Posts Tagged ‘SharePoint’

Quick Tip: Display Number as Month

Quick tip for you today! I need to do some math on months and don’t want require the users to enter a full date. I created the “Month” column as a number field, no decimals, not required, min value 1, max value 12. Now I’m able to do any calculation that I want on the month value, but my views and DVWPs display the number, and I want to be able to display it as the actual month from time to time.

Attempts:
I created a calculated column that I titled “MonthName”. Here are some quick formulas that you can use in your calculated column that will convert your 1-12 number into a month name.

=TEXT([MonthNumColumn],"mmmm") will give you “December” for a value of “12″
=TEXT([MonthNumColumn],"mmm") will give you “Dec” for a value of “12″
HOWEVER, this seemed to only return values for December and January – and they were not actually accurate.

I thought that perhaps it was because the numbers were not all 2 digit, so I created a second calculated column that I titled “MonthNN” and used this formula (I know, starting to go down the rabbit hole):
=TEXT([Month],"00")
And then adjusted the above calculated MonthName field to refer to this new calculated column. No change.

Then I attempted to use the “CHOOSE” function, but the “Month” field was not required and returned “#VALUE!” for any blank fields.

So I nested the CHOOSE function inside an IF statement, and it’s not the most elegant, but it works:
=IF(Month="","NA",CHOOSE(Month,"Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"))

Enjoy!

SPSearch Unable to Index WSS 3.0 Content Source

I’ve recently been running into problems with search on several WSS 3.0 SharePoint sites. It simply wasn’t returning results. They’re all configured the same way, so it’s no surprise that they’re all experiencing this problem. If it was MOSS, I would’ve had this resolved by now. I’m just not as fluent with WSS and familiar with its limitations. I’ve run out of GoogleFu mojo on this one, and ended up having to go through trial-by-error and spending several days banging my head on my desk before I figured it out. So here it is! (more…)

Make “Choice” Fields Easier to be Managed by Users

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about SharePoint, it’s that there’s about a dozen different approaches that you can take to implement just about anything in it. The “choice” field in SharePoint is no different.

The direct approach is to open the settings of your list or library, and add a new column of type “Choice”. Populate the choice options in the settings, and choose your choice “type” (dropdown, radio, checkbox). The down side to that is in order to edit or add new choices, more than contributor access is required. In many cases, the power users want to be able to add new choices without having to ask for assistance, but we don’t necessarily want to grant additional access in most cases. (more…)

Problems with SharePoint Site and Folder Names

Sure, you can find posts and articles out there with lists of character limitations and restrictions for List and Site names and URLs for SharePoint, but what about combinations of legal characters that will cause you problems? (more…)

Fun With SharePoint Migrations

In my latest project, we have installed MOSS 2007 in a client’s environment and are working on upgrading/migrating their old WSS 2003 content over. This is somewhere between a parallel and in-place upgrade. I’ve learned quite a bit along the way – mostly through trial and error. Lots of issues. Lots of quirks. Lots of workarounds.

This is a very long, and involved process – so far (it’s still in process) using nothing more than out of the box commands, and SharePoint Designer. (more…)