SharePointDIY.com

Log on to SharePoint as an administrator to the site collection where you want to upload the template. Make sure to browse to the top level site of the site collection.

• Click the Site Actions button → Site Settings → Modify All Site Settings

• Go to the Galleries section and select Site templates.

• On the Site Template Gallery page, select ‘Upload’ or ‘Upload multiple documents’
• On the Upload Template: Site Template Gallery page, browse to the .stp file and click OK to upload the file.

• You have now succesfully uploaded the file and are ready to use it.

Creating a new site based on the uploaded Template

• Log on to SharePoint as an administrator.
• Go to the site under which you want to create a site based on the newly uploaded template.
• Go to Site Actions → Create Site

• On the next page “New SharePoint Site” fill in the field and pick the new template from the ‘Select a template’ section.
• You will find your template under the tab ‘Custom
• Click Create, and now a site based on the uploaded template will be created.

To learn how to export a SharePoint site as a template file (.stp),  please read our article Export a SharePoint site as a Site Template (.stp file)

We thought it might be helpfull to post a link to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD. We use this for a lot of our tutorials, testing and demo’s since it comes fully loaded with all the software we generally need.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=67f93dcb-ada8-4db5-a47b-df17e14b2c74&displaylang=en

For other vhd’s you can go to http://www.microsoft.com/vhd

You can run the VHD (virtual hard disk) with virtual pc, virtual server or Hyper-V.

The Paste Text dialog box  in SharePoint Designer contains a few formatting options that allow you to paste text from other sources into your page.

In this article we’ll explain what each option does.

• Plain text ~ Pastes all text but replaces line breaks with spaces.
• One <pre> formatted paragraph ~ Pastes all text within a single preformatted text <pre> tag
• Many <pre> formatted paragraphs ~ Pastes each paragraph into seperate <pre> tags.
• Normal paragraphs with line breaks ~ Pastes all text within a single paragraph tag.
• Normal paragraphs without line breaks ~ Pastes each paragraph into a seperate paragraph tag.

Paste or Paste Text

• The paste option copies text along with the markup and styles (BAD!).
• The Paste Text option launches the Paste Text dialog box, which pastes it without any markup an styles (GOOD!).

Always try to use the Paste Text to prevent getting garbage markup styles polute your webpages which can be a tedious job to clean up.

You can find the Paste Text option in SharePoint Design by clicking Edit → Paste Text.

You can add a new subsite to your site collection using SharePoint Designer

• Start SharePoint Designer
• Select File → Open site (choose the site collection you want to open)
• Select File → New
• On the Dialog box that opens click the tab Web Site
• Click on the link SharePoint Templates on the left and the list of available subsites will populate on the right.

In case the SharePoint Templates don’t show up right away, ensure you enter the correct url in the box “Specify the location of the new Web site”

When creating the subsite you will have to specify the location for the new Web site.

This could be something like: http://litwaredemo/MyNewBlog.

Add a site with SharePoint Designer

By default all subsites within a site collection inherit the same administrator settings set for the site collection (top-level site). You can change the administrator settings for each of the subsites seperately from the top-level site.

We often get asked the question “what is a site collection” and “what is a subsite“.

Simply put: a site collection is a top-level website with one or more subsites.

It’s easy to open a SharePoint site in SharePoint Designer.

• Start SharePoint Designer
• Select File → Open site

In the Site name text box enter the URL of the site you want to open.

For our example we will open  the main SharePoint site: http://litwaredemo/

Discussion Boards unite all of your SharePoint users to share information and ideas.  All of your users can start discussions or reply to current ones.
To create a discussion board go to Site Actions >> Create. Under Communications, click Discussion Board.
 
Give your Discussion Board a title, description, and choose whether you would like to display it in the Quick Launch bar.
To create a new topic, click New on the Discussion toolbar.
Give a title to your discussion thread, attach a document if you like, and type a message to get the conversation going. Click OK.

 
If you want to reply to a message, click on the message of choice.
 
Then the discussion will open.  You will be able to read what is currently in the body of the discussion and previously posted replies if there are any.  Click the reply button located in the right corner to post a reply of your own.
 
Type your reply in the body of the message and Click OK.  Now you get to play the fun part of waiting for a response or seeing if your response was even helpful.

Yes…here is another blog about creating another list.  However, it is important to realize all the options out there with lists.  Contact Lists are a great way to have a central location for contacts that everyone needs access to for day-to-day business.  The best example of this is an employee phone list.
To create a Contact List, start by going to Site Actions >> Create.
Under Communications, select Contacts.
 
Enter the name, description, and whether you would like this contact list displayed in the Quick Launch bar.  Click Create.
SharePoint will then step into the Contact list you created.
Click the new button to add a new contact.
 
Now you will see all the fields that you can add information to regarding your contacts.  Notice that Last Name is the only required field.  You can even attach files to contacts.  One function often ignored is the Notes section.  This will help you to remember things that should or should not say in front of this person.

Announcements keep everyone in your company informed regarding updated information about various topics in SharePoint.  The announcement web part is usually included in every template starting out and is one of the easiest web parts to maintain.

Once you have set up an Announcement web part of your site, you can start adding new announcements.  To add a new announcement click Add New Announcement on the bottom of the Announcement web part.
 
Now you will be able to enter in specific information.  Give your announcement a title and describe what the announcement is about in the body.  The first feature to pay attention to is that you are able to attach files to your announcements.  For example, if you created an agenda in a Word document for the meeting you could attach it to the announcement for everyone to download ahead of time.  Secondly, you can set and expiration date.  This will help you maintain that the most current announcements are visible at all times.  No one cares about an announcement for a meeting last month.
 

If you are forgetful like me, you can also choose to be alerted about Announcements as well.  To set up an alert, click on the title of the announcement you want to be alerted about.  On the next screen, click Alert Me.
 
You will then be taken to the Alert criteria screen.  For more information regarding setting up alerts, check out a previous blog I have written on the topic.
Overall, Announcements are a fast, simple method to keep your employees informed every time they log into SharePoint.