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Rachel_Davis
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Joined 9 years ago
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Re: Modern Search - Scope outside current Site or Hub
Well, another option is to use SharePoint Home/Start. Go to SharePoint in the waffle menu or the home icon in the left app bar. From there you can search EVERYTHING you have access to see - SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, etc.70Views0likes0CommentsRe: Sync the whole SharePoint online using OneDrive
By definition, both sync and shortcut work on each library. So no. But you also asked about organizing the links in your OneDrive. You can to that with Shortcut but not with Sync. So Shortcut will get you where you need to go AND be safer for your content.274Views0likes0CommentsRe: Sync the whole SharePoint online using OneDrive
Using the SYNC to OneDrive can be incredibly dangerous. A better option is to use the SHORTCUT to OneDrive and make sure you enable Files On Demand. Syncing files will ALWAYS consume space on your hard drive, while Shortcut allows local access but can leave files in the cloud. You can select offline access for a specific file or folder by choosing "Always keep on this device" through the context menu. Sync can result in lost content Someone offline makes changes and the next time they connect, the file syncs and overwrites changes made online. Synced folders can be hard to distinguish from "your" folders, while a Shortcut has a little link icon to clearly mark it as a shortcut rather than a native folder. More importantly, users frequently forget that a folder is synced, and even when they remember, they RARELY know how to unsync the folder. I can't tell you how many times a user has deleted files from "their OneDrive" and then the files are lost from SharePoint. And they are NOT in the SharePoint recycle bin because they weren't actually "deleted" on SharePoint. We've lost 10's of 1,000s of documents. I've seen whole libraries get lost this way. Lastly, Shortcuts to OneDrive can be rearranged the way you are asking in the original question. Synced folders cannot. I strongly discourage my followers from using Sync and stress using Shortcut instead. It is FAR safer.290Views0likes3CommentsRe: Help Linking SharePoint Lists
I use the 2-list option all the time with the default SharePoint form and it works great. But the most important questions isn't how to enter the data, it's how to RETRIEVE the data. Once people enter all these projects and initiatives, the next question will be "Show me all the initiatives for a project and the health of the project." Now what? How are you going to do this in separate lists? Sure Power BI is an option - and that's how I usually do this - but now people are going back and forth between PBI & SP. Or... Option #2 A nicer but more complicated option would be to have a single list and a choice field for Project vs Initiative. It's the same basic premise as the 2 list option, but the lookup will go back to the same list. You will need a customized list form to make it work. (You could build a full canvas app, but that's alot of work when the list view already exists.) The Title field must contain whatever identifier people use when referring to their projects, usually either Project Name or Project Number. Rename the Title field to Project Name/Number and make another column for the other value. I'm going to assume we're using Project Name/Title. Make sure that the Project Name & Project Number fields both REQUIRE UNIQUE VALUES. This is critical for people to be able to choose a single project. This Name/Number field will work for BOTH projects and initiatives. Create a choice field for Project vs Initiative Create a lookup field that references the Title/Project Name field in the same list. This will be used to tag initiatives to a project. In your custom list form, when people choose Project, all the initiative fields should be hidden and a rule or workflow should add the Title/Project Name to the Parent Project Name field. When people choose Initiative, they should see the Parent Title/Project Name as a dropdown lookup to choose the Project. This is the part that requires a Power App custom form as you will need to filter that field to show ONLY items tagged as "Project". NOW you will have a SINGLE list where you can search or filter on the Parent Project Name field and see everything - the main project AND all the initiatives.51Views0likes0CommentsRe: Sharepoint as order database - adding multiple items
lukaszp89 Proper data best practices is to have discrete information in each row of each table. So in this case, the proper way to organize the info is to have 2 lists. Orders: This list will track all the information about the order, such as PO number, dates, customer name, contact, etc. Think of this as the header info at the top of the order form. Make sure the Order number (or whatever you use to identify the orders) is in the TITLE column. Items: This list will track each item, quantity, cost, etc. Use a look up column to the TITLE column of the Orders list to connect the items to the proper order number. This is the best way to organize this information, particularly if you plan on eventually mining the lists for data using Power BI or some other analytic tool. The relationship is already set up for you by the lookup column. You could likely use a Power App to enable entering all the info from a single screen with the Order Header at the top and the items listed below.207Views0likes0CommentsRe: SharePoint List Search Isn't Working
Oh, and you know that search works on an index crawler, right? I'm assuming you've let the migrated list sit for several hours or a day to make sure the index crawler has time to work on your several thousand items, right? I've been embarrassed more than once by trying to paste in data and then search too soon and get "no results" only to return an hour or 3 later and have it work fine.4.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: SharePoint List Search Isn't Working
There is a setting in List Settings > Advanced to disallow items from the list to appear in search results, but it is a LIST setting, not a user setting. It can't hurt to check, but I doubt that's the issue. Given that this is a migrated list, that brings in a whole host of other possible weird things. I don't know how it was migrated, so can't begin to make suggestions. Honestly, if it were me, I would create a brand spanking new list in your current tenant. Export your old list to Excel and paste in 20 or so lines of data to the new list. See what happens. If it works, then I would probably quit monkeying around with the old migrated list and just paste in the remaining data. I only do about 100 lines at a time otherwise SP can time out and then you have to figure out what's missing or just delete and start over. Ick. You can use the "Import from Excel" option, but you'll need to make sure to clean the Excel export of all references to the old list. I've found that when this option works, it's great. But it can be finicky and sometimes it's easier to just paste the rows.5.8KViews0likes1CommentRe: SharePoint List Search Isn't Working
Will735 To be honest, there isn't alot of info to go on here, so it's hard to say what might be happening. I have multiple lists with a text column with numbers for a part # or PO # and search works fine. 1) Start by looking at the text in the empty search box. That will tell you exactly what you are searching. If you see "Search this site" it means you are actually on a PAGE with the list embedded in a web part. In that case, you can search for your text, but it will search the whole site and your desired results may be way down the list. If you want to search the contents of the list, you have to be in the list itself and the search box will say "Search this list". Assuming it's a plain short text field where people just type in letters or numbers, it should work. 2) when you search in the box, make sure you hit ENTER. Alot of people just look at the entries that pop up and when they don't see their item, assume it's not being returned. In reality, that pop up list is the most common or recent items. To see the full list of search results you have to hit ENTER. 3) Search can be flaky on anything other than a basic text field. I don't think it works on multiple lines of text - which may be your problem here. If that's the case, you'll have to rebuild the column. While you can switch easily between short text, number, choice, etc. You can't switch a multiple lines of text to a short text field. You'll need to make a new column and copy the values into the new column.5.7KViews0likes3CommentsRe: Sharepoint list form Progress Bar
Skip the JSON and use a board view and a workflow. 1. Delete the existing fields for status and radio buttons. 2. Create a new choice field called Progress with 3 choices Not started, In Progress, Completed. Set the default value to Not Started. 3. Create a new choice field called Status with values New, Status #2, Status #3, & Completed. Set the default value to New. 4. Create a board view based on the Progress field. This will give you 3 sections for Not started, In Progress and Completed. All items should be in the Not Started. You move items between categories by drag/drop or editing the Progress field. 5. To base the Progress value on the Status, you'll need to add a Power Automate workflow. Use the "Get changes" step to monitor each item for changes. Add the condition where if Status change = true, then in the yes column I would use a switch with a case for each of your Status values. That way the Progress value will be set properly regardless of what choice they pick, even if they move an item "backwards". Status #2 = set Progress to In Progress Status #3 = set Progress to In Progress Status Completed = set Progress to Completed Since you have multiple status values in the In Progress step, I would add a trigger condition so the flow runs ONLY under certain circumstances. Maybe ONLY when Status change = true or when Status field = a value that triggers a Progress change. In my example, that would be ONLY if Status = Status #2 (move to In Progress) OR if Status = Completed. This way as people edit the item through the middle "In Progress" states, the flow won't run as much. 6. Edit the default form and REMOVE the Status field from the form. The field is still manually editable and people will be able to set the status by changing the fields independently of your radio buttons. Removing the field will make that harder, but not impossible. Now, when you open your list to the board view, you'll see the items distributed across the 3 categories. You can manually move items by just dragging them, or by updating the status value or they will move automatically via the workflow. No JSON or custom form is needed.16KViews0likes2CommentsRe: Tagging in SharePoint Online
Bsteenson I'm not privy to Microsoft's actual reasoning for the change, but my experience with required metadata was awful. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE metadata. Nothing gives me more anxiety at work than looking at a file structure that's 10 levels deep and being expected to find a specific document. But metadata requires a level of discipline that most people don't want to bother with so they ignore it - which is pretty easy to do even back in classic days when the metadata fields were truly required. And ignoring the required metadata created WAY more problems. I'm kinda glad they've moved away from that. Let's also acknowledge that SharePoint is not an enterprise content management system. If you're trying to do that, it's like putting in a screw with a hammer. I mean, you CAN but it's a miserable experience. We use SAP for documents that require true enterprise content management. As a result, most of us avoid it like the plague cuz it's a PITA. SharePoint is a tool for sharing content with others and getting work done. It's pretty good at that. For me, the real issue of metadata vs folders is content retrieval - how do I quickly and easily find content without drilling through a ton of folders only to find the document isn't there or has been misfiled. I have switched to search. I let people do their folders the way they want to and when I need a document, I use search. It's easier and requires much less discipline than metadata.20KViews0likes1CommentRe: Error: "The Server Was Unable To Save The Form At This Time"
Sounds like it's working as advertised. You set list validation to enforce a rule to make Task End greater than/after Task Start. So when you violate that rule, you can't save the form. That's what validation does. If you no longer want that list validation, then turn it off at which point you should be able to save the form as usual. But you do run the risk of having end dates prior to start dates.19KViews0likes2CommentsRe: SharePoint Search - how to add '*' character to search??
MarioZagreb SharePoint search is pretty straightforward. It will search the title, metadata and text for EXACTLY the string you enter. If you enter ABC in the search box, it will search for that string EXACTLY, discounting certain characters like space, dash and underscore. If your documents only contain ABCD or ABCF or ABC1, those do not match so will not return. If you want to find ALL variants that start with ABC, then you have to add *. This is normal search functionality - nothing different from Google or any other search function. So in your screenshot below, I would expect search to return "aaa - copy.pdf" but not necessarily expect to see "aaay.pdf" unless you add *. Also, when testing stuff like you're doing below, remember that search is based on an index crawl. If you add a document NOW and immediately search for it, it, probably won't appear in the results as the crawl hasn't had time to index the document - which may explain why your document didn't show up as you expected. Give it a few minutes, sometimes as much as 30-60 minutes for it to respond properly, particularly if you are expecting search to return results based on document contents. Generally speaking, I would NOT recommend messing with default functionality. This is DEFINETLY an area of "Law of unintended results". You're using fairly simple search terms in a small, contained test environment. But think bigger. Once there are 1,000 documents in the library, maybe your users don't want EVERY document with every variant of the word "engineer" (engineering, engineered, engineers, engineerified, etc.). Or if they do, then they can add a *. If you re-write search for them, you are removing that element of choice. This could go very wrong. Lastly, if you're specifically focused on metadata, maybe try filter instead? Then you find all the values want. You can even add columns to the filter pane to make filtering multiple columns even easier.2.6KViews0likes1CommentRe: Any way to reduce the height of a hero web part?
Toby McDaid Generally speaking, if you don't see a button or control that allows you to do a thing, then you probably can't. In this case, the Hero web part is pretty unmodifiable. You get boxes or layers. That's it. All web parts are responsive, so they will adapt to the size of the column or page, but you cannot control how that happens. The hero web part is designed to give that look where it's the ONLY thing people see when they open the page on a regular sized monitor or on their phone. Personally, I have found that people often don't know to scroll down so that can be a problem. Sometimes changing the column background color in the next section can be a hint. You can use a Quick Links web part in a grid format - not as pretty as a hero, but the links are large and graphic.18KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Eat My Cake? SharePoint Search Folders
It's not a question of SharePoint support - SharePoint does FINE with metadata. It's a question of people and discipline. Most people are not that disciplined and any system with metadata is only as good as the people who are maintaining it. If they don't fill in the metadata values, then documents don't check in properly and sort/filter can't work. But if you go the metadata route, you're better off abandoning folders altogether and use JUST the metadata to organize documents. Metadata columns only work WITHIN folders, not across them.2.2KViews1like1CommentRe: Eat My Cake? SharePoint Search Folders
tictag While I used to be a big fan of metadata and content types, but it's alot of work and requires a great deal of discipline to maintain. This is particularly problematic if you are not the only person in this library. I've seen SO MANY metadata systems abandoned.... I've been converted to search. Works awesome out of the box with no extra effort provided your documents contain searchable text and your search term keywords. Also, metadata only works WITHIN a folder. Not very helpful if you're trying to find content across folders as you've described. But search works GREAT across all folders as long as the document contains the term. So organize your contents in whatever structure works for you. Or even no structure at all. Use the SEARCH box at the top of the window to find everything applicable.2.4KViews1like6CommentsRe: Sharepoint not forcing value input of required metadata
It used to work the way you are expecting, but it caused SO many problems that they changed it to what we have now. I LOVE metadata, even I understand why they made the change. And now that we're using Teams which won't allow you to enter metadata, it kinda has to be this way. I wouldn't bother with the custom form because there are too many ways around it. People sync libraries to OneDrive (CAN'T do metadata) or drag/drop multiple files into the library (won't launch the form). I have changed my recommendations for using libraries with metadata to focus on libraries published by a small group of people who can be educated and will understand the discipline needed to maintain the metadata. Things like reference libraries. I also recommend that these libraries have a dedicated "librarian" who will monitor the "Files that need Attention" view and complete missing metadata.8.3KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Best way to create a Sign-Up sheet
caitlin2021 Use the solution I described above with a SharePoint list. - create a line item for each "seat" in each session, etc. Make sure users do not have the ability to create or delete line items - edit only. Create a view of the list for each class and filter the view to show only OPEN seats. Once they sign up for a seat, it will filter out of the view. If you're working within your organization, you can use a people field. Otherwise you'll need to manually capture people's email addresses. The only thing you need to add to that solution is a workflow to add the person to the invite when they sign up. Make sure to include a feedback mechanism so that if they change their minds, they can contact you to edit their "seat" to free it up196KViews1like1CommentRe: Adding members to SharePoint Group
johnnb go to Site Settings > Site permissions. In the menu at the top, find the button for Access Request settings. Make sure the top TWO boxes are UNCHECKED - the ones that say "allow members to share..." this is the old school version of what ganeshsanap suggested. Make sure to check the next box to allow access requests and that you are in the designated owner group. You will then need to clean your site to remove sharing links and restore inherited permissions for all the ITEMS. This will ensure that when your members share content with someone who does not currently HAVE access, that new person will get "Access Denied" and the option to send you a message requesting access. In the email will be a large ACCEPT link. If you have set a default group, the accept link will add the person to that group. I have intentionally NOT set a default group which requires users to go to site settings, CHOOSE a group and manually add the person.70KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Sharepoint list permission/view
Michal_Pral You're talking about item-level permissions. DANGER! Here there be dragons! And this way lies madness. BE VERY CAREFUL. This is to be avoided at all costs because it is a true nightmare to manage. Personally, I don't. I refuse to do item level permissions. Here's the process I would go through. I would confirm that this is a SECURITY issue - as in some BAD thing will happen if person B sees the rows belonging to C, not simply a case of "It's not relevant and I don't want them to". I would make my stakeholders NAME THE BAD CONSEQUENCE - and note that person B being a malicious user who intentionally does something unethical or illegal doesn't count as a reason. We're going to trust our colleagues to be good people. 🙂 My guess is that they won't have anything. So now you can go about making views or whatever to make it DIFFICULT for B to see any of C's rows which is different from security that PREVENTS it. You can use a button on a SharePoint page leading to a defined view in or a power app filtered on the person's ID or whatever else you like. If it truly IS security, confirm that the items MUST be in the same list. If no, create separate identical lists for B & C and set security on each list. Person A can still access both lists to add the items. If they HAVE to be in the same list, you could have B & C enter their OWN lines and set security so users see only items they have created. As an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE LAST RESORT of one list where B & C CANNOT see other rows AND cannot enter their own data, then you'll need to decide how to do it. Manual is easy - share line items with each person without granting them access to the entire list. Theoretically, you should be able to set up a something in power automate where each person is granted access to an item based on a value in a field or something like that. But I'm telling you it's not a good idea. Just imagine once you get 100 or 1,000 rows. How do you know who has access to what? How will you troubleshoot problems when a user calls asking why they can't see an item? This is not what a SharePoint list is built for....1.4KViews0likes1Comment
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