Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Custom SharePoint Sites...

A lot of Marines remember trying to edit their unit's web site using Microsoft's FrontPage software. The more adventurous actually used their own copy of Macromedia's (now Adobe) Dreamweaver.

Unfortunately, when talking about a unit's SharePoint site, those tools are no more.

A word of caution to unit web developers (also known as the guys with the best MySpace page)...the only tool you can use to modify SharePoint WSS 3.0 sites is Microsoft SharePoint Designer.

If your unit is still using the WSS 2.0 version, you will still be allowed to modify those sites using FrontPage and Dreamweaver...but as soon as your unit upgrades to WSS 3.0 (have I mentioned that the upgrade is FREE), your pages are lost.

This is how this transistion occurred. Microsoft stopped supporting FrontPage, and created a product called Microsoft Expressions...this is Microsofts answer to Dreamweaver. From there, Microsoft added SharePoint functionality to Expressions and now has SharePoint Designer.

So what does all of this mean? Play nice or don't play at all. SharePoint has a lot of functionality built in...in most cases, you should not try to change the baseline.

Remember, the reason the Marine Corps is using SharePoint is to make information shareing standardized. Learn how to use one SharePoint site in theory, you can use them all.

Configuring and modifying your site, simply because you love playing with CSS, is not functional.

Unless you are adding FUNCTIONALITY to your site...leave it alone. Keep your CSS design skills for your MySpace page.

Free SharePoint Ebook coming your way!

Free SharePoint Ebook coming your way!

Starting next week, Mark Jones will be including sections of his "SharePoint 101: Tricks and Traps" book in a weekly email newsletter. Over the next 10 weeks or so, you can receive the entire book of 101 SharePoint Tricks and Traps for free. He will be talking about the book during the next week at EndUserSharePoint.com.

His goal is to give away 5000 ebooks in the coming weeks.

If you know of anyone interested in receiving a digital copy of the book in weekly installments, signup at EndUserSharePoint.com to receive the weekly Tricks and Traps newsletter.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Microsoft Tech Expo for Girls 12-18

The gender gap in the Technology Industry has been getting smaller and smaller every year.

Microsoft is doing its part by offering a day of technology for high school/jr. high school girls age 12-18. The event is going on March 24th in Irvine, CA. This is the first in a nationwide promotion to get girls interested in the technology field.

If you have a daughter that meets the age requirements and has even the slightest interest in IT or computers...I recommend you click on the below link and sign her up.

If nothing else, Microsoft knows how to host an event. It could be THE turning point in your girl's life. Check it out!!

Microsoft's DigiGirls Technology expo

Microsoft Event

Just reminding everyone to visit the Microsoft web site for the May 13th release of Visual Studio 2008 and Server 2008 in San Deigo, CA.

Its a great place to see the latest and greatest Microsoft has to offer, and you always get a lot of great software and gear...

Friday, March 7, 2008


This is a good resource site for introducing users to SharePoint, whether from the CO's decision to declare SharePoint as part of his unit SOP, to the PFC's understanding of why the CO is making him use it.