Sharepoint 2013 branding with Design Manager

In SharePoint 2013, Design Manager renders a new trend for creating websites. This tool is accessible when you activate the Publishing Infrastructure feature or use the Publishing Portal site template at the site collection level. The purpose of this new tool is to offer users an easy way of branding SharePoint. This advanced tool allows designers to create a compelling behavior, look and feel for a SharePoint 2013 site by using the techniques they are most comfortable with. It also supports exporting and importing of a visual design, and thus helps you assure a consistent visual experience across all device platforms in your industry.

This article discusses about the designing and support capabilities involved in this development technology. Let's have a quick tour through SharePoint 2013.

Considerations for SharePoint Designers or Developers:

• Design packages: To create as well as export the visual designs as a package.

• Device channels: To create, change or delete a device channel along with reorder device channels in SP 2013.

• Image renditions: To create, edit as well as delete image renditions that define the attributes used for the purpose of displaying images in the publishing sites.

• Display templates: To relate display templates to Search Web Parts. Learn about how the templates are organized, for mapping properties by using jQuery or variables, or creating a custom display template.

• Themes: To use themes for customizing the look and feel of the sites.

• Snippets: To use the Snippet Gallery in Design Manager so that you are able to add SharePoint functionality quickly to your HTML page layout or master page. Snippets are HTML representations of SharePoint components and hence a snippet helps in controlling like a Web Part or a navigation bar.

Design Manager to Implement Designs

On the left side of this tool, there is a series of links representing the high-level tasks that need to be performed. Based on your designing plan as well as the requisites of your site, you might not have to carry out all these performances in thorough order. Nevertheless, this sequence is a vital starting point.

Before you start using this technology, you need a scheming. You can use a ready-made website template or create one of your own. A designing is simply a group of files that employ the visual designing of your site.

Generally, the file categories include:

• At least one HTML file which is going to be changed into a SharePoint master page

• JavaScript files

• One or more CSS files

• Different supporting files

• Images

Design Manager to Customize Your SharePoint 2013 Site

In order to represent your company's brand or if you want it to be designed in a way that does not look like SharePoint, you can easily customize your site as per your preference. Creating a custom design by using Design Manager can help you achieve the desired business goal. The new tool is a feature in SharePoint 2013 making it easier to create a fully pixel-perfect and customized design implementing the web-designing tools that you find yourself familiar with. It is a publishing dimension that can be made available in publishing sites in both Office 365 and SP Server 2013. The technology can also be used for branding the public-facing website in Office 365.

This tool can also help in creating visual designs for websites by applying any web design tool or HTML editor of your choice, and then upload that designing to SharePoint. Design Manager is the central hub as well as interface where all aspects of a custom designing is properly managed. Often, visual designing creations of publishing sites fit into the larger process, in which thousands of people as well as administrations are involved. You can hire developers from top companies in sharepoint development who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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Detailed Feature Reviews of Design Manager in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint Server 2013 comes with several innovative features including the Design Manager. The feature enables enterprises to manage the styling and branding of SharePoint sites and pages in a more structured way. It can also be used in Office 365 as an advanced site design tool to design custom websites for an organization or business. The developers also have option to create custom website designs by using HTML editors or web design tools they are familiar with. At the same time, the advanced features of Design Manager allow developers to build a completely new website within a shorter span of time.

Key Feature Reviews of Design Manager in SharePoint 2013

Mange Device Channels

The option allows you to optimize areas of the website content by targeting different devices. SharePoint uses the user agent to find out the device being used by the user, and use the information to perform specific tasks. For instance, the user agent helps SharePoint to find out if a specific device supports Flash content or not. So the target areas of content can be rendered based on the device used by the user. Also, the Manage Device Channels option can be used to create new channels and edit existing channels.

Upload Design Files

You can use the feature to upload the HTML version of your master file along with JavaScript and CSS files, and similar design resources. Also, the feature allows you to access and edit the design files in a straightforward way. At the same time, you can further check if a network drive can be mapped to the master page gallery or need to be accessed through the Windows Explorer.

Edit Master Pages

Your will use the feature frequently to convert the uploaded HTML files into SharePoint master page by using conversion wizards. After clicking on the link, you will be allowed to choose the HTML file to be converted, and follow a series of screen to create a new master file. The feature can also be used to publish a major version of the file from the list. Also, you can view an error message if there are any problems during the conversion process.

Edit Page Template

The latest version of SharePoint also comes with innovative display templates. These display templates are used to format search results and other web parts related to search. The Edit Page Template feature of Design Manager allows you to copy an existing template, and customize it according to your specific requirements.

Edit Page Layout

The page layouts in SharePoint enable you to use an HTML page like a master file, and render the output by adding SharePoint specific lines of code. As the name indicates, the option can be used to create new page layouts by naming the page layout and associate it with a master file. Once the page layout is created, you can download it to your computer. The file will include the SharePoint specific lines of code required to render the output correctly. The feature further allows you to upload your existing page layouts or save the layout directly to the master gallery.

Publish and Apply Design

Once you create the custom design according to a brand, it needs to be published and shared with others. The publish and apply design page allows you to apply the brand by clicking on a given link. It is also the most straightforward way to share and publish the brand created by you with others.

Create Design Packages

The page facilitates movement of your designs between multiple environments. Once you choose the design package name, the page will allow you to include search configuration. During the process, the page will gather all the files and packages, and bundle those neatly into a WSP file. After creating the WSP file, it will show you a link to download the file. At the same time, the file will also be stored to the solutions store at the site collection level. So you can easily move the design packages to Office 365.

As an innovative tool, Design Manager allows users to brand SharePoint in an innovative yet easy way. They can avail the feature to make the look and feel of a SharePoint site both fresh and distinct. So it becomes easier to make an organization’s website represent its brand, instead of looking like a SharePoint site. You can hire a top companies in sharepoint development who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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Looking for Easy Document Management? Switch to SharePoint

Each organization has to include customized document management controls as part of its key strategies. In addition to deciding how to create, review and publish documents, it also needs to decide the most appropriate way to retain or dispose these after certain period of time. Therefore, most enterprises look for innovative a document management system that allows them to store, update, share, find, archive, restore and trace all types of documents. Microsoft has released SharePoint 2013 with a set of features to help users in managing all types of documents efficiently, while complying with the relevance governance or compliance policies. If you are looking for effective and flexible tools to control a document's life cycle, it is a great idea to switch to SharePoint 2013.

What Makes SharePoint 2013 a Powerful Document Management System?

Hassle-Free Sharing of Information and Resources

Similar to other innovative document management systems, SharePoint also enable people to access the required resources and information. But it also allows users to organize documents and coordinate calendars effectively, along with creating team workspaces. At the same time, the user also has option to create blogs and wikis simply by using templates. The users on the do can further avail the offline synchronization capabilities to access the documents regardless of his current location.

Tight Control over Document Life Cycle

SharePoint Server 2013 comes with all the capabilities required to control a document’s life cycle efficiently. At the same time, it also enables users to implement the policies applicable to each document. Along with auditing the document-related actions, the system further ensures that the documents are disposed or retained in the most appropriate way. These features further make it easier for an organization to manage documents as corporate records, while adhering to both corporate guidelines and legal requirements.

Maintain Integrity of Content

The latest version of SharePoint comes with document management capabilities. Before editing a particular document, the reviewer has option to activate document checkout. Thus, he can see the revisions made to the document and restore the document to the previous version. Also, the feature can be used to set security at both document and content level. These capabilities make it easier to maintain the integrity of content store on team sites or shared with a distributed team.

Easy to Build a Collaborative Environment

The IT department of an organization can deploy a collaborative environment through Windows SharePoint Services without putting any additional time and effort. Despite being easy to manage and scale the environment is still simple and flexible. The single-server setting and flexible deployment settings further make it easier to reconfigure the document management system according to the latest governance or compliance policies. Thus, all documents can be created, reviews and shared quickly to facilitate decision making.

Effectuate Document Security Management

While allowing teammates to access the resources and information from diverse locations, each enterprise has to put some amount of effort. But the security features provided by SharePoint enable them to effectuate document security management without putting any extra effort. The system allows users to nominate individual users or group, and set permission simply with two clicks. Also, the traceable access of requests to a site makes it easier to find out who has accessed the resources or information.

Smoothly Change the Location of a Document

Often users have to move or copy documents from one library or site to another. SharePoint allows them to move or copy the document at various stages of its lifestyle without any hassle. They can simply create a custom workflow to guide the document through a business process. Once the document life cycle is activates, tasks can be further assigned to the participants according to their individual roles and responsibilities. The authors with required authoring permission can further copy a particular document, while maintaining the relationship between the source and the destination document intact.

While switching to the updated version of SharePoint, an organization is not required to discard the tools that are already being used for day-to-day operations. Some of the most popular tools and applications in Microsoft Office system like Word and Outlook can still be used seamlessly with SharePoint 2013 to optimize the control over a document's life cycle. Custom Sharepoint development teams can help build sharepoint applications for you within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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SharePoint Development Of Perception System Works Finely For Enhancing ROI

SharePoint developed by Microsoft is being regarded as one of the best software when it comes to sharing as well as transferring data. That is why, experts are of the opinion that every individual business house should vouch for development of SharePoint as that helps the software to get entirely into a working mode. This is what in turn helps the company to increase its ROI or Return on Investment.

It can well be stated here that using SharePoint as a credible platform carries with it a lot of potential in terms of increasing ROI by improving business. It is also imperative that a strategic approach needs to be planned in the most effective as well as a careful way to make sure that the plan pays off in a proper and seamless manner. At this juncture perhaps it needs to be mentioned that any false step will not only render the plan useless but will also cause the end costs to shoot up, deadlines to extend and support challenges to increase by many folds.

Let us now discuss how custom SharePoint development helps in ROI enhancement.

• While opting for the right procedure of business application implementation, there are three options available – opting for purchase point solutions, configure the purchased components or write the custom codes. Certain organizations would opt for a combination of all the three approaches. Hence, it all depends upon the respective organizations about what type of approach they will opt or the guiding principles they will maintain. To be more specific, a business organization which is using SharePoint should have the capacity to reap maximum benefit out of it while it preserves its investments.

• Again, you will find a lot of business houses which maintain a backlog of the required business applications. SharePoint has all the potentials to be used as a domain or platform for rapid delivery of majority of these applications including collation of daily sales data, tracking of health along with safety related issues, maintenance of timesheets and reporting, tracking of promotional activities, booking meeting rooms and the likes.
• Business organizations also have the privilege of enjoying a wide range of services like implementation of products, support along with maintenance, re-engineering of products, development of customized software products and so with the help of various SharePoint solutions. They do so by taking the help of companies that provide SharePoint solutions.

These companies provide high end solutions when it comes to distant learning, interactive internet as well as intranet applications along with solutions, maintenance of portals for student management (in case of educational institutions) and so on.

• With the aid of an effective SharePoint solution, it is possible to operate contents through the full life cycle of a trade. Besides, it is extremely effective when it comes to responding to various needs pertaining to the business and arrive at a wide range of customized solutions.

• Besides, SharePoint solutions are the best for gathering necessary information regarding accessing resources. It also makes file sharing mechanism better and facilitates easier as well as faster search for essential information. This is mainly because it comes up with state of the art built-in search capabilities along with a single web based environment.

Hence, whether you are running a small, medium or a large scale business organization, taking the help of SharePoint will surely make all the difference at the end of the day. In fact, it is such a scalable as well as reliable platform that it surely provides the administration a lot with the help of which it is possible to improve performance with lesser cost and increase revenue along with ROI earning.

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Movin’ On Up – A SharePoint 2013 Migration Case Study Collections

More and more companies are migrating to SharePoint 2013 to avail a set of advanced features. Microsoft has also made it easier for enterprises to migrate to the latest version of the content management system without putting any extra effort. It also offers several strategies to make it easier for companies to migrate to SharePoint 2013, including in-place upgrade, database attach, and hybrid approaches. However, many companies are still skeptical about the effectiveness of the new technology. If you are still not sure about migrating to the latest version of SharePoint, it is time to know about some of the companies who availed many benefits by migrating to the new platform.

Case Study I: Most enterprises find it a daunting challenge to access and manage content and information stores in many databases. Further, the amount of data will vary according to the size and nature of business. Similar problem was being faced by a Paris-based company managing popular civil air ports. The organization was struggling to optimize its existing content management system by aggregating and optimizing 2 TB of data stores in over 70 databases.

At the same time, the company was also looking for efficient options to make the data searchable for all its employees and clients. As the organization was already using SharePoint 2010, it decided to migrate to the latest version of the platform to avail advanced search features. The tech lead of the migration project mentioned that the migration process was fast and smooth due to the SharePoint 2013 Community Site.

Case Study II: Most companies also look for more cost-efficient ways to store, manage and access the data stored across different databases. Further, an organization uses several databases to store information based on their category. An UK based company recently evaluated the advanced content management system to consolidate its data stored on over 80 databases into a single repository.

The single repository will make the information accessible to employees, vendors and clients without increasing operational expenses. The management opts for SharePoint 2013 to consolidate data along with sharing the data collaboratively. The organization has to still invest some additional funds to migrate to SharePoint 2013. But the investment made it easier for the organizations to deploy a series of SharePoint portals to make the data accessible to all concerned parties.

Case Study III: A constant increase is noted in the number of organizations adopting Cloud computing. The innovative and new way to store, manage and access data is also popular due to its effectiveness in making the content accessible to users on the go. But most companies find it difficult to transfer the huge volume of data available for public consumption into Cloud environment.

Recently, a popular car manufacturer migrated to SharePoint 2013 to make the huge volume of information and content available in Cloud environment. In addition to making the data accessible to concerned parties, SharePoint 2013 further made it easier for the company to administer and maintain the data without deploying dedicated IT staff. Further, the migration enabled it to customize its portal by targeting all types of users without putting any extra effort and funds.

Case Study IV: The rapid expansion of a business also makes it essential for it to migrate to an advanced content management system. A large financial corporation based in Virginia realized the problem when it started providing services to clients located in other regions. As the company was formed with the intention of providing local banking services to the Virginia community, initially it did not feel the need for an advanced content management system.

But consistent growth made it a daunting task for the organization to choose an information system that complements its extended operations and needs. The financial organization opted for SharePoint 2013 after evaluating several technologies and solutions. The latest version of SharePoint made it easier for the company to build a social intranet solution to meet its diverse needs. Also, the SharePoint training provided to its employees ensured that its core business is carried out more efficiently.

As SharePoint 2013 can be used for a number of purposes, a business can always customize the platform according to its specific needs. Microsoft further allows enterprises to pick from a number of SharePoint site migration options according to its specific needs and budget.

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Don't Forget User Training when Migrating to SharePoint 2013

Many reports have highlighted how an enterprise can avail several benefits by migrating to SharePoint 2013. But Microsoft has made the technology by combining a variety of collaboration and content management capabilities. At the same time, each enterprise must customize SharePoint solution according to its specific needs and objectives. That is why; it become essential for an organization to make and implement a comprehensive migration plan to take full advantage of the innovative technology.

In comparison to other elements of the migration plan, it is important to concentrate on providing adequate and relevant training to business users. The training will make it easier for managers and SharePoint administrators to optimize the business processes by availing the new features. Also, the training will help enterprises in adopting the latest version of SharePoint within a reduced span of time. An organization has several options to manage the training process. However, the plan must consider a set of key factors to make the training program more beneficial and effective.

Key Elements of an Effective SharePoint 2013 Training Program

Test SharePoint 2013 in an Isolated Environment: Before providing SharePoint 2013 education to your staff, it is important to ensure that it is effective in meeting your needs. Before making the training program, you must check the technology in an isolated environment by concentrating on a set of significant factors. Along with using the new features and checking their relevancy for your employees, you also need to ensure that environment is 100% stable and reliable. The environment can also be tested several times till you are sure about its reliability and importance. You can even get the environment tested by your experts and consultants. Once you have created the perfect environment, it is time to make a training program for end users.

Training Requirements: The SharePoint 2013 training needs will vary from one organization to another. If an organization has already deployed SharePoint 2010 or any other previous release its employees will not require comprehensive education. As the end users are familiar with features like document libraries, established site collections, and information lists, they need not be trained from the scratch. On the other hand, the end users need comprehensive education, when the organization switches to SharePoint 2013 from some other content management system. So an organization must identify the training requirements before making the training program. SharePoint CMS customization enables organisations to reap maximum benefits for organization.

Option to Perform Advanced Functions: SharePoint 2013 enables end users to perform a set of advanced functions. So the organization has to decide whether it wants the end users to perform additional functions by learning specific features. For instance, the end users must learn how to build and administer team sites, or modify their SharePoint profiles to perform customized administration functions. Microsoft has further made several changes to the user interface along with including new features to help users in creating sites and modify profiles. Also, the users must be provided with customized training to optimize the performance of their sites by using lightweight apps.

Using the Online Version: Microsoft further allows enterprises to migrate to the online version of SharePoint 2013 along with Office 365. But an organization must focus on many factors while navigating to an online environment. As the Office 265 is designed as a multi-purpose interface, the end users must learn its key features and functionality. At the same time, the users must learn how to access the options related to SharePoint after logging into the Office 365 portal. The training will make it easier for them to avail the full advantage of a unified communication system. Therefore, an organization has to implement a different training program to migrate to the online version of technology smoothly.

The training program must decide a timeline to enable each user for using the new technology. Many experts also recommend enterprises to make a comprehensive training program for SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013. The mixed training environment will make it easier for end-users to integrate the applications they use on a regular basis.

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How to Establish Efficient Workflows Using SharePoint?

SharePoint, as one of the most popular and preferred web application development platforms, is used by enterprises for a number of purposes. The latest version of this platform, that is, SharePoint2013 has a lot of benefits, out of which, establishing efficient workflows is definitely one.

Before we go into the discussion about how SharePoint portal development helps in accomplishment of tasks or in faster production of outcome, it is necessary to understand the concept in the very first place.

What Do Workflows Mean?

With respect to the SharePoint products and technologies, workflow comes up as an automated movement of items as well as documents through a sequence of tasks related to the business processes. Now, the movement can be employed to manage the business processes well within an organization by allowing the organizations to logically treat the items or documents in a SP list or library. Business logic, on the other hand, comprises instructions that denote the actions while also controlling those actions that happen to a document or item.

Establishing Efficient System with SharePoint 2013

It is quite understandable by now that workflows have got a lot to do with the smooth flow of information. Organizations increasingly feel the need to communicate the right message to the right people at the right time. The establishment of efficient workflows with SharePoint 2013 begins with an automation along with management of the human workflow by means of using SP workflow tools. These tools automate the process to improve both individual as well as enterprise productivity.

Workflow Structure and Features

Workflow consists of the following components:

• Events, more specifically, initiating events, as essential components, enable the movement to do something. Once the workflow is initiated, users can be given a form to gather data while eventually carrying out the workflow.

• Then we have the steps, which consist of one or more actions and conditions and are considered the primary means of organization and structure within workflow.

• Conditions form another essential part of the particular manner in which the automated movement carries out the processing of information.

• After steps and conditions come the Actions, which can actually signify anything starting from working with items associated with the workflow to updating a data repository or sending email to some participant.

Steps Involved in Establishing Efficient Workflows

Using and establishing workflows with effectiveness must go through certain steps. Here is an overview of the process:

Addition to a Library, List or Content Type

Adding the automated movement to a list, library or content type ensures that it is made available for the items or documents in a specified location. One must have the permission to manage lists for the desired addition. In most instances, it is the site administrators that perform the task.

Beginning Workflows on Documents

Following an addition of the automated movement, it needs to be started on an item or document. The type of the automated movement needs to be selected and a form has to be filled out with the information that is required by the same. Customization of the same is also facilitated depending upon the way it was configured and designed.

Modification of Workflow in Progress

Changes to the automated movement can be made to alter the way it behaves. Modification is facilitated and this further paves the way for the efficient establishment of the movement.

Completing the Tasks

Any event that necessitates human interaction is represented by a certain task and in SharePoint, this task can be completed by the participants directly or by means of a client program, which is a part of the 2007 Office release.

Tracking the Workflow Status

The owners as well as the participants of the movement can track the progress of the same. This can be done by means of checking the status page, associated with the workflow.

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