SharePointDIY.com

The Alert Me feature found in SharePoint is a great way to receive automated alerts regarding documents, lists, etc. 
I will you walk you through setting up an alert in a document library. Go into a current Document Library you have.  Choose a document that you want to be alerted on and click the dropdown on the right side of it.  Select Alert Me.
 
You are now at the Alert Me criteria screen.  The first action item is creating an Alert Title.  This is what will show in the subject of the email notification.  
 
Secondly, you need to decide who you want to send the alert to.  You can choose yourself and others as well.  If you are unsure of their Active Directory accounts, you can use the  <- Check Names or Look up Options
 Next, you need to tell the Alert Me what criteria changes you want to be notified on.  There are 4 options to select from so you immediately have different options that will vary depending on the situation.
 
Finally, you get to choose when you are alerted.  I find this to be the most important aspect of the Alert Me function.  This helps all of us with keeping our Outlook Inbox under control.  You can be alerted immediately, daily, or weekly.  If you choose weekly, you actually get to choose the day and time of when to be alerted!
 
Click OK and you are now on your way of keeping tabs on documents within SharePoint.

SharePoint lists all have a default view that is available to immediately display your data.  However, you are able to customize how your list is displayed if you don’t care for what SharePoint has provided.
To create a Custom View, go through the following steps:
Open a list you have previously created. 
Look at the top-right of your opened list and find View.  Click the dropdown menu.  Choose Create View.
 
Select the View format you desire or choose an existing one.
 
Each view has several features to customize how you want your list to be seen.  I highly recommend playing around with each one to get a feel for how you would like to present you data.
When you are finished, Click OK to apply your view settings.

Datasheet view exposes list in a format that we are familiar with……Excel.  You can easily label rows and columns just like a spreadsheet as well as enter in any information you need for your list.
To create a list in Datasheet view, do the following:
Click Site Actions >> Create.
Under Custom Lists, choose Custom List in Datasheet View.
 
As usual give your list a name, description, and choose whether you would like it displayed in the Quick Launch bar.
Click Create.  SharePoint immediately takes you to your list to start entering some data.  Start entering data just as you would on a spreadsheet.
 
If you need to add a column to this list, click the Settings dropdown and choose Create Column.

  
This will take you to the Create Column screen that was discussed in previous blogs.  Simply fill in the appropriate information for your column and click OK.
If you would ever like to exit Datasheet View, go to the Actions dropdown and select Show in Standard View.  This will bring you back to the common view used to create other lists.
 
This is just another way to get data entered into SharePoint.  Choosing Standard View as opposed to Datasheet View is simply a matter of preference of the user.  Both will accomplish the same goal.

Task lists help people keep track of items they need to accomplish.  This will show you how to create a simple To-Do list within SharePoint.
Start by going to Site Actions >> Create
Under Tracking, click Tasks.
 
The next screen follows the usual SharePoint pattern.  You will enter the name of the list you are creating, a description if desired, and whether or not you would like the list to appear in the Quick Launch bar.  The important feature to notice here is if you would like to turn on email notification.  If you choose Yes for the radio button, SharePoint will fire off an email to the person the task is assigned to.
 
Click Create.  You will then be immediately taken to your new list.  Click the New dropdown and select New Item.  Here is where you can create a new task.  There are a number of options to fill in.  The main fields to be filled in are the Title of the task, a description and who the task should be assigned to.  SharePoint goes a step further to added fields such as Priority, Status, % Complete, Start Date, and Due Date.  Another great function is attachments can also be added to these tasks.  Also be aware of the message that appears. The message states “The content of this item will be sent as an email message to the person or group assigned to the item.”  So be sure you fill in all the appropriate fields to ensure the fastest results.
 
Click OK.  Now SharePoint will email the user you assigned this task to.  Another great function is that Outlook 2007 let’s you step directly back into SharePoint from the emailed task you receive.  You can see all sorts of great information.  You will see who assigned you the task, the name of the list, where the list is located in SharePoint, and all of the details of the task assigned to you.  
 
This small but powerful function saves time in communication with fellow coworkers and gets action items accomplished quickly.

The easiest way to start storing any information within SharePoint is creating lists. There are items such as tasks, calendars, and discussions that are all classified as lists.  To start, let’s create a custom list.
Custom lists allow you to place specific information inside them as well as create any amount of columns you desire for your data.
First step is to go to Site Actions >> Create.
Under Customs Lists, click Custom Lists.
 
Enter a name and description of your list.  You will also be able to decide whether or not you would like to display this in the Quick Launch bar for navigation purposes.  If you choose No, don’t worry you will still be able to get to your list.
 
Then simply click Create.  After you click Create, SharePoint will automatically take you into the Custom List that you created.  As you can see, it is pretty boring and basic.  Let’s add some columns to our list.
Click the Settings dropdown of your custom list and select Create Column.
 
On this screen, you will enter in specific information that applies to the data you want in this list.  As you can see you are provided with many options as far as the format of the column, whether it is required or not, and the number of characters that user can enter.
 
Click OK and you are finished with that column.  Repeat this process for as many columns as you would like your list to have.

If you have tried creating a Basic Page, you should go ahead and continue exploring with creating Sites and Workspaces. 

From the main site collection, click the Site Actions button and choose Create from the dropdown.
Under Web Pages on the next screen, click Sites and Workspaces.

 
Start by giving your site a name and description so your users know what the site is all about.  Then enter a web address (URL) for your site.  You’ll notice in the picture that I have underlined the example that SharePoint gives to assist you in creating a new site address.

 
Next you will select a site template.  Depending on whether you are running MOSS or WSS, your available options will vary.  On the right, you will see the site template choices available to you.  Once you highlight one, a preview of the template will display with a brief description of the template.

 
After you are done choosing your template, set the permissions.  As my picture illustrates, if you select “Use the same permissions as the parent site”, one set of user permissions is shared by both sites.  Consequently, you cannot change the user permissions on your new site unless you are an administrator of the parent site. 
On the other hand, if you select “Use unique permissions”, once you click Create you will be prompted to specify those permissions.

 
The last task is selecting the Navigation desired.  You can choose for the site to be listed in the Quick Launch bar which is the left side navigation section for SharePoint site.  And/or you can choose for the site to be displayed in the top link bar which is the top tabular section of each site.

 
Click Create and your Site or Workspace is created.  You will have much more functionality than a Basic Page.  Certain functionalities may vary depending on which site template you selected.  Start playing around with all of them and you will quickly be familiar with advantages and disadvantages.  Then you can keep growing your SharePoint site with as many useful page as you desire.

Basic Web Pages are the easiest to setup and get you going in SharePoint right away.  Here is how to do it:
From the main site collection, click the Site Actions button and choose Create from the dropdown
Under Web Pages on the next screen, click Basic Page.
 
Give the Basic Page a name and choose where you would like it saved. Then click Create.
 
After you click Create, the page will open along with the Rich Text Editor window in front of it.  Type whatever you would like to display on the page.  The toolbar also gives you options to change fonts, add pictures, etc.
 
Click save and your work appears on the page.  You have now created your first custom page.

MOSS Search is great because it not only crawls documents for search results, but it crawls the content inside the documents as well.  However, MOSS “out-of-the-box” will not crawl the content of PDF files.  Have no fear!  I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I didn’t know the steps to the solution.  Check out the following process:

The first step is to download and install the Adobe iFilter http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611

Before you run the installer on the server where your MOSS is located, stop the IIS Admin service by running IISReset /stop from your Command Prompt.  After the iFilter is finished installing, start the IIS Admin service by running IISReset /start.

Next go to your Shared Services site under SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration
 
Then click Search Settings under Search.
 
On the next screen, choose File Types.
 
Add the .pdf file type to the index list. In the box, simply type pdf.
 
You may also want the PDF icon to display within the search results itself.  Currently this icon is not available within SharePoint.  It is very easy to grab though.

Download the PDF icon (select ’small 17 x 17′) from http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html

Name the icon “pdficon.gif”.

Save the icon in the following location: c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\Template\IMAGES

Next you will need to edit the .xml file that SharePoint uses to map file types to icons. This file is the DOCICON.XML file.  It is located here:  c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Template\Xml\DOCICON.XML

Open the XML file in Notepad or SharePoint Designer.   Add the following code in the <ByExtension> section:  <Mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”pdficon.gif”/>.  Save the file.

Run iisreset from your command prompt.  When that is finished, run your Search crawls.  Now you should be able to search the contents of PDF files and have a PDF icon as display as the document image.

After you have freshly installed MOSS, you want to go check out the site collection you created.  When you type in the site of your SharePoint site, you get a login prompt all of sudden.
 
This can be really annoying to have to log on again every time you want to go to SharePoint.  There is a simple fix for this.  Open up a fresh Internet Explorer and click on Tools >> Internet Options.
 
While in Internet Options, click the Security tab.  Highlight the Local Intranet icon.  Then Click Sites.
 
For the next pop up after you click sites, choose Advanced.
 

Then enter the name of your SharePoint site.  Make sure the box for “Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone” is unchecked.  Click Add.

Internet Explorer 7.0 by default changed their security settings from previous IE versions.  Now that you have added your SharePoint site to the Local Intranet you will be automatically logged in with your current user name and password every time you access your SharePoint sites.  These instructions are good for any of your users that will access MOSS within your company.

By default SharePoint allows a maximum file size of 50MB that can be uploaded into any document library.  Depending on your situation, this might be too much or too little for your needs when uploading. To change the maximum file size, do the following:

 Go to SharePoint Central Administration >> Application Management tab.

Under the Office SharePoint Server Shared Services section, select Create or configure this farm’s shared services.
 

Select your web application that you would like to change.
 

On the next page, go to the Maximum Upload Size section and enter your desired max upload size

The maximum upload size that MOSS will allow is 2047 MB. 

If you increase the file size limit, your site might occasionally time out for users while they are uploading files. To accommodate this increase the default time out property for IIS.   Now you have successfully restricted or increased the size of uploads for your MOSS site.  You can repeat this process if you have multiple web applications for your site collections.