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SharePoint 2007
Better For Managing Outlook Messages?
Having heard that SharePoint 2007 provides some significant new
functionality in the area of document management, many organizations are
asking whether they can use SharePoint 2007 to manage their Microsoft
Outlook messages.
Do the new document management features of SharePoint 2007 help with
managing Outlook messages? Is the integration between Outlook and SharePoint
2007 better than with previous versions of SharePoint? Can SharePoint 2007
be the email message repository for my organization?
The short answer is that SharePoint 2007 is definitely better for managing
Outlook messages than previous versions of SharePoint. This article
describes how the out-of-the-box features of SharePoint 2007 can be used
with Outlook messages and discusses how by using a smart SharePoint add-on
called WISDOM Message in conjunction with SharePoint 2007 you can create
really great email message management solutions.
Content Types and Meta-Data Columns
Content Types are a key new document management feature in SharePoint 2007.
A Content Type is effectively a collection of meta-data columns, which can
be defined at the Site Collection level and then used in multiple document
libraries. This approach allows much tighter control over the meta-data that
is captured and stored for documents as they are saved to SharePoint. At the
same time it reduces the maintenance effort that was associated with having
meta-data columns defined separately for each Site within previous versions
of SharePoint. The advantages of better meta-data are obvious when you need
to filter and search for particular files in the SharePoint repository. A
meta-data column such as ‘Client Name’ makes it possible to search across a
SharePoint environment for all documents and messages that relate to a
particular Client.
Email-Enabling Your
Document Libraries
SharePoint 2007 allows you to create an email address for each document
library. You can then include that address in the ‘To’, ‘CC’ or ‘BCC’ of an
Outlook message, and have that message sent directly to the document library
where it will be stored.
The problem with this approach is that SharePoint does not prompt for any
meta-data columns that might be present in the document library. This in
turn means that messages stored into SharePoint in this way will not be
found if you search your SharePoint repository on the basis of a meta-data
column – e.g. to find all documents related to a particular Client.
A further problem is that any attachments are saved separately from the body
of the message, which is saved in an .EML file whose name may not be unique.
Uploading Messages via Your Web Browser
If you browse to a SharePoint 2007 document library with Internet Explorer
you can upload an email message to the library and SharePoint will prompt
you for values of any meta-data columns that are present in that library.
That makes for a better result when you are searching, but the key problem
is that you first have to save your email message from Outlook to a file –
e.g. on your Desktop or in your My Documents folder. If your message has
attachments then you must remember to save the message in .MSG format (so
that attachments are included with the body of the message) or save and
upload those attachments separately.
It’s not surprising that most users strongly dislike this approach. They are
already working in Outlook and much prefer to save messages directly from
Outlook to SharePoint, without needing to take any special extra steps
related to attachments.
Save Message to SharePoint Directly from Outlook
So why not save the message to SharePoint 2007 directly from Outlook? Word
2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 all provide a ‘Share, Document
Management Server’ capability that makes it relatively easy to save the
current document, workbook or presentation to SharePoint 2007. SharePoint
will prompt you to choose a Content Type that is valid for your selected
document library and for values for the meta-data columns related to that
Content Type.
Unfortunately this mechanism is not available in Outlook 2007.
As an Outlook user, to save a message to SharePoint, you must first choose a
document library. You can do this via My Network Places, but if your
SharePoint has more than a few sites, this is very clumsy. By default the
Network Places have names of the form <Library Name> on <Server Name>, so
while they might be unique, you cannot easily distinguish a library on one
SharePoint site from a library of the same name on another SharePoint site.
Not to mention that the list of Network Places is flat and long and can take
a while to load. If you are technically minded it is often easier to type
the URL of the server and site / sub-site and then choose the library from
the list that is then displayed. However many end-users are not comfortable
with that approach.
Having chosen the destination library you must remember to save in an
appropriate format (see the discussion of .MSG format above). SharePoint
will not prompt for any custom meta-data columns, even if you are using
Outlook 2007. Moreover, if there are any required columns, SharePoint 2007
will leave the newly saved message file in a ‘Checked Out’ state, so no
other users can see it. You must go to the browser and Check In each such
file, one at a time.
SharePoint 2007 is
Good but can be made Even Better
Out-of-the-box SharePoint 2007 is a good repository for documents and files,
including email messages. It has stronger management of meta-data which
combines well with its improved search capability. The new inbuilt workflow
mechanism of SharePoint 2007 is also useful for managing an email message
repository. However the integration of Outlook and SharePoint still falls
short of what organizations need for a fully effective, easy-to use overall
solution for managing their email messages.
Improving Outlook and SharePoint Integration with WISDOM
A popular third-party
add-on for improving the integration of Outlook and SharePoint is called
‘WISDOM Message’ from a Microsoft Gold Partner called MacroView. MacroView
sell and support their WISDOM software range around the world from their
offices in Sydney, Australia.
Once WISDOM Message is installed you can drag and drop in Outlook to save
email messages to your favorite document libraries and folders in
SharePoint. You can even do this when your Outlook is Offline or if you are
using Outlook Web Access. Next time Outlook is connected, WISDOM will prompt
to complete the process of saving any messages in your ‘SharePoint Favorites’
folders.
WISDOM automatically saves messages in .MSG files, assigns unique names to
those files and prompts for any custom meta-data columns present in the
SharePoint document library where you save. It also Checks In the new files.
WISDOM displays a tree-view of your SharePoint environment – in much the
same way that Windows Explorer displays your File Shares and their folders.
The WISDOM tree-view shows all the SharePoint servers, sites, libraries and
folders for which you have permission to access. You can click to expand or
collapse nested sites and folders. WISDOM shows all the Views defined for
each Document Library, and all the columns in each View.
WISDOM Message lets you define and use Favorites to quickly select a site or
library. As you add new Favorites, WISDOM Message automatically creates
corresponding ‘SharePoint Favorites’ folders in your Outlook environment .
As you click on a SharePoint document library or folder WISDOM shows all the
message files that have already been saved there. You can sort and filter
the File List to find a particular message and then simply click that
message to open it in Outlook. The message opens exactly as it was saved,
with any attachments intact.
Smart Prompting for Custom Meta-Data Columns
As it saves a message to SharePoint, WISDOM Message prompts you to choose a
Content Type that is valid for your selected SharePoint 2007 document
library. It then prompts you to choose or enter values for all the custom
meta-data columns that are defined as belonging to the selected Content
Type. This effectively is the same as Word 2007 or Excel 2007 prompting for
meta-data, except that WISDOM makes it easier to configure cross-site
lookups that are based on external data. WISDOM refers to cross-site lookups
as Profile Variables and allows you to choose a value for Profile Variable
column from a filtered drop-down list, which can be populated from a list on
a central SharePoint site or from an existing database.
WISDOM will automatically use the attributes of the Outlook message to set
values of custom columns such as To, From, SentOn, ReceivedTime, etc. As
part of the WISDOM installation MacroView supplies document library
templates that contain these special Outlook meta-data columns as part of an
‘Outlook Message’ Content Type.
Automatic Naming of Saved Messages
WISDOM also helps out with naming of the MSG files that it creates when
saving an Outlook message. These file names can be automatically created
based on a pattern chosen by your organization – e.g. <Sender>-<SentOn>-<Subject>.MSG.
The end result is that Outlook messages saved with WISDOM are displayed in
SharePoint much as they would be in an Exchange Public Folder, InBox or Sent
box.
"Since email has become the most common method of written communication in
our office, there has been an increasing need to file and retrieve project
related email information easily and efficiently. WISDOM Message provides
the necessary tools to make SharePoint a viable solution. There is no better
product available that enables Outlook to communicate properly with
SharePoint than WISDOM Message."
Michael Auschrat, IT / CAD Manager, Cohos Evamy, Canada
Saving Attached Files
Sometimes you don’t want to save a message to SharePoint – just the files
that are attached to that message. A good example of this is when your smart
copier sends you an email with a PDF attachment that contains the scanned
image of a paper document. The ‘SharePoint, Save Attachments’ feature of
WISDOM Message allows you to choose a destination library for some or all
attached files from an intuitive tree-view of your SharePoint environment
and then smart prompts for values for any custom meta-data columns in the
selected library.
Retrieving Files from SharePoint as Attachments
Speaking of Attachments, anyone who has tried to retrieve a file from
SharePoint to be used as an Attachment to a new Outlook message will
appreciate the ‘SharePoint Attach’ button that WISDOM adds into your Outlook
environment. You browse your available SharePoint environment and select a
file using the intuitive WISDOM tree-view display. WISDOM provides the
option of inserting a link to the selected file into the current Outlook
message, rather than inserting a copy of the file into the message. Either
way WISDOM dramatically simplifies the task, compared to out-of-the-box
Microsoft Outlook.
Other Documents and
Files
WISDOM does not only
work in Microsoft Outlook. It also runs in other parts of Microsoft Office
(Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and in Windows. WISDOM makes it easier to save
Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents to SharePoint 2007 and to open these
documents from SharePoint. WISDOM handles the upload to SharePoint 2007 of
multiple files from your Desktop or any Windows Explorer folder. It also
facilitates moving files from one SharePoint library to another and the
deletion, renaming, opening or downloading of files already in SharePoint –
all via an intuitive tree-view display and action menu similar to Windows
Explorer.
WISDOM makes Microsoft SharePoint much more effective for managing and
sharing all your documents, messages and files.
More Information
For more information on
WISDOM Message and how it can enhance your management of Outlook messages
(and other documents and files)
download the self running demonstration
or
email
us. |
