How to Unsync a OneDrive for Business object

Why would you want to unsync? In my case I was syncing some RFP documents from a SharePoint library. We had finished the RFP and I want to now stop syncing and remove the files from my computer.

Some background: My computer has both a OneDrive for Business (1D4B) icon and a SharePoint icon. This means I have a MySite OneDrive for Business library synced into my 1D4B icon and I have SharePoint site libraries synced to my SharePoint icon.


 To stop syncing a library or something from either of these icons:


Right Click the OneDrive for Business icon in the Windows notification area, and then click Stop syncing a folder…

Select the folder you want to stop syncing, and then click Stop syncing. When you stop syncing a folder, this simply disconnects the folder from its library. All files are retained in the previously synced folder up on the server. You can sync the library to your computer again at any time in the future.





So now that you've done that, the files still remain on your computer but the individual file icons will change from the 'Synced' icons to the standard file icons.

You can now delete these (without any sync error) or keep them, up to you.

If you delete the SharePoint icon it will show up the next time you sync something from SharePoint, so dont worry if you 'accidentally' delete it.

1D4B vs Win2012R2 Share Folders

In 2013, MSFT Storage Team announced a new feature in Windows Server 2012 R2.
Work Folders enables user to access their work related files on the devices with configured Work Folders no matter whether the devices are joined to a domain or not and whether the devices are connected directly to the corp net or over the internet.

That is a nice upgrade from the Windows XP breifcase right? So, later comes One Drive for Business as a Cloud Based storage solution.

Last week a client of mine asked "Which solution do I implement?"

I gave him the consulting drinking game answer "It Depends".

While at SharePoint Saturday Philly I attended the single most underrated session, Ask the PFE's. where a panel of MSFT'ies answers all your burning questions. Kudos to that team, led by SharePoint Samurai Mike Gannotti @Gannotti

After a round of discussion, this is what the team said:  "It Depends"

Crack open a cold one and let's you and I discuss further.

The following table discusses how various Microsoft sync technologies are positioned and when to use each.

	Work Folders	Offline Files	SkyDrive Pro	SkyDrive
Technology summary	Syncs files that are stored on a file server with PCs and devices	Syncs files that are stored on a file server with PCs that have access to the corporate network (can be replaced by Work Files)	Syncs files that are stored in Office 365 or in SharePoint with PCs and devices inside or outside a corporate network, and provides document collaboration functionality	Syncs personal files that are stored in SkyDrive with PCs, Mac computers, and devices
Intended to provide user access to work files	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Cloud service	None	None	Office 365	Microsoft SkyDrive
Internal network servers	File servers running Windows Server 2012 R2	File servers	SharePoint server (optional)	None
Supported clients	PCs and devices* inside or outside a corporate network	PCs in a corporate network or connected through DirectAccess, VPNs, or other remote access technologies	PCs, iOS, Windows Phone	PCs, Mac computers, Windows Phone, iOS, Android

*Work Folders apps not yet announced.

From <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn265974.aspx> 

Conclusion:
Until the WorkFolders App is released (unknown) the answer is clear that if you need both device independence with multiple device access, OneDrive for Business is the answer.
If you need internal access only, WorkFolders can be the best solution.
But other than that, I see no reason NOT to go with more functionality you get with OneDrive for Business.

SharePoint 3rd party Product Announcements made at the 2014 SharePoint Conference

A flurry of new product announcements were made at SPC14. Here are a few of the big players...

ShareGate

I spoke with owner Benjamin Niaulin while on the bus to the Las Vegas Speedway where he suggested downloading all available tools now and letting them auto update. They are a SCRUM team, so they release patches biweekly.

The biggest request from his no-brainier migration tool was to truly make it no-brainier and make all features available in PowerShell. This gives you the ability to schedule a migration task. The announcement the next morning came via email that they released PowerShell utilities and I was ecstatic that our customer who use Layer2.de with it's horrible support can now use ShareGate, which costs less and who's Help and Buttons are not written in German! 

• PowerShell Commands 
• Scheduling made possible through PowerShell 
• Choice Column values copied even if a choice is no longer available 
• Export to Excel let’s you Merge documents, rename them or move them 

Harmon.ie 

launches first enterprise collaboration hub. The product has come a long way, but not long enough in my mind. 

Yaccov Cohen created a first ever SharePoint Top Influencers list. Dignitaries include Marc Anderson, Jeremy Thake, Scot Hilier…but they didn't include the Bottom Influencers list, who could include Chris McNulty, Mike Gilronan and myself.

Bamboo Solutions

The latest version of Bamboo Solutions’ process automation solution is now available for SharePoint 2013. Bamboo Workflow Conductor 3.5 allows users to create, manage and reuse custom business processes without having to do custom coding. 

K2 

announces K2 Appit release, delivering no-code workflow apps for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 and Microsoft SharePoint Online, in the cloud.

KnowledgeLake 

expands Office 365 capabilities for SharePoint ECM suite of products

KnowledgeLake has announced it is bringing the power and functionality of KnowledgeLake Imaging to Office.  

Metalogix 

Metalogix announced a complete solution to move e-mail, files and SharePoint content to Microsoft Office 365. Metalogix has expanded its suite of content and collaboration tools with the announcement of Email Migrator 3.0 and Content Matrix 7.0, which work together, or independently to expedite the migration of email, files and SharePoint into Office 365 and better enable an organization’s.

Qbase 

Qbase LLC, a leading provider of information technology and business intelligence solutions, today announced the launch of MetaCarta for SharePoint 2013, a plug-in enrichment service that geo-enables both structured and unstructured content inside the SharePoint 2013 environment

Using OMPM or How to bulk convert Pre OpenXML formats to docX or xlsX

We recently performed a migration to O365 for a client with Office 2003. Their Office files were still in the old format, xls without the ending X. This is a Pre OpenXML format and you cannot view these files in Office WebApps. When the client uploaded them to SharePoint Online, they are forced to download them to view them.

We needed to either individually open each of the 1000 Office documents and 'Save As xslx, docx, pptx' or we would have to find a way to bulk convert these.
Fortunately for us, we did not have to convert their 1000's of files individually, and used a tool from MSFT for this purpose called the Office File Converter (OFC.exe) which is available from the OMPM suite.

Here are the steps that we needed to do.



Download Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) to the machine that hosts the files.
From <http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11454>

The installer extracts all tools and resource files by default to C:\OMPM
If your machine does not have Office 2003 installed, which by now it probably does not, then you will also need to install the Office compatibility pack to convert the files.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923505


Once that is installed, open the C:\OMPM\Tools folder that contains tools the Office File Converter (OFC) and Version Extraction Tool (VET)

Following this guide for more information:

Using OMPM tools
Use the Office File Converter (OFC) to do bulk conversions of specific Office files that are in version 97 through 2003 file formats to the Office 2010 file formats.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179179(v=office.14).aspx

Using the tool is a bit tricky. You really need to look at the documentation in the ini file.

One of the tricks was to ALSO include the FOLDER location from that INI file

For the OFC.exe to work there must be a [FoldersToConvert] entry in the OFC.INI file.

Fldr=C:\OMPM\TOOLS\EXAMPLE FOLDER\ (in this case I put all the files I wanted to convert into the “EXAMPLE FOLDER”)

You can put multiple folders under this folder,

OFC.exe will follow this path a convert all DOC and XLS files into DOCX and XLSX files. 

It will leave the old DOC file in the folder and create the new DOCX file right alongside.

The date created field will NOT change for the new DOCX or XLSX files

All the new files will be created in the appropriate folder, even if there are multiple layers of folders under the original location

In this case, the SourcePathTemplate and the DestinationPathTemplate listings in the OFC.INI file are just:

SourcePathTemplate=*\*\*\*\

DestinationPathTemplate=*1\*2\*3\*4\

SharePoint Open PDF in Browser

Occasionally we get a user asking us why a PDF prompts to be saved instead of opening when they click on it from a website in a browser, any browser, not just IE or FF.


The answer is 50% because of an Adobe setting and 50% because of an Internet Explorer setting.

FireFox and Chrome do not have the browser issue, only IE requires the site name with the PDF be added to Trusted Sites.


The IE setting:
Add the site in question to the Trusted Sites list.
In IE, choose Tools > Internet Options and add the site to the Trusted Sites list.
Restart the browser.


The Adobe setting:
It is important that you have the latest Adobe software first off. Check the Taskbar icon to see if an Adobe update is pending. Often times an update to Adobe is already queued up and pending the user to just click the little A icon in the taskbar and continue the update.
Next is the critical piece of this "Open in browser" puzzle.

Open Adobe (either by "Start > All Programs > Adobe" or by just opening a PDF stored on the computer.
Then edit the preferences and assure the Checkbox is CHECKED for Display PDF in Browser:
From the Menu, click EDIT > Preferences

Then Check the box and close and close and reopen the browser.

Close the browser and reopen it.



Test, issue should be resolved.

Open in Windows Explorer not available after IE10 update

Problem:
The “Open with Windows Explorer” feature for a library no longer works on your SharePoint site

Cause:
We usually put the company SharePoint site in the Intranet Zone.

For some bizarre reason, MSFT decided that in IE10 they are going to force Compatibility View on all sites in this zone.

Solution:
In IE, go to Tools> Compatibility View settings:

Lync Mobile Client setup

Lync Mobile Client setup

Download the Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPhone client from the App Store.
Or the Lync App in the Windows App Store

Sign-In Address field	first.last@yourcompany.com
Password field	Your AD password

Tap the More Details link.

Username field	E0#####@yourcompany.rsm.net
AutoDetectServer	ON

Tap the Sign In button.
Select You and tap Next.
Type your mobile phone number and tap Next.

Tap Done. 

Mapping a network drive in Office 365

Authentication requirements and steps required to map a network drive in Office 365 SharePoint.




1. Login to the Portal http://portal.microsoftonline.com

Sign in to the SharePoint Online site by using your Office 365 credentials. Make sure that you click to select the Keep me signed in check box. This is important because you need to be (and stay) authenticated via the web portal to access the SharePoint document library via a mapped drive.

2. Click Start, Right-click Computer, and then click Map Network Drive

3. Click the "Connect to a Web site that you can store your documents and pictures" link, and then click Next two times.

4. Type the site URL, click Next, and then follow the instructions in the wizard.

Depending on your permissions level you may need to map to a document library level

5. Remove the tick from "automatically detect settings" in your proxy settings page (found in the connections tab in Internet options).


This Really makes a big difference to folder traversal in explorer.





Conclusion


If you encounter issues with the mapped drive disconnecting follow these steps

Make sure that you are authenticated to Office 365. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the SharePoint Online site by using your Office 365 credentials, and make sure that you click to select the Keep me signed in check box.
2. Open a document library in Explorer View.
3. Try to access the mapped network drive.


If you are authenticated to Office 365 and the issue persists, make sure that an entry for SharePoint is added to the Trusted sites zone in Windows Internet Explorer. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu In Internet Explorer, click Internet options.
2. Click the Security tab, click the Trusted sites zone, and then click Sites.
3. Verify that the following entries are listed in the Websites list:

• https://*.outlook.com
• https://*.sharepoint.com
• https://*.microsoftonline.com
• https://*.lync.com


4. If these entries are not present, add them to the Trusted sites list of websites.
5. Click the Local intranet zone, click Sites, and then click Advanced.
6. Verify that the following entries are listed in the Websites list:

• *.microsoftonline.com

• *.sharepoint.com

• *.outlook.com

• *.lync.com

7. If these entries are not present, add them to the Local intranet zone list of websites.

How to add Google Analytics to SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online provides some basic usage statistics if you browse to the /_layouts/UsageDetails.aspx and the /_layouts/Usage.aspx pages.

This is limited to 30 days, however, and there are only a few basic reports available. And they are not that accurate.

One way to improve this usage reporting is to use an online web analytics solution such as Google Analytics.

This will give you more detailed information about your users and let you view track statistics over any length of time.

SharePoint Online Analytics Features

Once you have set up a Google Analytics account and generated the tracking code you can use the steps below to add this to your Office 365 SharePoint Online environment.

• Log into your SharePoint Online site such as company.sharepoint.com
• Select Site Actions > Site Settings
• Under Galleries select 'Master pages and page layouts' (or Master pages in the P1 plan).
• Select the v4.master page file check-box and select 'Download a Copy' from the ribbon (Note if you are not using the default master page you should download the custom master page that you are using. To find out the master page you are using go to Site Settings > Look and Feel > 'Master page' ).
• Open the master page file you downloaded with a text editor such as notepad and enter the Google Analytics tracking code just before the closing </head> tag and save the file
• From the master page gallery select 'Upload Document' from the ribbon, select the master page file you saved in step 6 and click OK
• You now need to Publish and Approve the file before it is visible to other users (note this isn't required for the P1 plan or if you have disabled approval). Before you do this I suggest browsing to the homepage in another tab so that you can check the site is not broken (this can happen if you enter the tracking code in the wrong place).
  

Permissions Management and Auditing in Office 365

Permissions management is best maintained and audited by the use of "Groups". Maintaining three major groups will help with auditing. These should be Site Owners, Site Members and Site Visitors. These are defined as FullControl, Add/Update/Delete, and Read Only, respectively.
The site administrator would add existing Active Directory security groups into these or add individual users to these groups.



Permission Management can be viewed site wide or on a specific piece of content.

Site Permission checking:

Content specific permission checking:

You can also check global Permissions per user

Auditing
Configure the settings below on your site to collect Audit Logs.

Audit Log Reporting

Note that the above Content Viewing report will not work in SharePoint Online as this is unsupported for online.


Custom Audit Reports can be run and saved to a SharePoint library for a specific user :

MetaData World Peace

Metadata enables the ability to classify documents and list items within SharePoint.

Sh!t my client says:“We want folders, because metadata will make users’ heads explode”


Review managed metadata services for managing taxonomies, folksonomies, tags, metadata and content types in SharePoint 2010

Managed Metadata Services and Taxonomies in SharePoint 2010

Information architecture is never as easy as it seems. For example, do you have a hard time deciding if you should group your documents by department or by project?

Create a practical, hands on review of managed metadata services (MMS) for managing taxonomies, folksonomies, tags, metadata and content types in SharePoint 2010.

These tools can optimize search, content management, taxonomy, social networking and navigation.

Using the Calendar Printing Assistant for Outlook

The Calendar Printing Assistant for Outlook is a program that provides an easy way to print and customize Outlook calendar information. It puts you in control of the tools you need and helps you plan and create designer-quality output.
Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16645
With this download you can:

• Add Shared Calendars and print them!
• Print dynamic calendar views
• Customize and personalize your calendars
• Adjust information to changing views

There is one big limitation where you will not be able to run this program on a 64bit version of Outlook.
In the below calendar, I have added my Exchange Calendar, My Tasks, Ron's shared Exchange calendar and my Office365 Calendar.

SharePoint Alternatives

Interact Intranet

​http://www.interact-intranet.com/product/feature/full-feature-list/

IBM Connections

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/connections/

Jive

http://www.jivesoftware.com/social-business/solutions/social-intranet

Adobe Reader 10.1.4 Checkout and Open

Today I installed Adobe PDF Viewer version X (10.1.4) and when you open a document in SharePoint you are Defaulted with Check Out & Open.
That seems to be a BAD implementation by Adobe, perhaps intentionally done?

Sh$# Steve Jobs Said...

An intranet site needs to impute its values from the very first impression it makes.
Starting life with a world class feel and identity is essential.

That's Why I Use SharePoint!

Have you ever wanted to get all your network file shared documents into one location so you and your team can always remember where they are?  Or simply...just be able to search them and find them easily? 

I certainly have!

That’s just one of the benefits you will get by providing a SharePoint site to your company.

At one of our recent client engagements, we took all the critical documents from a network file share and uploaded them to SharePoint document libraries. We added metadata to the files to make finding them easier to find, and on some of docs we created notification alerts to notify a select group of users if something in the document changed. Once the SharePoint library was up to date, we walked over to the IT department manager and told him they can unplug the network file share machine and re-provision it, and while they are at it, remove the server from their backups. When they asked "..but what if someone wants to recall an older version from a backup?" We told them about the versioning capabilities that are inherent to document storage in SharePoint. This made them practically jump for joy.

If that cost savings was not enough, we then implemented the use of Tasks and Workflow in SharePoint to replace their current Project Management System. At this company, Project Management was defined as "email me your status report and I will cut and paste it into the Excel that is stored on the network fileshare ". Yep, less e-mail cluttering the inbox is always a good thing, right?

Whether you have not yet adopted SharePoint in your office or have had it forever and want to learn best use case scenarios, this new site called I Use SharePoint created by the Microsoft SharePoint Team was designed to inspire everyday business users to do more with SharePoint 2010 by demonstrating real world business cases.

This site contains adoption kits to help you get more out of SharePoint, templates, webisodes, how to videos, tips and tricks and quick reference sheets.

There are a number of real world benefits to SharePoint.