Skip to main content

O365: Meta Data - the key to success?

 O365: Meta Data - the key to success?


Having introduced the concept of Meta Data in the last post I will expand on its importance in the Office 365 environment.

Auto generated Meta Data, such as dates of file creation and modification, added to author's ID and last editor's ID, provide very convenient methods to categorise and index both files and data.

Manually added Meta Data, such as entry in the SharePoint or Office Title field, increase the power of search, sort, categorisation and index exponentially.

Simply adding an 'Allocated to' field to any SharePoint library or SharePoint list means that ownership of any file, document or task can be identified with ease and speed.

Changes to the same field can be updated to move data from one filtered list to another to accommodate simple and effective work flow.

Adding the Field 

For this exercise I am using an existing SharePoint List. 

The list records events for a CRM style workflow.

Click on the gear wheel and select List Settings.


In the settings view click Create column

Configure the column

First name the column, select Person or Group as the column type and ensure that you check the option to allow selection of both people and groups.

Save the new column and return to the main page view for the list


Highlight an item in the list as above and open the information pane


The Allocated to column will be available for selection

Start to type in the Allocated to field 


and you will be presented with a selection list of all relevant groups in the Office 365 domain.

In Practise

The list can be filtered by any user to show only items allocated to a particular group. Items can be picked from this filtered view and actioned. The user can then select a different group in the same way to move the item on in the workflow.

Selecting from a list of available groups removes the possibility that users may mistype a group name or enter a group name that is not viable.

More Control

In more controlled situations users can be restricted to views showing only items for a particular group. This can then form the basis for a group task home page.



Don't be afraid to experiment, make Office 365 work for you.

We can show you how, or we can do it for you.






 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Acquiring Market Share. MD, MD, how does your business grow?

Gaining an increase in market share may become necessary for a number of reasons. You may need to shift focus from one product line to another in the face of a declining market, you may wish to expand to fend off a market place squeeze or you may just be growing towards your planned capacity. Whatever the reason, you will need to form an acquisition strategy. There are three ways to obtain an increase in market share – Earn it. Use competitive trading to buy it. Acquire a competitor. Each of the three approaches bring along its own strategy requirements and its own issues. Selecting the best approach depends entirely on circumstance. Outperform the competition. Earning market share by supplying a better product, better service, better support, better delivery is an honorable way of expanding a customer base. It is steady, progressive and undemanding in that production/purchasing is not subject to stresses caused by sudden up-shifts in supply/delivery. Even so, there are issues. Attaini...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Computer Age: Office 365 Vs Google, Dropbox and Others

Differences in Software as a Service ( SaaS ) This is the 21st century, the New Computer Age. Cloud services and SaaS are available for all to use. Word on-line, Excel on-line and Power Point on-line are just such services. They are available to all who want them, they are free, if taken via One Drive Live, and they enable the creation, editing and viewing of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PP presentations on ANY device that has a browser installed. This without any need to install software on the device used. The on-line software that is used to create the files is the same on-line software used to view them. There can be no incompatibilities and no missing fonts. Open Document Standards, to which these most office applications conform, requires that any document file should contain the properties of style, layout, font etc. These elements are the property of the document file and will travel with it wherever it is stored or sent. However, issues can still aris...
Post a Comment
Read more

O365: Mobile Apps - the easy way

 O365: Mobile Apps - the easy way See also -  Other Office 365 Posts Anyone following these posts will now know how easy it is to create data stores in SharePoint for documents and files and for listing data, such as customer details. We've also looked at making this data easily findable, how to flag items for the attention of individuals and teams within the Office 365domain and moving work through the system in a controlled manner. We've also seen how we can access this content when away from the office via mobile apps for Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. Occasionally the standard apps aren't really convenient and fail to lend themselves to mobile use. I'm thinking here of functions like stock lists, customer contact lists and the like, when the standard app delivers too much detail for a small screen, or where links and buttons are small and difficult to use. For these functions it would be better to deploy an app that is designed for fast, effective use on a mobile. ...
Post a Comment
Read more