Lydon Solutions

Construction Project Management Software Solutions

Microsoft SharePoint

Filter your SharePoint view to show documents requiring your action

Tips from the Field |

Learn how to configure your SharePoint view to show items you created or that require your review

SharePoint makes it easy to configure a view to see the items you need.  You can set one or more filter parameters when you create or edit a view. This comes in handy when you need to see just the documents you created or modified – or items requiring action by you.

The best part is that once you understand how to a configure a view, most apps across SharePoint (e.g. lists, libraries, etc.) behave the exact same way.

Scenario 1:  Show only your documents

The SharePoint document library can be a crowded place if you are part of a big team. But SharePoint has a quick out-of-the-box filter to create a view showing only your own documents. Here’s how:

  1. Select a list or library
  2. Click “Create” and select “Standard View”
  3. Scroll down to the “Filter Options” in the View Menu
  4. Select “Show items only when the following is true”
  5. Under “Show the items when column,” select following options from the dropdown box:
    • the field you want to filter (e.g. “Created By” or “Modified By”)
    • the “is equal to” condition
  6. Enter “[Me]”) in the filter criteria box
  7. Click “OK” at the bottom of the screen to create the view

Scenario 2: Show items requiring your review

Maybe your team wants to implement a document review process. In this case, it would be helpful to have a view showing documents where you are a reviewer. SharePoint makes it simple to do this.

First you will need to have a column to track reviewers:

(Your SharePoint administrator may need to help you with these steps)

1.       Add a Column called “Reviewer” to your SharePoint List or Library.

2.       Under “The type of information in this column is,” select “Person or Group”

3.        Go down to the “Additional Column Settings” section. Under “Show field,” select  “Name (with presence)”

You now have a new column called “Reviewers.” Make sure that when items are added to the List or Library, this field is populated with a name.

Follow the steps above in Scenario 1 to configure a new view, but use “Reviewer” as the filter instead of “Created By” or “Modified By.”

Scenario 3:  Show all items requiring review

Here is a variation on Scenario 2. Maybe you need to see all the documents or items that are pending review from everyone on your team. A status field column would be helpful here.

Once again, you may need your SharePoint administrator’s help depending on your user permissions.

1.       Create a new Column called “Status”

2.       For “The type of information in this column is,” select “Choice (menu to choose from)”

3.       Type each status choice in the box below.

4.       Under “Default Value,” select the appropriate status. For example, “Open.”

Make sure all new Documents or Items added to the List or Library have the new Status field populated.

Now you can group the Documents or Items by their status (e.g. Open, For Review, and Reviewed) by selecting the “Group By” option when creating or editing a view.

That’s it. You now have a new view showing all your documents and list items by Status where you are the Reviewer.

SharePoint has many other view options that you can access in same way to create custom filtered views. You can also edit existing views to customize what they display.

Want more tips and tricks for construction project management professionals?

Our new Tips from the Field series features handy information for construction project managers. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest tips and tricks delivered directly your inbox each month.

And if you are an Excel user, be sure to check out last month’s installment to learn how to export your project data from SharePoint to Excel and keep it automatically up-to-date!

Visio and PowerPivot Services for SharePoint – The One Two Punch

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Find out how Microsoft SharePoint combined with the “one-two punch” of Visio and Excel can supercharge your construction project management process.

Sam Elachkar, SharePoint Lead at Lydon Solutions, originally presented ‘Visio Services and PowerPivot Services for SharePoint – The One Two Punch’ at the AACE 2016 Western Winter Workshop.

Folders vs. Columns in SharePoint

Tips from the Field |

What is the best way to organize your documents in SharePoint: folders or columns? This is a question we get from our construction industry clients all the time. The answer? It depends on your business use case – and your goals. Below are some questions to ask yourself when deciding which organizational method to use.

We discussed the three ways documents can be organized in SharePoint in our previous blog post. Now we tackle what approach (or combination of approaches) is best for your organization.

So folders or columns? It all depends on your business requirements and what you want to accomplish.

When to organize documents by folders in SharePoint

Using folders makes sense when most of the following apply to your use case:

  • You need permission controls – Folders are great for managing permissions within a document library.  You can assign permissions by individual folders. You can create folders for each permission group instead of creating multiple document libraries for every user/permission group.
  • You are primarily storing temporary documents – Folders work well for working documents. These types of files typically don’t need rigid organization or robust query, filter, and search capabilities. Users can just drop documents in folders for temporary storage and collaboration.
  • Only basic document organization is needed –  Folders make sense if you only need to sort documents by filename, who created or last updated it, and when.
  • User adoption is a concern – Using folders makes it easier for users. Let’s face it, whatever is easiest for user adoption is often the best solution.  When your users become more familiar with SharePoint – or their requirements expand – columns or meta data can be introduced.

Additional considerations

Here are a couple other things to keep in mind if you decide to use folders for organization in SharePoint:

  • Form libraries may have special requirements –  Folders are treated like a record by SharePoint. If you plan to implement InfoPath forms with a custom numbering scheme, make sure you take into account your folder names.
  • Folders can make for long URLs – Each folder and subfolder will add to a document’s URL. A long URL can impact connections and linking to documents.

When to organize documents by columns or managed meta data in SharePoint

You would be better off implementing columns or managed meta data when you have the following requirements:

  • Your users will make frequent folder name changes – If your users are constantly changing and reorganizing folders and their contents, columns or managed meta data are your best option.
  • You have a complex organizational hierarchy for your documents – It is hard enough to remember where you place files on your own local drive let alone a shared SharePoint document library.  Multiple levels of folders make data harder to find. Also, each folder level adds to the length of the URL, which can create problems down the road. Columns and managed meta data make the most sense when your organizational needs are complex.
  • You need advanced filtering, sorting and search – Custom columns in SharePoint give you lots of control to organize and filter documents. Columns and managed meta data also allow more powerful search. So go with columns or managed meta data over folders if detailed sifting of your documents is a critical need.

Getting Document Organization Right for Your Business

So there really is no easy answer to the folders vs. columns question. Every organization – and often each team or department – will have different requirements.

The good news is that SharePoint is flexible. You can take one approach for certain documents, and another for other kinds of data. You can mix and match approaches.

A well-thought out and professionally implemented SharePoint document architecture can increase your organization’s efficiency and reduce costs.

Want to explore a document storage approach in SharePoint that is right for you?

Contact us for a free consultation.

3 Ways to Organize Your Documents in SharePoint

Tips from the Field |

What is the best way to organize your documents in SharePoint? There are three approaches: folders, columns and managed meta data. You can also combine approaches. Below we share the pros and cons of each.

Microsoft SharePoint is very flexible when it comes to organizing documents. You can organize documents with folders. You can let users tag documents with user defined columns. You can create a managed hierarchy of metadata for users to select from when uploading documents. Or you can use a combined approach.

It is important to understand the benefits and limitations of each approach before deciding which is right for your use case.

Approaches to Organizing Documents in SharePoint

1) Organizing Documents in Folders

Most organizations primarily use folders in Document Libraries to store documents.

Organizing by folders is popular because it builds on the familiar. File folders are based on the way paper documents used to be stored in file cabinets. Folders also mirror a typical shared drive. So users find this approach intuitive and easy.

One downside of folders is upkeep. Documents have to be moved from one folder to another to be re-classified. The organization scheme of several levels of folders can be confusing. Documents can get misfiled in incorrect or redundant folders over time.

2) Organizing Documents with Columns

A second organizational approach makes use of columns to sort documents.

This approach is implemented by creating SharePoint columns in Document Libraries. Columns of various types can be added easily. The columns are then applied to each document at upload.

Columns make it simple for users to filter, sort and organize content. Documents can be re-organized by editing the columns. There is no need to physically move documents in order to re-classify based on columns.

There are a couple considerations that limit the utility of columns by themselves. First, they do not provide permission control like folders. But you can use a third-party tool if permissions are a requirement.  Second, the organization of documents can get messy over time with redundant or unnecessary columns added by users. You can mitigate this by instituting site columns or content types site across your sites or collections .

Combining Columns and Folders:

Columns and folders can also be combined for a hybrid approach. Folders enable permissions control – a key requirement for many use cases. The use of columns helps with filtering, sorting and searching.

This hybrid model is often preferable to only using folders for organization. But it still has some of the drawbacks listed above for folders and columns.

3) Organizing Documents with Managed Meta Data

A third approach organizes documents using a centrally managed set of terms in the SharePoint term store.

This approach relates documents to keywords like the column approach above. The distinction is that users cannot create their own meta data unless they are given access to the term store. All organizational terms are managed by the administrator and can be utilized across sites and collections.

The managed meta data, or taxonomy, approach therefore requires a more structured document organization model. An organizational hierarchy must be created in advance and maintained over time. These terms become the choices available as meta data columns in your content libraries when users upload documents.

The big advantages of this approach are 1) more robust filtering and searching, 2) standardization across all of your content and 3) centralized management of terms.

Managed meta data also enables SharePoint Drop Off Libraries.  A Drop Off Library allows users to upload documents in a single library.  Documents are then routed to a specific location based on rules, simplifying the upload process for the end user.

Managed meta data can also be used for navigation across sites and collections and as keywords to aid in search refiners.

But there are some downsides. There is significant work involved maintaining a managed meta data hierarchy. Users must learn the rigorous document management controls involved with this approach. Finally, some content types in SharePoint do not play nice with meta data.  So it is important to consider what types of content will be used as a first step.

Bottom line: most organizations would not use the managed meta data approach without a strong use case justification.

Combining Columns, Folders, and Managed Meta data:

You could combine columns, folders and managed meta data for a hybrid approach. This would give you the permission capabilities of folders, the search and sorting of columns, and the structured classification of all your documents using managed meta data.

So Which Approach Should You Use?

Each of the above organizational approaches is appropriate for certain use cases. This is why gathering requirements to understand your document management needs is an essential first step.

Our next blog post will discuss document organization in relation to common requirements in the construction industry. Be sure to check back for tips on picking the right document organization approach for you.

Want to learn more about the powerful document management features of our award-winning Construction Program Management Portal powered by SharePoint?

Contact us for a free consultation.

 

Export to Excel – Tips from the Field

Tips from the Field |

Learn how to export your project data from SharePoint to Excel and keep it automatically up-to-date in this installment of Tips from the Field.

You and your project team probably share Excel lists and forms all the time as email attachments. But hunting out attachments in your inbox is a pain. And you never can be sure everyone is seeing the latest version.

Here’s a way to stop drowning in email attachments.

Use SharePoint to export a list or form to Excel and share it with your team for reporting or analysis. The spreadsheet now automatically has a connection back to SharePoint. This means that users can easily see the latest data from Excel with a simple click. Read on to see how it works.

Export to Excel from SharePoint

First, use the Export to Excel function in SharePoint. Here’s how:

1.       Select an item in a SharePoint List

2.        Click on the Library tab and then select Export to Excel in the Ribbon

3.       A New Workbook will be created in Excel. You can save the spreadsheet and share the file with your team.

Keep your spreadsheet up-to-date

The added value of the Export to Excel function is that the spreadsheet maintains the connection back to SharePoint. A user can simply refresh the data connection in Excel and all of the SharePoint List data will be updated automatically with the latest data.

Here’s how:

  1. Open the spreadsheet in Excel.
  2. Go to the DATA tab in the ribbon.
  3. Click Refresh All to update the spreadsheet with all the latest data from SharePoint.

Want more tips and tricks for construction project management professionals?

Our new Tips from the Field series will feature handy information for construction project managers.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest tips and tricks delivered directly your inbox.

What’s New in SharePoint 2016

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Here’s what construction professionals need to know about the latest features in SharePoint 2016.

Microsoft just announced the Release Candidate (RC) version of SharePoint 2016. Below is a preview of a few of the cool new features now available in the latest version of the SharePoint platform.

Ready for on-premises, cloud or hybrid environments 

SharePoint 2016 continues Microsoft’s “mobile first, cloud first” strategy. The platform is chock full of powerful enhancements for cloud and mobile users.

But not everyone is ready to embrace the cloud for compliance or security reasons. This is something we know is true for many of our clients in the construction industry.

Good news. SharePoint 2016 remains a viable option for on-premises environments.

As more and more features are added to SharePoint online, many companies will find moving the Cloud irresistible.

That’s OK. SharePoint 2016’s hybrid model provides a ‘bridge’ between on-premises and cloud environments. This is ideal for organizations that aren’t ready to embrace the cloud just yet, but don’t want to be left behind.

Instead of bringing organizations up to the Cloud, the hybrid approach brings the Cloud down to the organization. We’re already seeing a lot of excitement among the companies we work with for this option.

Best New Features in SharePoint 2016 

Here is a quick rundown of a few of the major new features available in SharePoint 2016:

  • Large File Support – The old SharePoint limit of 2GB files is no more. SharePoint 2016 now allows uploads of files up to 10GB in size.
  • Improved File Sharing – SharePoint 2016 includes UX enhancements for creating and sharing folders. Site members can now share folders.  Seeing who has access to a folder is easier. And the email process for sharing is also streamlined. Share invitations and requests for access can be approved or denied via emails using a single-click.
  • Image and Video Previews – Clicking or hovering over a media file automatically generates a preview in the document library.
  • Extended Filename Support – File names can include special characters, leading dots and GUIDs and are no longer limited to 128 characters.
  • Site Page Pinning – Users can pin sites they access often on their sites page. When a user follows a site (either online or on-premises) they get pinned in the same place.
  • Simpler OneDrive for Business Controls –  Users can perform common tasks (e.g. creating new Office documents or synchronizing, uploading, or sharing files) with a single click in OneDrive for Business.
  • More Powerful Search – Search can index up to 500,000,000 items per Search Server Application.
  • Site Folders View –  Users can directly access document libraries in sites they are following from within OneDrive for Business.
  • Document Library Access –  It is now even easier to move around a site with improved keyboard shortcuts, page landmarks and navigation links.
  • Expanded Scalability –  Content databases can store up to 100,000 site collections.
  • Web Application Open Platform Interface Protocol (WOPI) –  Users can create, rename and share files from within the WOPI iframe on the browser page.
  • 5000 Item List View Threshold – Indexed columns ensure that large lists no longer cause issues.

You can read more about the SharePoint Server 2016 release candidate on the Microsoft Office Blog.

Learn About SharePoint 2016 for Your Organization

Ready to deploy a complete SharePoint PMIS solution for your project team? Contact us for a Free Consultation.

You can also learn more about our Construction Program Management Portal built here.