Every SharePoint Team Site should have a OneNote notebook

Update:  Office 365 and SharePoint now include a OneNote notebook in every Team Site.  Thank you Microsoft for listening!

In my experience, any "Team Site" should have a document library containing a OneNote team notebook.  My premise is that since a team site is typically created for collaboration, a team notebook is likely the best tool for those needs.  Team sites gutted and used as the base for a custom solution would no longer count towards this premise.  I would also consider Evernote or similar notebook tools as decent alternatives, albeit not as fully featured or integrated.

Windows 8/10 Tip 
Make the desktop version of OneNote the default (Not the Metro version) to get the most features

OneNote 2016 and Office 365 new features

• YouTube video embedding
• Microsoft Edge browser note taking integration
• Me@OneNote.Com universal send to address - Office 365, OneDrive, OneNote Online
• Office Lens mobile app integration
• Scanner and Image Fixer for Documents / Business Cards / Presentations
• Evernote migration
• Web Clipper (For other browsers: Non-Edge)

OneNote Notebook features

• Continuous Save. No Save Button
• Automatic track changes / version history
• Group policy or registry settings are available to modify versioning rate
• Automatic synchronization and offline editing
• Sync Now (Shift+F9) is an option to refresh quicker when collaborating
• Simultaneous editing (changes highlighted)
• Windows-Shift-N desktop shortcut or right click via the control panel
• Also the Windows-N new side note and Windows-S screen clipping shortcuts
• Other than Copy/Paste, these should be your most commonly used keyboard shortcuts
• 1-4 click left/top/right navigation (can go deeper at the section level)
• Notebooks / Sections / Pages
• Sections can be grouped
• Pages can have subpages
• Keyboard shortcuts for navigation
• Recent notebooks are easily accessible via the Notebook Pane
• Notebooks are available on the Notebooks Pane on the left nav every time you open OneNote until you remove (Close) the notebook
• Notebooks can be renamed uniquely to that machine and user
• Notebook contents however are synchronized across machines and users
• OneDrive/OneNote.Com/SharePoint/O365 will also maintain a separate list of your recently used notebooks across machines
• Audio (and video) recording with note taking time stamps
• Notes taken at any time during the recording can replay the recording at the appropriate time
• Mobile device support
• Embedded documents
• Screen clip tool (Windows-S or Insert screen clip from note page)
• Embedded links (Linked Web Notes)
• If researching using a browser, notes taken in OneNote will automatically embed the related URL
• Copying, pasting, and screenshots will also include the current address from the browser
• Also works when viewing other OneNote notebooks, PowerPoint, or Word documents
• Drawing/tablet support (Ink to Text, Ink to Math)
• Math (Trig/Calculus support )
• A Mathematics Add-In was available in Office 2010/2013 and is now discontinued
• A new Math Assistant is only available on OneNote for Windows 10
• Linked meeting notes from Outlook invitation for quickly accessing meeting notes for scheduled meetings
• Free form layouts, markups, and drawings
• Text, drawings, images, etc. can be inserted anywhere on the note page
• Use to markup a screenshot or document print
• Dock to desktop and full screen features
• Docks to side of screen displacing the desktop so that you can take notes while demoing or working
• Full screen mode removes the notebook navigation and menu items
• Save to SharePoint or OneNote Online (OneDrive)
• Notebook sections and pages are saved as folders and files within the document library, so don't be surprised if you see this in explorer view
• Print to OneNote
• Quickly markup or take notes on any document source
• OneNote installs a virtual printer driver on your machine
• Web based versions of OneNote
• Included with OneDrive (OneNote Online), Office 365, or with on-premises Office Online Server (Office Web Apps Server)
• Share pages and notebooks via Email or Hyperlink (to facilitate notebook adoption)
• OneNote Online
• MindMapping Source (Not really specific to OneNote but a nice use)
• MindMaps are just graphical bulleted lists.  Make the bulleted list in OneNote and then copy the list to your favorite MindMapping tool.  This way you can collaborate with others who don't know or own the MM tool and you can look cool demoing the info.  Note that my whole blog could be converted into a giant mind map. :)

Additional Features with OneTastic

• Macros
• Macroland: prebuilt macros
• OneCalendar
• See your notes by date in a calendar
• Image utilities
• Crop/rotate images and select OCR'd text
• Custom styles
• Like MS Word styles
• Favorites and pin desktop shortcuts

When not to use OneNote

• Final published or printable document
• Blogging
• Use Windows Live Writer instead (send to blog is supported but not as good)
• Drafts in OneNote are ok
• Heavily formatted content or page oriented layout
• This is better done in Publisher or Word
• When copy/pasting or sending to MS Word, bullets may need to be reset and other formatting corrected
• Highlight the bulleted list and then double click the bullet icon to fix the lists in MS Word
• Diagramming or presentations
• Use Visio or PowerPoint
• Quick hand drawings or draft object drawings are ok
• Spreadsheets
• Use SharePoint lists or Excel and embed a link in OneNote
• Dynamic/sortable/filterable lists, data, or documents
• Use SharePoint

Active Directory Password Expiration Notification Email

Scenario

• Users log into your site using an AD user store
• Password expiry is enabled via Active Directory Group Policy

Issue

• User's passwords may expire without their knowledge, especially if they don't have regular access to a domain attached PC

Resolution

• Implement the following script to email users before their passwords expire
• http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Email-Active-Directory-452a5640

AAM Default Zone Configuration Issues

Scenario

• You have configured Alternate Access Mappings (AAMs) for a SharePoint web application
• You may be using ISA or UAG to terminate a FQDN and redirect to an internal URL

Issue

• SharePoint Designer Workflow email alerts with document or item links may display the internal URL or other URL from the AAMs, rather than the public URL
• Search results will not display any results (no results) on the search page when searching using a site scope
• Ex: From a subsite, you enter a search criteria which is scoped to "This site" and receive no results even though the content has been indexed.  "All Sites" scope works correctly regardless

Resolution

• When  configuring AAMs, the Default Zone public URL will be used in workflow Open Item alert links (Current Item URL)
• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/2bb44216-a930-4786-ad0a-3505f0f7f1d4
• Most non-workflow generated alert links will use whatever URL was accessed when creating the alert, rather than the Default Zone public URL

• When configuring AAMs, the Default Zone public URL must match the URLs specified in the SharePoint Search Administration index content source used to crawl the content
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2000365
• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-ZA/sharepointsearch/thread/906045d8-8782-4c39-be1b-7632f7239019

SharePoint 2007 to 2010 Help Desk Upgrade

Scenario

• You have installed the HelpDesk Fab 40 Template
• You are performing a database attach upgrade from SharePoint 2007 or WSS 3.0 to SharePoint Server or Foundation 2010 and have run test-spcontentdatabase

Issue

• The test-spcontentdatabase report contains the following errors (the cooresponding feature names have been added):
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskModules
Error           : True
UpgradeBlocking : False
Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                  re: Id = [75a0fea7-02cb-4f87-bb11-1ffde748a953].
Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-02cb-4f87-bb11-1ffde748a953 is r
                  eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                  led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                  e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                  ture and restart upgrade if necessary.
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskListInstances, HelpDeskServiceRequestsList
  Error           : True
  UpgradeBlocking : False
  Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                    re: Id = [75a0fea7-fe9d-4119-9615-2c2ef22d6fdb].
  Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-fe9d-4119-9615-2c2ef22d6fdb is r
                    eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                    led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                    e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                    ture and restart upgrade if necessary.
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskListInstances, KnowledgeBaseKeywordsList
  Error           : True
  UpgradeBlocking : False
  Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                    re: Id = [75a0fea7-12fe-4cad-a1b2-525fa776c07e].
  Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-12fe-4cad-a1b2-525fa776c07e is r
                    eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                    led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                    e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                    ture and restart upgrade if necessary.
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskListInstances, HelpDeskTasks
  Error           : True
  UpgradeBlocking : False
  Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                    re: Id = [75a0fea7-3b2a-4838-8a0c-57ba864feed3].
  Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-3b2a-4838-8a0c-57ba864feed3 is r
                    eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                    led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                    e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                    ture and restart upgrade if necessary.
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskListInstances
  Error           : True
  UpgradeBlocking : False
  Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                    re: Id = [75a0fea7-97c5-4487-88e4-70fde8f79b25].
  Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-97c5-4487-88e4-70fde8f79b25 is r
                    eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                    led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                    e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                    ture and restart upgrade if necessary.
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskListInstances, HelpDeskSupportFaqList
  Error           : True
  UpgradeBlocking : False
  Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                    re: Id = [75a0fea7-70e3-40b1-b395-c06f85d0d158].
  Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-70e3-40b1-b395-c06f85d0d158 is r
                    eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                    led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                    e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                    ture and restart upgrade if necessary.
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskExpertsList, HelpDeskListInstances
  Error           : True
  UpgradeBlocking : False
  Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                    re: Id = [75a0fea7-e63b-4059-8f5a-ce9cbbadad2a].
  Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-e63b-4059-8f5a-ce9cbbadad2a is r
                    eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                    led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                    e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                    ture and restart upgrade if necessary.
• Category        : MissingFeature - HelpDeskListInstances
  Error           : True
  UpgradeBlocking : False
  Message         : Database [MOSS_ContentDB] has reference(s) to a missing featu
                    re: Id = [75a0fea7-d31d-491a-9177-f0e461a81e3f].
  Remedy          : The feature with Id 75a0fea7-d31d-491a-9177-f0e461a81e3f is r
                    eferenced in the database [MOSS_ContentDB], but is not instal
                    led on the current farm. The missing feature may cause upgrad
                    e to fail. Please install any solution which contains the fea
                    ture and restart upgrade if necessary
• There will also be some MissingSetupFile - Need to install messages as well.

Resolution

• The following solution is to get existing sites working.  To create new sites using the fab 40 templates, you may download and install the 2010 upgraded versions
• I would recommend starting from a blank site template to build a tailored solution instead of using these templates due to the issues we've had modifying and upgrading them
• See my earlier post on sealed columns
• The solution is to copy and then install the missing features
• Copy the erroring feature folders from the 12 hive on the 2007 server to the 14 hive on the 2010 server
• ...\12\template\features
• ...\14\template\features
• The ones we copied were: HelpDeskExpertsList, HelpDeskInIssuesList, HelpDeskListInstances, HelpDeskModules, HelpDeskServiceRequestsList, HelpDeskSupportFaqList, HelpDeskTasks, HelpLibrary 
• Install the features on the 2010 server from PowerShell (SharePoint 2010 Management Shell)
• Ex: install-spfeature -path "helpdeskservicerequestslist"
• Do this for each of the folders copied earlier

Android: Upload documents, images, list items, or metadata to SharePoint

Scenario

• You are developing an Android OS application on an Android tablet or Android phone and need to upload a document or photo to a SharePoint list or library.

Issues

• NTLM authentication is not natively supported
• SOAP protocal is difficult to implement
• REST interface is limited
• Need to batch upload multiple documents and set metadata while reducing bandwidth
• Need to thread multiple uploads

Resolution

• Kiefer Consulting, Inc. has experienced SharePoint and Mobile development teams that can help address these issues.

Customized Fab 40 Help Desk Template

Scenario

• Develop an enterprise Help Desk application using MOSS 2007 with SP Designer 2007
• Also include the following features
• Custom alerts
• State change based notifications
• State machine workflows
• Customer notifications
• Change Request integration
• Promotion from Ticket
• Child Work Items
• Work Item integration
• Key Perfomance Indicators
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Calculated Fields
• Deadline notification
• Approval workflows
• Custom Fields
• Custom Add Item Forms
• Cascaded Dropdowns

Issue

• The Fab 40 Help Desk template is a basic starting point and lacks the above features

Resolution

• I recently architected a solution implementing these requirements.  It's too much info to post here, but please contact me for details on how this can be accomplished.
• Parent child relationships require a 3rd party Cascading Lookup control

Emailed HTML Rich Text Column Relative URLs

Scenario

• You have a list with a multi line text column with Enhanced Rich Text.
• The item contains links from the current server.
• You are emailing the contents of that column via SharePoint Designer 2007 Workflows

Issue

• The hyperlinks in the email do not work.
• The server name was automatically stripped from the URL, making a relative path.

Resolution

• Workaround:
• Add the following note to the field description notifying users of the problem and the workaround.
• "Use http://TinyUrl.com for hyperlinks and images on this site.  This will prevent emailed relative links."
• This works because SharePoint only strips URLs it recognizes as local URLs
• These are usually defined in the Alternate Access Mappings
• You can use any URL redirector
• Fixes:
• Use Visual Studio Workflows and replace the Relative URLs with Absolute URLs
• Intercept the outbound emails (on the SharePoint or Email servers) and replace
• Use a custom Workflow Action that prepends the servername into the URLs
• Use a different field type.  Try different custom Rich Text editor columns.

Help Desk Template Sealed Columns

Scenario

• You wish to install the MS Fab 40 Help Desk template.
• You need to change the values in, description of, or delete the Status, Priority, or KBArticle choice or lookup columns/fields.

Issue

• These columns are Sealed in the list definition. Therefore, you cannot delete or edit them.
• Note: The Priority column seems to inherit initial values from the standard Priority site collection column

Resolution

• If you haven't done much with the template, you can unseal the columns in the site definition.  You must do the following on each FEW server.  You must then recreate any ServiceRequest lists.
• Navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\HelpDeskServiceRequestsList\servicerequest
• Edit schema.xml
• Replace all instances of Sealed="TRUE" with Sealed="FALSE"

• If you have made changes, you can unseal all columns except Priority using SharePoint Manager 2007.  Priority can be hidden from forms and views or may be removed programatically.  Or alternatively, you can change the list definition as above, create a new ServiceRequest list and move the items from the old list to the new.

CQWP Expiration Date issue

Scenario

• You would like to filter your Content Query Web Part by Expiration Date.  You would like items to show up when any of the following are true (OR filter)


• They are not expired (Expiration is greater than or equal to [Today])
• Have no expiration date (expiration is null)

Issue

• There is no Null option in the CQWP Web Part Edit Toolpane, therefore you can only enter the first criteria above.  Therefore, when the Expiration field is left blank (null date), the value is excluded from results.

Resolution

• One workaround is to use a Data View web part via SharePoint Designer instead of the CQWP.  This will allow you to display a similar format, while adding a null date to the filter.


• Use the a href="/{@FileDirRef}/DispForm.aspx?ID={@ID}" syntax to include a hyperlink in the title
• The ... (more) feature will not be included

SharePoint Backup and Migration Solutions - Third Party Tools

SharePoint Backup, Restore, and Migration are some of the biggest pains with maintaining SharePoint.
Here is a list of tools that have been developed to address some of the issues.  I will fill in details when and if I evaluate them.

Disaster Recovery (these may also support backup/restore migrations)

• Microsoft's Sytem Center Data Protection Manager (DPM)
• Idera's SharePoint Backup
• AvePoint's DocAve Backup and Recovery for SharePoint
• Or the Free version: SQL Restore Controller
• Quest's Microsoft SharePoint Recovery
• Metalogix's Selective Restore Manager for SharePoint Backups

Migration

• Quest's Migration Manager for SharePoint
• AvePoint's DocAve SharePoint Migrator
• Metalogix's SharePoint Site Migration Manager

Or if you feel lucky, the out of the box stsadm Export and Backup commands can be used.
They should be supplemented with the following

• Gary Lapointe's GL Stsadm Extensions

SharePoint 2007/3.0 Group By AJAX

Scenario

• Modifying the SharePoint 2007 GroupBy functionality when groups are collapsed by default
• HtmlFiltering content within one of the groups
• Using HtmlFilter prior to 11/19/09 release

Issue

• When expanding a group, the contents are messed up or never display  (loading ... )
• This is caused by a strange implementation of AJAX on Group By fields within the SharePoint List Web Parts


• Normally the UpdatePanel syntax is pipe-delimited with


• length|???|???|content


• The middle 2 parameters seem to be UpdateType and ID




• But the SharePoint syntax is


•  lengthOfEventValidationString|eventvalidationstringcontent||content
• the second and third pipes || are located together between Icon="icgen.gif and " OType="0" within the table tag
• ??? Let me know if you can think of any logic for this syntax ???

Resolution

• Upgrade to the newest HtmlFilter.vb release which will account for the SharePoint Group By syntax

Fiddler was the key to fixing this bug.

Access Denied, Not a Site Collection Admin, and Cannot Create New Items

Scenario

• You are a Site Collection Admin and Farm Admin for a SharePoint Farm
• Someone has recently backed up a site collection using Stsadm which includes a site collection lock (SP2 supposedly does this automatically)

Issue

• Attempt to edit the Site Collection Admins from Site Settings results in the following
• Error:  You need to be a site collection administrator to set this property
• Attempt to load a page which does any advanced processing
• Access Denied

Resolution

• The Site Collection was Locked (Read-only).  Unlock it via Central Admin (_admin/sitequota.aspx)
• Set to Not locked

Reorder Page Permission Error

Scenario

• Created a Links list with item level permissions and User Sorting enabled on a View.
• Current user has Contribute access to the list with only access to some items (ex: only their own)

Issue

• The following Error occurs when Clicking the Reorder Menu item


• You don't have enough permission to access this page. at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.ReorderPage.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
  at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
  at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

Resolution

• You cannot use the out of the box reorder feature when you are using item-level permissions.
• The user must have edit permissions on every item in the list in order to reorder.
• Instead, create your own order column and manually configure the sort order in your Views.