Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content

Resource Centre

:

Tips, Tricks and Best Practices :Advanced Users OnlyUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).Open MenuOpen Menu

Gotcha's, tips, tricks, best practices for various out of box features on SharePoint for beginners, with some help for new server administrators
IDUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
DescriptionUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
Details
Experience LevelUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
SharePoint FeatureUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
SharePoint VersionUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
Item TypeUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
21
  
You can't do any vertical sums on calculated fields in your views.  Keep this in mind when using lists to do budgets.
AdvancedListsVersion AgnosticTrick
26
  
When you create a great list or library, (or site for that matter), don't reinvent the wheel every time, save it as a template and re-use it.  (You need to be a Site Collection Administrator to do this).
You can't save a Publishing site as a template, you need special coding to do this.
Sites need to be smaller than 10MB in order to save them as a template.  Save without content to achieve this.
AdvancedGeneral2007 AllTip
28
  
Be careful resizing web parts as they may not print properly when printing the screen. 
AdvancedWeb Parts2007 AllTip
31
  
First analyse what documents will be uploaded in order to determine what documents libraries need to be created – don’t recreate file server on SharePoint, you need to think of your data in different ways now.  Keep old, static, large documents on the file server, it will save you space on the SharePoint server which is usually capped. 
Proper file share analysis takes a lot of practice and experience.  Call in help.
AdvancedDocument LibrariesVersion AgnosticBest Practice
33
  
Use Manage Content and Structure to delete multiple sites.  But be careful!!!  Deleted sites do not go to the Recycle Bin, they will need to be restored by IT!  Make sure you know what you are doing.
AdvancedGeneral2007 AllTip
35
  
Be careful activating and deactivating Publishing Features.  If you are using publishing workflow features, you will delete them all and not be able to recover them.  It is helpful to activate Publishing features though, because the Navigation control and Manage Content and Structure become available for team sites, and these controls are used daily, and especially when you need to do bulk check-Ins.
AdvancedTechnical2007 AllTrick
44
  
Start a SharePoint evangelism site - add surveys, training material, what SharePoint is, how it works in your organisation, how to request a site, etc. 
AdvancedUser AdoptionVersion AgnosticBest Practice
45
  
Start a monthly internal user group and invite all the  Site Collection Administrators and Site Owners.  Showcase cool team sites, demo a web part, host a Knowledge Cafe, etc.  Share how you solved certain challenges.
Get your users involved - ask their opinion, ask how they are doing.  Include them in governance issues.  SharePoint is designed to empower business users after all.
AdvancedUser AdoptionVersion AgnosticTip
50
  
To re-add closed web parts, go to Edit Page – Add Web Part – Advanced – Closed Web Parts.  (But if delete them in SharePoint Designer they will be permanently removed).
AdvancedWeb Parts2007 AllTrick
52
  
The Content Query Web Part (CQWP) allows you to display documents; announcements etc from various sites and display them all in one place. End users can set them up, but to make them pretty you'll need a developer. 
AdvancedWeb PartsVersion AgnosticTrick
55
  
Check what the company standard screen resolution is.  If you have a wide screen but all your users are on 800x600, they will need to scroll left and right to see information – not best practices. Take this into consideration if you are populating a site that all your users will see.  The latest default size is 1024x768.
AdvancedSite DesignVersion AgnosticBest Practice
68
  
Workflow associations are lost after 2 months.  What this means, is in your document library, you will only be able to view the “Approved” field for 2 months.   If your projects are subject to audits, this could be a problem.  Discuss solutions with your IT department.
AdvancedWorkflow2007 AllTrick
69
  
If you are still using subfolders, be aware that if you move documents between folders or libraries after you have created workflow for them, you will lose all the settings and any approvals already completed.  Decide on workflow folders from the start.
AdvancedWorkflow2007 AllTrick
70
  
Workflow does not migrate.  If you build it in Dev or QA environments, you will need to rebuild it on the Production environment.
Workflow designed in SharePoint Designer is not re-usable, it is tied to a specific list.
AdvancedWorkflow2007 AllTrick
71
  
If you forget to click the ‘start workflow on new item or when an item changes’ option on the first screen, your workflows will not initiate.
When starting workflow and selecting the Approver, make sure the name has displayed properly before clicking the next block or the name will disappear.   If you go to the message block too quickly, the name doesn’t display.  Be patient.
AdvancedWorkflow2007 AllTrick
74
  
If you don’t have a Navigation option under Site Actions – Site Settings, it means the Publishing Features have not been activated, get your Administrator to activate them.  You will only see Quick Launch which gives limited editing options.  You will use Navigation just about every day as a Site Owner or Site Collection Administrator.  (Not available on WSS versions).
AdvancedNavigationVersion AgnosticTrick
78
  
If while you're editing in Navigation and you click save you get a message that says "this site has been modified by another user" and the ID it displays is yours - it means your Quick Launch has become corrupted.  It needs to be fixed in SharePoint Designer, (carefully).
AdvancedNavigationVersion AgnosticTrick
79
  
SharePoint Designer is a developers tool - not an end user tool!!  Do not use it to build your SharePoint site from scratch.  Build SharePoint using SharePoint.  Do not go on SPD training unless you are a developer or IT Pro.  It is not designed for business end users.
DO NOT build your whole site from scratch in SharePoint Designer and try and relink it to the rest of the collection.  You will not understand what you are doing and end up breaking it and removing your site from the default navigation, (unghost it).  Sites like this are difficult to fix and you will have to delete them and start again.
AdvancedSharePoint DesignerVersion AgnosticBest Practice
80
  
DO NOT edit the default.master page before making a copy of it.  Only edit the copy so you can revert back to the master if you mess it up.
AdvancedSharePoint DesignerVersion AgnosticBest Practice
81
  
Do not edit the core.css files unless you know exactly what you are doing.  You need proper HTML background before you tackle this.
AdvancedSharePoint DesignerVersion AgnosticBest Practice
82
  
Do not delete placeholders unless you understand implicitly  what they are linked to.  You will break 10 other things on your site.
AdvancedSharePoint DesignerVersion AgnosticBest Practice
83
  
Do not rename / delete the Title field in the core Item Content Type.  It is linked to every single list and library in every single site in the collection.  You will not be able to change it back without serious programmatic intervention, and even then you may not succeed.
AdvancedContent TypesVersion AgnosticBest Practice
84
  
Creation of content types should form part of the Governance planning and forum to keep control of it.
Make sure you choose the right Parent Content Type the first time.  You cannot change it afterwards.  You will need to delete the whole list and start again.
Make sure you create content types and site columns from the top level site or they will only be available from the subsite and sites below that.

When creating site columns, you could keep them in the Custom Columns group as a start.  That way you won’t confuse your users with many unique groups.  If they are not sure if a column is available, they can look straight in Custom Columns instead of navigating through dozens of groups.  However, the list of custom content types may grow substantially over time and it will become difficult to manage, think about the groups you need to create to manage content types in the long run.  It requires proper planning.
AdvancedContent TypesVersion AgnosticTip
104
  
iFrame HTML code does not display in Site Pages once you click Save and Close.  Bypass this by using the Page Viewer Web Part instead.
AdvancedSite Pages2010 WSS (4.0)Trick
106
  
If you disable Allow for the Managment of Content Types' on a discussion forum, and you try and view the item, it will disappear and not display.  You Have to have 'Allow for the Management of Content Types enabled in order to view the item and reply to it.  How silly.
AdvancedDiscussion Boards2010 WSS (4.0)Trick
109
  
Design the perfect library with versioning, check-out, metadata, workflow etc - then save it as a template and re-use it.  Eg: Project Documents Template. (You need to be a Site Collection Administrator to save as a template).
AdvancedDocument LibrariesVersion AgnosticTip
112
  
You can't use a web part page as a content type.  When you click the New button, the page will open in SharePoint Designer.  This is not ideal if you are building the site for your business users.  Rather paste copies of the page into each library and use those instead.  There is a work-around, but it is complex.
AdvancedContent Types2007 AllTrick