Help us design our next Exchange TechCenter!

[The_Exchange_Team]

Here at msexchangeteam.com, we've posted a few times about our Exchange TechCenter, see here and even here for a way-back post. We love the TechCenter, and all it brings to you, our customers. In fact, we are planning to move this blog even closer to the TechCenter as we move towards the Exchange 2010 product release. Combining everything about the TechCenter with the Exchange team blog is our idea of a match made in heaven. As a preview to this, when we released the Exchange 2010 Beta, we also launched the Exchange 2010 Beta TechCenter. The Exchange 2010 Beta TechCenter is currently a separate site in addition to the Exchange Server 2007/2003 TechCenter. Check out our new layout: This is the main Exchange 2007/2003 TechCenter design: In conjunction with the Exchange Server 2010 Release To the Web (RTW), we'll integrate the Exchange 2010 beta website with the current (non-Exchange 2010 focused) TechCenter.  However, we are currently designing this integrated TechCenter, and we are looking for your feedback during this process. First a few things about the Exchange 2010 Beta TechCenter: You might notice that we streamlined navigation to 4 main tabs: Home, Help, Blog, and Forums.

• Help: The "Library" tab in the current (non-Exchange 2010 focused) Exchange Server TechCenter was renamed to "Help" in the beta site. This tab name change is more than just an editorial change. For the first time, with Exchange Server 2010,  accessing help via F1 from the Exchange Management Console (EMC), takes you directly to the contextually appropriate topic online in the TechNet Library vs. opening a.chm file-so the Library *is* the Help.
• Blog and Forums: We want to emphasize the priority for community in the design of the TechCenter so that you can connect with the Exchange team and each other. In this, we're making these key community resources more prominent.
• Information you need: We placed the most important beta content right on the TechCenter's main page (i.e system requirements, download and 2010 blog and forum posts) and provide another view into the latest blog and forum posts on Exchange Server 2010. These "content areas" are being updated on a continuous basis as more is developed.

Got Feedback? So as we mentioned, this Exchange 2010 beta TechCenter will eventually be merged to become our main Exchange TechCenter as we get to our RTW release. We plan to keep the Community elements prominent on the next iteration. Speaking of community, we'd love your feedback not only on the beta TechCenter, but also on the following:

• On the main page of the TEchCenters, we typically highlighted key video, webcast and whitepaper content. How much of this featured content should be Exchange 2010 content vs. Exchange 2007 content on the main page of the next release of the TechCenter?
• Do the tools/resources on our actual Help content pages (here's an example page) give you access to what you need? (i.e. content ratings, link to more information, table of contents, etc)
• Is there a particular content type or area that should be more prominent on the next version of the TechCenter?

We appreciate your feedback in helping shape the TechCenters and the Exchange Server 2010 Help experience to help get you the information you need to succeed. So please, let us know what you think! Katie Kivett and Joey Masterson

[#2]

I'd love to see a bunch more EMS scripts added - EMS saves a bunch of time on repetitive admin tasks but can be difficult to write from scratch if you don't have a programming background.

[#3]

I'd like to see a system where people who update documentation or help clarify with examples are awarded points similar to the forum system.

[#4]

Thanks for the feedback Mark, we're looking into ideas like this plus others - right now the community annotations engine provides the ability for people to add to our content. Forums do allow for people to extend upon help by providing answers to questions from the community. Maybe together they would be a great mix?!

[#5]

having a list of articles with 5 stars rated for Feedback

5stars docs are very usefull

for now, I don't know where to found them.

[#6]

Online Version of Microsoft Exchange Server Error Code Look-up Tool
A Location on the page for Events and Errors Message Center

[#7]

i'd like to see support.microsoft.com being used for what it should be used for and issues and workarounds not being just published in exchange technet pages.

[#8]

Thanks so much for the feedback!

Mike-Regarding your comment regarding support.microsoft.com can you elaborate? Are you saying that you would like to troubleshooting and support information separate from the TechCenter?

[#9]

Would it be a great idea to offer RSS or Atom subscriptions to the technical articles on Technet? Most of the times its really hard to be up to date about new articles released on technet. Team's blog does have a RSS subscription so that everyone can stay linked but I dont see anything like that on Technet.

[#10]

I like the new format of techcenter much better, now I can actually find things that I am looking for. The old one wasnt that bad since infiormation was in there and it is good, only hard to find.
About having the webpage as landing page when hitting F1 inside EMC is a good thing if you have Internet access from the computer where you run EMC. Many companies I work for dont have Internet Access from servers and therefeore this will fail. How about doing it the same way as in Exchange 2007 and have F1 open the local CHM file and have a link in there for more updated content, but put the link at the top instead as now at the bottom. With this I dont have to scroll down.

[#11]

There are number of known Exchange 2007 related technical issues are not available for public. I would like to see MS is sharing those issues for customers on public technets....