Collaborate, Coordinate, and
Share with SharePoint
Whether working as co-authors on a paper, coordinating research on a team, or keeping track of employee tasks, Microsoft’s SharePoint might make the job easier. SharePoint is a fairly new tool that is “like” a web page but creates an interactive environment. Built into our existing systems here at NAU, SharePoint helps people collaborate with meeting and document workspaces, surveys, wikis, blogs, and other short-term collaboration sites.
For example, you can create a document workspace where you can share a document with others. Since people most often use email for this, a feature in Outlook prompts the user when a document is attached to an email message to ask the email/document author if he or she would like to create a document workspace for the attachment so others can see who else is working on the document, get updated versions of it as the contents change, and view task lists for things yet to be done. Such a system takes the manual process of passing a document around by hand or mail into the digital world where the tracking and administration is essentially automatic. A team website using SharePoint services is a terrific method to manage work among team members whether they are near or far.
Microsoft has included predefined templates for all sorts of websites to facilitate meetings, manage projects, and create documents. Teams can use a website and create subsites with minimal assistance from ITS.
The Document Workspace template enables a group to collaborate on a document. The template combines a document repository with a task list and links list. In Word, a user can have the document open and at the same time view the task or links list. Changes made to the task list are immediately visible to site visitors. The document library allows versioning of contents, so edits are not lost if someone should “step on” another’s changes.
These templates can be used to create a working environment that frees faculty and staff to focus on the nitty-gritty of a project without concern about the grinding details of administration. Learn more about SharePoint at www4.nau.edu/its/mensa/spindex/ and click on the “I Want a SharePoint Site” button at the bottom.
—Don Olson
