Understanding the Basics of Collaboration in SharePoint 2010 (part 2) - Editing Features in SharePoint 2010

1. Rich Text Editing

The new Team Site home page contains a Click To Edit feature that makes content changes simple. Power users can easily upload images, create links, and add Web Parts with a click of the mouse. Users with design or higher access can click the Page tab on the Ribbon or choose Edit Page from the Site Actions menu. In SharePoint 2010, the Edit Page command opens the Wiki Page Home Page feature; it is enabled or disabled as requirements dictate. If the Wiki Page is disabled, the Team Site will display as the traditional SharePoint Server 2007 home page. To check if this feature is enabled or disabled, complete the following steps.

2. The SharePoint Ribbon

SharePoint 2010 uses a Ribbon similar to the Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2010 Ribbon and, just like Office, items are logically grouped. Further, the SharePoint 2010 Ribbon can be customized as needed and retains the users’ security context. Figure 4 contains an example of the Ribbon for the Team Site home page.

As a page is edited, the Ribbon changes to make relevant operations available on the page or Web Part. For example, Figure 5 shows operations available for content editing on a page.

3. SharePoint Dialog Boxes

New to SharePoint 2010 are the form dialog boxes, where functions such as creating a new item utilize forms that appear in the users’ context window instead of redirecting the browser to a new page. To add a Web Part, users with proper permissions can click the Insert tab in the Action bar, select the Web Part button, choose the Web Part, and then click Add. During this process, the page context doesn’t change. The ease with which power users can navigate and modify SharePoint sites should increase adoption and empower such users to do more with their sites. Further, the SharePoint 2010 wiki page allows users to insert Web Parts practically anywhere on the page.

Some of the most notable new Web Parts released with SharePoint 2010 are

• Silverlight viewer

• Media Web Part

• Chart Web Part

• HTML form Web Part

• iView Web Part

• Search Web Parts

One of the most frequently used Web Parts in SharePoint websites is the Content Editor Web Part. In SharePoint Server 2007, this Web Part allows users to enter information using a Microsoft Write experience. Using this Web Part, power users can type text inside the box and perform basic functions using—but not limited to—tables, fonts, and images. However, Microsoft Write is a very simple word-processing program, and administrators and users alike needed more features and capabilities than it could offer. Until SharePoint 2010 was introduced, however, the choices were either to teach HTML to the broad user base or have administrators or Web developers write code through the source editor.

SharePoint 2010 revamps and revitalizes the Content Editor Web Part so that it now resembles Microsoft Word more than Microsoft Write. No longer will users complain about broken URLs, tables not aligned when published, and so on. Business users will like this enhanced Web Part because it is so easy to use, styles can be applied to tags in Page Edit mode, and the user still has the ability to edit the HTML as necessary. Further, with the addition of the Ribbon, the Web Part easily converts to XHTML from the content editing Ribbon shown in Figure 5.

As companies strive to brand themselves in an ever-changing marketplace, websites must quickly adapt. SharePoint 2010 has revised and enhanced the way in which power users and administrators create and apply themes to sites. One of the most important changes to site themes is the ability to inherit themes from the parent site. SharePoint 2010 makes theme changes significantly easier by providing three different methods for defining and changing themes.

• You can use Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, an application already known by most power users.

• You have access to enhanced Web-based site themes.

• You can create a CSS style sheet and attach to the master page.

Applying site themes assists content and Web managers in defining the content space by unifying the branding experience from other corporate media into the SharePoint website. Departments, divisions, and product lines can be defined using specific color palettes as needed.

4.1. Creating Themes Using the User Interface

You can create or change a basic color theme for a site directly through the UI for a site. Important feature enhancements to the Web interface include the ability to change the header and body font; the ability to change texts, accents, and hyperlinks; and a preview mode to view changes before they are applied to the site. To create or change a site, use the following steps.

4.2. Creating Themes with Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

SharePoint 2010 no longer requires users to know and understand Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create a site theme. By utilizing a known application such as Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, power users can create and apply site themes quickly and easily. To change a website theme based on Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, follow these steps.

After completing these steps, the SharePoint site will refresh to reflect the updated fonts, colors, and styles defined in the PowerPoint theme file. Additional customizations can be made, as necessary, by adjusting the theme file, via the user interface, or by creating customized style sheets.

4.3. Creating Themes Using Style Sheets

You may sometimes need to modify more than the colors and fonts of a website. You can create site themes using style sheets and then attach them to master pages through SharePoint Designer 2010. After you create a style sheet, you attach it to the master page by following these steps.

Because the UI has changed significantly in both SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint 2010, any customizations that rely on specific CSS classes and UI elements will work best for users in backward compatibility mode. When you initiate upgrades to either SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint 2010, the installer is able to choose either backward compatibility mode or the upgraded user interface mode. These modes may be toggled between backward compatibility and the new interface at the site collection level or site level.

• To preserve the look and feel of existing sites, choose the PSConfig or PSConfigUI.

• To preserve the look and feel of existing sites during an upgrade, you can attach the old content database to a new server farm using Stsadm.

You can use the Web interface to set all sites in a site collection to the upgraded UI (and prevent users from using the earlier interface). To do this, follow these steps.

6. Incorporating Rich Media Support

Rich media, a key component in the collaboration landscape, is another vehicle you can use to get targeted information to users. Training videos for employees, as opposed to on-site training sessions, are increasing in popularity as companies strive to reduce costs. Furthermore, in the “information now” age, users want information when they need it, where they need it, and within a few clicks of the mouse. A recent press release from Gartner, Inc., was titled “Gartner Predicts That by 2013, More Than 25 Percent of the Content That Workers See in a Day Will Be Dominated by Pictures, Video or Audio” (at http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=834213). Clearly there is a growing need for organizations to be able to store, find, and retrieve media in the same ways as documents. SharePoint 2010 is answering this challenge with rich media capabilities. SharePoint 2010 comes with

• The infrastructure to support storing and serving media using the asset library template

• Asset library support for RSS/podcasting while still supporting standard document library features

• The ability to play videos within SharePoint using the media Web Part or using remote locations

• Support for customized skins using Expression Blend 3

• Access to playback controls using the JavaScript object model

This evolution of rich media support allows SharePoint 2010 to seamlessly incorporate videos, audio, and pictures into the collaboration experience without extensive training or support. For example, the SharePoint Media Player can be included on any page with a few clicks of the mouse. To insert a Microsoft Silverlight Web part, complete the following steps.