Boosting Productivity with SharePoint Presentation

Kattelo’s second event is about SharePoint Mobility on Feb. 22nd in Sports Basement (Grotto Room) from 6:30pm-8pm. The focus will be [...]]]> We had a great turnout for this past Wednesday’s workshop at Sports Basement! Thank you very much for attending and volunteering! Below is the link to the slide deck.

Boosting Productivity with SharePoint Presentation

Kattelo’s second event is about SharePoint Mobility on Feb. 22nd in Sports Basement (Grotto Room) from 6:30pm-8pm. The focus will be on improving productivity and efficiency in your workplace by going paperless and mobile with SharePoint.

http://kattelo.eventbrite.com/

Register early and looking forward to seeing you there!

During testing, you may be frequently required to log in and out of a SharePoint site. All the clicking could wear you out. Although Firefox does not offer the full SharePoint experience, I sometimes use a Firefox browser to minimize the repetitiveness. However, Firefox does not automatically handle single sign-on with Windows Integrated authentication. Below is a [...]]]> Target Audience: Site Administrators

During testing, you may be frequently required to log in and out of a SharePoint site. All the clicking could wear you out. Although Firefox does not offer the full SharePoint experience, I sometimes use a Firefox browser to minimize the repetitiveness. However, Firefox does not automatically handle single sign-on with Windows Integrated authentication. Below is a quick configuration to remedy that.

1. Open Firefox. Enter about.config as URL.
2. Promise Firefox that you will be careful.
3. Scroll or user filter to find the network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris node. 
4. Add SharePoint URL(s). Separate each URL with a comma.
5. Press OK.
6. Verify you are automatically logged into those designated SharePoint site(s).

It is a good practice to employ a dedicated content database for each site collection. When you create a new site collection in SharePoint 2010, there is however no easy way to indicate which content database to use. There are at least two approaches: Central Administration and the almighty Powershell. Let’s [...]]]> Target Audience: Site Administrators

It is a good practice to employ a dedicated content database for each site collection. When you create a new site collection in SharePoint 2010, there is however no easy way to indicate which content database to use. There are at least two approaches: Central Administration and the almighty Powershell. Let’s focus on the Central Administration route in this article. Although this method involves more steps and mouse clicks, it is fairly easy to perform, even while zipping your fresh mocha.

1. Open Central Administration.
2. Under Application Management , click on Manage content databases.
3. Click on each existing content database. Change the Database status to Offline.
4. Click Add a content database and complete the wizard. 
5. Go back to Central Administration.
6. Under Application Management , click on Create site collections.
7. Complete the wizard.
8. If all goes right, this new site collection now uses the content database you just created few seconds ago.
9. Verify by checking Application Management  > View all site collections.
10. Once satisfied, do make sure to switch all the content databases back to Ready status.

For additional information on SharePoint 2010 Site Planning, please visit Microsoft TechNet.

One of my all-time favorites is the SharePoint Saturday series, and luckily eleven [...]]]> I can hardly believe it is already October, and SharePoint Conference 2011 just wrapped up in Anaheim last week! So kick back a little, but for not too long though. There are still many awesome SharePoint events before the holiday season starts.

One of my all-time favorites is the SharePoint Saturday series, and luckily eleven events are left this year. Find the one closest to your location and register immediately before it sells out. Do take advantage of this deal of the century where you can rub elbows with MVPs, industry gurus, and your esteemed colleagues all for FREE!

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area,  do not miss SharePoint Intelligence Conference in Mountain View, California. Last year I had such a blast presenting there that I will be doing three sessions this November. Thank you very much for inviting me back, QuickStart!

For those in Asia, you must check out Southeast Asia SharePoint Conference in Singapore and the inaugural Hong Kong SharePoint Conference. The Hong Kong event is particularly meaningful to me. This would be my first speaking engagement in my birthplace. Perhaps I could at last seat my mom in the room and make her understand what I do for a living!

As everyone in your organization starts adopting document collaboration using SharePoint 2010 instead of email attachments, the ability to quickly and accurately search for the right information has become even more critical.

The search box in the upper right corner of SharePoint 2010 requires little explanation. Let’s, however, further streamline our lives by enabling document [...]]]> Target Audience: End Users

As everyone in your organization starts adopting document collaboration using SharePoint 2010 instead of email attachments, the ability to quickly and accurately search for the right information has become even more critical.

The search box in the upper right corner of SharePoint 2010 requires little explanation. Let’s, however, further streamline our lives by enabling document search straight from your desktop.

1. Search for documents as you would normally do in SharePoint.
2. Modify the search scope as you see fit.
3. Click on the rightmost icon in the upper right corner (folder and magnifier-looking icon).
4. Windows Explorer opens up showing the newly added SharePoint search under Favorites and Searches.
5. Optionally rename the search by right-clicking in the left pane.
6. Volunteer your free time gained from this tip  to worthy causes.

This tip is also published on Secrets of SharePoint. Thank you so much for the Idera’s support!

Assuming you already have Active Directory & Profile Database Synchronization working and your own My Site is flawlessly functioning, you may still get the User Not Found error while trying to assess your esteemed colleagues’ sites. The steps below saved my afternoon (and hopefully yours as well), and I still had daylight [...]]]> Target Audience: Site Administrators

Assuming you already have Active Directory & Profile Database Synchronization working and your own My Site is flawlessly functioning, you may still get the User Not Found error while trying to assess your esteemed colleagues’ sites. The steps below saved my afternoon (and hopefully yours as well), and I still had daylight left on a warm afternoon for some surfing. Just kidding about the surfing; I don’t even swim.

1. Open Central Administration.
2. Under Application Management , click on Manage service applications.
3. Click on the first User Profile Service.
4. Under My Site Settings, click on Setup [sic] My Sites.
5. Under Site Naming Format, change the default option to Domain and user name or User name.
6. Head to nearest beach and ride the waves. Or learn swimming in some cases.

Please visit Microsoft TechNet for the full instructions.

This tip is also published on Secrets of SharePoint. Thank you so much for the Idera’ssupport!

Certain applications, including Microsoft Visual Studio, require the files to be saved to a disk drive. How delighted would you be if I revealed how to use SharePoint document libraries as mapped drives? Let’s find out!

It is time to bust out my PMP (Project Management Professional) hat. Many people have a love-hate relationship with MS Project. This great product indeed packs many neat features. However, this long list of options may also intimidate some end-users who merely need to make simple updates.

We [...]]]> Target Audience: Project Managers & End Users

It is time to bust out my PMP (Project Management Professional) hat. Many people have a love-hate relationship with MS Project. This great product indeed packs many neat features. However, this long list of options may also intimidate some end-users who merely need to make simple updates.

We all know SharePoint is awesome, and it of course has a solution for us! You can easily create a Project Task List, which is essentially a souped-up Task List with a built-in Gnatt Chart view. The Predecessor and Assigned To fields are especially helpful in building inter-dependent tasks and keeping tracking of accountability.

Once you connect this list to Outlook (please refer to SharePoint Tips: Directly Email Files Stored in Document Libraries), you can then seamlessly manage these project tasks without ever leaving your PIM (Personal Information Manager)!

Project managers that need richer functionality from MS Project, we will have another tip that covers how to synchronize MS Project and SharePoint 2010. This is a new feature in Office 10 and SharePoint 2010. Stay tuned!

This tip is also posted on Secrets of SharePoint. Thank you so much for the Idera’s support!