Chris A Watkins - Business

 O365: Meta Data - Auto Population for improved Search See also -  Other Office 365 Posts Having discussed the advantages of using meta data so far we have touched only on populating these fields using manual entry, either by typing or by selection from a drop list. If we wish to auto populate meta data fields we can do this in one or two ways. Default Meta Content. This method populates a Meta Data field with content that can be changed, removed or enhanced. Any Meta Data field that is created by adding a SharePoint list or library column will have a default value setting. This can be set in the List/Library Settings page to any value you wish. In the above illustration I have set the DocType column in a Training Documents Library. The effect is that any document created from the template in this library will be flagged as DocType = Training:   The content of the field can be subsequently changed or amended. So, A user could change "Training:" to "Training: SharePoint L...

 O365: Improving Search and Fast Find in Teams and SharePoint See also -  Other Office 365 Posts Okay. I just spent the last few posts saying how good search is in Office 365 and now I say it can be improved? Well, even the best can be better.  SharePoint Search launched with  or     followed by selecting SharePoint gives access to a search tool that spans content across the Office 365 domain and returns results for the user, filtered by the user's level of access. The search covers file name, meta data and text in the body of the document. Meta Data The important thing here is Meta Data. The elements of data that is used to index and categorise information. Meta Data has been an integral part of Microsoft Office apps for many years with Word automatically creating fields like - The items listed in the properties column are meta data fields. It can be seen from the above illustration that date and times of creation and last modification, document size,...

 O365: Search and Find Data when you need it See also -  Other Office 365 Posts Pervious posts have illustrated how easy it is to create storage in Office 365 and how you can populate the libraries and lists easily from the office PC or from a mobile or tablet when on the move. We've also looked at the powerful search and find functions within Office 365 and how users can be enabled to locate items for attention, take necessary action and move the items on in the work flow, while maintaining a full control audit at the highest level. What Data Do We Need? Following on from that we should consider - What data should a business be concerned with Where that data should be stored How that data should be stored. Start with Simple Stuff To start we can consider a customer name, address and contact details. This is the sort of data that may be captured by a sales person working from the office making cold calls or following warm leads, or maybe at the customers premises using a mobil...

 O365: SharePoint Searching in Office 365 and Teams See also -  Other Office 365 Posts Earlier posts have discussed the huge advantages of centralising documents, files and communications in SharePoint and Office 365. One of the strongest functions in Office 365 is the ability to search all content so that locating data is easy. However, the search tools in Office 365 are not always obvious. Teams Search Teams is becoming really popular, not least due to the fact that it makes SharePoint very easy to deploy, use and control. At the top of each Teams General Tab is a search box This is multi function. Type / into the box and you will see a list of commands that will perform all sorts of Teams functions    The /Files option will return files you have recently accessed. Great, if the file or document you are looking for is actually in the recent file list. What if the information you require is in an older file, or in a different location? Location Search Also in Teams ...

O365: Moving Stuff Around See also -  Other Office 365 Posts Earlier Posts have demonstrated how to make SharePoint data containers (Lists and Libraries), how to populate them and how to use the data across the business. We've also touched on collecting data via mobile phone and tablet and how the data can be used both on site, at the computer desk, and off site via mobile or tablet. This is all the same live data with little duplication and only occasional need to synchronise between devices.  That's fine for static or semi static data like contact names and addresses. These only change when something changes in the real world and the data need updating to reflect the new reality. Dynamic Data However, some data needs to change because it is by nature dynamic. For instance, a sales query may become a quotation, and then an order and then a delivery note and then an invoice. A telephone conversation with customer may become an email confirmation, which may become dormant. But,...

O365: Make Life Simple. Grab Data on the Go. See also -  Other Office 365 Posts Earlier Office 365 posts have pointed towards simple ways to make SharePoint List and SharePoint Library data containers, simple ways to populate these with data that is useful to business and simple ways to filter that data for useful output commination like invoices and reports. Reading back through those posts it becomes obvious that the more data you collect, the more you can do with it. This is probably best highlighted in the CRM example, where all communication between company representatives and individual customers is captured and used across the business. The great thing about modern technology is that even when visiting a customer the person representing the business can access the same data that is available when sitting at a computer in the office. In addition, updates can be made to the data without a return to the office being necessary. Accounting The same can be said of accounts and exp...

O365: The SharePoint Data Harvest See also -  Other Office 365 Posts An earlier post on getting data into SharePoint libraries touched on the various methods of building data stores for use across the business. The methods range from creating files, documents and data in SharePoint Lists and Libraries, importing into SharePoint Lists and Libraries and scanning into Lists and Libraries. The importance of import and scan in this context is that valuable communication data generally has two parts - Outwards communication - files, data and documents that are sent out  and Inwards communication - files, data and documents that are received. The email Issue Let's take a look at what happens with email. In a sales department email will often be sent from and received by an individual. A well organised salesperson will probably create folders in the inbox to sort incoming mail so that communications from customers are easily found. But, what happens to outgoing mail? This usually resi...

O365: The Advantages of Teams and SharePoint for Business See also - Other Office 365 Posts Business and management are stressful enough without having to worry about where to store or file a communication, or worse still trying to remember where you stored the communications you had last week. It gets worse when you are part of a team and you need to know where everyone else is filing relative data.  How long does it take to message or email a colleague to ask if they know who said what to a customer yesterday, or last month?  How long does it take to get your reply? It's not difficult to ensure that all communication is captured and catalogued to make sure that every team member has the full and current picture. Store and Catalogue Using Office 365 Data can be stored in SharePoint Lists . These are simple to create and use. Documents can be stored in SharePoint Libraries . Providing fast, secure access to communication Data from SharePoint Lists can be linked to SharePoint L...

O365: Getting Really Useful Data into SharePoint Libraries See also - Blogs on  Library ,  List ,  Linking ,  Teams ,   Invoicing ,  Workflow ,   Bulk Invoicing  and  Spreadsheet Data A really useful SharePoint Library structure will give you something like this -  Just typing the words 'Credit Card' into the SharePoint search box returns a list of items relating to credit card across the entire Office 365 site. Security Don't worry about users accessing documents that are restricted. If you create or place a document into a Teams Document Library, it will be available to members of that Team by default. However, each document can be locked down to no access, view only or edit. You can also stop sharing any document, or alternatively share only with the members of the team you select. Users with whom the document has not been shared with will not be able to access it. Being More Specific   That's fine if you know which Credit C...

O365: Word Documents and PDFs in SharePoint Libraries See also - Blogs on  Library ,  List ,  Linking ,  Teams ,   Invoicing ,  Workflow ,   Bulk Invoicing  and Spreadsheet Data Following on from storing data in SharePoint Lists rather than in spreadsheets, we'll now take a look at storing word processed documents in SharePoint Libraries rather than traditional file stores. Typical Teams or Groups Document Library When you create a Team site or Group site in Office 365 a document library is automatically created for you - see Teams You can add more libraries to the Team site, just go to 'Site Content' click 'New', select library, name the new library and it's done. A library is where you can store files and documents, just as you would in a file store folder, but with added enhancements. The above image shows a standard Teams Document library. The left column shows the quick access menu which can be hidden, the body show the document list, which c...

O365: SharePoint List v Spreadsheet - which is best? See also - Blogs on  Library ,  List ,  Linking ,  Teams ,   Invoicing ,  Workflow  and  Bulk Invoicing The image shows the same data displayed in different applications. On the left is the information imported into a SharePoint List and on the right is a table representation in Excel What's The Difference? Let's assume you are running Office 365 and you may even have Teams launched. You need to provide your users with access to a table of data, the sort of thing that has traditionally been circulated in spreadsheet format. Only now, you have SharePoint Lists as well.  So, which is the best way to store, maintain and distribute the data? In both apps you can sort and filter the rows and columns, you can add new columns that read original columns and perform arithmetic, mathematical, statistical and text manipulation on the content of the original. In the SharePoint List linking to other lis...