In addition to the Information Worker competency, DMC has also earned Microsoft competencies for Custom Development Solutions, Business Intelligence, and Data Management Solutions.

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