This section has been added because of the major changes made between Office XP/STS 1.0 and Office 2003 / WSS.

With STS 1.0 it was possible to import contacts from Outlook 2002. It was not possible to export contacts to Outlook 2002.

 

With WSS it is possible in an WSS Contact List to Import Contacts from Outlook 2003 and also to export Contacts to Outlook 2003.

 

In the later case, your web "area"'s (web, subweb, Meeting Place, Document Workspace etc.) Contact list will be transfered to Outlook 2003 as a new Contact Library.

 

Contacts will not be added to an existing Outlook Contact list.

 

These Contacts then appear in Outlook 2003 as an item in the "Other Contacts" section, but they may be then transfered by drag and drop into (for instance) the "My Contacts" section of the Contacts left-hand column.

 

In Outlook 2003 Contacts may (as before) be exported to a file. There is no easily accessible way to transfer the contents of a file into WSS. *as far as I can see*.

 

In STS 1.0 the Contact information available for each person was text information which could also include a URL of the person's web site.

 

In WSS the Contact information available for each person is similar if not identical (looks the same to me) to that in STS 1.0 but in addition it is now possible to add an attachment (person's photo perhaps).

 

Christian Super later commented
 

When a WSS Contact list is linked to Outlook, users generally want to use the Contact list like they do their other contact lists.  To do so, the Contact list must be made visible.

 

To add any folder containing Contact items to the Outlook Address Book:

 

1. Right-click the folder, choose Properties from the pop-up menu, and switch to the Outlook Address Book tab.

2. Check the box for Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book.

3. You can enter a new Name of the address book to make it easier to distinguish from other Contacts folders. The name change affects only the address book display, not the actual name of the folder.

4. Click OK.
 
Thanks, Christian!

With Outlook 2002 attachments could be added to mail messages. The person opening the mail message opened the version of the attached document that was available when it was attached.

 

With Outlook 2003 and WSS, the master copy of an attachment is stored on the WSS site. The person opening the mail message will always receive the latest version of the attached document.

 

Meetings created in Outlook 2002 specified a time in your (and your invitees) Outlook calendar.

 

Meetings created in Outlook 2003 also allow (not compulsary) a 'Meeting Workplace' to be created. This is a regular WSS site for which a set of ready-made templates are available thus allowing a site that is most suitable for the type of meeting.

 

The default "Basic Meeting" type for instance consists of lists for Objectives and Attendees; and Agenda, Document Library, Action Items and Decision. People invited to the meeting are informed of the URL of the meeting workplace.

 

 

In other words these meeting workplaces are short-term WSS sites designed mainly as a way of making a meeting or perhaps rather a series of meetings more effective. The most common use for them will (in my opinion) probably be for projects where a Meeting Workplace will be created when a Project Group is founded.

 

Only the people invited to the meeting initially have the rights to access the Meeting Workplace. It is logical that the list of users of a Meeting Workplace can vary as required (using standard WSS 'modify users' techniques.

In STS 1.0 typically the administrator would create on request a web site for a Project.

 

In WSS Meeting Workplaces would probably be created automatically from inside Outlook 2003 as above.

 

However, Meeting Workplaces can also be created from within WSS. In particular they can be created at the same time that a new Event is created.

 

In this case all authorized users of that part of the WSS site will have the rights to access the Meeting Workplace. Otherwise functionality is similar.

See

 

V.1.4.1 Saving only E-mail messages in WSS

 

and

 

V.1.4.2 Saving only E-mail attachments in WSS

 

and

 

V.1.4.3 Saving both E-mail messages and attachments in WSS

To save an E-mail message in Outlook directly to a document library in WSS

 

- open the e-mail
- File / Save As
- In the 'File Name' box type the http:// address of the WSS site (e.g. http://<servername>)

A window opens containing the WSS site

- Navigate to the Document Library you want
- Save the e-mail

 

(You will be allowed to change the document's name. Default mode is probably .htm which seems to work fine)

 

 

 

 

(Thanks to Jerry Orman for the technique)

Follow V.1.4.1 above but instead of File / Save As use File / Save Attachments.

Follow V.1.4.1 above but when you Save As specify the File Type 'Outlook Message Format' (*.msg).

 

In STS 1.0 if your default template for a document library was the standard Word template, then 'New Document' would open a Word session (either within your browser or as true Word depending on your settings); you would write your document and when you saved it, you would be saving it to the STS site and would have the opportunity of changing additional (STS) fields such as Category or Source.

 

This worked fine but only if the user had Office XP.

 

You also had the possibility of "Edit in Microsoft Word" - i.e. amend an existing document located in an STS document library which worked in roughly the same way (also only in Office XP).

 

This worked BUT was something I never demoed because although the change had been done to the document on the STS site, the document sent to the browser was invariably in a demo a back version.

 

 

In WSS the same possibilities are available as with STS 1.0, that is with the Document Library fully open you can still choose "New Document" as above. (Office 2003 and presumably Office XP)

 

You also still have the possibility of Edit in Microsoft Word. The functionality of this has been slightly improved as it is now possible to access this function via a drop-down list box alongside the document name AND this list box is available both in the smaller view of the document library that you may have on the main page of the web or sub-web and in the normal full document library page.

 

WSS offers in the same document library page the new "Edit in Datasheet" facility but this doesn't seem to offer any additional ways or adding or editing the contents of existing documents and just offers a different (and more compressed) view of the list of documents to that provided by the standard web site.

 

The final additional feature (ignoring check-in/check-out and versioning which are dealt with elsewhere) offered by the interaction between Word 2003 and WSS is the possiblity when you create a document in Word 2003 of being able to specify that there will be a Document Workspace for the document.

 

This function is selected in WSS after the document has been created in Word 2003. ("Create Workspace" is the final selection on the drop-down box mentioned above in connection with 2.0's Edit in Microsoft Word) This Document Workspace is a full-scale mini WSS site contained a document library (containing the document); an Announcements section (with an Announcement of the site; Members; Links and Task sections (in the main part of the screen) and even Lists, Discussions, Surveys and Pictures available from the left-hand columns.

 

(If 'Document Workspace' is selected, the document is still listed in the original document library as well as in the document workspace site's document library. Updating the version of the document in the Document Workspace does not seem to update the version of the document in the original document library)

 

Word 2003 documents have a set of Custom Properties

 

Checked By
Client
Date completed
Department
Destination
Disposition
Division
Document Number
Editor
Forward To
Group
Language
Mailstop
Matter
Office
Owner
Project
Publisher
Purpose
Received from
Recorded by
Recorded date
Reference
Source
Status
Telephone number
Typist

 

Values from a Word Document for any of these fields will be propogated to the WSS Document Library by the following method.

 

a) Create a document library and add a new field of type Single Column.

Give it the same name as one of the above (example Language)

 

b) Open Word 2003 and create a new document.

After writing it and before saving it, go to Properties / Custom and specify Language as (say) "Finnish".

 

c) Save the document (with Save As) to the web site (enter the URL or specify an existing Network Place).

 

 

 

 

 

In STS 1.0 it was possible to get a copy of your Contacts information into Excel (by clicking "Export" while in a Contacts screen). Similarly Announcements, Events in fact any (custom) List could be transfered into Excel.

 

In these cases synchronization between Excel and the STS list was only possible in one direction - namely a change in the STS list could be synchronized within Excel (using Data/Refresh External Data). Any additional line made in the Excel data meant that the 'Refresh External Data' option was greyed out; also any change made to an existing line in Excel was not transferable to STS (Refresh External Data merely removing the change made).

 

It was not possible to transfer the contents of a view (such as 'All Documents' of a Document Library to Excel in this way.

In WSS It is also possible to transfer the contents of a view of a Document Library to Excel in addition to the (custom) Lists mentioned above.

 

In WSS changes can be made to the list in either Excel or WSS and synchronized in both directions. The only restriction of this is a document library where because a document library contains hidden columns, additional rows (records) can not be added to the Excel version - changes to the contents of existing rows is however also possible in Excel even for Document Libraries.

 

The best method to do this is by using the Task Pane and clicking on "Export and Link to Excel" with synchronization taking place with "List / Synchronized with SharePoint"

In WSS list data can either be exported to an existing Access database or to a new Access database.

 

If you use "Export to Access" to do this, it will not be possible to synchronize data in either direction.

 

If you use "Create Linked Table in Access" to do this then synchronization is possible in both directions but it works in different ways.

 

- If you update the data in Access, the changes are immediately transfered to the WSS copy.

 

- If you update the data in WSS, the changes are only visible in Access if the linked table is first closed (in Access) and re-opened.

This is a general set of questions that will be added to over time as I become aware of them. I am not myself planning to use InfoPath so help from others in adding to this list would be appreciated.

 

Some of the following use "SharePoint", I am assuming they apply to WSS.

InfoPath allows you to publish a form template to a SharePoint v2 form library and promote data in the form (XML template) to SharePoint columns.

 

You can populate a dropdown from a SharePoint list but we do not have this as a built-in connection in InfoPath.

 

Posting InfoPath forms to WSS Form Libraries is built-in.

 

Referencing data from an existing list is possible but it requires more manual work to hook it up through the web service adapter or through WSS's XML Interface.

 

("through WSS's XML Interface" is FAQ maintainer's revised text. Comments *please*: Original text "XML as datasource adapter through WSS's XML interface").

 

InfoPath is required to fill out the form if you want InfoPath's rich structural editing, schema validation, and connectivity capability features.

 

The data InfoPath inputs/outputs is just XML (your defined schema) so you can work with that raw data any way you like but you will then have to handle all the schema validation and expose the structural editing yourself.

 

(Source: Utilises information from an InfoPath Solutions chat session - permission granted for re-use here)

 

Syncronization of Office Document Properties with WSS Document Libraries

 

(Bil Simser)

 

Thierry Masson suggests that you read his feedback to that article - when you do read also Bil's comment to those comments.