Microsoft | SharePoint Root

Quick Tips to Add People Cards for SharePoint List and Library Web Parts

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020Albert AmosLeave a comment

Web parts are building blocks of your home page. SharePoint allows you to upgrade your home page from the classic view to the modern view. It also lets you customize the web parts to make the interface user-friendly. You can add images, videos, texts, and dynamic content on your web parts to make them attractive.

Adding people cards

When you get the responsibility to lead a team, you may have various questions in mind, such as who is on your team, what tasks are they responsible for, how should you contact them, and what the skill-sets of your team members are. Adding people cards on your SharePoint list will answer these questions as your team members can fill out the details and share the same list with you.

• Click on edit on your SharePoint list. You will notice a “+” sign circled on the existing web part.
• Click the “+” sign and then go to People.
• You can edit the title of this web part by clicking on People Profiles.
• Enter the name of one of your team members. Once the name appears on the profile list, you can click on Add Profile.
• Follow the same steps to add profile cards of other team members.

You can choose to see the detailed or compact view of each card. The detailed view shows the picture of the team member, his/her name and email address, and title if any. The compact view, on the other hand, only shows the picture of the team member and his/her name and email address.

Adding library web parts

Remember, the steps to add the web parts mentioned below don’t apply to the classic pages. Make sure the library is on the modern view to make the changes.

• Go to the library page in which you want to insert the web part.
• You can find your library page on the Quick Launch bar in Site Contents.
• Click on Edit on the top-right of this page.
• You will see a circled “+” sign. Click on it to find the web part you want to add. It will open a search box containing options like embed, highlighted content, link, file viewer, image, and text. You can expand each category to see the details of each web part.

You can also move or remove the web parts according to your preference.

• On the Edit page, select the Move Web Part icon and drag the web part you want to move. Put it anywhere on the page you want.

• If you want to delete any web part, click on Delete Web Part. It will open a box where you can check the boxes of the web parts you want to delete.

The document library web part displays all the lists in your library. You can customize its title and even resize it if you want. It is possible to view and edit files on the library directly from their web parts. Alternatively, you can view the full document library to make the necessary changes.

For more articles on SharePoint features and updates, visit eswcompany.com

Microsoft Flow Adds Rich Text Features

January 3, 2019January 4, 2019Albert AmosLeave a comment

Microsoft Flow has become a favorite app of people wanting to improve their communication and work flow but there was one glaring fault. When you sent emails they from Flow they could only be in simple text. You could not give your email the emphasis and impact you wanted.

Microsoft has just added a rich text feature to Microsoft Flow, along with several other features, to give you more control of what your emails look like. The new feature adds an HTML text editor to Flow giving you the ability to create HTML emails directly in Flow.

The new editor allows you to change fonts, vary the font colors, highlight text with color, and create lists. Additionally, you can italicize, underline, and make your fonts bold.

Why is this so important?

Being able to emphasize points using different colors, fonts, and features lets you communicate your message more clearly. It eliminates the reader from guessing what points are the most critical in your message, because you can make sure they see exactly what you consider important. It gives you the ability to add visual emotion to your emails.

At this time, you cannot build tables in your emails, but Microsoft promises this feature will be released in the future.

The rich text editor is now only available in the email connector for Flow, but it will be added to connectors for OneNote, Microsoft Teams, and for posting stories directly to Medium and WordPress sites. Anyone who uses Microsoft products in their office will appreciate the ability to get more work done through Flow instead of bouncing out to Medium and or their WordPress sites just to post a story to get control of the look and feel.

Microsoft also announced new connectors for Microsoft Flow on the same day they announced the new rich text feature. The new connectors include the following:

Imprezian360 – A suite of applications which works with Quickbooks Desktop Editions to add sales leads management, order management, and inventory features.
Soft1 – This connector allows Microsoft Flow to communicate with Soft1 ERP systems. (Enterprise Resource Planning systems.)
Zahara – The paperless system for invoices and purchase order in the Zahara Purchase Management Platform.
Encodian – Which adds document management and PDF creation systems to Office 365 and other applications.

These connectors expand the ability of Flow to work in more corporations. As Microsoft continues to add connectors the importance of the rich text feature expands. Many applications allow for creating HTML content for improved appearance which Flow has not offered in the past.

What else does the rich text editor add for you? It gives you the ability to create HTML links in your emails. This was a major shortcoming in the past. We constantly send links to clients and co-workers, so they can review content for projects. You can select whether the links will open in the current window or open a new window, which is usually preferred.

Flow has received wide acceptance in the corporate and educational worlds where these features are very important. Teachers routinely contact parents with information on their students which require emphasis and may link to online student reports. Being able to create these messages directly in Flow instead of switching back to Outlook increases efficiency.

The corporate world appreciates the linking ability, too. Corporations have both their public websites and their intranet sites which they routinely link to. The new feature allows users to quickly link to internet sites, or internal pages on the company’s private intranet.

Imagine the quality of content you will be able to create on the fly with the new editor. You can create messages with the power to convince instead of just to inform. With the addition of tables in the near future, you will be able to convey almost any message you wish inside of Microsoft Flow.

Just imagine, you are working in Dynamics 365 Enterprise Sales, you receive an important notification about a client in Flow. Without leaving what you are in the middle of doing, you can type up a full-featured message in Flow and send it off in seconds instead of moving to a different application.

Start thinking of all the places this will become valuable. You may have connectors already setup for your WordPress site, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and SharePoint. You could receive a notification from any of these connectors or need to post content to any of these platforms. With the rich text HTML editor, you will be able to create messages these platforms will understand. While the Flow rich text feature does not work universally at this time, it is good to see Microsoft expanding its capability to prepare for the future.

Keep watching for future announcements of when Microsoft extends the rich text feature to include tables and other connectors along with other new features.

6 Fantastic Features of SharePoint Document Libraries

November 25, 2018August 21, 2018Albert AmosLeave a comment

Think of SharePoint document libraries as folders on steroids. These handy libraries allow end-users to keep their workspace organized and uncluttered while focusing on the work at hand. Of course, document libraries on SharePoint have loads of benefits and features. We have however singled out a couple of our favorites.

#1 Offline Syncing

End-users don’t have to worry about making changes or working while not connected. The offline syncing feature allows you to work while offline and sync via the OneDrive app. Whether you are using your tablet, phone or laptop, you can rest assured that as soon as you are connected, everything will be updated and synced. Easy-peasy.

#2 Metadata

Metadata allows end-users to customize their libraries to suit their thinking and needs. That’s right, no matter how you name a file or folder, inserting metadata will enable you to find files and folders in a cinch. Files are categorized in any way you please yet won’t get lost. Colleagues will easily be able to find whatever you are working on.

#3 Version History

A lot of end-users have probably encountered a moment where they wanted to go back to a previous version but simply couldn’t. With SharePoint document libraries you can go back to previous versions of the same document if you’ve stuffed it up and start from the beginning. You can also delete document versions that are outdated and revert to the original version of the document.

#4 Teams, Groups and Yammer

All of the abovementioned applications have the option to save and share files, right? Here’s something neat though. These file folders are hosted in a SharePoint site specifically for those applications. Neat, right? You might not be able to access it in the app itself, but you will be able to find it in the library in SharePoint.

#5 Alerts

It would be kind of pointless having a collaborative content managing system where you don’t know what’s happened on a document or file you are involved with. That’s why you have alerts. Alerts can be set up in SharePoint’s document libraries. You’ll get a notification via email whenever there’s a new change or comment made on one of the documents or files you have been working on. How’s that for efficiency?

#6 Co-Authoring

Do you remember the days when you couldn’t access a document or file because someone else had it open? It makes getting things done difficult. The co-authoring feature of document libraries allows users to work on a file or document simultaneously while saving all the changes as you work. This makes collaborating and reviewing a whole lot easier. And you are also able to setup restrictions if you don’t want someone else editing a specific file too.

Whatever version of Microsoft SharePoint your corporation is using, you’ll benefit from using at least some of the features we’ve listed here. Working efficiently has never been so easy or so much fun while collaborating with colleagues and other stakeholders. Which is your favorite SharePoint document library feature?

Make the Most of Your SharePoint Experience with These 4 Hacks

August 16, 2018August 21, 2018Albert AmosLeave a comment

Are you a SharePoint developer who constantly struggle with unhappy end-users? It might take some time and effort, but customizing SharePoint to ensure your end-users are happy sure is worth it. By implementing at least one of our four top SharePoint hacks, you’ll be making the lives of end-users and your own much easier.

Are you ready to discover some handy hacks that will result in a sense of gratitude and a platform that kicks ass? Let’s get started!

1. Microsoft Office Integration is Key

You can simplify everything once you integrate and synchronize Microsoft Office with SharePoint. End-users will appreciate the fact that they’ll be able to access the intranet straight from their desktops. Just make sure that client integration is activated. How to do it? Simply follow these steps:

Navigate to SharePoint Central Administration.
Select the Application Management tab.
Next, go to Application Security and click on Authentication Providers.
Select the default option.
Select ‘Yes’ underneath Client Integration to enable it.

2. Item-level Security for Document Libraries is Important

Did you know that list items can have varying security levels? This is great when you don’t want everyone to be able to make changes or remove data on a specific item. Even though applying the same customization to document libraries is a bit difficult, it is possible.

Keeping stock of who has authorization or the ability to access certain things is key in end-user satisfaction.

3. You Have to Configure PDF IFilter

It sucks that SharePoint search engines do not use index pdf files, right? Well, what if we told you that there is a way to hack this? You’d probably do a little happy dance on the spot. Simply install the pdf IFilter from Adobe and install the icon. This should solve the problem and ensure all pdf files come up in search.

4. Install All SharePoint Templates Straight Away

We know, end-users can be a bit of a pain. They always want to know whether it wouldn’t be possible to do this or that or change this to that. If you are savvy you can spare yourself a lot of heartache and running around. SharePoint has loads of handy templates all ready to use.

So, before you try to customize SharePoint completely, have a look at all their templates and grab the ones that can be of benefit to your end-users!

As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat! We hope that our top four SharePoint hacks will get those nagging end-users off your back and smiling.

4 Key SharePoint Features We Love

July 2, 2018August 21, 2018Albert AmosLeave a comment

It’s no secret that SharePoint is the wunderkind of collaboration suites today. The majority of larger corporation swear by using Microsoft SharePoint to manage projects and increase productivity. We are of course also lovers of this tool, and we can single out four key features that is amazing.

1. SharePoint Lists

This feature allows users to work in an uncluttered and efficiently managed way. Teams can manage their tasks and project information easily by using the wonder of SharePoint lists. Keep track of current jobs, edit and collaborate with this key feature of Microsoft SharePoint. Here’s how to get started:

Navigate to ‘Get started with your site’
Click on the ‘Add lists, libraries and other apps’ button

2. SharePoint Workflows

Workflows are perfect for managing projects and clients and can be compared to traditional flowcharts. It keeps the work space tidy and team members geared to meeting deliverables. What’s more is SharePoint also provides a bunch of templates that can be set-up in-house or even customized. There are several roles and not everyone will be able to edit workflows:

Participant: A Team member who is responsible for completing a task on workflow
Creator: The team member responsible for managing the project
Initiator: A team member who can add a new task or list to the workflow
Author: A team member who is responsible for configuring the workflow

3. SharePoint Libraries

What we love most about SharePoint libraries is the fact that it allows all team members to collaborate, edit and add files and folders. Utilizing libraries will also increase the search and analysis functionalities. SharePoint provides preconfigured library apps, making our lives a whole lot easier!

4. SharePoint Project Sites

Project Sites on SharePoint acts as a key component that facilitates and supports work management. This is by far the easiest and best way to collaborate and manage small-medium sized projects and tasks. SharePoint Sites consists of multiple components to ensure workflow is efficient:

Task Management
Calendar
Project Summary
Document Library
Task List

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as projects that are running smoothly and teams that can collaborate without a hassle. These features are but a few of our favorites and helps streamlining the workflow. What’s your favorite feature?