Category Archives: SharePoint 2010

Microsoft SharePoint and Office 2010 Launch Events

Most folks know about the May12th Launch event that Microsoft will be streaming “Live from New York!”. We’ll be carrying the event live at our monthly MNSPUG meeting which just happened to coincide with it. We’ll also be having a panel discussion about SharePoint 2007 and 2010 beforehand…

What doesn’t seem to be getting as much press are the IT Pro and Developer events that are also happening around the country. Check out the following link and dig in a bit:

http://www.microsoft.com/business/2010events/

We’ll be having a local event in Minneapolis (Bloomington actually) on May 27th – so take a look at the agenda and see if you like to attend with us!

SharePoint and Office 2010 RTM Bits

In case you missed it from all the other news, media, networking sites, the SharePoint and Office 2010 final bits (non-Beta) are available on MSDN and TechNet.

Have fun rebuilding! :)

Office 2010: What you need to know about 64-bit vs. 32-bit versions

I picked up an interesting tidbit this evening about the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Office 2010 (which by the way announced RTM ‘status’ today – congrats to the product teams!): Functionality between the two bit-level versions is NOT the same.

By default, I would expect the 64-bit version of Office 2010 to be the latest and greatest. It IS the latest, but it’s only the greatest if you have some specific needs and don’t need some of the features that DON’T work – features that many people will miss.

This article gets into the details you need:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681792(office.14).aspx

Specifically take a look at the ‘Advantages’ and ‘Disadvantages’ sections.

Some highlights:

As you would expect, the 64-bit version allows use of additional memory, which translates into larger Excel 2010 workbooks and big Project 2010 projects.
As you (at least I) wouldn’t expect – some features like the Edit in Datasheet view DON’T work with Office 64-bit installed. The details and reasoning can be found in the article but they’re related to ActiveX controls and COM add-ins…

So, get to know the details before you purchase or plan to deploy Office 2010.

SharePoint 2010 – RTM

Microsoft announced today that SharePoint 2010 has reached RTM status. Read about it on the SharePoint Team Blog – HERE.

Sounds like the earliest availability for downloading bits will be on April 27th for Volume License and Software Assurance Customers.

The official (virtual) launch will be on May 12th – which also happens to be our next MNSPUG meeting. We’ll be streaming the launch live and working on adding some more fun as well – check the MNSPUG site for more information as we have it.

SharePoint Designer 2007 and 2010 Cohabitating: Updated Again…

Facts, rumors and stuff. Here are the facts:

You cannot use SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2010 to manage SharePoint 2007 sites.
You can’t use SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2007 to access SharePoint 2010 sites.

So, if you have to maintain both 2007 and 2010 SharePoint environments you need to have both versions of SPD installed somewhere. Most administrators would probably prefer that they be readily available on the same machine.

Reportedly, you could only have both versions installed if they were the same bit-level versions – specifically 32-bit since there isn’t a 64-bit version of SPD 2007.

Something I wasn’t aware of until now was that it wasn’t just SPD that in conflict – it’s any office client. If you intend to install both versions of SPD on the same OS, ALL of your Office client apps will need to be 32-bit (Paul Stork).

-> Something else new that I learned was that you CAN have both versions of SPD installed with 64-bit SPD (all Office) 2010 and 32-bit SPD 2007 as long as SPD 2007 is installed after the 64-bit 2010 clients have been installed (Clayton Cobb).
(Updated 4/16) – While this is technically possible right now, it is an officially unsupported scenario (see the last statement in the second long paragraph of the article):
http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/archive/2010/02/23/understanding-64-bit-office.aspx
Thanks to Woody for pointing this out

This information is based on running pre-RTM versions of the 2010 Office clients and therefore should be tested again with the RTM bits when they are available.

It should also be noted that some folks have the opinion that the 2007 clients should not be installed side-by-side with the 2010 clients. (Mike Walsh) Thankfully with the ease of being able to run Windows XP Mode on Windows 7, one scenario for circumventing this is to install the latest and greatest 2010 bits on the host OS, and then SPD 2007 on the Windows XP mode. Hopefully there is a scenario that fits your individual or organization’s needs.

NOTE: Information in this post is based on a TechNet forum thread with the names of the folks providing information tagged with the information they provided… Thanks guys!

Post:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/75697656-6578-48e1-93be-4e335629554f

SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 RTM and Launch

Microsoft announced the RTM and launch dates for SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 products yesterday. We’ve been hearing ‘June’ since last fall and heard unofficial rumblings about April as late as last week – but April is what it turned out to be. Good stuff!!

RTM – April 2010

Launch Date: May 12th, 2010
Register for the launch event HERE

Here’s the official post on the SharePoint Team blog from Arpan Shah – Director, SharePoint.

Now we just need to keep an eye on MSDN and TechNet for when the bits arrive in April. 🙂

SharePoint Saturday – Twin Cities

The event formerly known as Twin Cities SharePoint Camp is back for it’s 4th iteration and has reformed itself as a SharePoint Saturday event!

Come join us on Saturday March 20th at a new location – the U of M (University of Minnesota!!) Twin Cities campus – on the East Bank in the Computer Science building. More information about speakers, sessions, maps, etc is available at the SharePoint Saturday official site.

Click here to register!

We’re also in the midst of moving, building and rolling out a new persistent site that will hold ongoing event schedules, session decks and information, be the main way to contact organizers, etc when all is said and done. We’ll update this post and send another note out when that page is done.

Microsoft SharePoint MVP Expert Chat

There’s an interesting little event coming up on March 15th – 9:00 AM (Pacific Time) that may be fun to check out. I’m hoping to attend.

The ‘blurb’:
Do you have tough technical questions regarding SharePoint for which you’re seeking answers? Do you want to tap into the deep knowledge of the talented Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals? The SharePoint MVPs are the same people you see in the technical community as authors, speakers, user group leaders and answerers in the MSDN forums. This is the first time we have brought these experts together as a collective group to answer your questions live. So please join us and bring on the questions! This chat will cover WSS, MOSS and the SharePoint 2010 beta. Topics include setup and administration, design, development, and general questions.

For more information, check out the following links:
Microsoft Community link
Facebook event page

SharePoint 2010 Good, Better, Best Document

I apparently missed when the 2010 version of the ‘Good, Better, Best’ SharePoint and Office compatibility document was released since it’s dated October 2009. Hmm. Oh well. Here it is thanks to Jie Li and his team at Microsoft.

Business Productivity At Its Best Whitepaper (PDF)