About

Welcome! I'm a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and a ten year SharePoint / Office Apps & Services MVP specializing in SharePoint, .Net, SQL Server and related technologies. I'm a Senior Instructor for MAX Technical Training (Cincinnati area).

I have written three SharePoint books (on the right side of this page) and have two more in the works. I have written over 120 (lost count!) computer courses over the last 30+ years and currently have twelve published in the Microsoft Courseware Library. You can learn more about the courses here.

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16 comments:

jon_pete said...

Mike, been following your posts for a while and have used several tips to develop a company share Point site.
Being green to it use - i am struggling of how to make some custom changes to CEWP's... example:
I would like to change the font size of the listed item in the image below - any pointer would be great..
Link to image

Thank you
Jon Jourdonnais
jon.jourdonnais@cooperstandard.com

jon_pete said...

Mike trying to make a single page update to a CEWP see image link
i would like to make the font larger... I have tried several different CSS options but they don't seem to work... using SharePoint 2010
Thank you
Jon

GoofyRobo said...

Hi Mike, took one of your share point classes back in March and learned a lot.
I'm wondering if you have any locale resources for simple share point programing that I could go to to hire some basic programming in info path and web interfacing?

DebMonton said...

Hi Mike,

I took many of your classes and I enjoyed all of them and learned so much from you. I wanted to double check something with you. I have just been tasked with updating a site that is live. I asked the Sharepoint Server Admin to create a duplicate site of the one that is live so that I can build on it and run tests so that I don't blow up the real site. They told me that isn't possible.
Really???

They said that I would have to create a new site and rebuild everything. I can't believe that this is the only solution. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Debbie M

Mike Smith said...

Debbie,

It can be done by the server administrators, but may no be in their support policies.

If you are the site collection administrator, then you can save the site as a template and then create a new subsite from that template. You will not be able to save list and library content, but you can save the design of the site, along with list and library customizations.

Site Actions, Site Settings, Save Site as Template

Then

Create a new site and you will find the saved template in the list of templates in the “Custom” tab.

Trish Malloy said...

Hey Mike, I have taken at least one of your SharePoint classes. I'm having trouble finding a 2 day SharePoint Governance class...can you point me in the direction of a place that will be offering this class some time this/next month in Ohio? Trish Malloy

Mike Smith said...

Trish,

The next Governance class in Cincinnati is scheduled for 9/4/14. We can also schedule a custom class for your governance team. Contact MAX Technical Training for details:
http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=741

Mike

Kyle said...

Hello Mike,

I have a question about the two web parts, two sites, one library solution outlined in your 2012 article...

Is it possible to have two different views of this single list, one for each site?

Context: I have one database of records. Each record has 10 columns worth of data, some of which is confidential. You can see then why I would want two different views, one with permissions to see everything and one without the confidential data.

Thank you.

Mike Smith said...

Kyle,

Out of the box, there's no way to secure a view. If the users have permissions to see the content in a web part then they will have permissions to view the content in the original list. There they can pick any view.

There is a custom code solution on CodePlex.com that can secure views, but I have not tested it.

Mike

Anonymous said...

the wood background makes the blog almost impossible to read. the text and background blend into one. It make me feel color blind.

Mike Smith said...

Anonymous,

The text should be over a white background. Which browser and version are you using?

Mike

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Adam Hertlein said...

Hi Mike,

I took the SharePoint Server 2010 for site owner/power user course at MAX. I'm trying to implement a document library where users will have to approve a special corporate copy of their CV in SharePoint but should not have the ability to make edits to the document, as there are strict formatting standards. It's VERY important that we have an audit trail where the user indicates their approval of the document. I'm finding that it appears impossible to give approve rights or rights to edit properties, yet deny edit rights to the document. I thought about securing the document itself but we still want users to be able to download and edit the document to send back to the admin of the library to ensure formatting is appropriate before it goes into the library.

Any advice is appreciated.

-Rob

Mike Smith said...

Rob,

Most SharePoint permissions are part of a hierarchy, i.e. permission B requires that the user has permission A. (All documented in my SharePoint security book :-) ). What you are describing usually requires a workflow. Here's a possible approach.

Needed:
- library: User CVs
- library: Approved CVs
- list: CV Properties
(has user editable properties and a link to the Approved CV)
(auditing enabled, or has a workflow to log changes to a list)

Process:
- User uploads their CV to User CVs.
- custom workflow triggered to get approval
- if approved,
the CV is moved to Approved CVs library (read only to everyone)
a new list entry is created in the CV Properties list
inheritance is broken so all can see, and user can edit


Anonymous said...

Mike,
I have a tough situation....I'm using SP2010 and I have 500+ employees with a list of 77 job skills for each (77 columns) that are being tracked. So I have 77 Yes/No columns. I originally was creating a calculated column per skill column so I could conditionally mark the field red for no and green for yes for each individual field. But unfortunately due to list constraints, I am not able to create the 77x2 (154) columns. I also do not have the luxury of using SPD. Is there a way to get this done using a CEWP?

You will save the day if you can help!
Thx!
v/r
Francisco

Mike Smith said...

Francisco,

Take a look here: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2008/11/sharepoint-color-coding-sharepoint.html
That shows how to add colors based on a value. But once you have the JavaScript to "grab" a column, you can add also add icons or calculated data next to the value. Do a web search for "sharepoint lists icons" for ideas.

Just curious... what's the max number of job skills any one employee can have? Maybe add a few choice or lookup columns instead of 77 columns.

Mike

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