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So let me run this down for you all. There is another thread in here in the General discussion regarding me being laid off at my previous job and I think I mentioned my getting this new job that I am in now. It initially wasn't what I absolutely wanted to do (SharePoint Admin), it was work and something new to learn.

 

So a month and a half after starting the new job, I am in SharePoint 2010 bootcamp training in PA. For the past 1.5 months, I've been hating SharePoint. We are on the 2007 version at my job and it is a broken mess. SharePoint also isn't easy or cheap to create a dev environment to play with and learn with. So for almost two months, I haven't had any way of really getting into the system and playing with things and figuring things out without fear of breaking something. The security (permissions) are all screwed up and there is corruption in the database.

 

Now that I am nearing the completion of this bootcamp and finally understanding SharePoint (as well as acquiring the all important the MCITP cert), I see a great opportunity now with SharePoint and am enjoying it at this point. 12-13 hour days go by fast.

 

So yeah, I recommend bootcamp training if you want to learn something and acquire an cert or two. Worth the cost.

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ZD, is 2010 vastly improved? SharePoint is something we're integrating now where I work and it freaking sucks. I mean, there is virtually nothing intuitive about it. We're attempting to use it to track help articles for our new help system, and it's a huge pain.

 

Here's an example: There is an article index, which is basically an informational database that tells you all about an article, like when it was produced, who has worked on it, and what the current status is. That's all great, but I can't CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE FROM THERE! That makes no sense! Instead, I have to click on the article list, find the matching document, check it out, then go back and update the information in the database. That's just ridiculous. I don't know if it's SharePoint, or the people that set it up for our project, but it's frustrating as hell.

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Maverick' timestamp='1308946776' post='487482']

ZD, is 2010 vastly improved? SharePoint is something we're integrating now where I work and it freaking sucks. I mean, there is virtually nothing intuitive about it. We're attempting to use it to track help articles for our new help system, and it's a huge pain.

 

Here's an example: There is an article index, which is basically an informational database that tells you all about an article, like when it was produced, who has worked on it, and what the current status is. That's all great, but I can't CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE FROM THERE! That makes no sense! Instead, I have to click on the article list, find the matching document, check it out, then go back and update the information in the database. That's just ridiculous. I don't know if it's SharePoint, or the people that set it up for our project, but it's frustrating as hell.

 

Without knowing more about your articles and how SharePoint is set up, I cannot answer for 100% sure. BUT it sounds like someone wanted an excuse to set up SharePoint without realizing exactly what they were doing. SharePoint 2010 is so beyond 2007 that it isn't funny. But using it as a check-in/check-out system doesn't sound ideal. Even though we use a custom Workflow for our helpdesk system at my work, it isn't really that great. I am not a fan of using SharePoint as a helpdesk system at all. There are much better options BUT my manager is anti-anything-that-isn't-Microsoft so running a Linux box with Request Tracker isn't an option. Windows Help Desk software is scarce. SpiceWorks is okay but it wants to do too much and I find that annoying.

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Let me add that just setting up a SharePoint system without knowing how to do it properly with best practices will cause major pain later. If that is what is happening, try to put a stop to it and hire a consultant or someone who knows SharePoint.

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I can't add too much here on point other than I used and loved Groove and am still trying to wrap my head around SP2010 (mainly grasping the terminology conventions).

 

But this I will add. Microsoft provides some hella complex software and options in all of the Office product line. The problem is in the fact that they have this massive consumer overlay that people interpret as "well it's all simple".

 

What I mean is that few people realize how deep the Office products actual go. For example, it was like pulling teeth trying to make my colleagues see the light regarding incoming Freshman and computers. They insisted that these incoming students all "knew" computers and spending anytime on demonstrating software capabilities was wasted time. If they didn't get it university IT ran half day seminars they could attend to "get up to speed" on Word, Excel, etc... The truth is we should have used one or two of the class meetings we had for out semester-long Frosh orientations for basic Office stuff and still encouraged them to seek out those free half day seminars on basic and advanced office stuff.

 

Why?

 

Average people aren't "afraid" of computers like they were in the 90's and everyone grows up with them now but that doesn't mean they know what they hell is going on. Seriously. Anything beyond copy/paste in Word was met with blank stares in those above classes. For a library research class I demonstrated the snapshot tool in Adobe Reader. Not one student in any of these classes I taught over multiple semesters had *any* idea that you could clip out stuff from .pdf files. When I demonstrated it to them for the first time you could see lightbulbs over thier heads it was that painful. And this isn't anything deep. Tools:Snapshot, drag and expand the selection box, done and copied to the clipboard automatically. I could go on...

 

The point is people grab and go and never bother to actually spend even an hour or two to just explore the capabilities of most software these days. Doubly so for Office. And this goes for myself and even more so for most of the faculty I knew.

 

So I read the above rantings from both of you and nodded... People at a business look at Sharepoint, they say "Hey, cool" and without bothering to learn a damn thing about what they are actually doing construct a monster.

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SharePoint is plagued with the same problems as every other Microsoft technology. They always use proprietary terminology and never make the tools simple and integrated. What I mean by that is have you ever tried to use Microsoft's Imaging technology with WIMS and Unattend files and all of that? There are numerous different applications needed for the process, they are all different and the documentation on how to do it step by step is lacking or none existent. Once you figure out how to image with WIMS, it is amazingly easy and worth it. But getting it set up took me two weeks of none stop research, experimentation, and documentation.

 

SharePoint is kind of the same way. It is very very complex and powerful and documentation is scattered and incomprehensible. Nevermind trying to figure out the structure and terminology.

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  • 2 weeks later...

GJ ZD...now, if you could just come here and show us how to use SP, I'd be happy. I can't find any way to delete docs that I've uploaded now, which is driving me insane. We're not pulling and publishing articles directly from SP to the web, but rather uploading them to SalesForce (which is awful), then publishing them. It is quite the process, and it's driving me nuts. :-(

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Maverick' timestamp='1309887608' post='487668']

No error. Turns out that, although I'm the one entering all of the articles into SP, I don't have permisson to delete files that are uploaded. Makes perfect sense...

 

Let me tell you, managing permissions in SharePoint is one of the most painful things I've ever had to deal with IT wise. Giving you delete permissions will often times result in other stuff disappearing and the IT staff spending hours trying to figure out what happened. Trust me, it's happened a lot here. If you do not need the permission to delete, it is smart that they do not give it to you.

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Let me tell you, managing permissions in SharePoint is one of the most painful things I've ever had to deal with IT wise.

not sure if you have to deal with / support mac users, but if you do, this statement will be replaced by end of july -- os x lion inverts the mouse scroll.

 

good luck with that one :D

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