Zoeb Shaikh's SharePoint Blog

Office 365 Videos

2014-07-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

Watch these videos to become familiar with Office 365 and how to read email, share documents, and more.

Share or publish your Office 365 calendar

Share or publish your calendar so others can view your appointments and meetings.

OFFICE 365 FOR SMALL BUSINESS ADMIN
Create a shared mailbox You can create a shared mailbox in Office 365 so that a group of people can view and respond to email from a common mailbox. Download \| Watch online
Manage passwords Learn how to manage passwords for your organization. Change password expiration and reset forgottenpasswords, for yourself and others. Download \| Watch online
Manage user accounts As an admin, you need to perform a variety of tasks to keep your organization running smoothly. Learn how to add users, update user information, and transfer licenses and buy new licenses. Download \| Watch online
Set up your custom domain in Office 365 Set up your own domain name with Office 365 Small Business so your customers and partners can use an easy-to-remember email address to contact you. Download \| Watch online

Training resources for Office 2013 and Office 365

2014-07-20T00:06:00.000-07:00

Training resources for Office 365:

If your organization signed up for Office 365 and you need to start reading email, sharing documents, and more, see the following resources to get started with Office 365:

· Get started with Office 365

· Get started with the new Office

· Install Office with Office 365

· Use my Office desktop applications with Office 365

· Set up and use Office 365 on your phone or tablet

· Start using Office and Office Online

· Start using SharePoint sites, OneDrive for Business, and Newsfeed to share documents and ideas

· Start using Outlook Web App for email and calendars

· Start using Lync for IM and online meetings

· Change your account settings in Office 365 like your password or language

Office 365 Videos:

The following Office 365 videos are available:

For more videos, see Training courses for Office 365 for business.

Office 2013 Suite:

Access 2013 Suite:

Excel 2013:

Lync 2013:

Office offline:

OneNote 2013

Outlook 2013:

PowerPoint 2013:

Project 2013:

Publisher 2013:

Word 2013:

Visio 2013:

MCSA: Office 365

2014-07-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

Earning an MCSA: Office 365 certification qualifies you for a position as a software as a service (SaaS) administrator or cloud applications administrator focused on managing Office 365 business productivity products like Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync

Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements: Required Exam: 70-346

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-70-346.aspx

Enabling Office 365 Services: Required Exam: 70-347

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-70-347.aspx

Resources:

· Visit the Office 365 product site

· Get free training on Office programs

· Find a practice test at MeasureUp

· Find a practice test at Kaplan SelfTest

· Find a practice test at Transcender

July 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2013

2014-07-08T22:22:00.001-07:00

July 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2013 has been released.

SharePoint Foundation: KB882999
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2882999

SharePoint Server 2013: KB2882989
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2882989

Project Server 2013: KB2882990
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2882990

Office 2013 April 2014 Cumulative Updates: KB2978164
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2978164

SharePoint 2010 July 2014 Cumulative Updates

2014-07-08T22:18:00.001-07:00

July 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2010 has been released.

SharePoint Foundation: KB2883026
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2883026

SharePoint Server 2010: KB2883005
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2883005

Office 2010 July 2014 Cumulative Updates: KB2978161
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2978161

SharePoint 2013 June 2014 Cumulative Updates

2014-06-11T14:06:00.002-07:00

June 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2013 has been released.

SharePoint Foundation - KB2881063
http - //support.microsoft.com/kb/2881063

SharePoint Server 2013 - KB2881061
http - //support.microsoft.com/kb/2881061

Project Server 2013 - KB2881062
http - //support.microsoft.com/kb/2881062

Office Web Apps Server 2013 - KB2881051
http - //support.microsoft.com/kb/2881051

Office 2013 June 2014 Cumulative Updates - KB2970262
http - //support.microsoft.com/kb/2970262

SharePoint 2010 June 2014 Cumulative Updates

2014-06-11T14:02:00.002-07:00

June 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2010 has been released.

SharePoint Foundation - KB2880975
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880975

SharePoint Server 2010 - KB2880972
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880972

Project Server 2010 - KB2880974
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880974

Office 2010 June 2014 Cumulative Updates - KB2970263
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2970263

April 2014 cumulative update packages

2014-05-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

April 2014 Cumulative Update Packages for SharePoint Foundation 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013 have been released

April 2014 CU for SharePoint Foundation 2013 - KB 2863892

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2863892

April 2014 CU for SharePoint Server 2013 - KB 2878240

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2878240

Access Denied when we start SharePoint 2010 approval workflow

2014-05-21T22:18:00.001-07:00

Error:

Access Denied when we start SharePoint 2010 approval workflow

Troubleshooting:

From the workflow reports I found an error -" The workflow could not update the item, possibly because one or more columns for the item require a different type of information."
Created a test list without content
Got the same error on all ootb approval workflow
Disabled content approval on the list, still got the same issue
During troubleshooting found – "Update the approval status after the workflow is completed (use this workflow to control content approval)" enabled on the workflow
First disabled it on test workflow as we already have content approval enabled for the list
Checked workflow behavior
It worked successfully, so chnaged and applied the same settings to prod workflow
Once all testing done successfully on test list, implemented the same settings to actual list

Solution and Cause:

"Update the approval status after the workflow is completed (use this workflow to control content approval)" enabled on the workflow
Workflows started working by removing check box option from this option

SharePoint 2010 awesome resources

2014-05-18T22:45:00.002-07:00

You might need to practice SharePoint 2010 a lot more but unavailability of such high configuration is common and you might need all the funds to invest for such machines but as many many people listed online and as MS did a great job in getting us the virtual labs available to us.

I saw this MSDN blog online and thought that the publisher Eric Lingman did a great job in putting up the links in here.

Reference: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mssmallbiz/archive/2012/03/13/sharepoint-server-2010-msdn-virtual-labs-available-to-you-online-plus-more-sharepoint-2010-resources.aspx

SharePoint Server 2010 Virtual Labs

In addition to the SharePoint Server 2010 Virtual Labs, here are a few other SharePoint 2010 resources that I thought you might also be interested in:

Lets learn all we can for free … happy learning.

InfoPath 2010 gives "A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Please close the program. "

2014-05-15T22:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had an issue reported by a few users that the InfoPath form library would just not open on a few desktops only, for the sake of information all other users and the effected ones were using IE 8 and InfoPath 2010. There was no difference in the environments.

What would happen is if you open a form from a Sharepoint library it would download in infopath and throw an error message as "A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Please close the program. " and give you a close this program button.

We started troubleshooting

We checked for the IE 32 and 64 bit then recent patch installed.

According to a lot of links in internet they recommend KB2760406 and http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-infopath/kb2760406-infopath-error-after-update/58631190-8bc1-401a-921c-b6351474350b but this patch wasn’t installed on our clients machine.

Checked the event viewer and got the error as
Faulting Module Name: IPEDITOR.DLL version14.0.7010.1000

We also doubted the IPEDITOR.DLL to run a repair by running SFC / Scannow that did not help.

Finally we found the KB 2817603

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817603/ )

Query parameters are lost when you open a new form in InfoPath 2010

Although we did not have the KB 2553210 which causes this issue we were still able to resolve the issue.

This resolution seems like a mystery to me but has saved our lifes, posting it so you guys can use it and also make me understand if possible why did this work J

Office 2013 Integration with SharePoint 2013

2014-05-06T23:54:00.002-07:00

As we all are now inclined towards the new SharePoint 2013 and frankly not many of us have it in our organizations and Labs it makes it more interesting, so I was watching some videos with Office and Share points Latest Integration and found out some interesting points. I am putting it out here

1. Co-authoring feature in Office 2013 with SharePoint 2013 so people with typical SharePoint experience (from 2007) might find this weird because we work on check in and check out, with co-authoring the document can be checked out to more than one user and yes if you want to know how it works, well the part your editing shows up via Blue line like a Square bracket and that potion is locked for you, you also get notifications when some other people are editing the document which is highlighted by green highlighter once they save it.

This makes it easier to edit the same page when you have to rush with work on a document, brilliant Microsoft!!!

Image source : http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/11/19/co-authoring-in-word-2010-and-sharepoint-foundation-2010/

2. Co-authoring locks lines in WORD and locks Slides in PowerPoint Presentation.

3. Calendars from SharePoint can by synced in your Microsoft Outlook they can also be overlaid, because looking at two calendars is not a great thing to do

Image source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/hub/archive/2012/01/19/viewing-a-sharepoint-calendar-in-outlook.aspx

4. You can also sync your outlook calendar back to SharePoint but you need the appropriate permissions to do that, once you sync the items it takes about 20 minutes to reflect on the calendars.

5. Everything that you create in One Note stores the files in the SkyDrive, you can permission, share the OneNote notebooks from SkyDrive.

6. You can chose just a table in your excel workbook and publish it to SharePoint, this builds and active connection between excel and SharePoint list, so later anything added to the Sharepoint List is synced to excel and anything added in excel is synced to Sharepoint.

7. You can save the documents to Sharepoint from the Word and Excel > going to file save as > web location and give in your SharePoint site.

8. Microsoft InfoPath is used to created forms and publish it to Sharepoint as a list, initially InfoPath was launched to work with the Biztalk server but now Sharepoint itself had the BizTalk server included.

9. You can use the InfoPath Form designer to create the form in InfoPath. The fields can be added first and then moved to the form always remember to use the CAML case to name the fields like. First Name should be FirstName.

10. When the form is published from InfoPath to Sharepoint you will be prompted twice for authentication, first one will be to create a library in Sharepoint and second one will be to replace the template.

11. We can create Apps in Microsoft access that needs to be use in Sharepoint.

12. You can export table from Access to Sharepoint and also import table from Sharepoint to access. Again editing data in either Access or Sharepoint will edit the data in the synced counterpart.

13. Microsoft Visio files uploaded in Sharepoint will open up with Visio web browser, which makes it easier to comment and discuss on the file before publishing it.

Hope these pointers are helpful for you to understand the integration between Office 2013 and Sharepoint 2013 integration.

HTTP 500 error when users delete objects to include documents, lists, and Webs

2014-05-04T22:44:00.002-07:00

Cumulative update packages for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 contain hotfixes for the SharePoint Foundation 2010 issues that were fixed since the release of SharePoint Foundation 2010.

Note This is build 14.0.6120.5006 of the cumulative update package.

UpdateA recent, isolated issue was discovered in the SharePoint 2010 Products April 2012 Cumulative Update that could result in an HTTP 500 error when users delete objects to include documents, lists, and Webs and a new object is created using the same path where the original object remains in the Recycle Bin. The following packages were affected:

KB2598151 - SharePoint Server Package
KB2598152 - Project Server Package
KB2598321 - SharePoint Foundation Package
KB2598304 – Wss-x-none.msp

Resolution
This issue has been resolved in the revised packages. The revised packages include support for resolving issues related to the originally published updates.

Products Affected
SharePoint Foundation 2010
SharePoint Server 2010

reference : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598321

Looking for a SharePoint 2013 virtual lab, check this out.

2014-04-15T22:30:00.001-07:00

We love virtual labs they are free, non hassle and disposable ways to work around SharePoint deployment

SharePoint 2010 virtual lab can be found at
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/virtuallabs/bb467605.aspx

expand office servers and select SharePoint 2010 and on the right pane you see all the listed labs and the look amazing.

but if I need SP 2013 labs its not there,
so follow this blog Keith has explained it very well on hos do you go about buying a windows Azure Virtual lab

http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/01/07/step-by-step-build-a-free-sharepoint-2013-lab-in-the-cloud-with-windows-azure-31-days-of-servers-in-the-cloud-part-7-of-31.aspx

Microsoft yanks SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1, KB 2817429

2014-04-12T05:27:00.001-07:00

Microsoft yanks SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1, KB 2817429

SharePoint 2010 April 2014 Cumulative Updates

2014-04-10T19:09:00.003-07:00

April 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2010 has been released.

SharePoint Foundation:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2878270

SharePoint Server 2010:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2878250

New Look & Feel options in SharePoint 2013

2014-04-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

I found this really great article that talks in depth as well in an easy language about the new options of under look and feel of 2013.

here are the basic points:

· Design Manager is a web-based tool that you can use to create your own SharePoint site designs. The tool is wizard based and walks you through uploading design files, editing your master page, changing page layouts, and publishing and packaging your design.

· Device Channels enables you to specify certain characteristics of your site based on the device used to view the site. A channel can be optimized for the device to display the site in a specific way.

For example, you can set up a channel for smartphones (such as an iPhone or Windows Phone). You could set up a different channel for the iPad or Surface tablets. And finally, you can set up a channel for laptops and desktop browsers.

· Import Design Package enables you to import a design package developed by a third party or in-house designer.

· Navigation enables you to manage navigation links and also change how the navigation behaves. You can configure global navigation (top of page) and also current navigation (left side of page). The Navigation settings page also enables you to change the sorting order of the navigational links and show and hide the Ribbon.

to see the entire article check out the link at :

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-look-and-feel-section-in-sharepoint-site-setti.html

InfoPath Error: The form cannot be submitted

2014-03-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

Error:

The form cannot be submitted because it contains validation error. Errors are marked with either a red asterisk (required filed) or a red, dashed border (invalid values)

Background:

This is the most common error I noticed after getting customize with InfoPath feature enabled in SharePoint list
User has customized SharePoint list more precisely newform.aspx using InfoPath
And then suddenly started getting above error

Troubleshooting:

Open the list in InfoPath via list tab > customize form
It will open up newform.aspx in InfoPath
Once it is open check mandatory fields available in that form.
Make sure all mandatory fields are available and deployed in newform.aspx
Or
If you don’t want them to be displayed in newform.aspx just remove mandatory option
Republish the form and check behavior.

Feel free to reach me in case of any issues on above steps, thanks

NO data displayed in column

2014-03-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is the most recent issue I came to know from one of my colleague. After moving a single file from source to destination the list went crazy.

Issue:
Column shows no data

Description
There was a requirement to move some files / items from List A to List B. And we used the most recommended way by using content and structure.

Background:

Source list: List A
Destination list: List B
Structure of both the list are same with same column name
Moved a single item from List A to List B
From List B opened a moved item
It showed blank / no data for some of the columns
Checked old items and found the same thing

Findings:

Total 3 columns affected Name, Manager’s name and status
List A and List B both has these 2 columns
List A contains all of these with “Single line of text” category.
While List B contains person or group for name and manager’s name and choice category for stats column
Also in List B found duplication of these columns with different category
And here is the catch, columns having the same name but with different category showed blank / no data

Resolution:

To make sure that the affected column shows wrong category, renamed one of the duplicated column
Found the same column showed up in all three forms (newform, dispform and editform)
Renamed it back to original one
Removed them directly from list settings

SharePoint utilities:

2014-03-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

I was going through tech net and found some really great stuff people share there, thought it would be great to share the same here.

· PowerShell Script to download all SharePoint Conference 2014 Videos & Slides –

1. Downloads all the SPC14 Sessions and Slides

2. Groups them by folders

3. Makes sure no errors come up due to Illegal File names.

4. If you stop the script and restart in the middle, it will start where it left off and not from beginning.

Download Link here: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint/PowerShell-Script-to-all-04e92a63#content

· The final guide to Alternate Access Mappings

After you have finished this guide, or only parts of it, you will hopefully grasp the functionality of Alternate Access Mappings and what it’s all about.

Download Link: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint/The-final-guide-to-551bd75b

· Copy all SharePoint Files and Folders Using PowerShell

This script uses PowerShell to copy all files and folders from one document library to another document library. This script will allow you to copy an entire document library, along with user-defined metadata from one site collection to another.

Download Link: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint/Copy-all-SharePoint-Files-0999c53f

· SharePoint PowerShell script to clean up all recycle bins in a site collection

This PowerShell script will take a site collection URL as input and will then iterate through each sub web in the site collection, clearing it's recycle bin before finally clearing the site collection recycle bin at the end.

Download link: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint/SharePoint-PowerShell-3bdd0d3a

· Bulk Import SharePoint Files

This script uses PowerShell to upload files from the file system to SharePoint, maintaining the folder structure originally in the file system. A separate script has also been provided in a separate post to perform bulk exports from SharePoint to the file system.

Download Link: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint/Bulk-Import-SharePoint-e5ab637c

Source http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee198298.aspx

SharePoint 2013 Roles

2014-03-12T23:37:00.001-07:00

There are 5 built-in roles in SharePoint 2013

· Owner: Owner has a complete control over site, list, library and other content placed on site.

· Designer: Users having designer role limited to certain activities. User can view, add, update, delete and approve content. Users can even customize the things, they have access to.

· Editor: Editor role users are not allowed to customize site design or content. Users can add, edit, update and delete content from the site.

· Contributor: Very limited role. They can delete content items which they have created but not by other.

· Reader: Users are only allowed to view the content of site. Users are assigned to Reader roles can download and edit the content but cannot save it back on SharePoint site.

Roles can be established at different level in SharePoint 2013. Role could be created from highest level that is Site Collection or at Individual site level or based on specific apps within site, library or list. Roles provide a way of managing permission at broadest level from site to site or within site and at apps level.

Reference : http://khalil-kothia.com/

Powershell Videos

2014-03-11T23:35:00.002-07:00

if you need to learn Windows and SharePoint Power shell from scratch refer to these you tube videos, I admit I am a fan on how simple they make it seem.

Part 1 is Windows powershell at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo4-9VWG51I

part 2 applying these in Sharepoint at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN7NqeF6a7E

check it out we are sure you wont regret

Take your babysteps towards Powershell.

2014-03-11T00:13:00.001-07:00

PowerShell everyone is talking about it how do I start?

In our current organization we do not do much of PowerShell as its restricted to use, but we cannot deny the effect this magnetic tool has on us, we all as SharePoint admins would love to have our hands on the PowerShell and how do we begin.

let’s start with the windows PowerShell commands to an idea of the syntax,

You can refer to http://www.microsoft.com/powershell for hell lot of information like webcasts/ wiki / downloads.

You need minimum pre-requisite for installation .net framework 2.0

Some interesting stuff

· you can execute DOS commands like dir, cls in PowerShell it works just like it should in regular DOS

· you can get mathematical calculations from PowerShell like type 2+2 and enter or 2*5/2*4

· The real powershell commands begin with a verb and second part is a noun, example: Get-Help; Get-Command

· Get- Command will list all the commands in powershell, also note commands in powershell are listed as Comma lets.

· Suppose you need to execute a command and you’re not sure how the syntax will be you can use get help

So use Get-Help Get-Commands ( assuming get-commands is the option you need help with)

That will list the syntax expected.

Also try Get-Help Get-Commands examples – this will list down the examples as well so you can compare and type.

Also try Get-Help Get-Commands detailed – this will give details and examples both.

· To copy a command in powershell select the command and right click, to paste copied command in powershell just right click.

· All operators by default do case insensitive comparison. If you specifically case sensitive comparisons add “c” to the operator example –ceq – case sensitive equality.

Working with windows PowerShell scripts

The commands are similar to Unix but one thing you need to know is that the output is treated as objects.

· In PowerShell setlocation- c:\scripts ( changes the location )

· You can save files as extension .ps or ps1 also commands can be saved in a .bat file and executed from windows explorer.

· The variables are created beginning with $

Example.

$colorarray = “Red” , “Green”, “Blue”, “Orange”

For each ($col in $colorarray )

{

Write-host $col

}

Things to be considered while applying Branding to SharePoint 2010 sites

2014-03-04T23:34:00.002-08:00

Targeted audience
Is this an intranet, extranet, or the Internet?
Targeted browsers
Remember that IE6 is not supported out of the box.
Only 32-bit IE7 and IE8 on Windows are fully supported without limitations.
Other browsers are supported with some limitations.
Version of SharePoint
SharePoint Foundation
SharePoint Server
Screen resolution
The most common resolution now is 1024×768.
Will your users require something different?
Questions to ask
What is the time frame to create the brand?
Is this a new design or one based on an existing design?
Does this require any custom web parts or third-party web parts?
What navigation is required?
Horizontal
Vertical
Breadcrumb
They define the skeleton of a site.
They define the layout and flow of a web site.
They promote ideas without distracting with colors.

New Web Controls in SharePoint Designer 2010

2014-03-04T23:22:00.001-08:00

To enable some of the new features in SharePoint 2010, new controls were created that you can use in your master pages. Below are few of the new controls and their purposes as they relate to customizing a master page. A complete list can be found at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/microsoft.sharepoint.webcontrols.aspx

Control	Description
CssRegistration	Tells SharePoint to insert a CSS link
SPRibbon	Adds the Ribbon to the page
Popout Menu	Adds the breadcrumb menu that shows the current location
PageStateActionButton	Adds the Edit/Save button to a page
AspMenu	Represents the ASP menu control
WarnOnUnsupportedBrowsers	Displays a warning to users who are using an unsupported browser, such as Internet Explorer 6