Microsoft 365 training and content for modern digital workplaces
Spam is no joke. But when we educate users about it, we can have a little fun. A few months ago, my director sent out an email with the subject line “Spam on the rise” which I felt needed a little cinematic pizzazz. Without further ado I give you Spam on the Rise, ready for your PowerPoint slides or digital resources.
Click any to see/save full-size.
In both modern and classic SharePoint experiences, you can navigate to any discussion board, list, or library and set a custom alert just for you (or for others if you’re an admin) to get emails on new items, modifications, and more. All of the setup and management guidance below is classic, but modern is almost exactly the same except for how you initially access the “Alert me” options.
First, navigate to the list or library. Once there, you’ll see “Files/Items” and “Library/List” at the top. In the example below, we’re setting an alert on a document library so our options are “Files” and “Library.” Click the second option for the library, then “Alert Me.”
Select “Set alert on this library/list”
In the first part of the dialog, choose the Subject line of the email notifications (Alert Title), who should get it (just you if non-admin), and how they should get it. Your administrators may not have text messaging set up, so that may not be an available option.
Finally, choose what you care about (new items, modifications, deletions), the context/criteria for notifications, and how frequently you want emails (immediately, daily, or weekly). I find the daily option is great for discussion boards so users aren’t overwhelmed with back and forth discussion and can instead read a digest and catch up in a single email.
Click OK.
Sometimes when you’re on a page with multiple web parts, you won’t see the Files/Library or Items/List menu options. This is because you need to “select” the relevant web part on the page by clicking in “white space” on the web part. The ribbon menu should then appear. And unless settings were changed by your site owner, you can sometimes click the title of the web part to go to just that app where you’ll see the menu as well.
From the email notifications you receive, you can just click “Modify my alert settings” to see all alerts you have on that particular site, and be able to delete them or edit the settings.
You can also get there the same way we started. Ribbon menu –> List/Library –> Alert Me –> Manage my alerts
Go to site settings
Under “Site administration” select “User alerts”
Choose for whom you’re modifying/deleting the alert(s) and click Update
You’ll now see all alerts that user has set up on that site (or alerts someone set up on their behalf). From here, you can delete any unwanted alerts, or report back to the user or interested party on frequency and topics/lists with alerts.
Go to File –> Cleanup tools –> Mailbox Cleanup –> Set size filter and click Find
When the advanced search opens, add any additional filters and search. When you’re ready, click the top result, use Ctrl+A to select all results, right-click, and Delete. You may need to repeat the “Find Now, select all, delete” process depending on how many results you have.
Similar to above, just change the “size” find option to the “days old” option.
Because you have delete in “batches,” it may be quicker to filter your main view as opposed to using the cleanup tool.
From your main Outlook screen, go to view –> view settings
Click “filter”
Configure settings for your filter, such as only messages you were copied on, or those with attachments. Click OK when ready.
Select all results (Ctrl+A), right-click and Delete.
Click Folder –> Delete all to delete all items in a folder (perhaps you had a temporary project-based folder or a rule that sent generic or auto-emails to a specific folder).
Now that you’ve filled your deleted items, let’s empty it too!
Go to File –> Cleanup tools –> Empty Deleted items folder –> Yes
A colleague of mine from LMH Health, Andrew Brookens, and I set out to deliver an hour’s worth of efficiency hacks using OneNote and Outlook this week. It was the first time we’d tried such a thing, and it was a hot topic. We had 40+ show up in person, and a few people online have asked for handouts or recordings so I’m sharing it all here.
We knew we were setting out to share a lot of demo, and a lot of info from TWO products in FIVE topics in an hour or less. So we devised a handout that would help attendees along the way, and after. You can download it below. In-person attendees also got free access to my OneNote 101 7-day email course.
Because we don’t all have an hour to watch the recording, Andrew and I agreed that sharing smaller, digestible videos would probably work best for busy professionals on the go. Here are brief teaser videos introducing each of our five concepts:
When you fail at something, you have a few choices and it’s perfectly natural to want to spend time doing a bit of each.
The fact of the matter is that when we fail, we still gain something no matter how painful the failure was. Failure provides an opportunity to grow, and awakens a mental “trigger” that helps us avoid failing in the same way twice.
In my book Rise of the Advocates, I detail a story from my first job working at Dairy Queen. I was making my first banana split for a customer and it was beautiful. I was so proud of it, and honored that my supervisor let me even attempt such an intricate treat.
When I handed the masterpiece to the customer waiting in his car, he immediately held it up to the car’s dome light and asked, “Where’s the banana?” I had forgotten the banana – in the banana split.
It’s a mistake I didn’t make twice, and a failure that taught me to review instructions before starting, double-check my work, and even to ask for help when attempting something new. And while this is a low-risk, nearly harmless failure, the process of response and growth is the same as high-risk failures.
It can be difficult to immediately look upon any failure with even a remote sense of gratitude. In these times it’s helpful to remember you’re not at the end, but just somewhere along the way. A colleague of mine whom I respect, Ava, has a helpful quote tacked to her bulletin board that reads, “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.”
So when you’re ready, analyze your failure in search of those valuable moments along the road that will ultimately help get you to that beautiful destination.
Here are some things to consider after failing:
Remember that we often climb the ladder to our destination more quickly with assistance from those with whom we surround ourselves. Are people in your immediate circle holding you down or pushing you upward? Have you made contact with professionals in a position of power or influence that might be able to recommend or endorse you? Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Try to follow people who are doing something similar to what you want to be doing. Learn from them and their own mistakes. Get to know their secret to success, and what support systems they have built. If nobody is doing what you’re doing, consider yourself a pioneer. Expect an adventure ahead, and be sure to always seek the growth opportunities from failures along the way to make your destination that much more sweet. Someday, and possibly already today, people will consider you a mentor and hope to learn from your successes (and failures).
If you failed, that means you tried. Keep trying, fail when necessary, and ultimately you’ll succeed. The path to your destination won’t always be a straight road and I’ll be here cheering you on around the corners, knowing you’ll make it to your destination soon.
External content types are used to create external lists in SharePoint. Before you can create the list/connection, you must first have created the content type.
1. Open SharePoint Designer and open your site
2. Select “External Content Types” from the “Navigation menu
3. Select “External Content Type” from the “New” ribbon section
4. Rename the content type by selecting the name and entering a new one.
1. Select “Click here to discover external data sources and define operations”
2. Click “Add Connection” if you haven’t previously connected to the SQL server
3. Select SQL Server
4. Enter the Server and database names. Select User’s identity (your credentials) or a service account to impersonate (and enter it in Secure Store Application ID). Click OK.
5. SharePoint External lists require at least Read item and read list operations. Right click the table or view to which you’re connecting and select “Create all operations” or choose specific operations if you need to, in order to match data source settings.
6. Click next.
7. To filter data pulled in (preventing massive imports), you can optionally add a filter otherwise click Finish.
8. Click “Create Lists & Form,” and “Save” when prompted
9. Name the list and give it a description (optional). Click OK.
10. Check your Site Contents to find your new list.
Is your list larger than 2,000 items? Here’s how to get past the “resource throttle” error.
If you get “Target Application Not Found,” make sure you’ve setup your Secure Store Application ID in the admin center.
2. Click “Secure Store Service Application”
3. Click “New” if the app isn’t listed, or update it if there.
4. If created new, you’ll need to enter credentials as well. Format the username as Domain\Username.
Applies to SharePoint 2016, can be adapted for O365
If you’re connecting to an external list of significant size, you may run into the following error:
Database Connector has throttled the response. The response from database contains more than ‘2000’ rows. The maximum number of rows that can be read through Database Connector is ‘2000’. The limit can be changed via the ‘Set-SPBusinessDataCatalogThrottleConfig’ cmdlet.
1. Log into your SharePoint server
2. Open your SharePoint 2016 Management Shell as administrator (right-click, run as administrator)
3. Connect to your site
Connect-Site -url https://sharepoint.contoso.com
4. Get ALL service application Proxy IDs (you’ll need this in a later step)
Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy
5. Note the ID of the “Business Data Con…” application
6. Set a new variable “$serviceapp” to that app using the ID you noted as its identity
$serviceapp = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy -Identity a12b3cf4-d12j...
7. Run the following cmdlet to increase the throttle limit
Get-SPBusinessDataCatalogThrottleConfig -Scope Database -ThrottleType Items -ServiceApplicationProxy $serviceapp | Set-SPBusinessDataCatalogThrottleConfig -Maximum 1000000000 -Default 500000
Your external list will now load correctly!