The document provides an overview of best practices for beginners using SharePoint, including recommendations to use supported browsers, work around known issues in Internet Explorer 11, enable compatibility view, properly manage permissions with Active Directory groups, remove stored credentials, use the corresponding version of Office, understand file naming conventions and prohibited characters, leverage metadata over folders, enable exporting to Excel, import spreadsheets, unlock locked files if possible, connect calendars to Outlook, understand the green asterisk indicator and more. It also covers search operators, MySite functionality, and software boundaries.

1. SharePoint 101
Best Practices for Beginners
Theresa Eller | sharepointmadam@gmail.com | @SharePointMadam
sharepointmadam.blogspot.com | www.slideshare.net/sharepointmadam

2. About Me
• Business Systems Analyst at MD
Anderson Cancer Center
• Create no-code solutions using
SharePoint 2013 on-premises,
InfoPath, and Nintex Workflows
• Microsoft Office Specialist
certified in SharePoint 2013
• Frequent speaker and blogger in
the international SharePoint
community
Proud dog mom to Shay & Cookie

3. Community Involvement
• SharePoint Saturday is a FREE one-day
event featuring sessions from
SharePoint MVPs and professionals
around the world
• SharePoint Saturday Paris 2015
• Find me at these locations
• SharePoint Saturday Houston
(April 9 at UH main campus)
• SQL Saturday Houston
(May 14 at San Jacinto College South)
• sharepointmadam.blogspot.com
• Video featured on Webucator’s
YouTube channel
• @SharePointMadam

4. Secrets for a Better SharePoint Experience
1. Use a supported browser
2. Work around IE11 known issues
3. Turn on Compatibility View
4. Do the math with permissions groups
5. Adding Active Directory (AD) groups
6. Remove stored SharePoint credentials
7. SharePoint 2013 + Office 2013
8. File names & prohibited characters
9. Folders vs. Metadata
10. Excel incompatible features
11. Enable Export to Excel
12. Import a spreadsheet
13. Unlock a locked file (maybe)
14. Calendar overlay
15. Connect a SharePoint calendar to Outlook
16. Green asterisk
17. Color block indicator
18. Document preview
19. Co-authoring documents
20. Versioning
21. Prepare for the List View Threshold
22. Changing views in web parts
23. Drag and drop up to 100 files
24. Windows explorer
25. Recycle bin
26. Proximity operator: NEAR
27. Proximity operator: ONEAR
28. About Me & Ask Me About are searchable
29. View all your Tasks on MySite
30. Software Boundaries & Limits

5. Browsers

6. Supported Browsers
Browser Compatibility Browsers Not Recommended
Certain web browsers could cause some SharePoint 2013 functionality to be
downgraded, limited, or available only through alternative steps.
Versions 8, 10, 11
32-bit
Latest Released Version
PC or Mac

7. Work Around IE11 Known Issues
Known Errors
• JSON error
• Excel Online toolbar inactivity
Solution
• Place InfoPath form in InfoPath
Form Web Part
• Emulate IE10
• Press F12 for Developer Tools
• Change the Emulation (or
Document Mode) to 10

8. Turn on Compatibility View
• Web Part properties cannot be modified

9. Permissions

10. Do the Math with Permissions Groups
200 employees
10 SharePoint sites
2000 assignments
200 employees
x 1 SharePoint group
200 assignments
1 SharePoint group
X 10 SharePoint sites
10 assignments
200 10 = 210 assignments

11. Adding Active Directory (AD) Groups
AD Groups
• Active Directory or Security
groups
• Can be used to grant
permissions in SharePoint
• Typically maintained by Active
Directory team
• SharePoint Admin may be able
to view but not edit
Emailed-Enabled Security Groups
• Active Directory group that can
also be used as a distribution list
for email (Outlook)
• Can be used to grant
permissions in SharePoint
• Can be owned by someone
outside of AD team to add and
remove members

12. Remove Stored Credentials
• Every time you change your
password, go into the Credential
Manager(a.k.a. Windows Vault)
and remove your stored
SharePoint credentials
• Avoids the repeated prompt for
credentials when accessing
SharePoint after a password
change
• May also unlock a locked file

13. The Office Suite

14. SharePoint 2013 + Office Suite 2013
• Use the Office Suite version that corresponds to your SharePoint
version
• Don’t have multiple versions of Office products
• e.g., Office 2013 with Visio 2010
• Use the 32-bit version of Office unless you have a valid reason for
using 64-bit (e.g., Power BI processing power)
• Otherwise…
• Error may appear
• Files may not open
• Features may be missing

15. Lists & Libraries

16. File Names & Prohibited Characters
• Limited to 255 characters
• Special characters should be avoided
• e.g., Space = %20
• 3 characters instead of 1
• Doubled (to 6 characters) when opening
or editing a document
• You cannot
• Use the period character consecutively in
the middle of a file/folder name
• Use the period character at the end of a
file/folder name
• Start a file/foldername with a period
character
• Using an underscore character (_) at
the beginning of a file/folder name
will make the file/folder hidden
Tilde (~)
Number Sign (#)
Percent (%)
Ampersand (&)
Asterisk (*)
Braces ({ })
Backslash ()
Colon (:)
Angle Brackets (< >)
Question Mark (?)
Slash (/)
Plus Sign (+)
Pipe (|)
Quotation Marks (“ ”)
Prohibited characters in file/folder names
Using an underscore character (_) at the beginning of a file/folder name will make the file/folder hidden

17. Folders vs. Metadata
Folders
• Folder names are not searchable
• Slash (/) is represented as %2F
• Takes up space in URL
• Can be turned off for lists and
libraries
Metadata
• Indexed metadata is searchable
• Can create up to 20 indexes per
list or library
• SharePoint 2016 will automatically
index more columns
• Reusable across a site collection
or within a site
• Each column is metadata

18. Excel Incompatible Features
• Password Protection is a
common unsupported feature
• Information bar with the list of
unsupported features does not
display when the file is loaded
from a Web Part
• List originated for SP2007
•
• List updated for SP2013
• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff595319.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms496823.aspx

19. Enable Export to Excel

20. Import a Spreadsheet
• Use a Table or Named Range to simplify data selection

21. Unlock a Locked File (maybe)
• Checked-in file may remain
locked for up to 10 minutes
• Reasons files get locked
• An attempt by another user to
open the file within 10 minutes
System crashes while file is open
• File is closed unexpectedly
• Check in was not successful
• Network connection is lost while
file is open
• Possible Solutions
• Wait 24 hours
• Clear your browser cache and
restart your browser
• Clear your cache in credential
manager
• Close all instances of file type
• Kill the file type service in Task
Manager
Sources listed in the Notes section

22. Calendar Overlay
• Assigns a different color to each calendar view
• Can display up to 10 calendar views on a single calendar

23. Connect a SharePoint Calendar to Outlook
Separate Calendars both viewable in Outlook

24. Green Asterisk
• Indicates item or file was added within the last 24 hours
*

25. Color Block Indicator
• Indicates Skype for Business status
Available Away Busy Do Not Disturb

26. Document Preview
• Hover over a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF file in the Search results
to see a preview of the document
• Browse through the document without opening it

27. Co-Authoring Documents
• Automatically enabled if Check Out is not required
Up to 10 people can simultaneously edit a file

28. Versioning
• Versioning

29. Prepare for the List View Threshold
Possible GOOD Solutions
• Prior to hitting 5,000 items or
within the exemption window
• Index columns that should be
searchable
• Create views that keep the
displayed number of items/files
below 5,000
• Import data from another
source, such as SQL
Possible TEMPORARY Solutions
• Disable throttling for the list or
library
• Requires PowerShell
• Increase the limit
• Increases the risk of locking a table
and losing data

30. Changing Views in Web Parts (1 of 2)
Web Part View
(Default Style)
Modify the View
(Shaded Style)
Web Part View
(Still Default Style)

31. Changing Views in Web Parts (2 of 2)
• Edit the Web Part
and select Standard
• Click OK at the
warning about
changing the view
• To see the changed
view, click OK to close
the List Views window
and Save the page

32. Drag & Drop up to 100 Files

33. Windows Explorer
Good Uses
• Drag and drop files into a library
• Move and copy files
Bad Uses
• Create folders
• Folders are not your friend!
• Delete multiple files at once
Files are PERMANENTLY deleted in Windows Explorer

34. Recycle Bin
Site Level Site Collection Level
• After site level retention is met,
deleted items move into the site
collection recycle bin
• Default retention is half of the
site level retention
• E.g., 30 days at site level, then
15 days at site collection level
• Can be restored by site
collection administrator
• Almost anything deleted goes
into the recycle bin
• List
• List Item
• Document Library
• File
• SharePoint Site (SP2013+)
• Can be restored by site owner
• Default retention is 30 days

35. Proximity Operator: NEAR
• Searches for expressions (words
or phrases) within
close proximity to each other
• Default is 8 expressions
• Order of the expressions is
ignored
• NEAR must be in all capital
letters
• SharePoint NEAR Training
• SharePoint NEAR(2) Training
• Searches for “SharePoint” within 2
expressions (words) of “Training”

36. Proximity Operator: ONEAR
• Searches for expressions in the
order specified
• SharePoint ONEAR Training
• ONEAR must be in all capital
letters
• SharePoint ONEAR(2) Training
• Searches for “Training” no more
than 2 expressions after
“SharePoint”

37. MySite

38. About Me & Ask Me About are Searchable
• In the About me section, enter
your bio
• In Ask Me About, enter topics
with which you can help people
• These keywords will be searchable

39. View All Your Tasks on MySite
• Under your photo, click Tasks
• Tasks from all SharePoint sites
will appear here
• Tasks may take up to 4 hours to
appear on MySite

40. Impress Your Boss

41. Software Boundaries & Limits
• Site Collections
• 500,000
personal
• 250,000 other
• Sites & Subsites
• 250,000 per
site collection
• Web Parts
• 25 per wiki or
Web Part page
• Documents
• 30,000,000 per library
• Items
• 30,000,000 per list
• Versions
• 400,000 major
• 511 minor
• File Size
• 2GB (up to SP2013)
• 10GB (SP 2016)
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx

42. Questions?
Theresa Eller | sharepointmadam@gmail.com | @SharePointMadam
sharepointmadam.blogspot.com | www.slideshare.net/sharepointmadam