Best available integration of Outlook and SharePoint

These days so much business communication is via email and a lot of organizations are looking to improve the way key emails are managed. Many people are interested in using Microsoft SharePoint as their email management platform, only to find that the out-of-the-box integration between Outlook and SharePoint leaves a lot to be desired, so that even saving an email to SharePoint with metadata is frustratingly difficult.

MacroView is about to release a new version of its WISDOM DMF and WISDOM Message addons, both of which have very impressive integration of Outlook and SharePoint - we believe the best available in the market today. WISDOM enables SharePoint-based email management solutions that are intuitive and that match the functionality that you otherwise get by buying a 'big-name' DM system.

Relevant features in WISDOM Outlook / SharePoint integration include:

Tree-view display of your available SharePoint document store available within a new WISDOM pane in Outlook. The WISDOM tree-view fully respects SharePoint security, so you see all areas for which you have permission, but cannot access any content that you would not be able to access using the native SharePoint browser UI (with a lot more keyatrokes!).

Drag and drop to save emails to ANY library or folder. You do not previously need to declare the library or folder as a Favorite, or register individual sites. You can also drag and drop to save one or multiple attachments.

SharePoint Favorites enable one–click navigation to frequently-used document libraries or folders. Each user can have their own Favorites. You can roll out Favorites to groups of users by using Group Policy.

Email-related attributes captured automatically as a message is saved (e.g. To, From, Subject, SentOn date/time, etc).

Immediate capture of any other custom meta-data defined in the destination library (with support for all out-of-the-box SharePoint column types including Business Data).

Prevention of duplicate copies of an email message in any one document library. If a second recipient attempts to save the same email, they will be advised that the email already exists in the library.

Clicking a library or folder node in the WISDOM tree-view displays all files in all views of that library / folder in the right pane of Outlook. The 2,000 item limit does not apply, because WISDOM uses a custom web service to handle the retrieval and display of files in the SharePoint library.



Previews of MSG, DOC, XLS and PDF files stored in SharePoint, displayed in right pane of Outlook. This can save time because you do not need to open a file from SharePoint to see what it contains.

Keyword and meta-data based searching for files and email messages stored in SharePoint, direct from Outlook. WISDOM makes it convenient and intuitive to access the power of the MOSS search engine. You can also save your searches and re-run your saved searches.



Background saving of emails and attachments, so that you can continue to use Outlook while a save of a large number of emails or files is progressing.

High performance saving of emails and other files to SharePoint. WISDOM imposes very low additional overhead compared to standard browser upload, but does prompt on an individual file basis to replace existing files - you do not need to pre-approve replacement of all existing files.

Support for Outlook Rules, Offline operation and Outlook Web Access.

Remembering Recent Selections in SharePoint Lookup Columns

Lookup columns in Microsoft SharePoint allow you to select a values (or values) for metadata attributes as you save or edit files in SharePoint. You choose from a drop down that displays entries retrieved from a List in SharePoint. As a Business User you often find yourself choosing the same old values - e.g. the name or ID of a project that you are working on, a classification that is common to your line of work, etc.

It would be nice if your most recent selections were displayed at the top of the list of valid values. In many cases that would significantly reduce the effort associated with cursoring down a long list of valid values to find the one(s) that you want. This is a personal thing, in the sense that the recent selections will most likely be different for each user.

This functionality is now available in the WISDOM Document Management Framework from MacroView. MacroView is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that specialises in solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Office, particularly solutions for document management and document automation. The WISDOM DMF add-on extends and enhances the native document management capabilities of SharePoint.

You can configure WISDOM DMF so that it only displays each user's recent selections for Lookups that contain more than a threshold number of entries (you really don't need help when dealing with short lists of valid values). You can also configure how many entries are displayed. Your most recent selection is displayed at the top of the list and also as the default value for the Lookup.

Cascading Lookups in SharePoint

One of the things that makes Microsoft SharePoint potentially useful for Document management is its support for capturing additional metadata for documents, email messages and other files as you save them, together with its support for searching based on metadata. When it comes to capturing metadata, a requirement that occurs quite often is to have 'Cascading' Lookup columns - i.e. the valid values that are displayed for one Lookup column in a document library being dependent on the value you choose for another Lookup column in that same library.

A classic example would be values for a Lookup column called 'Project' being dependent on the choice that you make in a 'Client' Lookup column. In general this Cascading lookup is a way of implementing a hierarchical taxonomy in your SharePoint metadata.

Another name that you sometimes see for a Cascading Lookup is 'Dual Lookup' - which reflects the way values from two Lookup columns need to be linked together.

MacroView has developed a world-class Cascading Lookup for SharePoint, which we have licensed to a number of organizations. This Cascading Lookup ships as a custom field type, which will work both in the SharePoint web browser UI and also in MacroView's WISDOM DMF add-on for enhanced document management in SharePoint. The screen shot on the left shows WISDOM's Profiling dialog being used to capture entries for a COUNTRY column, which is cascading from a REGION column.

The MacroView Cascading Lookup has a number of nice features:

1) The valid values for both Lookups are retrieved from standard Lists in SharePoint, which makes maintenance really easy to manage (See sample List on the right);

2) Valid values in the 'top' lookup can be filtered so that only those with an Active flag set to 'Yes' are displayed (this allows you to block access to values that are no longer relevant without causing errors in already saved files);

3) Valid values can be further filtered by an optional CAML query;

4) The 'bottom' or dependent lookup can be multi-select;

5) Cascading Lookup can be configured at Site Collection level;

6) Cascading Lookup columns can be included in library templates;

7) The user's recent selections are displayed at the top of the list of valid values (This Recent Selections feature is common to all Lookup columns in WISDOM DMF, and can really reduce the effort associated with re-selecting a value in a Lookup column that has a large number of valid values).

Saving PDFs to SharePoint Direct from Adobe Reader

It is not that easy to save a PDF to Microsoft SharePoint using out-of-the-box Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat. And yet PDFs are important to a lot of organizations and more and more organizations are looking to use SharePoint as their document management platform. There needs to be a better way, which is just what we at MacroView have provided with our WISDOM PDF SharePoint Save plug-in for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat.

Installing WISDOM PDF SharePoint Save adds a 'Save to SharePoint' item to the File menu of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. It also adds a custom 'Save to SharePoint' button to the Adobe Reader toolbar, which is convenient when you have opened a PDF from a website, and so Adobe Reader is running inside your web browser.

When you click 'Save to SharePoint' you get an intuitive tree-view display of your SharePoint environment, so that you can easily choose the document library where you want to save the PDF.

The tree-view respects SharePoint security, so you only see those sites and document libraries for which you have at least Contributor permission. The tree-view initially locates the the document library that you used most recently (which is nice). The tree-view display provides a number of ways that make it quick to navigate a large SharePoint environment and find the site and library that you want.

Once you choose a document library and click OK you are then prompted for any meta-data that is defined in that document library. The plug-in supports multiple Content Types and all the column types available in SharePoint 2007 (including Business Data columns if you have the MOSS Enterprise license).

PDF SharePoint Save is a great way to save those PDFs that have been sent to you by a Smart Photocopier, as an attachment to an email message.


WISDOM PDF SharePoint Save makes working with Microsoft SharePoint as easy as using Windows Explorer, with the added advantage of capturing meta-data that enables more flexible searching.

Document Level Security in SharePoint for Contributor-level Users

Most organizations need to be able to restrict access to individual documents, so that they are only visible to a limited number of users. Organizations looking to use Microsoft SharePoint 2007 to manage their documents are pleased to hear that SharePoint 2007 supports document-level security within its document libraries and folders, but frustrated when they realise that out-of-the-box SharePoint only makes document-level security available to users with Design or Administrator roles.

WISDOM Enhanced Document Level Security from MacroView provides a good way of overcoming this limitation in standard SharePoint 2007. WISDOM Enhanced Document Level Security is a SharePoint add-on that enables Contributor-level users to restrict access to individual documents within a document library.

With WISDOM Enhanced Document Level Security, setting document-level security is a simple matter of clicking a Yes/No metadata column as the document is being saved. WISDOM will also check if another custom metadata column called ‘Author’ is present in the destination document library and will ensure that the current user and any nominated Author have full control over the saved document. The only other users able to see and access the document will be SharePoint Administrators. This approach is very convenient in situations where a Secretary, Assistant or other user is saving the document on behalf of a senior member of staff.

WISDOM Enhanced Document Level Security installs as a MOSS Feature, which can be activated on individual SharePoint Sites. Once activated, this feature automatically adds a ‘Secure Document’ Yes/No metadata column to all document libraries within the site. As a result WISDOM Enhanced Document Level Security is easy to deploy, as well as easy to use.

WISDOM Enhanced Document Level Security is part of MacroView’s WISDOM DMF Professional Series, which also provides a range of other functionality that extends SharePoint so that matches the capability of traditional DM systems. This includes an intuitive tree-view display of the SharePoint environment, drag-and-drop to upload and move files, unique document numbering, client-matter centric operation and excellent support for profiling (metadata capture).

Integrating SharePoint Document Management with your CRM

For many organizations the CRM system is the best source of details about Clients and the Jobs that are done for them. For law firms and other professional services organisations the Practice Management or Case Management system plays the same role. With the increased interest using Microsoft SharePoint as a document management platform many organizations are asking how best to integrate the new SharePoint-based document store with an existing CRM or other client management system.

While some CRMs (e.g. Microsoft CRM) have the capability to store documents and files, the best approach is to store the documents and files in SharePoint and have the SharePoint document store mirror the structure of Clients and Jobs (or Projects / Matters) in the existing CRM or Client management system.

To do this you need to ensure that as new Clients and Jobs are created in the CRM system, corresponding Sites and document libraries are created in the SharePoint document store. You also need to record a link to those new Client Sites and Job Libraries in the newly created records within the CRM. That way users can easily click to see all the documents, emails and other files that have been stored for that Client or Job; alternatively the user can browse the SharePoint document store and (subject to permissions) see all documents, emails and other files organized into a familiar hierarchy of Clients and Jobs.

The WISDOM Document Management Framework add-on for Microsoft SharePoint 2007 from Microsoft Gold Partner MacroView is a great tool for providing a familiar tree-view of a SharePoint document store.

MacroView can also supply Smart Templates that streamline the creation of new SharePoint sites for Clients and new SharePoint document libraries for each Job (or Project or Matter). The resulting document libraries contain automatic meta-data columns, which minimise the effort required of users as they save a new document, email message or other file to SharePoint. WISDOM itself adds customizations that make SharePoint document management capabilities directly available while you work in Microsoft Office, Windows, Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat.

Migrating Files to SharePoint with Drag and Drop

There are a range of specialist migration toolkits available to handle the bulk migration to SharePoint from existing File Shares and Microsoft Outlook / Exchange. However many organizations are looking for a way to enable individual users to migrate their own files and key email messages into their new SharePoint document management environment. Using this 'grass roots' approach to migration can be quite appropriate - it not only removes a major resource-intensive task from the IT Department, but also allows individual users to be selective about which files / email messages are worth migrating and provides an opportunity for those users to capture any additional meta-data that is required by the new SharePoint-based document store.

The WISDOM Document Management Framework add-on for Microsoft SharePoint 2007 from Microsoft Gold Partner MacroView is a great tool for streamlining the upload of files and email messages to SharePoint. WISDOM DMF is a neat tool for ongoing management of files stored in SharePoint - it also provides good support for uploading multiple files and email messages, which are very handy when you are initially migrating existing content into SharePoint.

WISDOM DMF provides each user with an intuitive tree-view display of all parts of the SharePoint docuemnt store that they are permitted to access. This makes it easy for someone who previously was using Windows Explorer to visualise and work with files stored in File Shares. It is also a familiar paradigm for a user of Microsoft Outlook, where email messages are organised into nested folders.

You can upload multiple files simultaneously into a document library or folder in SharePoint simply by dragging and dropping them from a file share folder into the WISDOM tree-view display. With WISDOM you can also drag and drop to save multiple email messages into SharePoint - WISDOM will uniquely name the resulting message files and ensure that attachments are preserved.

WISDOM DMF captures meta-data as its saves or uploads to SharePoint. Indeed WISDOM supports multiple Content Types and all column types that are available in standard Microsoft SharePoint, including Business Data columns. Even better, when you are uploading multiple files or messages, WISDOM can prompt you once for meta-data and then apply that common meta-data to all the files (or messages) being uploaded.

Tests have shown that WISDOM DMF works successfully when uploading over 5,000 files from a file share folder - it will comfortably handle the migration needs of individual users.