By Sally McGhee, Founder and CEO, McGhee Productivity Solutions

A recognized thought leader and innovator in the field of productivity management, Sally McGhee has trained thousands of people in the corporate environment. She has 25 years experience as a consultant and an executive coach, and is the founder and CEO of McGhee Productivity Solutions (www.mcgheeproductivity.com).

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• 1. Establish a clear purpose for your site and identify your audience

• 2. Set up a document library folder structure

• 3. Clearly describe the contents of each folder and educate your users

• 4. Assign clear ownership for your document libraries

• 5. Develop standards for consistent document naming and maintaining versions

• 6. Link SharePoint files to Outlook

• 7. Check out and check in files that you are editing

• 8. Create links to SharePoint files instead of attaching the files

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 Note   The information in this article also applies to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites.

Most companies today have employees and subcontractors located in different locations around the country. Because teams work together on documents and schedules, they need a central location where they can store and edit documents as well as keep track of their calendars. To work together as efficiently as possible, we recommend using team Web sites created with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.

Our customers have found team Web sites very useful for managing, collaborating and tracking team objectives, projects, meetings and documents. And because Windows SharePoint Services is closely integrated with the 2003 or 2007 Microsoft Office system, it makes document storing, filing and collaborating even simpler. Learn more about Windows SharePoint Services.

We're going to review eight tips that we recommend to our customers for setting up and using a team Web site for document storing and collaboration. We hope these tips help you get up and running as quickly as possible with your own site. If you would like more information on increasing productivity using Windows SharePoint Services or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 please refer to our new book, Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized. Go to: www.mcgheeproductivity.com/products/home.php.

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1. Establish a clear purpose for your team Web site and identify your audience

The first two questions to answer before setting up your site are, “Why are you creating a team Web site?” and “Who will this Web site serve?” Your answers will help you determine what SharePoint functions to use and how to set them up to best support your audience. It's easy to rush into setting up these sites without pausing to consider things like, “Who is the audience I'm serving?” and “What purpose does this need to fulfill?” Once you've captured this information and it's clear, you can move on to structuring the site to accomplish your stated purpose.

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2. Set up a document library folder structure that helps your team to easily find and file information

Windows SharePoint Services organizes information in document libraries, and in these libraries are folders that store multiple levels of information. Because document library headings are the first level of information you see when accessing your SharePoint site, these headings need to be broad and encompass the purpose of your SharePoint site and the audience you're serving. Once team members are familiar with this purpose they will approach the site with that end in mind. And if your document libraries reflect that purpose clearly, then over time your team members will be able to use it effectively. Learn how to create a new document library.

One of our clients, Hanson Consulting — a small-to-medium business in the services industry — has several uses for their SharePoint site. One of them is “Enable our staff to easily find and file team information and collaborate on team documents.” Therefore, this site is available to all their staff and subcontractors. Based on this purpose and audience they set up their document libraries by Areas of Focus for their business: Sales, Marketing, HR & Operations, Product Development, and Finance & Legal. See figure 1.1 to see the Hanson Consulting document libraries.

Figure 1.1

Under each of these document libraries, Hanson Consulting has the same three generic folders set up: Department Objectives, Department Metrics, and Department Supporting Information (see figure 1.2). Inside these folders is another level of subfolders, helping staff find and file team documents.

Figure 1.2

For example, when looking for generic documents, the sales staff can go to the Sales document library and then to the Sales Supporting Information folder. Under this folder there are additional subfolders that direct them to specific types of documents: sales brochures, sales pricing, sales strategies, and sales territories. See figure 1.3 to see subfolders.

Figure 1.3

There are many ways to set up document libraries. You can also file by:

• Objectives
• Clients
• Projects

The key to creating effective folder structures, however, is to ensure that you're serving your purpose and audience, and staying simple and consistent throughout. Refer to chapter 10 in Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized to gain more knowledge on setting up effective reference systems.

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3. Clearly describe the contents of each document library folder and provide basic education to users on how to use the site

To reinforce how to use document libraries, we suggest that you include a clear description of what each library contains in the Description column (see figure 1.4). This enables users to confirm what is being stored and what can be filed in this document library, and, of course, it takes away some of the guesswork!

Figure 1.4

Once you have your site set up, we recommend that you provide basic education on how to use the site effectively. This can be a simple 30-minute meeting using Microsoft Office Live Meeting that you record and post or an e-mail message describing how to use the site. For those of us who are not intuitively organized, education really helps! Never underestimate the power of education when it comes to using technology effectively; whatever effort you put in will come back tenfold!

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4. Assign clear ownership for your document libraries

We recommend that for each document library, you assign a point of contact who is responsible for keeping the library up-to-date and functional, as well as providing effective feedback to staff on how to use it appropriately. By establishing accountability, the quality of your site will increase, and, therefore, so will the number of those who use it.

You can also assign a single owner to each folder if this level of monitoring is required. We find that in certain circumstances, this kind of control ensures the integrity of naming and file structures within important folders. Multiple people may edit documents, and by having a single owner responsible for the folder, no one else can upload new documents or create new folders.

You can also restrict access to your document libraries, folders, subfolders, and individual documents by marking them as read-only. This is beneficial when dealing with confidential documents or documents that you don't want multiple folks to edit. By limiting access or creating files as read-only, you reduce the risk of files being edited inappropriately. Learn how to limit access.

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5. Develop standards for clear, consistent document naming and maintaining latest versions

Once your site is up and running, your staff will easily be able to upload documents onto the site and into specific folders. Learn how to upload documents. To help this process be effective, we recommend that you set standards for naming documents and ensure that only the latest versions are available. For example, you can stipulate that a date be attached to each file name and that the person who created the file add their initials. Also, you can take advantage of the fact that you can use longer file names for files and SharePoint folders. Be sure to publish your file naming structure so that everyone using the site knows what it is. Above all, be consistent in reinforcing and using this naming convention. This is critical. We've found that if you don't maintain the protocol, your team won't know how to easily find files and therefore won't use the site effectively, if at all.

You should also consider using versioning, a feature built into Windows SharePoint Services that enables the management of multiple iterations of a document. Versioning allows you to edit and save the latest versions of documents while automatically filing away previous copies for later access if necessary. The older versions are filed in the background where you cannot see them, but are still accessible. This is a fantastic feature, as it clears up any possible confusion over which version of a document should be used. It is also particularly helpful for when team members download files to their local hard drives to work on while traveling or out of the office. Learn how to use versioning.

If you want to keep up-to-date with the latest version on your portable or personal computer, you can easily do this using e-mail alerts. For example, if you are responsible for a sales metrics document and one of the sales staff edits the document on the SharePoint site, you would have no way of knowing unless you kept visiting the site. If you set up an e-mail alert you will be automatically notified via e-mail when contents are updated on the sales metrics document. That is a nifty feature! Another way of keeping up with site and document changes is to subscribe to the SharePoint site's RSS Feeds, which produce similar results. Learn how to use e-mail alerts and RSS Feeds.

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6. Link SharePoint files to Outlook

You can easily copy and synchronize a SharePoint document library to your folder list within Outlook 2007. This enables you to have immediate access to these folders locally and ensure you have the latest version. Whenever you connect to the SharePoint site, this document library synchronizes with your folder list, keeping the list current. This is extremely useful if you have to refer to these documents while traveling or are unable to connect to the SharePoint site. Learn how to connect document libraries to Outlook 2007. As well as synchronizing folders, you can also synchronize tasks from a SharePoint site to your To-Do Bar in Outlook 2007. Read chapter 9 of Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized for more information related to this.

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7. Check out and check in files that you are editing

One of the collaborative features of Windows SharePoint Services is that you can edit documents directly from your SharePoint site. Most of you will probably have a number of files (like rollup sales data) that are accessed and edited by several team members. While Windows SharePoint Services won't allow multiple people to save an open file, it is possible for a person to open a file while someone else is editing it. Unless the file is checked out, you run the risk of more than one person working on the same file at the same time. If it is then saved on a local drive, the user will have a potentially outdated version; and if a user doesn't check the file back in, then others can’t access it.

To avoid any confusion, we recommend you mark a document you want to edit as checked out. This communicates to others that you are working on it. Once you've finished, you can check it back in and then others can edit it. This ensures that everyone is accessing the latest version and only one person is editing at a time. If you have a document that you want to always be checked out when editing to ensure changes are not overwritten, you can force check out so that whenever anyone wants to change the document they have to check it out and then check it back in.

Learn how to check out and edit files.

Learn how to open, edit, and save a file in a SharePoint library.

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8. Create links to SharePoint files instead of attaching the files to other locations

When you want to distribute a document held on a SharePoint site, you can easily insert the file into an e-mail. But keep in mind that in so doing, the recipient of the e-mail may end up receiving an outdated file. You could also end up with multiple versions of the same document circulating, not to mention adding to others' inbox size. It's far more reliable to insert a link to the document on the SharePoint site in your e-mail instead of inserting the actual document. See figure 1.5 for retrieving a file's link with a right-click.

Figure 1.5

By inserting a link, you ensure you are giving team members access to the latest version, and you are not adding to their inbox size — a much more respectful way to deal with shared documents. You can also put links to SharePoint documents into a task on your Outlook 2007 To-Do Bar or into an appointment on your calendar. It is a nifty little technique.

Another helpful way to use links is connecting documents within different document libraries. For example, if Hanson Consulting has a folder in the Sales document library and wanted to connect to a file in the Marketing document library, they could set up one of those documents to automatically link to the other document. You can also link a file on your team Web site into any Microsoft Office document, task, appointment or contact.

I hope sharing some of the lessons we've learned at McGhee Productivity Solutions will help you get a head start on creating your own team Web site.

To discover more ways to improve productivity, visit us at www.mcgheeproductivity.com or e-mail us directly at info@mcgheeproductivity.com.

Be sure to look for our new book, Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized. You will find many more useful tips for improving productivity and achieving greater work-life balance.

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