• Symantec Endpoint Protection version 11
• Symantec Corporate Edition version 10
• McAfee VirusScan Enterprise version 8.5 and version 8.7 and its agent
• Forefront Client Security version 1 and the Operations Manager agent
• TrendMicro OfficeScan version 8 and version 10

In practice, I have had very good luck with the above pieces of software being uninstalled cleanly by the FEP 2010 install.  But what happens if your current AV doesn’t fall into this list?  One of my customers was using ESET’s NOD32 and while determining our best course of action, I stumbled across a handy knowledgebase article that gives a list of AV tools and various ways to uninstall those tools.  Here is the link:

http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN146 

Various AV products offer different challenges but I have found the above link to be extremely helpful and I wanted to share it.  I hope others find this link useful!

• Symantec Endpoint Protection version 11
• Symantec Corporate Edition version 10
• McAfee VirusScan Enterprise version 8.5 and version 8.7 and its agent
• Forefront Client Security version 1 and the Operations Manager agent
• TrendMicro OfficeScan version 8 and version 10

In practice, I have had very good luck with the above pieces of software being uninstalled cleanly by the FEP 2010 install.  But what happens if your current AV doesn’t fall into this list?  One of my customers was using ESET’s NOD32 and while determining our best course of action, I stumbled across a handy knowledgebase article that gives a list of AV tools and various ways to uninstall those tools.  Here is the link:

http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN146 

Various AV products offer different challenges but I have found the above link to be extremely helpful and I wanted to share it.  I hope others find this link useful!

I was recently asked “hey… you’re an Exchange guy.  How do you create an Outlook rule that includes wildcards?”  I admitted that I had never been asked that before, but was very interested in in the answer.  I started playing with Outlook, trying different wildcard statements, but to no avail.  I did find however that right in the interface, I was able to solve the problem.  You can configure the rules to look for “text” which was extensive enough to accomplish the goal of having multiple names, or differing content in the subject or email address fields. 

Here goes it:

I hope this helps you clean your inbox.

Nathan Lasnoski

I was recently asked “hey… you’re an Exchange guy.  How do you create an Outlook rule that includes wildcards?”  I admitted that I had never been asked that before, but was very interested in in the answer.  I started playing with Outlook, trying different wildcard statements, but to no avail.  I did find however that right in the interface, I was able to solve the problem.  You can configure the rules to look for “text” which was extensive enough to accomplish the goal of having multiple names, or differing content in the subject or email address fields. 

Here goes it:

I hope this helps you clean your inbox.

Nathan Lasnoski

If you’d like to attend my presentation, here’s a link to the ARMA Metro MD registration page.

And if you are a reader of this blog, please be sure to introduce yourself.  Nothing would make me happier than an opportunity to hear from you in person.  Hope to see you there!

We all know that Microsoft Office is the most widely known and used suite in the Enterprise. Those of you who may have ventured into Open Source products quickly realized that sometimes you get what you pay for. Sure, it does a lot of the functionality that Office does, but weigh that against user acceptance and support costs and you quickly realize that there is no free lunch out there.
I have also used the Apple products: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Although very eloquent with some awesome features, again, the user acceptance and learning curve were steep. Before I get slammed by the Apple fanboys, let me state I think it is crazy to have to choose a camp. I use Microsoft products and Apple products. There are a lot of things I think Windows 7 does better. There are a lot of things I think Apple does better. Why do I have to choose?

Working with Word files

Working with Word files on an iPad can be a challenge. Not an insurmountable challenge, but really just a different way of thinking than in the Windows world. First, is getting documents into your iPad to work with. For individual files, you can use iTunes and synch those files into your iPad. If you need to work on multiple files, I would suggest the free service called Dropbox. This is a “Cloud-Based” storage that integrate wonderfully with an I-device, and offers a free App for you to use. Now you can work on files in the cloud, and when you save them, they are in your Dropbox account safe and sound. Dropbox files can also synch to multiple computers so you can access the document at home as well as at work. There are many other offerings out there, but Dropbox by far is my favorite.

Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365 and others

Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 also work very well to store documents in your Enterprise structure and open them from within I-devices (We will delve more into this at a later time)
Once you have access to your documents, you will need a program that allows you to work with office documents. (Remember, iPads and Office documents are two different worlds)
I have tried quite a few Apps on my iPad to find the one I like the best, and so far it is QuickOffice HD.  Here is their product description: “Create, edit, & share Microsoft® Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as view PDF files, on the go with the most connected office suite for iPad. Our Connected File Manager enables you to access, transfer, and manage files on your iPad and through Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs, Box, Huddle, SugarSync, Egnyte, and Catch. Sharing features allow you to publish your content using e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Slideshare, Scribd, and Docstoc”.

Check it out yourself and see! Here are some other “Office” options:

• Documents 2
• Documents To Go
• iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote)
• Office2 HD
• Quickoffice Pro HD
• Smart Office

Keep in mind that working on documents on an iPad is a lot different concept than doing ALL your work on an iPad. Even if you pair a Bluetooth keyboard up to it, it still will be a challenge to do extensive work. I prefer to look at my iPad as a way to make edits or review documents for minor changes, but I still prefer to work on a Windows 7 machine. (Note, I didn’t say MAC, because my definite preference is Office 2010 to Office 2011 for MAC-later discussion) As hard as I try to carry just one device, I actually carry two now: iPad 2 and Asus EP121 with Windows 7. Again, why do I have to choose when I can use the best of both worlds?

“Techy” Apps

If you border on the “techy” side, there are two new players that are trying to change it up on using Office: OnLive Desktop and CloudOn. CloudOn brings to the iPad a similar experience to Microsoft’s web apps. The app opens up with a version of the ribbon and familiar commands, and allows you to work on your documents in their native location. OnLive desktop takes a totally different view of working with Office files. Once you sign up for the free account, when you open the app, it appears to push down to your iPad a virtual Windows 7 desktop loaded with office. Very cool concept, it’s free, but one of the challenges I have uncovered so far is that I have to upload document to their server in order to work on them. Both of these products are fairly new, so I expect to see many more enhancements as they mature.

Devices

If you want to work within Office but still maintain a tablet form factor, then take a look at the Asus EP121. Mine is Windows 7 64-bit, 4 GB RAM and a 64 GB SSD hard drive that rocks. This is probably one of the best tablet devices out there, and I will be switching it to Windows 8 probably on the next update to test it out. This tablet has:

•  Ultra-performance tablet with an Intel® Core™ i5 processor.
• Multiple data input options (Digital Pen, Bluetooth keyboard, fingers) for increased productivity.
• 12.1″ screen with a wide viewing angle and built-in high quality speakers for an excellent entertainment experience.

SALES NOTE: This is not an inexpensive tablet, but the OneNote capabilities are Awesome for taking client notes and synching it back to my office desktop.

In Summary and other things to note:

• The iPad can work with Office documents in a variety of ways, but in my opinion, a limited version, not completely taking over my desktop computer chores.
• It can be an effective tool to do One on One PowerPoint presentations or product videos (I love this ability)
• It can be a great place to store documents that I need to read, or maybe an easy way to carry product manuals
• Applications to work with Microsoft Office are relatively inexpensive, but not meant to replace the office suite on your desktop.
• On the downside, iPad can be a challenge for IT to support in the field. Not impossible, but a challenge. This support challenge will also be a topic of discussion down the road.
• OneNote  is available on the iPad now!
• Lync is available on iPad now too!

As always, your comments are welcome, as well as sharing what works best for you. No matter what we sell, the basic concepts are the same, and using technology to solve our challenges is the direction this blog is intended for!

So what is this Blog and who is it for? The questions you may have from either a Sales Manager perspective, from a CIO or an IT Administrator, or simply from an “In the Trenches” sales person will all be addressed here on a weekly basis.

So what are my credentials to talk about these topics? Well, first and foremost I am in sales, and I use technology to the extreme. I also hold a MCSA certification and other technical certs so I am not just someone who has no idea what the “real World” of sales is all about, but I do understand the tech-eze. I also know how to teach people how best to use technology, as I live it day in and day out in my job. So whether you sell widgets or cars, services or software, my weekly series will address these topics from an Enterprise perspective of knowing the technology and what it can do to a sales person’s perspective of how to make this work for you.

I am planning on covering topics such as:

• Using an iPad for presentations
• Using the iPad to sign contracts
• Keeping up with emails
• Company research
• Sales automation
• Tablet PC versus iPad
• Getting Things Done with an iPhone or iPad
• Are i-devices really ready for sales?
• Technical adoption with a mature workforce
• Can I do real work on an iPad or Tablet?
• Tablet PC versus Laptop
• Remote access and the iPad
• Meeting documentation and remembering everything said in the meeting
• What does the Cloud mean to Sales?

I will also entertain specific topics that you may want me to address, so visit my Blog frequently and comment. Disclosure: I am not an expert, but I play one on a TV. But what I am is a sales guy just like you trying to make sense of technology and generating sales revenue. You interested? Leave me a post on what you would like me to address as I lay out my schedule of topics!

SharePoint also provides the ability for power users or developers to customize these display/edit forms, using InfoPath. I am going to run through the steps to customize a SharePoint 2010 list, to create a custom display and edit form. I will be using InfoPath 2010 (along with Visual Studio 2010) to demonstrate how you can call a web service method from the custom InfoPath form.

Customizing a SharePoint 2010 List

When you create a list in SharePoint 2010, a standard display/edit form is used, so the first step in customizing a list to use your InfoPath form is to navigate to the SharePoint list, and click on the List tab in the ribbon. This will display ribbon items for the list, and you can click on the Customize Form button, in the Customize List section (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Customize Form ribbon button for a SharePoint list

Once you do this, SharePoint creates a custom template with InfoPath 2010, based on the current columns defined for your list. You can use SharePoint Designer 2010 to verify whether a SharePoint list is using a customized list, as seen in Figure 2 (Figure 3 shows a list that does NOT have a customized InfoPath form):

Figure 2: SharePoint list with a Customized InfoPath 2010 Form

Figure 3: SharePoint list without a Customized InfoPath 2010 Form

When you click the Customize Form button in the ribbon, InfoPath 2010 Designer will open up with the customized form template created for you. At this point, you should make your modifications to the form (we will discuss this in more detail in the next section) and publish the form back to the SharePoint list. One thing to remember is that if you do not publish the form back to the list at this point (you will be prompted if you exit the form), SharePoint will not save the form template as a customized form, meaning your list will continue to use the default form.

For my example list (named TestCustomEditForm), I just published the custom InfoPath 2010 form template back to the list without making any modifications. Once this was completed, clicking on an item in the library displayed my custom form, as seen in Figures 4 and 5. The next section will discuss how to design more advanced changes to the customized form template.

Figure 4: Customized View Item Screen for a SharePoint list

Figure 5: Customized Edit Item Screen for a SharePoint list

Designing a Custom Display/Edit Form with InfoPath 2010

Once you have created a custom form template using InfoPath 2010, there are a lot of options available to you to design the form to your specifications. I am going to show you three things you can do to customize your form template: Adding a custom field that is a lookup to another SharePoint list, creating different views for the Display, Edit and New forms, and calling a web service method to retrieve data in a column when the form loads.

Adding Custom Fields

Adding a custom field is done in InfoPath 2010 Designer, and is very easy to do. Design your form template and in the lower right panel, there is an Actions section. You can click on the Add Field link, and a dialog to add your field information will be displayed (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Adding a Custom Field

Enter your information about the field you are adding, and press OK to add the field. In my example, I am adding a Genre field, which is a lookup to a SharePoint list called Genre. Selecting a value of Lookup (Information in a SharePoint list) in the Data Type entry field will configure the field to be a lookup to a SharePoint list. I also selected Genre from the Get Information From field, which appears after you select the Lookup data type.

After you have entered all the information for your field and clicked OK, the field will appear at the bottom of the Fields section. You can now drag and drop the custom field onto the form design surface, and InfoPath will create the appropriate control for you. In my example, since the Genre field is a lookup to a SharePoint list, InfoPath creates a dropdown control when I drag and drop the field to the design surface (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: Adding a Control for a Custom Field

You can now publish the modified form template to SharePoint, and you will see the Genre column added, as well as the field displayed when viewing/editing an item. Figures 8 and 9 show the list after these changes.

Figure 8: Update SharePoint list with a Custom Column

Figure 9: View Item with a Custom Column

Customizing Different Views

If you need to customize the different views (View/Edit/New Item) for a SharePoint list, you can accomplish that by creating different views in the form template in InfoPath. For my example, I created three (3) views in InfoPath: Display Item, Edit Item and New Item. The only difference between these views is the label for the Title field (of course, in a real-world scenario, your changes would be more extensive).

After these views are created, publish the form back to SharePoint, and in order to “wire up” the different views to the custom pages being used, you need to modify the web part in the different custom forms created (when you originally clicked Customize Form for the list). This is done by clicking on the Modify Form Web Parts (under the Customize List section in the ribbon) to display the different custom forms created (See Figure 10).

Figure 10: Modifying Form Web Parts

The web part properties for each Item form (not the Default forms) needs to be modified to display the proper view. For example, Figure 11 shows the custom form for New Items. Under the Edit tab in the ribbon, select the current view to display that view in the page.

Figure 11: Selecting the View for the Web Part

You also need to modify the web part properties for the web part on the page, as seen in Figure 12. Click on the Options tab in the ribbon (under Web Part Tools), and select the appropriate view you created (from InfoPath), under the Views dropdown. Apply the change and Stop Editing to finish with your changes.

Figure 12: Modifying Web Part Properties for the Web Part

Once you make these changes for each of the views, you can see the changes when you display, edit or create a new item, as shown in Figures 13 and 14. Notice that SharePoint automatically makes the controls read only (or editable), depending on which view is being displayed.

Figure 13: Customized View Item Form

Figure 14: Customized Edit Item Form

Calling a Web Service Method from a Custom Form

Another powerful customization is the ability to call a custom web service method (to retrieve data for a field, for example). Before you can allow your custom InfoPath form to call a web service method, you need to verify the Cross-Domain Access for User Form Templates option is selected (Figure 15). This setting is found in Central Administration, under the Configure InfoPath Forms Services area (look in the General Application Settings section).

Figure 15: Customized Edit Item Form

In order to call a web service method, a data connection must first be configured in the InfoPath form template. Make sure you select a connection to receive data, and select SOAP Web service in the Data Connection Wizard (Figures 16, 17).

Figure 16: Receive Data Connection in Data Connection Wizard

Figure 17: Data Source selection in Data Connection Wizard

To complete the data connection for your web service, enter the URL to the web service and select the web service method you are using. For my example, I’m using a method titled HelloWorld, which takes no input parameters and returns a simple string value.

Once you’ve created this connection, you need to convert it to use a data connection file (UDCX file). This is needed for security purposes, so that the user is not prompted for credentials. Click on the Convert to Connection File button in the Data Connections window (Figure 18) for your newly-created web service connection. A dialog will appear, prompting for a URL to the data connection file (Figure 19). Enter the path and file name to a data connection file that will be created when you click the OK button. For my example, I created a Data Connection library earlier named DataConnections, and used the URL to that library when creating the UDCX file.

Figure 18: Converting a Data Connection to use a Connection File

Figure 19: Convert Data Connection Dialog

At this point, your web service method is configured for use in the template, so the final step is to wire up the method to a field on the form. For my example, I created another string field (named HelloWorld) and added a text box on the design surface. I then set the default value of the text box to be the string returned from the HelloWorld web service method. This was done by entering the Formula Editor and clicking the Insert Field or Group button to allow selection of the return value from my web service method. Please make sure you select your web service method in the Fields dropdown (it will be marked as a Secondary Data Source), and that you select the appropriate field from the dataFields node in the schema (for my example, the string being returned is title HelloWorldResult, under the HelloWorldResponse node).

Figure 20: Selecting Output from Web Service Method

Click OK to save the changes, save and republish the form template, and when you display/edit an item in the list, your web service method will be called and displayed on the dialog (Figure 21).

Figure 21: Displaying Customized Form with a Web Service call

Moving a Customized Display/Edit Form to Another Environment

So far, we’ve discussed how to create a customized display/edit form, and I’ve shown you some powerful customizations you can make to your form. You may be wondering how to deploy this custom form from a development environment to a different environment (staging and/or production). I have found that the process is a bit different than you would expect.

Normally, when InfoPath form templates are created in a development environment, it’s a simple matter to “repoint” the publishing URL to your target environment and republish the template. Unfortunately, since this form template is going against a SharePoint list, we do not have access to repoint the publishing URL to a list in the target environment. Due to this limitation, the only way to get your custom form to a different environment is to save your customized list (which will include the form template and any content you might want to include) to a list template. You can then install this list template on your target environment, and create a list in that environment, based on the list template. The only other changes you would need to make is to repoint your web service method call (if you’re using one) to the web service in your target environment. You would do this by editing and republishing the InfoPath form template in your target environment.

Conclusion

Customizing the display/edit forms for SharePoint 2010 lists and document libraries is simple and provides a new level of customizing your SharePoint environment. Adding a bit of custom code can take this customization even further, if you need additional functionality not available with just SharePoint lists. I hope this article has helped you understand how to customize the display/edit forms using InfoPath 2010, and if you have any additions, I would love to hear about them.

Using DelayActivity objects is pretty cool, as it allows your custom workflows to delay for a specified period of time before continuing execution. Unfortunately, the problem I was experiencing was that the workflow would never wake up after the DelayActivity.TimeoutDuration value expired.

Searching on the Internet gives a number of posts, with varying suggestions for both SharePoint 2007 and 2010. Since I’m working with SharePoint 2010, I ignored the posts on 2007, and focused on the suggestions for 2010. One of the best ones is here:

http://www.dev4side.com/community/blog/2010/12/1/bug-using-delay-activity-on-sharepoint-2010-workflow.aspx

I followed the instructions to this, and initially it worked just fine. However, as I continued my development I noticed that the problem would reappear, so this made me think that the suggested resolution was not the root cause, and that some other resolution needed to happen to definitively fix this problem.

It turns out that one final step is missing: if you are in the midst of a development cycle (as I was), you must run IISReset and restart the SharePoint Timer Service each time after you redeploy your workflow. Once I realized (and tested) this, my workflow functioned properly.

I hope this helps others when they are using DelayActivity objects in custom workflows.

That said, I’ve reached a point where I don’t believe I can continue to speak in terms of records management as a separate notion from managing the lifecycle of all unstructured content.  As I’ve said in a number of interviews, I never fully bought into the idea that content can be divided into ‘records’ and ‘documents’.  This is a misleading concept that evolved almost by accident in the mid-90′s when document management applications (e.g. Documentum, OpenText, etc.) were developed separately from records management applications (e.g. TrueArc, Meridio, Tower TRIM, etc.), leading to the idea that is was perfectly acceptable to manage one but not the other. 

The fundamental flaw with this notion is that you can call one piece of content a ‘document’ and another piece of content a ‘record’, but none of that matters because in the eyes of the law it is all evidence.  Which, of course, means it is all discoverable and its unnecessary retention – or its premature disposition – can put an organization at tremendous risk.

So what does this mean to professional Records Managers?  It means our responsibilities have become much more far reaching than they have ever been before.  It means, quite simply, that we must take ownership of the entire lifecycle of our organization’s content.  We can no longer be content to sit back and let content come to us so we can manage it through its final end state.  Instead, we must be proactively involved in every phase of the information’s lifecycle.  From cradle to grave. 

This also means we should no longer speak in terms of ‘records management solutions’.  This term is simply no longer relevant.  We must now focus on information management solutions that address every phase of the information lifecycle.  And this must be done across the entire enterprise.  This is what I refer to as the Integrated Information Lifecycle Management (IILM) model and it includes all of the traditional records management functions, but also incorporates many features long considered outside standard records management responsibilities.  These include, but certainly aren’t limited to, the following:

• eDiscovery and information preservation orders
• Solution governance
• Retention and disposition of transitory content
• Email archiving policies
• Shared drive management and cleanup
• Enterprise taxonomy and metadata design
• Workflows
• Software obsolescence
• Hardware obsolescence
• Long term storage
• Physical records management
• Backup and recovery
• Continuity of Operations, vital records and disaster recovery
• Legacy solution integrations
• Document template creation
• Structured data lifecycle management
• Information Rights Management
• Privacy and security
• Social media best practices
• Web content management
• Many, many more…

So you’re probably thinking, ‘Sure, Don, that’s great and all, but isn’t this a SharePoint records and information management blog?’  To which I reply, ‘Yes.  Yes, it is.  Thank you for keeping me focused.’

I have a great deal of experienced with a number of the major enterprise content and records management solutions and I can honestly say that, with a few exceptions, they are terrific applications.  I also believe that most of them could be leveraged to implement the IILM model with varying levels of effort.  But I honestly believe that no other existing platform is in a better position to manage enterprise content from its creation, through its retention and to its final disposition than SharePoint.  And going forward into the New Year it will be my goal to demonstrate to you why I believe this is true.