Technical Writer

Whenever I meet other SharePoint users I always want to know what works for them.

Here’s what works in our company, and what doesn’t.  We use SharePoint 2003.

What works:

• Document libraries
• Revisions
• Issue lists
• Task lists
• Link lists
• Portal listings
• Office integration (sort of)
• Export to spreadsheet
• Web part pages
• Custom lists
• My links
• Surveys
• XML web parts.

What doesn’t work:

• Discussion boards
• Email integration
• Calendars
• News
• Check in/check out
• Alerts
• My Site.

We don’t use:

• Form libraries.

Document libraries

At least 80% our our SharePoint usage is document libraries.

It’s a constant struggle to restrict the number of libraries, particularly in Portal Server (SPS).  People want to create multiple sub-areas with a separate library for each, even when they would be better suited using one sub-area and one document library with folders and custom fields.  It’s a mindset thing.  Because Portal Server looks like a hierarchy, people can’t see any other way to use it except as a hierarchy.

Early on in our SharePoint implementation I let one group convince me they needed separate libraries for each type of process. 

Bad mistake.

They now have around 30 libraries, each in a separate sub-area, containing an average of three documents per library. 

In their defence, they maintain them beautifully, but it must be hard work.

They had a spring clean of processes just before Christmas. I tried to talk them into putting all the documents into one library, with customised fields, but they didn’t want it.

Revisions

People like and use the revision functionality.

Unfortunately, many people still persist in renaming major drafts and moving the old one to a sub-directory in the library.

We have been caught out a couple of times on this, because revisions are tied to the document name, and the document name is tied to the location.  As soon as you change the document name, you lose the revision history.

This one is a matter of training.

Document workspaces created through the document

SharePoint allows you to create a workspace for a specific document. You can work on the document in the workspace, add all your reference material and notes there, and when you have finished check it back into the parent library.  A fantastic tool, but we don’t use it.

Our document libraries are heavily customised—fields, names, etc. To date, I have not been able to create a sub-document workspace from anything except a standard ‘Document%20Library’ with no customised fields.

Some of our project users would love this functionality.

Check in/check out

This is another training issue.  If we don’t train people to use it, they won’t, and even then they’re unhappy about it.

Users expect write protection to work like MS Office.  When you open an Office document from a shared drive it tells you if someone else has that document open, and asks if you simply want to read it, or be notified when they have finished.

SharePoint doesn’t do this.  If two of you open a non-checked out document and update it at the same time, one person will overwrite the other one’s changes.  (Excel does say there is a mismatch.)

Email integration

Outlook rules at our office.  I would say it is the single critical piece of software people in our workplace must have.

Nobody, but nobody, uses any email/email functionality in SharePoint with the exception of:

• Two regular meeting workspaces I set up for monthly meetings
• Email alerts on issue lists.

Discussion boards

Discussion boards are an abysmal failure.

We have tried to wean users away from email on to discussion boards for technical and project discussions.  It has not worked.

I don’t really know why, but some of the reasons may be:

• Email is more immediate and less formal
• It is also more private, or appears so, anyway, even when you are (accidentally or otherwise) emailing the whole company
• We don’t have enough people. Discussion boards seem to need a critical mass to work
• Old habits die hard/resistance to change.

I would be interested to know what percentage of discussion boards overall, even outside SharePoint, succeed.

Form libraries

One potential killer application for SharePoint, in my opinion, is forms.

Our company chose not to implement InfoPath, so we do not use form libraries at all.

Such a pity.

Web part add-ins

There is no budget for SharePoint outside of the product itself.  If there was I would implement, in this order (and remember I’m talking 2003 here, not 2007):

• InfoPath
• A workflow (e.g. Nintex) 
• Rollups (e.g. CorasWorks)
• Wiki (e.g. Neoworks)
• SharePoint 2007.

Some of the free web-parts we use regularly include:

• Carlos Segura Sanz’ Cseg rollup, and
• Microsoft’s Office web components (not sure if you would call this one an add-in or not, or even free).

Overall usage 

We use SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) for most thngs, but that was more because of the way we implemented it, and our early knowledge.  People also like things displayed on the page, rather than having to do the extra clicks to go in to the content.

If we had to do it all over again it I would put a lot more into WSS sites. End result would be 50-50 SPS/WSS.

Last Modified : February 23rd, 2007
Filed under : SharePoint
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