Unable to See "+" and "-" Group/Ungroup in Certain Excel Worksheets

When I select and Group multiple rows, I cannot see the "-" (collapse) or the "+" (expand) signs on the left of the spreadsheet.  This happens for both Rows and Column groups.  This happens for only certain Tabs (Worksheets) within the Workbook.

OR I have grouped some columns, but now I can't see the button on the top of the grouped ones. I tried to group/ungroup again and, as there were some hidden rows, I tried to unhide them all and it is still not working.

OR how do you group and ungroup rows or columns in new Excel?

Resolution:

Show or hide outlined data

1. If you don't see the outline symbols 1,2,3, +, and -, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Excel Options, click the Advanced category, and then under the Display for this worksheet section, select the worksheet, and select the Show outline symbols if an outline is applied check box.

2. Do one or more of the following:

Show or hide the detail data for a group

• To display the detail data within a group, click the + for the group.
• To hide the detail data for a group, click the - for the group.

Expand or collapse the entire outline to a particular level

• In the 1,2,3 outline symbols, click the number of the level that you want. Detail data at lower levels is then hidden.

For example, if an outline has four levels, you can hide the fourth level while displaying the rest of the levels by clicking 3.

Show or hide all of the outlined detail data

• To show all detail data, click the lowest level in the 1,2,3 outline symbols. For example, if there are three levels, click 3.
• To hide all detail data, click1.

Office File Validation detected a problem while trying to open this file. Opening it may be dangerous

When you open Microsoft Office 97-2003 binary file (such as .doc) the file is compared to a binary schema. If the file fails this validation, you are notified that the document could be considered to be compromised. In Office 2003 and in the 2007 Office system, you are prompted about the file status and can decide to cancel opening the file or to continue to open the file.

Office File Validation detected a problem while trying to open this file. Opening it may be dangerous.

Resolution:

Resolution is very simple and Million thanks to Microsoft’s Office Product team for publishing this fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2501584

This fix is available for:

Disable Edit in Protected View: Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Word 2010.

Enable Edit in Protected View: Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Word 2010.

For Office 2003 and 2007 Office system

Disable the opening of documents

Excel 2003 and 2007, Word 2003 and 2007, PowerPoint 2003 and 2007

Enable the editing of documents

Excel 2003 and 2007, Word 2003 and 2007, PowerPoint 2003 and 2007

Duplicate items appear when viewing items in Datasheet view in SharePoint

ISSUE:

Duplicate items appear when viewing items in Datasheet view in SharePoint.  This also happens when using the Export to Spreadsheet (Excel).  If duplicates appear in Datasheet view, they will also appear during Export to Spreadsheet and vice versa.

DESCRIPTION:

The list has got versioning switched off, and views fine in standard list view. However, when you switch to either datasheet view or Excel Export it shows the same rows up to three times in sequential rows.

WORAROUND/SOLUTION:

The affected lists have a REQUIRED lookup field which allows multiple values.

If you have a view that does NOT include this field and it is either a datasheet or you "Switch to Datasheet" then datasheet shows duplicate items depending on how many multi-values are selected. 

Our work-around was to create a specific Datasheet view with the field included.  The multi-value field does not show in datasheet, because multi-value lookup fields don't seem to work in datasheet.  However, it's important to include the field in the view to avoid duplicates.

Unfortunately, if you have a view that does not include the field and then "Switch to Datasheet" you will encounter the same problem.

The duplicates appear also when you try to Export to Excel.  If you have a view that would be affected by the "Switch to Datasheet" duplicates problem, when you try to Export to Excel, it will also appear.

Unable to “Edit series” for a repeating event in sharepoint calendar list

Issue:

Unable to “Edit series” for a repeating event in sharepoint calendar list

Problem Description:

There is a repeating event (event series) in sharepoint calendar list with “All day event” selected and no specific start and end time.

When someone opens an event and then clicks on "Edit series", it opens up the series in edit mode. But after making any type of changes, page can’t be saved and clicking “Ok” returns to same edit page reflecting some validation errors which doesn't allow us to commit the changes.

Workaround\Resolution:

Solution for this problem issue is extremely simple very unobvious.

Whether we make changes to the series or not, we must uncheck the box for “All day event” and then select the check box again.

How to add IM contacts on Blackberry?

How to add IM contacts on Blackberry?

Hello Guys,

Issue: Instant Messenger on Blackberry. When adding new contacts on the Blackberry within Instant Messenger, Contacts always remain unknown status. Contacts show up in contact list within messenger but status is "Presence unknown".

Resolution:

The correct method for adding contacts is to highlight your name in BB Communicator (BB Enterprise IM), then choose “Add a contact”.  In the Sign-in Address field, you will type the user’s SIP address, which is not the same as their email address, although the two addresses may look the same. Using the person’s email address (ie. abc@ocsdomain.com) will not work, as Communicator uses the SIP address for identifying users (ie. sipaddress@ocsadomain.com).

However, there is a bug using that method because it will try to associate the BB Communicator contact with a pre-existing contact card on your BlackBerry. Therefore, you will need to go through and create the BB contact first before adding the BB Communicator contact.  There is also a problem where the “@” symbol may not resolve when performing a look-up function for the SIP address.

Recommend you add contacts through the desktop Communicator software, or the web Communicator client, instead of using the BB Communicator.

Note: Add contact on MOC and then use the same in IM on Blackberry.

  

Thank you.

Creating a Web Part page and Setting Web Part page as your SharePoint Home page.

Creating a Web Part Page:

From the main site collection, click the Site Actions button and choose Create from the dropdown
Under Web Pages on the next screen, click Webpart Page.

Give the Web Part Page a name, choosing desired layout and choose where you would like it saved. Then click Create.

After you click Create, the page will open from the lib. Where you have saved it.

You can start editing the page from here by adding Web Parts of your choice and can edit the page later by going to the doc. lib where you have saved it.

Setting Web Part page as your SharePoint Home page

This can easily be done is SharePoint Designer. If you have not installed SharePoint designer as a part of Office 2007 Enterprise, I highly recommend it. If you do not have Office 2007 Enterprise edition, MS offers a free 30 day trial of SharePoint Designer to test out as well.

In SharePoint Designer, open the site where you saved the web part page you created. In my case it is located in my personal site. When I created the web part page, I chose to save in Documents. Hit the + and expand the Documents folder to find you Web Part page.

Drag the page out of the folder and below the default.aspx page.

This takes it out of the place is SharePoint where is it was stored to prevent other people from making changes. Now it is associated with the site only.

Right click on your web part page and select Set as Home Page.

Click OK to the message.

Click OK to the next message if it appears.

This will be renaming your old default page as default-old.aspx and will name the Web Part page as default.aspx page.

You can also preview this  page in  your browser. Now you can see that your site has the web part page you created earlier, and you are able to edit the page accordingly. SharePoint Designer is incredibly powerful and you can do things much faster here than in SharePoint itself. Try it out for yourself. 

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. Thank you.

How to Create a New SharePoint Group

Use the following steps to create a new SharePoint Group:

·         Choose Site Settings from the Site Actions and Click Modify All Site Settings.

·         Click Advanced Permissions from the Users and Permissions column

Caution: Check if the site you are adding the group to is inheriting permissions from its parent site. The site is inheriting permissions from its parent if you see the following message: “This Website inherits permissions from its parent Web site. To manage permissions directly, click Edit Permissions from the Action menu.”

·         To break Inheritance from parent site and give this site unique Permissions, click Edit Permissions from the Actions menu.

Note: You can switch back and forth between these settings as needed by selecting Inherit Permissions from the Actions Menu. However, it is important to realize that whenever a site is switched to inheriting permissions from the parent site, all unique permission settings within the site are discarded.      

·         Click OK on the confirmation pop-up.

·         Click New to open the new menu, and select New Group.

·         Type a Name and Description the new group.

Important: Use the following naming conventions.

SiteName_Designers

SiteName_Contributors

·         Enter the group owner information. The group owner will have complete control over this group, including modifying settings as well as adding or removing group membership. There can only be one group owner.

·         Enter Group Settings, Membership Requests.

Caution: If you select yes for the Auto-accept requests option, any user requesting access to this group will automatically be added as a member of the group and receive the permission level associated with the group.

·         Specify the permission level for the Groups.

·         Click Create to create the new group.

How to Add Users to a Group in SharePoint

Use the steps below to add a user into a SharePoint Group:

1.   Choose Site Settings from the Site Actions and Click People and Groups present below Modify All Site Settings.

2.   Click Advanced Permissions from the User and Permissions column.

3.   Click the Groups heading on the left Quick Launch bar.

4.   From the “People and Groups: All Groups” page, click the name of the group to add users or groups to. This opens a page listing the current membership of the group.

5.   Click New to open new menu, and select Add Users.

6.   From the Add Users page, type domain name (i.e. domain name\userid) and click the check name icon or click the phone book icon and search for the name.

7.   Select which group to add the users to.

8.   Click OK.

Backup-Restore by using SharePoint Designer 2007

Steps to create the Backup of a SharePoint site using SharePoint Designer 2007 is provided below:

1.   Open site you want to Migrate in SharePoint Designer 2007

§  Copy the URL of the site.

§  Open SharePoint Designer 2007.

§  Go to File > Open Site.

§  Paste the URL of your site in Site Name.

§  Click Open. Designer will attempt to open the Web.

2.   Go to Site > Administration > Backup Web Site.

3.   Check “Include Sub Sites in Archive” if needed.

4.   Type a name for the backup file and save it to your desktop or somewhere that is easy to locate.

5.   Click “OK” – backup will begin.

6.   A message will appear when backup is complete.

Migrating Site to a New Site

1.   Create New Site under parent

·         Open SharePoint Designer 2007, and open the root parent site where you want to create your subsite.

·         Go to File > Open Site.

·         Type in the URL of the SharePoint web in the folder field.

·         Click OK; the designer will try to open your web.

2.   In the Folder List column, right-click on the top folder, e.g. "http://mosstest/sites/WSSsitename"

3.   Select New > Subsite...

4.   In the Web Site Templates window that appears, select the 'Empty Web Site' template.

5.   On the right-side of the Web Site Templates window you will see a box titled 'Specify the location of the new Web site'. In this box you should see a URL like http://mosstest/sites/WSSsitename/subsite

6.   Change subsite to the name you want your new site to use

7.   This will build a new empty site, and should open a new Designer session showing the empty site.

8.   Restore WSS site using the Restore site steps.

Restore the SharePoint site

Warning: Using the Restore feature in Designer can overwrite existing content or data in a site if not used properly. You should always restore the .cmp file to an empty site

·         With your web open, go to Site > Administration > Restore Web Site....

·         Navigate to the backup file you created in Step 1

·         Click Open.

·         Designer will ask you to press OK to restore the template to your site. Click OK. The Site will proceed to restore.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. Thank you.

Upgrade to Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products from MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0

When we plan for an upgrade from MOSS 2007 or WSS 3.0 to SharePoint 2010 Products, we have different upgrade approaches as building blocks that can be used for optimal upgrade approach.

In-place upgrade: Use this approach to install the new version of SharePoint 2010 products on the same hardware that is used for the previous version. Upgrade the content and settings in the server farm as part of a single process.

Databases attach upgrade: Use this approach to upgrade the content for the environment on a separate farm. It doesn't upgrade any of the services or farm settings. Content databases can be upgraded in any order and can upgrade several databases at the same time. Using this approach, its possible to attach a Shared Service Provider database during DB attach upgrade, this will upgrade the profile information in the database. Using this approach, it’s not possible to upgrade the search database.

Hybrid approaches: A hybrid approach lets us to take advantage of in-place upgrade's ability to upgrade content and settings, while we take advantage of the speed of a database attach upgrade. The advantages of this method is

·         Farm wide settings can be preserved and upgraded

·         Customizations are available in the environment after upgrade, although manual steps may be required to upgrade or rework

We can upgrade multiple content databases at the same time, which results in faster upgrade times overall than an in-place upgrade. For more information on Upgrade Process please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262483(office.14).aspx 

Role of Excel Services in SharePoint 2010

Excel Services is part of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Excel Services is built on ASP.NET and SharePoint Foundation technologies

Excel Services enables you to load, calculate, and display Microsoft Excel workbooks on Microsoft SharePoint Server

Core Components are:-

·         Excel Web Access

·         Excel Web Services

·         User-defined functions (UDFs)

·         ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript)

·         Representational State Transfer (REST) service

·         Excel Calculation Services

An important aspect of Excel Services is that solution developers can use its power programmatically from their applications.

There are five types of development that you can do by using Excel Services:

·         Develop solutions by using Excel Web Services

·         Extend the Microsoft Excel function library in Excel Services by using user-defined functions (UDFs)

·         Customize the Excel Web Access Web Part

·         Develop solutions by using ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript)

·         Use the REST API to perform operations against Excel workbooks

It supports sharing, securing, managing, and using Excel 2010 workbooks in a browser by providing the following:

Global settings for managing workbooks,

·         settings for security

·         load balancing

·         session management

·         memory utilization

·         workbook caches,

·         external data connections

·         Trusted file locations

An extensive list of trusted data providers for connecting to your data, plus the ability to add your own trusted data provider.

·         Trusted data connection libraries, which allow you to define which data connection libraries in your farm are trusted by Excel Services

·         The ability to add your own user-defined function assemblies.

SHAREPOINT LIBRARIES 2010

Library:

·         Container for creating, organizing, managing different document types (Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms etc).

·         To store files, Meta information about the files.

·         Used among different team members.

·         By default a Shared Library is created when a site is created.

·         Additionally any number of different types of libraries can be created.

Specialized library types in SP 2010

To store specific content  types.

·         Asset Library:

To create a rich media library.

To create, browse, share, organize and manage images, audio and video files.

·         Data Connection Library:

To create, browse, share, organize and manage files that contain information about connecting to external data connections.

Document Library:

To create, browse, share, organize, and manage documents or other files.

For creating folders, versioning of documents and check-in/check-out of files.

Form Library:

To store and manage Microsoft Office InfoPath forms/ XML files for use with Microsoft Office InfoPath(business forms like a status report, purchase orders, etc).

Picture Library:

To upload, share pictures with others.

Includes a built-in image viewer.

Report Library:

To create web pages, reports to track business metrics, goals, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and business intelligence information.

Slide Library:

To create a library for storing and sharing Microsoft PowerPoint slides.

Wiki Page Library:

To create, store customizable pages of content that are linked together and can be edited by several people