Sharepoint 2010 and Communicator 2007 are coming to Plymouth

I attended the SharePoint 2010 briefing where Mandy Goss outlined plans about the implimentation of SharePoint 2010 across the University.

What's happening with SharePoint?... These are the key points to remember:

• tulip 2010/11 sites will be created using SharePoint 2010 these should be available for around the end of May 2010.


• The new sites will be built without content using a new template


• existing tulip 2009/10 sites will be retained until Christmas and then removed


• The 3 year archive of tulip sites will no longer be available.


• Student Portal front page and Mysites (including all staff MySites) will migrate to SP2010 around July 2010

What else?

• Development is underway to create single-sign-on software (SSO), which means that from mid-May 2010, there will be SSO for all portal areas including Outlook Web Access no more typing in your passwords in different areas...


• Office Communicator 2007 will roll out at the end of June, the Learning Technologists have been testing this software and there are some useful additional features.


• Microsoft Office 2010 is still being evaluated so no plans for implementation just yet.

More information please!

Further details on Sharepoint and Office 2010 can be found on the Web Team Community. The actual PowerPoint that Mandy showed us can be found on the Web Team Community (Basic overview of Summer 2010 changes and developments) - username and password required to access these slides.

Are there any benefits to the new SharePoint?

• In-page editing with WYSIWYG interface with an editing ribbon similar to the format in the existing Office products.


• Fully customisable menu.


• Social computing: tags, bookmarks, noticeboard (Similar to Facebook wall).


• More themes and layouts (and easier to change layouts).


• MS Office web apps (Similar to Google Docs)


• Improved blogs and wikis


• Collaborative MS Office documents (Similar to Google Docs)


• Ability to work offline

Please also see the word document: What's new in Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta testing

MS Office 2010 Beta is now available! After being invited to Beta test I decided to sign up. It comes in both 32bit and 64bit flavours suitable from Windows XP (SP3) right up to Windows 7 (32/64bit). Microsoft say that the 32bit works well for all platforms ... lets see.

This version comes with most of the familiar items: Word, OneNote, InfoPath, PowerPoint, Access, SharePoint Workspace, Outlook, Publisher, Communicator and Excel. The layout has changed and notably the big button on the left top corner has gone. For example, in Word, selecting the File tag gives you this (select image to enlarge):


This is back on the 'Home' tag:

Most Office 2007 users may be pleased to find a fairly familiar layout.

Another feature that has been added that I would describe as a 'Google Doc -ness' , whereby co-authoring is available allowing users to share and edit documents at the same time online, could be a very interesting feature.

Fanciful text effects anyone? :)


A note for those wanting to install the 64bit version. I use Office 2007 and even though Im using 64bit Windows 7 I had this error:


Although Microsoft ask for a clean install for testing, I can report that the 32bit version allows you to install 2010 alongside your existing Office :) Which is what I have done here.

I had one error opening Word for the first time:


But after this, Word open without a hitch, so far so good...

A rather fun element to the Beta testing is the ability to send a screenshot to Microsoft, either choosing to 'Send a Frown' or 'Send a Smile' depending on your experience:


Its still in beta, so lets see how it goes... ;)

Windows 7 Beta, any good?

I finally got around to installing Window 7 Beta (64bit) on my home PC and joined the Microsoft beta testers. In a nutshell I am finding it surprisingly good, and importantly very stable. The only issues I found was that the operating system got a little confused between my two on board LANs, nothing that the on board troubleshooter couldn't work out... But this glitch kept re-occurring... One for the Microsoft people to work out on the driver front.

What about using and installing software?
Well all the Microsoft Office 2007 components work beautifully. There was a slight glitch after putting on Adobe Web Standard CS3 suite, as I later discovered that the control panel was not functioning properly. It was all down to Adobe Cue, however disabling this by renaming a file did the trick!

To be fair on Win7 (it is in Beta) and Adobe (only meant for Vista at most) so I was very surprised that so many applications actually worked. All this aside Win7 is in fact a very stable and fast booting/shutting down operating system. Everything Vista was meant to be. So far so good :)