Working the Spaces, Sharing the Point

Good news for French users of SharePoint Workspace 2010

Jim McCoy — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:44:36 GMT

If you have SharePoint Workspace 2010 and French is your primary language, help is on the way: Fabrice Barbin has published a book on SPW 2010 in French, available here.

Overview of list types you can synchronize in a SharePoint workspace

Jim McCoy — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:32:54 GMT

This post describes the content types you can synchronize in a SharePoint workspace, and also describes lists that you cannot yet synchronize using SharePoint Workspace 2010.

You can synchronize most lists and libraries in a SharePoint workspace, although some heavily customized lists may have problems. When you create a SharePoint workspace, a number of content types appear categorized under the heading “Available on Server”. For example:

Content types under this heading are typically listed there because SharePoint Workspace does not yet support synchronizing them in a workspace. If you select one of these lists, you see an option to Open the list in a browser. If the content type is also supported in SharePoint Workspace, you see an option to Connect Listname to Server.

The following content types cannot currently be synchronized in a SharePoint workspace:

Calendar/Events lists
Wikis
Blog sites
Portal sites
Form libraries
Slide libraries
Surveys
Site directories
OneNote notebooks stored in document libraries
IRM-protected document libraries. However, individually protected files can be synchronized in non-IRM-protected document libraries, given proper authentication.

About synchronizing external lists in a SharePoint workspace

Most SharePoint lists are "internal" to the SharePoint site. Users create and save items directly in the list on the site. Some SharePoint lists are "external". These lists, which retrieve data by using the Business Connectivity Services (BCS) capabilities of SharePoint and Office 2010, pull data directly from external systems, such as Line-of-Business systems or Web 2.0 services.

You can download and synchronize external lists in a SharePoint workspace just as you would for other types of SharePoint lists. In the content pane of SharePoint workspace, these lists are sorted under the heading "External Lists" when content is sorted by "Type".

External lists must meet the following requirements to be synchronized in a SharePoint workspace:

· External lists must be hosted on SharePoint Server 2010 with Enterprise Client Access License.

· Your system must have Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 or higher.

· Your Microsoft Office 2010 installation must have the "Business Connectivity Services" option enabled. This option, which appears under "Office Shared," is enabled by default. If you voluntarily disabled this option during installation, you can update your installation using the Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel. If you are unsure about whether you can enable this option, see your administrator.

Joe Levine

Creating custom Lists in Groove workspaces

Jim McCoy — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:38:00 GMT

In SharePoint Workspace, you can create Groove workspaces to be shared among invited members. Groove workspaces can include a variety of productivity tools. To see the list of tools that ship with SharePoint Workspace, look in the Tools group, and on the Workspace tab, click Add.

By default, every new workspace you create contains the Documents, Discussion, and Calendar tools. You can add several other types of ready-to-use tools such as Notepad, Sketchpad, and Pictures. All of these tools provide a specific set of built-in features and are intended to be used “as is”.

The Lists tool, unlike the other standard workspace tools, provides an open-ended custom tool development environment. The design of a Lists tool must include at least one data-entry form, and at least one “view” for sorting items created using the form. Forms in a Lists tool are created and updated in Microsoft Office InfoPath, and then imported into the Lists tool. Views are designed with the Lists tool designer after forms are imported.

This article describes how to build a simple custom Lists tool in a Groove workspace.

Example: Create the “Commuter Survey” Lists tool

Creating a Lists tool requires some planning. It’s important to consider the following questions:

· What information do you want to collect? It’s best to sketch out the form before you start designing it so that you know what data fields you’ll need, and approximately how you’ll want to lay them out.

· How should you sort the items in the list so that they’re easy to view, understand, and analyze? Answering this question will help you determine what views you’ll need, and what features to set up in the view. For example, should items be sorted in ascending or descending order, or perhaps grouped under headings? Should items be filtered according to one or more conditions? Is there numeric data to be totaled under a column?

In this article we’ll create a simple custom Lists tool for the purpose of conducting a survey. As such, it will contain a survey form template, and a view that shows data items that workspace members create. We’ll show how to create the form template in InfoPath, import it, lay out a view, and then publish the design. Finally, we’ll show how to further customize the design of the Lists tool once it’s already been saved and published.

Add the Lists tool to a workspace

To add a Lists tool to a workspace:

1. Click the Workspace tab.

2. In the Tools group, click Add, and then click Lists.

A new Lists tool appears with a Welcome page and “Start Here” button.

Add a form to the design via Microsoft InfoPath

To enter the designer, click Start Here. Once you’re in the designer, you create a new form as follows:

1. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click New Form.
Microsoft InfoPath launches and a blank form template appears.

2. Design the form as you’d like it to appear in the InfoPath form designer. For example:
Note that the form template is pre-loaded with a standard set of System fields, such as “Created by” and Modified by” fields. You can immediately drag these fields to the form, if desired. In addition to System fields, the form template is pre-configured with all settings that the Lists tool requires to function properly in SharePoint Workspace, such as settings for data connections, security, and lookups. If you create form templates in InfoPath without starting from the Lists tool designer, you will need to configure these settings manually in InfoPath. For more information, see Creating a new form in SharePoint Workspace online help.

3. Once the form is set up as desired, you must save it as an InfoPath form template solution (.xsn) as follows: Click the File tab, click Publish, and then click the SharePoint Workspace button.

4. Name the form in the Save As dialog box and click OK.
You can choose any location for saving the form. However, by using the “Publish” feature, the form is saved to the location that will appear by default when you import the form later – your Documents folder.

5. Return to the Lists tool designer.

6. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Import Form.

7. Select the InfoPath .xsn file you previously saved, and click Open.
The new form is listed under Form Templates. A view that corresponds to the new form is also automatically added to the design.

Examine and update the view design

Do the following to examine and update the view:

1. Click the view name.
You can then select tabs that show options for “about” information, properties, filters, column settings, and sorts.

2. On the About tab, you can change the name of the view as it will appear on the List view menu in the ribbon.
You might change the view name if you want it to reflect certain features you’ve set up for the view. For example, if you’re planning to sort view items according to a specific field, you might rename the view to reflect that.

3. On the Properties tab, you can set options that affect the appearance of the view, as well as enable or disable access to certain features. For details on setting properties, see Setting list view properties in online help.

4. On the Filter tab, you can set conditions for including or excluding data items that appear in the view. For details, see Creating view filters in a Lists tool design in online help.

5. Click the Columns tab to see the fields selected for the view, properties of each field column, and a preview of the view.
Initially, all fields you placed on the form in InfoPath, except for Rich Text fields, are preselected.

6. If you want, select each field and update associated column properties.
In particular, you will likely want to update each field column’s “Header Label”. The initial header label matches the field name which is typically too cryptic to be easily understood. In the example below, the column label for the “CreateBy” field is renamed “Employee”, and the new column label is reflected in the Preview.
For complete details on updated view columns, see Modifying view column properties in online help.

7. On the Sort and Group tab, you can set options for how items are sorted in the view.
By default, items are listed in the order in which they’re created. You can optionally choose to sort items in a wide variety of ways, such as in ascending or descending order, or grouped by values in a specific field column. For details, see Setting sort options in a list view in online help.

Update Settings and Options, as needed

Click Settings and Options to see a variety of settings and options that affect the entire Lists tool. Most options involve enabling or disabling features such as search or changing views. Default settings are typically appropriate from most Lists tool. For more information, see About Settings and Options in a Lists tool in online help.

Save & Publish the Lists tool

When you’re done updating the Lists tool design, click Save & Publish. The customized Lists tool appears in the window ready for workspace members to start creating items.

Update the Lists tool design after publishing

Designing a custom Lists tool is an iterative process. Despite the best possible up-front planning you might do, you’re very likely to discover features you want to add or change after saving and publishing the design. For example, you might want to add additional form fields, create new views, update how a view is sorted, and so on.

You can enter the Lists tool designer at any time to update the Lists tool design. On the View tab, click Enter Designer.

Updating the design of a form

Any updates to form templates must take place in InfoPath:

1. In the Lists tool, open the designer.

2. Click the form template you want to update.

3. On the Home tab, click Edit.
The selected form template opens in InfoPath.

4. Make the design updates you want.
The example below shows the Commuter Survey form with a new field added to the design.

8. Save the form just as you did when first creating the form: Click the File tab, click Publish, and then click the SharePoint Workspace button.
Keep the same form template name when saving. Click Yes to confirm overwriting the original form, when prompted.

9. Return to the Lists tool designer.

10. On the Home tab, in the Edit group, click Re-Import.
NOTE If you accidentally select Import Form instead of Re-Import, a new form template and a corresponding view will be created in the Lists tool design. If you did not intend to add a new form template and view to the design, you can delete them and then proceed to re-import the updated form template.

11. Find the form template .xsn file you previously updated and saved, and click Open.
A Field Changes dialog box opens that summarizes the updates you’ve made to fields in the form template. The example below shows that a new field named “WorkAtHome” has been added, and denotes that this field is not yet referenced in any views.

12. Click Continue.
The Form Templates preview now shows the new field.

13. If you want the new field to be referenced in a list view, you must add it to the list view design, on the Columns tab, for example:

14. When you’re done updating the Lists tool design, click Save & Publish.

For more information on creating custom Lists tools in SharePoint Workspace, start with Creating a custom Lists tool by importing InfoPath form template solutions in online help.

Joe Levine

Synchronizing calculated fields in a SharePoint workspace

Jim McCoy — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:40:05 GMT

A SharePoint list may undergo design changes over time as an organization identifies new requirements. For example, a form design might be updated with new fields. In particular, calculated fields will not synchronize with the SharePoint server if they are added to the list design in SharePoint after the list has already been downloaded and synchronized in a SharePoint workspace.

Though inefficient, you can synchronize the data for calculated fields by opening and editing each item in the list. Whenever you save an edited item, the item is synchronized with the server. You might do this if, at the present time, you only care about the content of a few specific items. However, if you want to synchronize all items, editing each item one by one is impractical. In this case, it’s most efficient to disconnect the list from the server and then reconnect to it.

1. Select the list that has the unsynchronized fields.

2. On the Sync tab, click Change Sync Settings, and then click Disconnect from Server.

3. Click Yes at the prompt to confirm this action.
The list appears under Available on Server in the Content pane, all items are removed, and you see options to Open the list in a Browser or Connect to Server.

4. Click Connect to Server to start downloading the list once again to the SharePoint workspace.

Joe Levine

Troubleshooting checkin/checkout problems in a SharePoint workspace

Jim McCoy — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:18:12 GMT

Problems with checking out or checking in documents (or discarding a checkout) in a SharePoint workspace document library may result from one of the following circumstances:

· You may have lost connectivity with the SharePoint server.
To test your connectivity, try going to the SharePoint site in a Web browser. To navigate quickly to the SharePoint site, you can click the breadcrumb link in the title bar:

· You might not have the required SharePoint server permissions to do the activity.
In order to check out a document for editing, you must have at least “Contribute” permission for the document. You can check your permissions on the SharePoint site: Click Site Actions, and then click Site Permissions.

· If you get an error while trying to check in a file, it is possible that the file might not actually be checked out. A file may incorrectly appear to be checked out for any of the following reasons:

o An administrator, for some reason, may have discarded the checkout directly on the server.

o You checked out the file in a SharePoint workspace, but then checked it in from the application or directly on the server.
For example, in Office Word 2010, on the File tab, you can click Info and then click Check In to check in a file that you had originally checked out from a SharePoint workspace.
In either case, the file retains a checkout marker in the SharePoint workspace until the next synchronization. To resolve this, try manually synchronizing the document library. If the file is already checked in, this will clear the checkout marker. On the Sync tab, click Sync and then click Sync Tool.
If you discover that the file is already checked in, but you’re certain that you yourself did not check it in, try viewing the file’s version history to see if you can identify who last checked in the file.

o Although highly unusual, your permissions may have changed since the time you checked out the file such that you no longer have editing access. Check your permissions as described earlier in this document.

· Files have been deleted on the SharePoint server.
In rare cases, you might attempt to check in files that were deleted on the SharePoint server during the period before the next synchronization. If you want to ensure that the files you want to check in still exist on the server, initiate a manual synchronization before attempting the checkin.

Understanding alerts and unread indicators

Jim McCoy — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:37:03 GMT

As you use SharePoint Workspace, you receive a variety of notifiers, called “alerts”. Alerts notify you about:

· New messages or invitations.

· Unread information in a workspace, a workspace tool, or a tool item.

· Status information, such as whether messages you have sent have been delivered or opened.

Responding to alerts

Click an alert to respond to it.

Click this type of alert	To
Information	Close the alert. Certain information alerts close automatically after a few seconds, depending on the relative importance of the information. In the example, the first information alert would close automatically while the second information alert would persist until you closed it.
Message or invitation	Open the message or invitation.
Unread	Go to the tool that has unread content. Note that clicking an unread alert will only go to the tool that contains unread content, it will not automatically navigate to the unread content. Once you go to the tool, on the Home tab, in the Track group, you can click Previous Unread or Next Unread to go to the previous or next unread content item.

You can also right-click alerts to see more options in a context menu.

Alert Type	Context Menu Options
Information	Click Stop Tracking to close alerts that track the status of messages or invitations you have sent.
Message or invitation	For a message, click Open or Delete. For an invitation, click Open, Delete, or Decline. If you decline an invitation, the sender receives an information alert to inform them that you have declined their invitation.
Unread	Click Open to go to the tool that contains the unread content, or click Dismiss to close the alert.

Managing alerts

Managing alerts can be a balancing act. You want to be notified about the information that interests you, but you probably don’t want to see alerts about every minor update. Sometimes you may not want alerts popping up in your notification area at all, such as when you’re giving a presentation. Additionally, if you have workspaces in which there is a lot of activity, you may quickly accumulate a large number of alerts in your notification area. SharePoint Workspace does not currently provide a feature for selecting and acting on a group of alerts simultaneously. For example, for unread alerts, you must act on each alert individually, either clicking it to go to the unread content, or right-clicking it to select a Dismiss option.

As a solution, you can selectively change the alert level for an entire workspace, or for specific tools in a workspace so that alerts for unread content do not appear in the Windows notification area. For any workspace, you may want to take a minute to decide how you want to be notified about unread content.

Customizing alert levels and settings

You can change global alert settings in your account preferences, or you can change alert levels for a workspace, tool, folder or file. For detailed information on setting options for alerts, see Setting preferences for alerts in SharePoint Workspace Help.

Changing the alert level for a workspace

1. In the Launchbar, right-click the workspace and then click Properties.

2. Click the Alerts tab.

3. Drag the slider to change the alert setting.

Changing the alert level for a tool in a workspace

1. Right-click the tool in the content pane of the workspace and then click Set Alerts.

2. Drag the slider to change the alert setting.

Changing the alert level for a folder or file

1. Right-click the folder or file and then click Set Alerts.

2. Drag the slider to change the alert setting.

Suppressing Alerts

To suppress alerts, on the File tab, click Info, click Manage Alerts, and then click Suppress Alerts.

While this feature is turned in, you will still receive data, but instead of alerts appearing in the Windows notification area, an alert indicator will blink above the SharePoint Workspace icon.

To resume showing alerts, on the File tab, click Info, click Manage Alerts, and then click Suppress Alerts again. If you do not remember if you enabled or disabled this feature, you can point at the SharePoint Workspace icon in the Windows notification area to pop up a status window:

About unread indicators

Unread items in a workspace are denoted with an unread marker: The unread markers disappear once you select or open the unread items.

You can clear unread markers on an item, in a folder, in a tool, in an entire workspace, or in all your workspaces at once. In a workspace, on the Home tab, in the Tracking group, click Mark Read, and then click the object for which you want to clear unread markers. In the Launchbar, on the Home tab, in the Actions group, click Mark Read, and then click Mark Read to remove unread markers from the currently selected workspace, or Mark All Read to remove unread markers from all workspaces.

Tools in a workspace that contain unread content are denoted with an unread marker in the content pane:

Similarly, workspaces that contain unread content are denoted with an unread marker in the SharePoint Workspace Launchbar.

The following table describes the meaning of the different unread markers you might see on workspaces and on workspace tools.

Unread Marker	Meaning
	The workspace or item has unread content added or updated within the last two days
	The workspace or item has unread content added or updated within the last seven days.
	The workspace or item has unread content added or updated at least seven days ago.

In the Launchbar, you can sort workspaces according to their unread status. On the View tab, click the Workspaces menu, and then click Last Unread Time.

Joe Levine

Securing SharePoint documents that you take offline

Jim McCoy — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:03:00 GMT

SharePoint 2010 lets you configure security settings for individual documents or an entire library of documents so that you can protect confidential or personal content by limiting access to a specific group of users. You can further protect documents by applying Information Rights Management (IRM) policies that encrypt the content of specific documents so that they can only be read with a key granted to specific users or groups.

When you use SharePoint Workspace 2010 to take SharePoint content offline, you’ll find that it honors these settings and policies, but with some provisos. Here’s some information about how to best set permissions and policies to protect SharePoint documents and lists that may be taken offline in SharePoint workspaces.

Creating a SharePoint workspace lets SharePoint users download selected libraries and lists from a SharePoint site to a local computer so that they can access and work with this content any time, wherever they are, whether online or offline. However, a user’s ability to access or update the SharePoint content to begin with depends on the permissions and other security settings that are defined on the hosting SharePoint site. Site or content owners protect content by defining permissions and rights management settings on the SharePoint site, and these are applied in the associated SharePoint workspace.

Defining group access permissions for SharePoint libraries, lists, and documents is a mainstay of document protection. These settings determine the extent to which specific users or groups can access and work with content on the site.

For example, suppose that field researcher John needs to draft an article of his findings and get it reviewed before publishing on the web. John knows that he'll have no network access at his field location. Fortunately, he has full permissions for a library on a SharePoint 2010 team site (granted by the site owner), so before going out into the field he synchronizes the library with a local SharePoint workspace on his laptop. While offsite, he finishes the piece, strikes camp, and returns to town where he regains network access The document synchronizes automatically with the SharePoint site and John uses the Document Settings option on the SharePoint Ribbon to restrict document access to himself and his home-based colleague. An hour later, John receives his colleague’s updated document in his synchronized workspace, and he completes a final pass for his colleague’s signoff. Document permissions remain restricted until he resets them in SharePoint to allow broader viewing. John can do the same thing for any library of documents that he owns and wants to protect.

Setting Information Rights Management policies for libraries or documents on a SharePoint site provides another level of content protection. SharePoint Workspace respects IRM document settings that have been defined in a SharePoint site, but be aware that IRM-protected libraries are prohibited from download into a local workspace. In the case of Document-level policies (set from the associated Office application), SharePoint Workspace accepts IRM encrypted documents and handles them as expected. In the case of SharePoint Library-level policies (set from the Library Tools tab, in Library/Library Settings), SharePoint Workspace does not synchronize library content that is protected with IRM, limiting propagation of protected content.

The following table summarizes SharePoint Workspace behavior in the context of IRM protection for individual documents and libraries:

IRM setting	Result in SharePoint Workspace
IRM is enabled for individual SharePoint documents.	Upon synchronization, SharePoint Workspace updates affected documents in the local workspace so that they are IRM-protected (encrypted on disk). Only users with the necessary IRM permissions on the SharePoint site can access the documents locally or from the site. Document synchronization occurs as usual.
IRM is enabled for a SharePoint library.	None of the library content will be downloaded or synchronized with a SharePoint workspace. If local versions of the affected content already exist in the SharePoint workspace, that content remains as is, with no changes, but it cannot synchronize with SharePoint library.

For information about setting access permissions for SharePoint content, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262690.aspx and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263239.aspx.

For information about setting IRM policies for SharePoint content, see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/apply-information-rights-management-to-a-list-or-library-HA010154148.aspx.

Mena Paton

How SharePoint Workspace works with the Microsoft Office Upload Center

Jim McCoy — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:13:11 GMT

SharePoint Workspace users may quickly notice the near omnipresence of the Microsoft Office Upload Center icon in their Windows notification area:

The Microsoft Office Upload Center (msosync.exe) manages synchronization between your SharePoint workspaces and their corresponding SharePoint sites. As a result, given the frequency of synchronization between a SharePoint workspace and the SharePoint site, the Upload Center icon is present most of the time in your notification area, and you are likely to see frequent notifications about synchronization activities. For example, you may see notifications about pending uploads or upload failures.

Note: SharePoint workspaces can synchronize only with sites running on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Online 2010 servers.

It may surprise you to discover, when you open the Microsoft Office Upload Center, that there is no feature present for exiting the Upload Center. This is because applications such as SharePoint Workspace rely on the Upload Center to be running in order to function properly. And although it’s possible to exit the Upload Center by clicking End Process in the Windows Task Manager, doing so is not recommended.

If you have a great amount of synchronization activity, you may also receive a large number of notifications, which appear above the Upload Center icon. If you are finding this distracting, you can select options to hide certain types of notifications or simply hide the Upload Center icon.

To change Upload Center settings, click the Upload Center icon, and then click Settings. Do one of the following in the Microsoft Office Upload Center Settings dialog box:

· To suppress notifications, uncheck any of the options for showing notifications.

· To hide the Upload Center icon, uncheck Display icon in notification area.

If you have hidden the Upload Center icon, and want it to show again in the notification area, you must first open the Upload Center. Click Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 2010 Tools, and then Microsoft Office 2010 Upload Center. In the Upload Center window, click Settings, and then check Display icon in notification area.

Joe Levine

Using your My Site in SharePoint Workspace

Jim McCoy — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:22:15 GMT

Perhaps you’re already enjoying the flexibility of using a SharePoint My Site. You can compartmentalize content as Personal (content available only to you), Collaborative (content available to you and specific team members), and Shared (content available to anyone who has access to the site). And you can also take advantage of Office 2010’s co-authoring features if you’re editing 2010 Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents.

SharePoint Workspace lets you make the most of My Site features by giving you around-the-clock access to your My Site content, even when you’re not on your network. Consider using your My Site as your central hub for all content to which you need frequent access. Your lists and document libraries can be available to you when you’re at the airport, on a plane, or just working from home. As soon as you connect to your office network, the SharePoint workspace containing your My Site content is synchronized with your My Site on the server.

You might enjoy the rich client features you’ll find in a SharePoint workspace. Switch quickly among your SharePoint lists with a single click. Use the familiar Office ribbon to start activities such as creating links, checking out files, or adding new or existing documents to the site.

To create a SharePoint workspace from your My Site, do the following:

1. Click My Content on your My Site.

2. Click Site Actions and then click Sync to SharePoint Workspace.

3. In the Sync to SharePoint Workspace dialog box, click OK.

Joe Levine

Groove Web Services API available in SharePoint Workspace 2010

Jim McCoy — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:25:54 GMT

SharePoint Workspace 2010 provides a Groove Web Services API that is compatible with the API in Groove 2007. The Groove Web Services API allows you to develop an application that can access data in Groove workspaces and tools.

Your application runs in its own window, and you can design a user interface tailored to the needs of your users. In many cases, users access the Groove data exclusively through your application and do not need to use the SharePoint Workspace user interface. This allows you to focus your development effort on meeting the needs of your users, while letting SharePoint Workspace handle the task of replicating the data to all the members of the workspace. Note that the SharePoint Workspace 2010 application must be running in order for your application to access the Groove data.

The Groove Web Services SDK for SharePoint Workspace 2010 provides sample code, documentation, and WSDL definition files that provide access to the Web services API.

If you’ve written an application using the Groove Web Services APIs available with Groove 2007, you can run them on a SharePoint Workspace 2010 installation after making minor changes to your application. SharePoint Workspace 2010 encrypts the Groove Web Services request and response keys with DPAPI encryption before storing them in the registry. To port your application from Groove 2007 to SharePoint Workspace 2010, you need to modify the code that reads the registry keys. See the release notes on MSDN for details.

Josh Goldman

Organizing your workspaces and contacts in SharePoint Workspace

Jim McCoy — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:28:49 GMT

Over time, you may accumulate a large number of workspaces and contacts. All of your workspaces and contacts are listed in the SharePoint Workspace Launchbar. Here are some different ways you can organize your workspaces and contacts.

Opening the SharePoint Workspace Launchbar

By default, the Launchbar opens when you start SharePoint Workspace. If SharePoint Workspace is already running, you can open the Launchbar by double-clicking the SharePoint Workspace icon in your Windows system tray:

If you’re in a workspace, you can open the Launchbar by clicking Home, and then Launchbar in the Go To group.

Organizing your workspaces

To change how workspaces are grouped in the Launchbar, click the View tab, click the Workspaces drop-down menu, and then select an option. The table below explains the grouping options.

Option	Details
Alphabetical	All workspaces are listed alphanumerically.
Folders	This option lets you create folders for grouping your workspaces – especially useful when you have many of them. To create a folder, on the View tab, click New Folder. Drag workspaces into folders.
Last Unread Time	This option groups workspaces according to their relative activity. Workspaces are grouped according to when they last received new or updated information. Workspaces that were created no more than 7 days ago are categorized as New.
Status	This option groups workspaces by status as follows: · New. Workspaces that were created no more than 7 days ago are categorized as "New". · Active. Groove workspaces that you or other members currently have open for reading or updating. SharePoint workspaces are not categorized under "Active" because you are always the only member. · Unread. Workspaces containing new or updated information. · Read. Workspaces that do not currently contain any unread content. · Not On This Computer. Groove workspaces that you have on other computers. You can download the workspace data either from another computer that contains your account or from another workspace member. You may also occasionally see workspaces grouped under these additional headings: · Downloading: Workspaces that are currently being downloaded from another computer or workspace member. · Suspended: Workspaces in which your membership has been suspended. · Paused: Workspaces in which you have paused communications.
Type	This option groups workspace by type, as shown below:

Organizing your contacts

To change how contacts are grouped in the Launchbar, click the View tab, click the Contacts drop-down menu, and then select an option. The table below explains the sorting options.

Option	Details
Alphabetical	Contacts are listed alphabetically by first name.
Folders	This option lets you create folders for grouping your contacts – especially useful when you have many of them. To create a folder, on the View tab, click New Folder. Drag contacts into folders.
Status	This option groups contacts by status as follows: · Active. Contacts who are currently online and active in one of your workspaces. To immediately go to the workspace, right-click the contact and then click Go to Active Workspace. If the selected member is active in several of your workspaces, a Select Workspace window opens and displays a list. · Online. Contacts who are currently online. Offline. Contacts who are currently offline. These contacts may still be available in Communicator.
Verification Status	This option groups members according to their verification status. Verification status reflects whether the identities of your SharePoint Workspace contacts have been verified, either by you, directly, or by your organization. Verifying contact identities reduces the risk of sharing sensitive information with unintended people. For more information on verifying contact identities, see Managing Contacts in SharePoint Workspace Help.

Joe Levine

Deploying SharePoint Workspace 2010 without peer networking

Jim McCoy — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:23:00 GMT

Are you thinking about deploying SharePoint Workspace in your organization but you’re holding off because you don’t want to give SharePoint users access to peer networking workspaces? If so, you can achieve both objectives by configuring a policy that customizes the SharePoint Workspace 2010 deployment to block the use of Groove workspaces.

Here’s how:
1.    First, some preliminaries:
•    Ensure that intended SharePoint Workspace 2010 clients meet the requirements described in System requirements for Office 2010 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190446.
•    Ensure that your SharePoint Server 2010 ports allow access to SharePoint Workspace clients and that outbound port 80/TCP and/or port 443/TCP is open on intended SharePoint Workspace clients.
2.    Prepare your SharePoint Server 2010 systems to support SharePoint Workspace 2010. For more information about SharePoint Server prerequisites, see the Configure and customize SharePoint Workspace 2010 article at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195847.
And remember that you need the 2010 version of SharePoint Server to support SharePoint Workspace!
3.    Set the necessary client permissions to allow SharePoint Workspace users read/write/create access to designated SharePoint sites (or limit these permissions, as needed). For guidance, see these articles: Managing Site Groups and Permissions at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162300 and Managing users and specifying permission for a Web site based on Windows SharePoint Services technology at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162301.
4.    Use Active Directory Group Policy to customize the SharePoint Workspace deployment to set a policy to Prohibit Groove workspaces. Note that SharePoint Workspace 2010 is included with Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. For more information about customizing for SharePoint Workspace deployment, see the Configure SharePoint Workspace 2010 article at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195847.
5.    Test-run your deployment on a client or two. For a test process, see the Test SharePoint Workspace connections article at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195847. On the installed test client, make sure that the option to create or access Groove workspaces is not available on the test client.
6.    Deploy Office 2010 for production.
7.    Create SharePoint workspaces on designated client computers. You can accomplish this as follows:
•    Distribute SharePoint site URLs to SharePoint workspace clients.
•    Instruct users to click the Sync to SharePoint Workspace command from the Site Actions menu on the specified SharePoint site. Users can then synchronize online and offline contributions with SharePoint site content. Groove workspaces will not be available to them. For information about how to use SharePoint Workspace, see the online Help that’s available with SharePoint Workspace.

Mena Paton

SharePoint Workspace moves to NERD!

Jim McCoy — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:55:43 GMT

The SharePoint Workspace team is moving this week to NERD, Microsoft’s New England Research and Development campus in Kendall Square. As of Monday we’ll be surveying the scene in Cambridge and across the river in Boston, getting to know our new campus pals, and getting busy in a new base of operations. Hope to see you there…

Resolving edit conflicts in a SharePoint workspace

Jim McCoy — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:17:01 GMT

SharePoint Workspace gives you the freedom to work with SharePoint content from any location, even when you’re not on your network. But with this freedom comes the potential for edit conflicts if the same item is edited on the server while you edit it offline in a SharePoint workspace.

When there is an edit conflict in a document in a document library, a conflict icon appears in place of the document icon:

When there is an edit conflict on a list item, a conflict icon appears in a list column:

SharePoint Workspace provides features so you can resolve these conflicts without losing your work. Or better still, in the case of documents, you can avoid edit conflicts by checking out documents before editing them locally.

Edit conflicts in document libraries can only occur if you edit a document offline while someone else simultaneously edits the same document on the server. If you edit a document while on your network, other users who attempt to edit the same document will see a message telling them that the document is locked by you for editing.

Edit conflicts in lists can occur even if you’re online if someone else simultaneously edits the same list items on the server.

To resolve edit conflicts in document libraries

1. Select the document that has a conflict.

2. Click the Error Tools/Resolve tab in the Ribbon.

This tab appears whenever an item in the selected list or library has a conflict or error.

3. Click Resolve Conflict or Error.

The Microsoft Upload Center opens.

4. Click Resolve to see options for resolving the conflict.

You can open the document to try to upload your changes. You can save a copy of your version of the document. Or you can simply discard your version of the document.

To resolve edit conflicts in a list

1. Select the list item that has a conflict.

2. Click the Error Tools/Resolve tab in the Ribbon.

This tab appears whenever an item in the selected tool has a conflict or error.

3. Click Resolve Conflict or Error.

The Resolve Conflict dialog box opens, which lists all versions of the item, with the editor’s name and last-modified time.

4. Click More Details to see the form fields in each selected version. You can examine the fields in each version to look for differences.

5. Select the versions of the items you want to keep, and click OK.

If you decide to keep more than one version of the item, conflict copies of the item are created and appear in the data view. The version of the item saved to the workspace first appears as the original copy.

Joe Levine

SharePoint Workspace 2010 Deployment Info

Jim McCoy — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:24:57 GMT

Need deployment info on SharePoint Workspace 2010? Mena Paton has written a white paper on deployment essentials that you can download in printable form here, and you can also get live information on the topic here, from the Office 2010 library on TechNet.

Surfacing SharePoint Workspace data through Windows Explorer and Office applications

Jim McCoy — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:03:56 GMT

With SharePoint Workspace 2010, you can access file data housed in SharePoint Workspace through Windows Explorer and certain Office applications. This is true for both SharePoint workspaces and Groove workspaces, though Groove workspaces must be 2010 workspaces.

Windows Explorer integration

In Office 2010, you no longer have to be within the SharePoint Workspace application in order to view documents that are included in workspaces. When you open Windows Explorer, you will now see a folder called ‘Workspaces’ under your user folder or Favorites, depending on the OS version that you are using. The picture below is from a Windows 7 machine:

When you drill into this folder, you will see a listing of all of the workspaces that are local to your machine, including the folder hierarchy and all documents contained in the folders. This allows you to open, edit and save documents contained in the spaces without leaving the focus of Windows Explorer. Changes made here will be automatically saved to the space in focus, and communicated either to other members of the space, or to the SharePoint site from which the space is derived. There are several aspects of the standard shell functionality that are replicated in this feature, including the ability to create new folders, information on the date modified for the space, the URL associated with the space, document types in the folders, and the size of the file/folder. From the workspace level, you also have the option to right-click and open the related site in the browser. This allows you to access the primary data source without having to find the URL.

Common File Dialog – accessing data from Office applications

With SharePoint Workspace 2010, we have introduced the ability to save a new or existing document directly to a workspace from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. From within the authoring application, you simply click on the File tab and choose Save As, and you will be presented with a dialog that exposes the Workspaces folder that houses all of your 2010 workspaces. Imagine – if you are offline creating a new Word document, you can now create the new document, and save it directly to a SharePoint workspace. The next time you come online, this new document will be automatically synced to the associated SharePoint site without any direct action by you.

In addition, from within the authoring application, you can open documents that are stored in SharePoint Workspace, and edit and save them without having to leave the original application, allowing for a more seamless experience.

Deborah Boling

Buzz about NERD growth in Cambridge

Jim McCoy — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:24:15 GMT

When the SharePoint Workspace team moves to Cambridge, we’ll have lots of company.

Yesterday Microsoft announced plans to expand the NERD with the addition of more than 100,000 square feet in One Cambridge Center, as discussed in a nice blog post by Joe Wyman.

Lots of other folks have taken notice as well, with articles from bostinnovation.com and xconomy as well as the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Boston Business Journal, and the Cambridge Chronicle.

Microsoft has real presence in Boston these days, and it’s gonna be fun to be part of it.

Ways to create a SharePoint Workspace

Jim McCoy — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:26:38 GMT

When you create a SharePoint workspace, you download list and library content from a SharePoint site to your computer. This content is then automatically synchronized with the site whenever you’re on your network. This means updates you make in your local copy are sent to the site, and updates that occur on the site are sent to your local copy.

On a basic level, creating a SharePoint workspace requires very little thinking. You can just go to the site, select the option to Sync to SharePoint Workspace, and then click OK. This is certainly efficient, and you may never need to consider other options. Other options mainly add efficiency, both in terms of creating the workspace, and in keeping it synchronized.

We’ll look at several different ways to create a SharePoint workspace, and explain the benefits of choosing each option.

Taking a whole site offline via Web browser

This is the “grab and go” option, which might be perfectly suitable for your needs most of the time. By taking the whole site, you can be sure you won’t leave behind any content you meant to take with you. And perhaps you just don’t mind downloading and synchronizing more content than you’ll need. But you might consider other options if you know that the site contains particularly large lists or libraries that you don’t intend to work with, and which you’d rather not have to take the time to download to keep synchronized.

1. Go to the SharePoint site in a Web browser.

2. Click Site Actions, and then click Sync to SharePoint Workspace.

3. In the Sync to SharePoint Workspace dialog box, click OK.

Taking selected lists and libraries offline via Web browser

This is the cafeteria option. You know you want to work with several lists and libraries, but you also know that there’s content you won’t work with, and that you’d rather not bother to download and synchronize. In this case you can configure the download to include only the lists and libraries you want. Additionally, you can configure libraries so that the download fetches only document “headers”, meaning document metadata such as file names and properties, but no content. If you choose this option, you can download document content on demand later, in the workspace. The benefit of choosing “Headers Only” is efficiency. You postpone taking the time to download document content, and you don’t use system resources to keep this content synchronized, at least until you decide to download it in the workspace.

1. Go to the SharePoint site in a Web browser.

2. Click Site Actions, and then click Sync to SharePoint Workspace.

3. In the Sync to SharePoint Workspace dialog box, click Configure…

4. In the Configure Settings dialog box, select each list or library and then select the download option you want from the menu.

Remember that if you limit or decline downloading content for any list or library, you can still sync this content later in the workspace, provided that you have access to the SharePoint server..

5. Click OK when you’re done configuring the download.

In the SharePoint workspace, documents in libraries configured for “Headers Only” are marked with a sync icon:

If you have access to the SharePoint server, you can simply double-click a document to download its content, or select multiple documents and click the Download contents button from the Ribbon.

Lists or libraries that you configured for “No Content” are listed under “Available on Server”. To download the content for one of these lists or libraries, select it and then click “Connect Listname to Server”.

Taking only a selected list or library offline via Web browser

Sometimes you may need to work with content from only one specific list or library. In this case, you can quickly create the workspace, excluding the content of all other lists and libraries.

1. Go to the specific list or library in a Web browser.

2. Click the Library tab in the Ribbon.

3. Click Sync to SharePoint Workspace.

4. In the Sync to SharePoint Workspace dialog box, click OK.
The resulting SharePoint workspace downloads content for only the selected list or library. All other lists and libraries are categorized under Available on Server. You can download content for these lists and libraries later as described in the previous section.

Taking a whole site offline via SharePoint Workspace Launchbar

The Launchbar lets you create a new workspace, and depending on your setup, you may see a list of all your SharePoint sites. You can simply scroll the list to find the site you want to take offline.

1. On the Home tab, click New and then click SharePoint Workspace.

2. Select the SharePoint site you want to take offline in the list.

3. If you want to configure the download for the selected list, click Configure.

4. If you want to download all supported lists and libraries for the selected site, click OK.
You can also type or paste a specific site URL in the Location box. However, if you actually need to visit the site in a Web browser in order to find the exact Web address, it’s probably more efficient for you to start the SharePoint workspace directly in the Web browser.

Joe Levine

The SPW Team is shipping down to Cambridge!

Jim McCoy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:37:40 GMT

The SharePoint Workspace team is getting ready to move to the Microsoft NERD (New England Research & Development) Center in Kendall Square down in Cambridge this summer.

It’ll be a big change for us – we’ve been in our beloved Shoe (a great old converted factory in Beverly, MA) since the late 90s. But there will be all kinds of advantages, not the least of which will be tighter community with the other Microsoft teams at the NERD. And while we’ve enjoyed our run in Beverly, it will certainly be fun to be in Cambridge and closer to Boston.

Should be good. We’ll drop a line to let you know when it actually happens.

Yung Chou blogs SPW

Jim McCoy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:47:34 GMT

Yung Chou has put together a couple of nice posts on SharePoint Workspace, pointing out some of the differences between SharePoint Workspace 2010 and Groove 2007. Here is Part 1 and here is Part II.

SharePoint Workspace and the Office Document Cache

Jim McCoy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:30:38 GMT

There are three storage mechanisms SharePoint Workspace uses to store data on your local computer. Lists, InfoPath forms, schema, and views are stored in SharePoint Workspace itself, BCS data has its own storage mechanism, and your SharePoint documents are stored in a common Office file store called the Office Document Cache (ODC). The diagram below shows the relationships between the three data stores and the content sources for each.

The Office Document Cache

SharePoint Workspace, along with other Office 2010 products, uses the Office Document Cache (ODC) for file storage. Files are downloaded and synchronized using a protocol called File Sync via SOAP over HTTP (FSSHTTP). SharePoint Workspace’s use of the ODC and FSSHTTP has many advantages for XML-based Office documents, including:

· Reduced network load

· Faster saves

· Conflict resolution

· Coauthoring

Differential Sync

After initial sync, only document changes are sent between SharePoint and SPW. This reduces bandwidth consumption and server load, while giving the user a more responsive save experience, even when working with very large files.

Collaborating Online and Offline with Coauthoring and Merging

When you’re offline and working with SharePoint documents, other users may be editing the same document, putting it in conflict when you try to sync your changes. SharePoint Workspace and the ODC handle many of these changes automatically for you, by seamlessly integrating your changes with the updated document on the server. When you get back online, your changes will be merged with the new server copy and any changes on the server will appear highlighted green.

Coauthoring allows multiple users to edit the same document at the same time collaboratively. You will be notified when you open a document someone else is editing, along with easy access to their contact information.

When the other user makes changes to a section of a document, that section will become locked, shown below. Once the user has completed making changes you will be notified and the new changes can be merged into your work.

High Volume Synchronization

We’re actively working on increasing capacity limits to optimize throughput, but for now synching a large number of documents can degrade performance. SharePoint Workspace will first warn you when the number that you’re scheduled to synchronize gets high, and then it will actually change its behavior when the number gets higher still.

If you are syncing 500 or more documents, SPW will give you a warning, which also serves as a heads-up to suggest that you should expect gradually slower performance as the number of documents gets larger.

When you’re about to synch 1800 documents or more, SharePoint Workspace will change its behavior to make sure that you get your documents in a timely fashion. It will synchronize only headers (metadata about the document) at this point, and will synchronize actual documents only on demand. When you actually need one or more documents, you can click on them, and SPW will sync them for you on the spot.

There are several ways to reduce the number of documents you have offline, such as deleting unused SharePoint workspaces, disconnecting from unused document libraries, or discarding local copies of documents.

Note that these limitations apply to the ODC only and do not apply to Groove workspaces.

Andrew Harris and Jim McCoy

SharePoint Workspace and Document Libraries

Jim McCoy — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:42:04 GMT

This article presents an overview of how you can work with document libraries in SharePoint Workspace.

What Does the Documents Tool Do?

The SharePoint workspace documents tool allows you to create content and collaborate on documents anywhere you take your computer. All documents in your SharePoint document library synchronize with the Documents Tool. Once the initial synchronization is complete, these files are available on-line and off-line. As you work, your documents will synchronize seamlessly, ensuring that you and all other users have access to the latest changes.

Check-in/Check Out and Version History

While online, the Documents Tool supports check-in/check-out and versioning history, with each behaving as they do in the SharePoint library.

Views

Public and personal views from the SharePoint documents library synchronize with the documents tool.

New Document Creation

Default content templates established on the SharePoint document library synchronize with the documents tool. You can create a new document from your template.

Saving to a SharePoint workspace Directly From Office Applications

You can save directly to a SharePoint workspace from Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Richard Sgro, Program Manager

Encryption in SharePoint Workspace 2010

Jim McCoy — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:58:56 GMT

In securing your SharePoint Workspace environment, it’s important to understand the encryption story. The table below summarizes built-in data encryption in SPW 2010:

Workspace type	*Is file data encrypted on-disk?**	Is non-file data encrypted on disk?	Is data encrypted over the network?
SharePoint	No**	No**	No***
Groove 2010	No**	Yes	Yes
Groove 2007	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shared Folder	No	Yes (e.g. chat)	Yes

* This includes files in the Documents and Files tools, as well as file attachments in all other tools.

** On-disk data can be encrypted using the Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption.

*** Data sent over the network between the SharePoint Workspace and the SharePoint servers can be encrypted using SSL, configurable by the server administrator.

On a related note, SharePoint Workspace 2010 supports all three authentication flavors available in SharePoint Server 2010: Single Sign-On, Forms-Based Authentication, and Claims-Based Authentication. You can go here to see Paul Cannon’s post on Single Sign-on.

Alexei Evdokimov, Drew Harris, and Jim McCoy

Anand and Drew introducing SPW at SharePoint User Group event

Jim McCoy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:22:59 GMT

Anand Kulkarni and Drew Harris will be offering An Introduction to SharePoint Workspace at the SharePoint user group event in Waltham, Massachusetts this coming Tuesday, 2/23. Things get underway at 6 p.m. at the Microsoft offices on Jones Road. Follow the link for more details.

Jim McCoy

SharePoint Workspace and Single Sign-on

Jim McCoy — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:52:31 GMT

For those of you who are new to SharePoint Workspace – welcome and thank you for exploring the product. You can comfortably proceed on to other parts of the web without reading the rest of this blog entry. However, for those of you keen on a little history lesson or come from our Groove customer base – please read on to learn about changes to our sign-in process.

One of the early design goals for Groove has always been around security. Picture the time – it was the late nineties and the founders saw how much trouble there was to have easy and secure collaboration with others inside or outside your organization. When I joined the company as a field sales engineer in mid-2002, I was stunned that the first part of the training was security – it was unique. Many other products I had worked with saw security as a bolt-on for later releases.

That being said, there is a price to pay for stringent security in any product. And unfortunately, casual users always seem to pay that price first. Enterprises often struggled with the basic operational aspects of password management, account resets, and other security measures in Groove. Those who really wanted these features loved us; and the larger majority suffered through this aspect of our product or sometimes (gasp) abandoned us for simpler (even if less secure) technologies.

Advance the clock forward 12 years to now and the world has changed a lot since the very early days of Groove. OS security has improved greatly. Two of these aspects that are keen to SharePoint Workspace security are the login process and disk encryption. I’ll set aside data encryption - my colleague Drew Harris plans to cover that topic in a future blog.

The SharePoint Workspace engineering team looked at the login process and decided that we could solve a real pain for a large majority of our customer base while simplifying the product as well. This brings us to describe one of the changes you will first see when you use SharePoint Workspace: you will not have to login.

I’ll rely upon Leon Alexandrou to walk us through what that means to you and to your IT team that supports SharePoint Workspace.

SharePoint Workspace 2010 now has a single sign-on experience where logging onto your Windows OS account will also automatically log you onto your SharePoint Workspace 2010 account. Our implementation uses the Windows Data Protection (DPAPI) to maintain secure access to your account while using your Windows logon for protection. It supports password or smartcard logon, and works whether your PC is Active Directory domain joined or in a Workgroup.

Behind the scenes with single sign-on, SharePoint Workspace 2010 has a master key that is used to encrypt the account. The account master key is secured using the master key password. The master key password is a large, machine-generated random string, unknown to the user. The master key password is then separately encrypted via DPAPI based on the user’s Windows logon. When the user successfully logs onto Windows, the master key password is then accessible and may then be used to decrypt the account master key, and subsequently unlock the user’s SharePoint Workspace 2010 account.

For IT Pros who have had to manage Groove in the past, this should come as good news. Gone are the days of password resets just because a user changed his hardware or did not use his account for an extended period.

And for enterprises operating managed systems, there is a Groove Server 2010 Manager policy available that can restrict managed accounts to a list a of specified Active Directory domain(s). This can restrict the users’ managed accounts to Active Directory domains the enterprise manages.

While single sign-on is the general user experience for all SharePoint Workspace 2010 users, there are occasions where the user account may need to be recovered. In such cases the user may be one time prompted for an account recovery password. Occasions when this may happen include: on upgrade from Office Groove 2007, after adding to the SharePoint Workspace 2010 account to new PC or upon a user’s Windows logon credential reset.

We recognize this is a change for our Groove customers and that is why we wanted to cover it here. We believe based upon our conversation with customers that most of them will enjoy this new approach while removing a barrier to daily usage of our product.

Paul Cannon
Leon Alexandrou