I’ve published to TechNET UK an article concerning the use of some great Microsoft Word functionality called Research. This provides individuals with the ability to customize options to suit their research needs. This feature can be used to expose SharePoint search, meaning that individuals can locate information they have access to on SharePoint within Microsoft Office Word, without having to go to the SharePoint site.
To read the summarised blog go here.
A full article is here
Enjoy !
The awesome news is that Office365 for Education is FREE!!!
This product ncludes Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online and Office Web Apps. The Office 365 Exchange Online component is basically the same as Live@edu’s Outlook Live, so transferring from one to the other should be fairly straightforward.
This makes things easier for Universities to provide access to their students and provides them with a major benefit in the provision of course material.
Go check out this article for more information:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/2012/jun12/06-27Office365.aspx?mtag=soc_tw
Just back from holidays and back into the throes of things – checking my mails find one from a client stating they want to migrate some of their in-premise SharePoint to SharePoint online.
To give this more of a scenario, here goes. The client is using SharePoint in-premise with Microsoft Office tools. Being a research body they write lots of papers and publish these on their in-premise SharePoint. They now need to make some of the documents public and wish to maintain them on their Office365 site. They are ultra-keen on ensuring that the key features of Microsoft Office are available to their SharePoint online site. One of those is the Research option.
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This article describes the Office365 offering as a question / answer format. This is particularly useful when explaining exactly what Office365 is, what it entails, the costs and benefits.
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There’s a nifty free eBook covering the use of Office365 now available. As per the blog from Rosemary Caperton here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2011/08/17/free-ebook-microsoft-office-365-connect-and-collaborate-virtually-anywhere-anytime.aspx
“This book shows you how you can use cloud computing—and specifically, Office 365—to get more done, collaborate more easily, and work more flexibly than you ever have before. From the necessary how-tos about creating and administering your Office 365 account and working with the various Office 365 programs to sharing files with your team, creating a team site, using Office Web Apps, and holding online meetings, you’ll discover how easy it is to work online and off, accessing and sharing your files whenever you need to. After you learn about each of the core programs, you can try strategies for building successful teams, and get some good ideas on practical ways you can put all this cloud power to work.”
For those into Office365 SharePoint (like me!) there is a good section on Public Websites in chapter 12 of the eBook. Aimed at those new to SharePoint and website design, it covers themes, header styles, adding and formatting test, images, pages, and ‘gadgets’. So if you want to get your Office365 users starting to use the platform this is a good start to getting them to understand how to use Office365
Go to the link above to learn more and to download the eBook.
Ok, so I have been working with several clients who are ‘interested’ in Office 365, particularly from a SharePoint perspective. During demonstrations of the platform with them, and through my own use I’ve come across several issues. So I’ve of course raised tickets with MS support and submitted discussion threads to cover, and the helpdesk are very fast to respond. However, some of the issues I am mentioning in this blog I would consider serious; and most relate to the SharePoint public facing site collection.
I’ve decided to list them here as I come across them. Please note, there have been some indicated third party fixes for some of these, however, I have not put them in unless anyone can confirm they work 100% of the time!
- Content and Structure. This is a vital component allowing the movement of repository content. There is a fault with this component, and it will not work. From my understanding there appears to be no planned fix date. This is worrying because without this feature it will be difficult for users to restructure site content? Even a workaround is going to be perceived as unacceptable (if they already use SharePoint).
- SharePoint Blog site and the Anonymous Authentication. If you have a public facing SharePoint site with a SharePoint blog sub-site anonymous users will not be able to read your blogs and instead are asked to authenticate. This means that in order to read a blog on a public SharePoint site you must sign into Microsoft online first?
- Visibility of a Public facing SharePoint site using IPhone and Win7 and I think Android. If you attempt to access a public facing SharePoint site using your mobile you will not be able to view it on the mobile’s browser and instead diverts to the Microsoft online login. Surely a key aspect to the success of companies public facing SharePoint site is the ability to access it from a mobile device?
- Can’t reallocate a second site collection as default
- No navigation from SharePoint site collection back to other Office 365 services
- My profile photo wont display on site collection person details
- Once site collection is set up, site collection admin rights appear to vanish
- Can’t disable a user account in Office 365, only change password or delete
- In Lync, pinning a person to recent contacts appears to have bugs by way of presence
- How on earth do you federate Lync with other Office 365 companies?
If you have anymore, please feel free to comment on them. Please note I am not representing Microsoft here, but, at least I can use this as an avenue to pass likewise issues directly to them concerning SharePoint Office365…. More blogs to follow!
06/09/11: Updated: SharePoint Blog Site and the Anonymous Authentication – update from MS Support -> Design “Change Request has been submitted to the Operations Team for this issue and we have added your Service Request information to it. Anonymous blog access has been a known global issue and Operations will be working for a Community Solution in the future. Unfortunately, there is no estimated time of arrival for a solution.”
