SharePoint list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view

You receive The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view for one or more of the following reasons: A datasheet component compatible with Windows SharePoint Services is not installed, your browser does not support ActiveX controls, or support for ActiveX controls is disabled error message when you trying to view SharePoint list in Datasheet view.

Possible Cause of Error:

1. A Microsoft Office 2003 Professional edition is not installed on the computer
2. ActiveX control settings may not be set properly in Internet Explorer
3. If you are using MS Office 2007, the Microsoft Office Access Web Datasheet Component and the Windows SharePoint Services Support components are not installed on your machine

Solutions:

Verify ActiveX Control Settings 

1. Launch IE browser
2. On Tools menu -> Internet options -> click on Security tab
3. If you SharePoint site has been already added to trusted sites zone in IE, use Trusted Sites tab 

   OR 

   If your SharePoint site not added as trusted site in IE, use Internet tab 

Note: The following screen shot assumes, you addressed SharePoint site as trusted site. 

1. Click on “Custom Level” under security level for this zone

   

2. Look for ActiveX controls and plug-ins; under this option please set the following settings:
3. Download signed ActiveX controls -> Prompt
4. Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins -> Enable
5. Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting -> Enable

    

6. Apply changes and close all browsers and restart.

Install Microsoft Office Access Web Datasheet Component and the Windows SharePoint Services Support components 

If you are using MS Office 2007, you have to make sure Web Datasheet Component installed with Office 2007 software. 

Start menu -> Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs

• Select MSOffice Professional 2007 plus -> click on “Change”
• Choose “Add or Remove Features”
• Expand Microsoft Office -> Next verify that you have both the Microsoft Office Access Web Datasheet Component and the Windows SharePoint Services Support component installed. If you didn’t see these two components, install it by using media.

Office documents open as read-only from SharePoint/Internet explorer crashes when opening Office documents from SharePoint

You may encounter this issue if you have multiple version of Microsoft Office installed on your computer. To find this out, you may check Programs under Microsoft Office or open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office and check for Office11 and Office12 folders. If you find both of them, then you have both versions installed.

To fix this, please perform the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12.
2. Locate the OWSSUPP.DLL file and rename it to OWSSUPP.DLL.OLD. If you get an error when renaming the file, then close all Office applications like Outlook, Office Communicator, MS Word or Excel along with Internet explorer sessions and try again. If you still face issues, please contact your local admin and perform these steps again.

   

3. Now navigate to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11 folder.
4. Locate the OWSSUPP.DLL file and copy it.

   

5. Now navigate back to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 folder.
6. Paste the OWSSUPP.DLL file from the Office11 folder to here, the Office12 folder.
7. Open a command prompt window with Start/Run/cmd.
8. Chance directory to the Office12 folder with CD “Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12”.
9. Now using REGSVR32 OWSSUPP.DLL re-register the DLL file.

   

10. Now here’s where the trick come in. You will receive an error message like this:

    

11. Pay the error no heed. The registration worked. Go back and attempt to edit your Office document on SharePoint. It should work without any problems.
12. If you still encounter the same issue, as a last resort we may repair Office 2003 or upgrade to Office 2007.

If you would not like to perform the above then you may also try the hotfix released by Microsoft which fixes the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938888.  In any of the above case, you must work with your local desktop team for assistance as this requires administrative privileges.

Hide left navigation on OOB SharePoint masterpage

I have often heard users saying they do not prefer losing space with that left navigation on SharePoint pages. Well, you can just remove it OOB:

SharePoint 2007 default.master:

Add a Content Editor Web Part to the page where you would not like the left navigation to show and add the code below and apply changes.

<style>.ms-navframe{ display:none; }</style>

SharePoint 2010 v4.master:

Add a Content Editor Web Part to the page where you would not like the left navigation to show and add the following to the HTML Source.

<Style>
body #s4-leftpanel
{
display: none;
}
.s4-ca
{
margin-left: 0px;
}
</style>

The CSS above hides the left navigation Div, and then sets the content area to not have a left margin. Hope this helps!

Hide specific columns from Newform.aspx and Editform.aspx page

Many a times you come across a requirement where users would like to hide a column from the Newform.aspx and Editform.aspx pages however would like to retain the columns for the SharePoint list/library. This is possible OOB. Here is how:

• Open Newform.aspx or Editform.aspx page in edit mode. You can find more info about how to this in my previous post.
• Add a Content Editor Web Part on the page and add following javascript code to the source editor. You may change the column names in the code based on the names of the columns in the list/library you are working on. 

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> 
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("hideFields"); 
function findacontrol(FieldName) 
{ 
 var arr = document.getElementsByTagName("!"); 
 for (var i=0;i < arr.length; i++ ) 
 { 
 if (arr[i].innerHTML.indexOf(FieldName) > 0) 
 { 
 return arr[i]; 
 } 
 } 
} 
function hideFields() 
{ 
 var 
 control = findacontrol("Column Name 1"); 
 control.parentNode.parentNode.style.display="none"; 
 control = findacontrol("Column Name 2"); 
 control.parentNode.parentNode.style.display="none"; 
} 
</script>
 

I wanted to extend a word of thanks to my colleagues I work with – Rohan Chittyal, Nidhi Gupta and Amol Ghuge.

SharePoint 2007 Quick URLs

Function	Add to the URL	Notes
Add Web Parts Pane	?ToolPaneView=2	Add to the end of the page URL; WILL ONLY WORK IF THE PAGE IS ALREADY CHECKED OUT
Create	[area]/_layouts/spscreate.aspx
Create	/_layouts/create.aspx
Create list in a different portal area	/_layouts/new.aspx? NewPageFilename=YourTemplateName.stp& ListTemplate=100& ListBaseType=0	When you save a template in a portal area and try to create a new list in a different portal area, the template will not show on the Create page. Use this URL to force it to show.
Documents and Lists	/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx
List Template Gallery	/_catalogs/lt
Manage Audiences	/_layouts/Audience_Main.aspx
Manage Cross Site Groups	/_layouts/mygrps.aspx
Manage List Template Gallery	/_catalogs/lt/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Manage My Alerts	/_layouts/MySubs.aspx
Manage People	/_layouts/people.aspx
Manage Site Collection Administrators	/_layouts/mngsiteadmin.aspx
Manage Site Collection Users	/_layouts/siteusrs.aspx	To access you must be an admin on the server or a site collection admin for the site.
Manage Site Groups	/_layouts/role.aspx
Manage Site Template Gallery	/_catalogs/wt/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Manage Site Template Gallery	/_catalogs/wt/Forms/Common.aspx
Manage Sites and Workspaces	/_layouts/mngsubwebs.aspx
Manage User Alerts	/_layouts/AlertsAdmin.aspx
Manage User Alerts	/_layouts/SiteSubs.aspx
Manage User Permissions	/_layouts/user.aspx
Manage Web Part Gallery	/_catalogs/wp/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Master Page Gallery	/_catalogs/masterpage	Also includes Page Layouts
Modify Navigation	/_layouts/AreaNavigationSettings.aspx
Recycle Bin	/_layouts/AdminRecycleBin.aspx
Save as site template	/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx
Site Column Gallery	/_layouts/mngfield.aspx
Site Content and Structure Manager	/_layouts/sitemanager.aspx
Site Content Types	/_layouts/mngctype.aspx
Site Settings	/_layouts/settings.aspx
Site Settings	/_layouts/default.aspx
Site Template Gallery	/_catalogs/wt
Site Theme	/_layouts/themeweb.aspx
Site usage details	/_layouts/UsageDetails.aspx
Site Usage Summary	/_layouts/SpUsageWeb.aspx
Site Usage Summary	/_layouts/Usage.aspx
Sites Registry	/SiteDirectory/Lists/Sites/Summary.aspx
Top-level Site Administration	/_layouts/webadmin.aspx
User Information	/_layouts/userinfo.aspx
Web Part Gallery	/_catalogs/wp
Web Part Page Maintenance	?contents=1	Add to the end of the page URL
Workflows	/_layouts/wrkmng.aspx

Excel Services using Defined Names and publishing to SharePoint

This is a great documentation from Microsoft educating about publishing a workbook to SharePoint using Excel Services and defined names and then reusing them to show data in SharePoint.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/using-excel-services-to-share-pieces-and-parts-of-excel-workbooks-HA102581560.aspx

I find it very intuitive so I felt like sharing…

Now Sort items in the Outlook Calendar folder

With so many mails floating around we often keep on cleaning our mailboxes.  We can easily delete mails from mail folders but what about the “Calendar” folder?

All meeting requests get stored in your Calendar folder, even the ones with attached documents.  Here is a way to create a View for the Calendar folder so that it shows meeting requests just like mails.

We can then sort the requests/appointments by size and delete the unnecessary ones.

1. Select “Calendar” folder.

1. Go to View à Current View à Define Views.

3. Open the “Custom View organizer” . Click on “New.“. Give the name of view .Select type of view as “Table“. Select the option for “All Calendar folders“.

4. In the “Customize View: Size View” dialog click on “Fields.“
5. In the “Show Fields” dialog box,” Select available fields” drop down option will be available.
6. Select “All Mail fields” for the dropdown.

1. In the list for “Available fields” select “Size“. Add it to the right side list.

1. Click all appropriate ‘OK’s and the sorting is done for the calendar items.

You can check the setting by applying the newly created view on the Calendar folder.

Also the steps mentioned above could differ a little bit across Outlook versions

Adding web parts to horrid untouchable SharePoint Newform, Editform and Dispform.aspx

I am sure many of you have thought that what if I want to add some header or banner or company branding or any other information at the top of the list/library pages like the newform.aspx, edirform.aspx and dispform.aspx. And you often answer yourself that – ah! I need SharePoint Designer for that. That’s right! But you can also do it out-of-the-box.

I was looking through some online resources and bumped into this post online where you can make this happen. Here is how:

• Open you SharePoint site and navigate to your list/library page and view a list item. This should take us to the dispform.aspx page
• Modify the URL and replace everything after ../dispForm.aspx?ID=# with &PageView=Shared&ToolPaneView=2
• So at the end your URL should look like ../dispForm.aspx?ID=#&PageView=Shared&ToolPaneView=2 and press Enter.

You should now be able to add any web part to these pages and the best part is that any change to you make would be universal for that particular list. This means you can view any list item for the page and you should see this new web part in there.

Thanks for the tip: http://www.sharepointology.com/setup/add-web-parts-to-dispform-editform-or-newformaspx/

Unable to publish browser enabled InfoPath forms to a SharePoint form library

You get the following error when publishing an InfoPath form template to a form library even though the template is browser compatible

“This form template is browser-compatible, but it cannot be browser-enabled on the selected site”

 

This occurs when you delete the default “Form Templates” library which is created when the first time enterprise features are enabled for the site collection. You can find it under All Site Content page (../layouts/viewlsts.aspx)

 

To fix this, you must deactivate and activate the InfoPath features again using the below command lines with a force switch. Please ensure that the command lines are run in order.

Note: Replace the %SITE_COLLECTION_URL% section of the command line with your absolute site collection URL.

• stsadm -o deactivatefeature -filename IPFSSiteFeatures\feature.xml -force -url %SITE_COLLECTION_URL%
  
• stsadm -o deactivatefeature -filename IPFSWebFeatures\feature.xml -force -url %SITE_COLLECTION_URL%
  

   

• stsadm -o activatefeature -filename IPFSSiteFeatures\feature.xml -force -url %SITE_COLLECTION_URL%
  
• stsadm -o activatefeature -filename IPFSWebFeatures\feature.xml -force -url %SITE_COLLECTION_URL%
  

Once these command lines are run, you may verify the “Form Templates” library under the All Site Content page. You should now be able to publish the InfoPath form template to your SharePoint site.

Difference between SharePoint “View only” and “Read” permission level

View Permission – Users with Read only permissions can view the content using Client side application like Excel or InfoPath. It allows users to open a Web site, list, or folder in order to access items inside that container. View items in lists, documents in document libraries, and view Web discussion comments.

Read Permission – Users with View only permissions cannot view the content using Client side application like Excel or InfoPath. Like they can view only Server side rendering items.It allows Users to View items in lists, documents in document libraries, and view Web discussion comments. Open Items and View the source of documents with server-side file handlers.

More information: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101001491033.aspx