Just found you can email enable #Sharepoint calendars for Outlook (and other) meeting invites. Good for resource booking.

Found this Sharepoint tutorial at SharepointHosting's blog. Probably something I should have worked out by myself, but then with Sharepoint the things that should be obvious often aren't!

This will work really well for booking meeting rooms, projectors etc and will save having to input the data twice (once into your meeting invite and another time into the resource calendar). Also should be handy for scheduling meetings and showing the meeting on the workspace calendar.

While your looking at the tutorial, check out the other stuff that's there. It's a great resource to direct users to for information, as it gives them a hands on demo. Well done to the guys at SharepointHosting.com!

Posted via email from Adam A Davidson

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Building and customising a website with Office Live

My website is built using Microsoft Office Live. I chose this because they were offering free domain names at the time (they've now stopped doing that), so it was an easy way to get a free domain name with hosted web pages and email (through Hotmail).

Below is some high-level detail on how I designed my site, and customised it to look as I wanted. I'll try to post some more detailed information at some point in the future.

There are a lot of resources to set you on your way with Office Live, but two of the best for me were Solutions For Office Live and Acxede.net. Below are some notes on how I got my site to look as it does:

The key features are:

• Custom header/navigation
• Custom CSS styling
• Custom footer with Google Analytics code built in
  

To allow you to implement the above, you need to enable the advanced design features in Office Live. To do this, log into your Office Live account, go to the Page Manager and click on Site Actions. Then choose to enable the advanced design features.

Custom header/navigation:
The standard Office Live navigation is a bit dull, and as I didn't have many links, I wanted something a bit bigger. I created a new page, and opted not to include the header, footer or navigation. This effectively gave me a blank page. The layout should be 3 zones, one on top of the other.

In the top zone, insert a customer navigation module. To do this, open your page in design mode, then click on the module button and choose Custom Navigation. You can either add the XSL code in the window, or create it in a Notepad file and upload it to your documents gallery. I opted for the latter so that I can simply change the one file in the future to change the header/navigation on all my pages in one go.

I created a custom XSL file to get me the layout that I wanted to display my photo (as a background) and my site title (which is my name), as well as my navigation structure. You can see the XSL file here.

Custom CSS styling
This ties into the customer header/navigation, as this provides the styling for the headers. The CSS is relatively uncomplicated, an simply puts my photo in as a background picture to the header, and sets the colour, size and font of the text in the header and navigation.

To get the "tab" effect in the navigation, I simply put a bottom border on all of the navigation links except the active link. The active link gets a border all round except on the bottom. This creates the "tab".

You can get my custom CSS file here.

Custom footer
The custom CSS file also styles the footer. To add a customer footer, go into the bottom zone of the page click on the module button and choose Custom Footer. As for the custom navigation, you can either add the XSL code in the window, or create it in a Notepad file and upload it to your documents gallery. Again, I opted for the latter so that I can simply change the one file in the future to change the footer on all my pages in one go. My XSL file also contains my Google Analytics code so that I can track the usage of the site. To find out how to do this, see the Solutions For Office Live tip.

Once your happy with the basic structure of your page, save it and go back to your page manager. With the advanced design features enabled, you can now save that page as a template to use for all your future pages.

Posted via web from Adam A Davidson

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I made it into the "Global Tech Leaders Top 100" and no one told me!

OK I admit, I found this while doing a "vanity search" (or "ego-surfing") for "adam davidson solicitor" on Google. Sad, I know but it did make me smile!! It's worth trying to do your own "vanity search"

 

Apparently "more than 2,000 global technologists whether law firms, vendor, press or consultants were polled and asked to recommend fellow industry thought leaders as their ‘most most highly respected’ choices" and I was one of those recommended that made it to the top 100. So that makes me a "thought leader", whatever that is!

 

I was recognised "For common sense and simplicity and use of Microsoft Office SharePoint". Couldn't have put it better myself!

 

Not sure when the top 100 was compiled but it looks like sometime in 2007. Here's the link to the document: http://www.citytechmag.com/graphics/globaltechleaderstop100.pdf

 

Actually, all joking apart, I'm quite chuffed to have made it to something like this, so if you were one of the 2000+ that mentioned me, thanks. There are some well known people in the list who really are leaders in the legal tech field, and I feel a bit of a fraud being listed alongside them (but I will take any recommendation I get!).

 

Must go and see what else the search throws up!

Posted via email from Adam A Davidson

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Sharepoint - adding a Google map to a contact's DispForm.aspx

We had an out of the box Sharepoint contacts list, containing the contact details of each member of the team. As we are a global team, spread across a number of locations, it seemed a good idea to add a map showing each person's location. Here's how we did it:

[Big hat tip to Christophe at PathToSharepoint for his 'Using calaculated columns to write html' trick.]

1. Create your contacts list on your Sharepoint site. For the purposes of these instructions, I'll assume the URL for your list is http://yourserver/sites/yoursite/lists/contacts.
2. Add a new column, called "Location" and make it a Choice type of column. Insert your options (e.g. "UK - London" and "US - New York"). Select "dropdown" as the available option. Click "OK".
3. Go to Google maps and put in the address of your first location, then click "Search maps".
4. Once your map has loaded, and you are happy with the zoom level etc, click on "Link" at the top right-hand corner of the map. Copy the code from the "Paste HTML to embed in website".
5. Start up Notepad (or similar) and paste the code from Google maps. Save the file as "[Location].html", replacing [Location] with the relevant dropdown option from you Location column in your contacts list (so if this is the map for your London office, and the relevant option in the dropdown for Location is "UK - London" then you should save you file as "UK - London.html".
6. Upload this html file to a document library on your Sharepoint site. For these purposes, I'll assume your document library is called "Maps" and has a URL of http://yourserver/sites/yoursite/maps.
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 for each location you want to add.
8. Once you've uploaded your HTML files, go back to your contacts list and add another column. Call it "Map" and make it a calculated column.
9. Add the following formula to the column:

="<DIV><iframe width='425' height='350' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' src='/sites/yoursite/maps/"&[Location]&".html'></iframe></DIV>"

10. Get Christophe's code from here and copy it to your clipboard. Paste it into a new Notepad file for the moment.
11. Go to http://yourserver/sites/yoursite/lists/contacts/DispForm.aspx?toolpaneview=2. This puts the display form of your Contacts into edit mode.
12. Add a Content Editor Web Part to the bottom of your page, and paste Christophe's code into the "Source Editor" of the CEWP.
13. Go back to your contacts list, click on "New" and then add some contact details, making sure you select a location from the Location field dropdown option.
14. Save your new contact details and then click on the surname you enter to view. If you've followed the instructions, you should see a fully functioning Google map on the page, showing the location you selected in the dropdown.

Once you've set up your list, it's easy to add an extra location:

1. Go to the setting of your list, and click on the "Locations" column.
2. Add a new location to you available options.
3. Get the Google map for your new location and upload it to Sharepoint as set out in steps 3 to 6 above.
4. That's it! The calculated column takes care of the rest.

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Using iTunes on windows XP with multiple accounts

If, like me, you use a Windows XP computer and each member of your family has an account for the computer, chances are you’ve got frustrated with iTunes and having to make sure you’re logged into the right account to sync your iPod, get your playlists etc. I found a good work-around on LifeHacker, which helped me get to the point where all the accounts on the XP machine share a single iTunes library. No doubt you could follow the principles here to get, say, a shared library for two users, with a third person using their own library.

The “quick” solution

Here’s what I did:

1. I logged into the computer with the account whose iTunes library I wanted to use as the default one.
2. I then opened up Windows Explorer, and browsed to My Documents > My Music >iTunes
3. Copy everything in that folder (except the iTunes Music folder) and move it to a new shared location. I’ve got a network storage drive, so I created a new folder in there and added everything to it. However, you could copy these files to a folder called (say) C:\iTunes.
4. Hold down the Shift key, then start iTunes (keeping the Shift key held down).
5. iTunes will ask if you want to use an existing library or create a new one.
6. Choose the option to use an existing library, and browse to wherever you put the files in step 3 above (e.g. C:\iTunes).
7. Double-click on the iTunes library file. iTunes will then open using that library file.
8. Check everything is OK, Close down iTunes and log off the computer as that user.
9. Log on as the other user that wants to share this library file. Repeat steps 4 to 8. Do this for each user that wants to share the same library file.

A bit more involved - Moving some music

It might also be worth consolidating your sound files into one place, as they may be spread across the “My Documents/My Music” folders of multiple users. If this is the case, look in C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Music for each user (other than the user whose library you are using as the default library for the other users). Move the contents of the iTunes Music folder to the iTunes Music folder of the user whose library you are using as the default library for the other users.

If you do this, make sure when you log in as each use that you go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced in iTunes, and set the user’s iTunes Music Folder location to be the iTunes Music folder of the user whose library you are using as the default library for the other users. This will mean that any music you add in the future will go into the right folder.

The most work – moving your music and rebuilding your library

I went one step further and moved all my music files to a network drive and pointed all of the users iTunes Music Folders to that location. While it does mean that I’ve got a single source of music I can access from multiple computers and multiple accounts on those computers, it did mean that I had to rebuild my iTunes library and all of my playlists. As I didn’t have huge amounts of music or too many playlists, it was worth doing. It’s up to you if you wan to go this bit further!

To go the whole hog, here’s how:

1. Work out where all your music files are, most likely in the My Documents/My Music folder of each person with an account on the computer.
2. Move the music files to a folder on your network drive called something like “Music”.
3. Repeat for each computer on your network.
4. Once you’ve got all your music together, it’s probably easiest to start with a clean iTunes library.
5. Hold down the Shift key, then start iTunes (keeping the Shift key held down).
6. iTunes will ask if you want to use an existing library or create a new one.
7. Choose the option to create a new library, and opt to save it on your network drive (in a folder called “iTunes Library”).
8. When iTunes opens, you will have nothing in your library. Click on File > Add Folder… and then browse to wherever you have stored your music on the network drive.
9. iTunes will then start to build the library from the music files. It may take a long time for iTunes to process the files.
10. Once you are happy with the library, go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced in iTunes, and set the user’s iTunes Music Folder location to be the “Music” folder you created on your network drive.
11. Close down iTunes and log off the computer as that user.
12. You’ll want to share this new library with other users on the computer. To do so, log on as the other user that wants to share this library file. Carry out steps 4 to 8 under “The “quick” solution” above. Also, follow step 10 above to set the user’s iTunes Music Folder to the right location. Do this for each user that wants to share the same library file.
13. You will need to repeat this process for each computer to ensure that it is using the “central” music store.

Conclusion

Whichever of the three options you chose, you will end up with a shared library and be able to sync your iPod to the library no matter which account you are logged into on the computer.

You’ll also be able to have your playlists and music available on any of the accounts. You can achieve this by using shared folders in iTunes, but it doesn’t help with syncing your iPod when logged into different accounts on your computer.

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Legal OnRamp and Social Networking

I had my first look at Legal OnRamp a couple of weeks ago, with a demonstration from its founder Paul Lippe, and was playing with it a bit more the other day. It looks really good and is a great way to connect with other lawyers and join the virtual groups that are available around different topics.

However, it got me thinking about all the other networking things that are on the go (both purely social and work-related) and I was wondering where we manage to find time to participate in these groups and also to do our work. Does one squeeze out the other, or does our leisure time get squeezed for our time spent "in the cloud" and at work. Also, will our "water-cooler" time at work get displaced by our cloud networking and participation? Do we risk losing physical connections in place of virtual ones?

Unfortunately I don't have any answers (if I did I would probably be quite rich!). I guess it is all about striking the right balance between work, virtual networking, physical networking and leisure time, and these activities needn't be mutually exclusive.

I'll post a bit more on Legal OnRamp once I've had more chances to explre it and see how it fits in with all the other stuff I have on the go.

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How to format calculated hyperlink fields

I have a number of lists where I want to put in a calculated link based on information the user adds in another column. For example, when the user enters a project number in the title field of a list, I wanted to create a link to the project document library. This was the easy part: just create a calculated field with the formula =CONCATENATE("http://example.com/",[Title]). However, the downside of this was that you see the whole URL in the new field and not just the project number as a link. This can be pretty ugly if you have a long URL.

I've looked before for the answer but never got there. However, Christophe at PathToSharepoint.com has provided the answer. You can find it at http://pathtosharepoint.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/how-to-open-hyperlinks-in-a-new-window-or-not/. This not only shows you how to solve the problem above but also how to open links in a new window (or not) at your choice! Fantastic stuff.

I've tested it in Sharepoint 2003 (WSS) and it works well, although you need to create a web part page to view your list on in order to get this to work as SP2003 does not allow you to add the content editor web part to view pages within lists (unlike SP2007).

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