tips and tricks Archives - Page 2 of 5

29Jan 2014 by Charlie Nichols 2 Comments

How to Get Notified of Workflow Errors in SharePoint or Project Server

Project Server, SharePoint, SharePoint Designer, Workflow

[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] How to Set Up Workflow Error Alerts The process is almost identical for both SharePoint and for Project Server. The only difference is that the URL to the view of the workflow history differs between the two. Open Your Workflow History List The first step in setting up the alert is to navigate to the SharePoint list that has the workflow history. Project Server Workflow History URL <yourserver>/Project%20Server%20Workflow%20History/Allitems.aspx SharePoint Workflow History URL <yourserver>/Lists/Workflow%20History/Allitems.aspx Create Your Custom Workflow History List View Next, create a custom view of the workflow history list. Click Create View on the List tab in the ribbon. Click All History in the Start from an existing view section. Enter a View Name. Call it something like "Workflow Status" or something. Select the following fields (add…

28Jan 2014 by Charlie Nichols 8 Comments

How to Erase or Blank a Text Field with a Workflow in SharePoint Designer

SharePoint, SharePoint Designer, Workflow

[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Use a Workflow to Erase or Blank a Text Field in SharePoint Sometimes, you come across a situation where you need to erase or blank out the contents of a text field in SharePoint. You don't need to delete the item. Instead, you just need to blank a text field. Using a whitespace character just won't cut it. To accomplish this, you will need to create a simple workflow using SharePoint Designer. Presented below are two specific ways. I've used one of them with SharePoint Designer 2010. I've used the other with SharePoint Designer 2013. How to Blank a Text Field with a Workflow in SharePoint Designer 2013 First, create a workflow variable containing a single space character and use the Trim function to blank the variable. Select…

30Sep 2013 by Charlie Nichols No Comments

How to Generate Random Demographic Data

300 level, Excel

[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] How to Generate Random Demographic Data Why Generate Random Demographic Data? There are several reasons I can think of that you would want to or need to generate random demographic data. They primarily center on testing scenarios. Due to the nature of the data, it may be unfeasible for you to access real data to test your application or process. You wouldn’t want to risk exposing PII (Personally Identifiable Information) or other sensitive information. Also, some of the data you may need to test would be restricted or protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and/or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). There are complex regulations that you don’t want to run afoul of, but most of all you want to protect your customer’s sensitive data –…

13Aug 2013 by Charlie Nichols 1 Comment

How to Open Excel Files in Separate Windows Automatically

400 level, Excel

I was asked how set up Excel so that opening individual Excel files would open in separate Excel Windows. By default, it seems Excel 2007 and 2010 open separate files in the same instance of Excel. In technical terms, Excel uses MDI instead of SDI. I searched and found several posts that basically said "can't be done" or "not supported". I found some others that outlined some Registry tweaks. They were slightly different in their instructions and a little hard to follow. I tried some of the changes and have documented what has worked for me on multiple systems with different versions of Windows as well as Excel. Setting up your system to open Excel files in separate windows If you have Excel 2007 or Excel 2010, you can…

15Jul 2013 by Charlie Nichols 14 Comments

Create a trip calculator with Excel and web services

300 level, Excel

[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Using Excel, you can create a trip calculator that uses web services to provide dynamic information that is up to date. I created this post after reading a post with a similar theme from Glen Gilchrist. In the example below, you'll see that you can create the trip calculator using Excel functions and without needing to write any code. Note: The illustrations below will work with Excel versions 2003 - 2010 by installing the Excel PowerUps Premium Suite. If you have Excel 2013, you can create this trip calculator without the add-in -- just remove the "pwr" prefix from the function names in the examples below. Excel 2013 already has built in WEBSERVICE and FILTERXML functions! Here's the gist of how we'll put this together For the calculator,…

09Jul 2013 by Charlie Nichols 66 Comments

Send email when specific field changes in SharePoint

SharePoint, SharePoint Designer

[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] How to send email if a specific field changes in SharePoint (versus just any field in the list item) You need to send email when specific field changes in SharePoint, based on a field changing instead of just any field in the list item. SharePoint has provision for users to set up alerts when items in a SharePoint list change. However, sometimes you only want an alert when a specific field changes. For example, you may only want to know when a field such as Target Delivery Date changes. You can set up this email trigger by performing the following (each described more fully further below). 1. Set up a “helper” column that will serve as the basis for keeping track of any pre-change state. 2. Set up…

02Jul 2013 by Charlie Nichols No Comments

Determine whether an InfoPath form is for a new item or existing

InfoPath

Determining whether an InfoPath form is for a New or Existing item Do you need to have a slightly different InfoPath form view depending whether you are showing an existing list item or a new entry? This turned out to be pretty straightforward. In my case I just want to show one of two submit buttons. One that said “Submit Changes” and the other that said “Submit New”, depending on whether this was a new item or existing. I created a new formatting rule for each of the items. On one of them, I triggered the rule when the created date was empty, which indicated that the item hadn’t been created (aka “new”). In the formatting section, I just checked the box for Hide this control. This is what I needed…

25Jun 2013 by Charlie Nichols 40 Comments

Show the most recent comment from SharePoint text fields instead of “view items”

SharePoint

[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] How to show the most recent comment instead of ‘view items’ in SharePoint lists When you set up a SharePoint list you can create a text column that keeps a history of previous entries. You enable this by selecting Yes for the Append Changes to Existing Text column setting. This is handy for a comments field where you need to keep track of user comment history, for example. The problem I’ve had is that when you put this column in a SharePoint view you wind up seeing a hyperlink with the text “view items”. This is not helpful. Further, the link always shows up – even when there are no comments or text in the column. This just makes for way too much clicking back and forth. The…

20Jun 2013 by Charlie Nichols No Comments

Print Column Headings on Every Page in Excel

100 level, Excel

Print column headings on every page in Excel so that every page printed has the labels at the top of the columns. This will save a bunch of flipping back and forth to keep track of what you are reading on subsequent pages. The few steps below are specifically for Excel 2010, but they’ll general apply to your version of Excel too. The key is to get to the Page Setup dialog box where you will specify which row contains your column headings. How to print column headings on every page in Excel 2010 In Excel 2010, go to the Page Layout tab and click Print Titles. This is in the Page Setup group on the ribbon. Go to the Sheet tab on the Page Setup dialog box. Here, you…

18Jun 2013 by Charlie Nichols 12 Comments

TFS Daily Emails

PowerShell

[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] TFS Daily Emails: How to get regular TFS query results into your inbox automatically Team Foundation Server (TFS) allows you to create queries and save them as personal views or team views. You can even set up alerts on individual work items assigned to you so you know when they’re created or changed. However, TFS doesn’t give you a way to get a recurring snapshot of the TFS view you created into your inbox automatically. Sometimes waiting for a change event isn't what you're looking for. I’ve used the process outlined below for TFS daily emails and it’s been working great for me. I’m using a combination of the following: PowerShellTFS 2010Outlook 2010Task Scheduler You may not have the exact same versions as I’m working with, but the…