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Monday, August 16, 2010

Display SharePoint in Outlook

Guest Author: Matt Bramer
http://mattbramer.blogspot.com

Recently there have been a few questions asked on @EUSP’s STP (Stump the Panel) which needed a specific integration with Outlook that you simply can’t get using OOTB features of SharePoint.  Here are some examples:

http://www.endusersharepoint.com/STP/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1531
http://www.endusersharepoint.com/STP/viewtopic.php?t=1500&p=5773#p5773

These are very good questions and I hope that this solution allows for more SharePoint/Outlook integration.  These are two fantastic tools that I never close while I’m computing.

So how do you do this?

  1. In Outlook create a new folder and call it whatever makes sense to your situation.  In my case, I’m going to call my folder: Intranet

  2. Right click that folder and select properties.

  3. On the home page tab type: http://URLtoYourCustomPage and check mark the "Show home page by default for this folder."

Here are some screenshots of what this will look like:


When you click on the folder, you can instantly view your SharePoint page within Outlook, or any web page for that matter.  I’ve seen some users create a hierarchy of views.  So if a list is used extensively, you can create a folder that relates to that view and then create multiple sub-folders that relate to other views within the same list or any other list.  You are only limited by your imagination!  There are many uses for this, feel free to post a comment and let me know how you are using it.

Guest Author: Matt Bramer
http://mattbramer.blogspot.com

Matt Bramer works as a Systems Admin in the construction industry.  He has been working with Search Server Express since 2008 and frequently blogs about his findings at http://mattbramer.blogspot.com.  Matt often posts to Stump the Panel and likes to tweet about his IT projects on Twitter (@iOnline247).

 

Please Join the Discussion

19 Responses to “Display SharePoint in Outlook”
  1. Kerri says:

    Thanks Matt! I’ve used this before and kind of forgot about it. (Although I read those posts on STP and it got me thinking about it again too!) I’ll be using this to help my end users get to a form that is a few subsites down from the main permission level and they would be blind to find it by navigation only. This will make it easy for them to jump into quickly! This article makes my job in explaining the process a breeze! Much appreciated!

    • Matt B. says:

      Using this to fill out the one particular form is always a good solution. Everyone opens Outlook in the morning and leaves it open all day long. On that note, integration between SharePoint and Outlook is critical to make the end-user’s job easier. Glad you liked it!

  2. Well done, Matt! Thanks for sharing on EUSP.

    Blessings,
    Jim Bob

  3. Mike Keenan says:

    It would appear that the input box for home page with Outlook is limited to 128 characters which would often rule out creating view of forms, where the source parameter of the url will often take the address length well beyond 128 characters. Nice tip though!

  4. IceM says:

    I tried this with a URL to our Team Discussion page, but every time I click on it… it gives me a Script Error message that Object doesn’t support this property or method. The error URL is different than the one pasted and includes a reference to _layouts/1033/init.js?rev=(long string).

    It works fine to hit the same URL where it opens IE. We are using SharePoint and Outlook 2010… any thoughts on getting this error to go away as users won’t use it like this?

    • Jay says:

      I’m having the same problem
      Outlook 2010. WSS 3.0
      Windows 7. WSS installed locally (no farm)

      Did exactly as the article suggested and the home page loads fine.
      However when I move my mouse over the links on the left hand navigation list I get a script error

      Line 169
      Char 9
      Object expected
      http://lappy/WebResource.axd?d=GHUqdf_UyimIhCL7dpDglQ2&t=633803089995006876

    • Matt Bramer says:

      I didn’t really test this with 2010 since I’m still running the beta edition, however I am affected by the same symptoms. I did some digging and it appears that Outlook 2010 pulls the web capabilities out and that would be to blame for the script errors.

      Here’s a good reference to the changes between the versions: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179110.aspx. With that, I really wouldn’t recommend using Outlook 2010 and this solution. It’s hard to create a one size fits all, but I’m sure there are a lot of people that can still use this functionality and not run into problems. I’ll definitely have to keep this on the radar when we move to the newer version though.

      Thanks for the feedback!

      • Dave Pyett says:

        I am running Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 and linking to WSS3.0. No issues here (I’ve been using this method for some time – didn’t realise that it wasnt common knowledge).

  5. Matt B. says:

    Thanks for posting Dave. I’m not able to test 2010 on a non-beta copy and we’ll probably not upgrade for a while. If anyone else wants to chime in, feel free. For @IceM and @Jay, I’d make sure you aren’t using the beta version of Outlook. I know I am and I’m getting the same error messages. It seems to fire the error during mouseover events.

  6. Jay says:

    Nope not a beta version…
    version 14.0.4760.1000 (32 bit)

    Definately mouseover events that are causing the problem.
    I’m also using Windows 7 but not sure what this means “linking to WSS3.0″ I just adding a feed to the feeds folder in Outlook 2010
    Stand alone copy (Internet email not exchange connected) if that matters

    • Matt Bramer says:

      This may be a long shot, but can you put the URL of your site in the Intranet Zone under Internet Options, Security. Set the security level to low, if you are allowed to. If that doesn’t work, I’m at a loss for other options to try.

      Anyone with Office 2010 (non-beta) want to chime in?

  7. Satish Srivastva says:

    Thanks Dave. I have used this before but forgot about it. I have used now in SharePoint 2010. It works fine!

  8. Jay says:

    Already in the Intranet Zone, set security to low and restarted outlook.
    Same deal. Mouseover errors.
    Not a major problem (for me), probably not something I’d use… I was just trying out the blog post.

  9. Jay says:

    My guess is that scripting is disabled altogether in outlook (mine).
    The site settings and change user drop downs do nothing when clicked. Normal links work fine. Can’t test the quick launch links as the mouseover error kicks in as soon as I get near them.

  10. JoyceMR says:

    Just tried this with Outlook 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 (both RTM). Pointing to the home page of my SP2010 project site I received a script error on the intial load (Object doesn’t suppor this propoerty or method with url pointing to _layouts/1033/init.js?rev=…..). Replied to continue running scripts on the page and it rendered. Received same error on each page to which I navigated. Also found it had trouble loading the ribbon when I tried to edit a list item. Looks like it would take some changes to get even a single page to load without error. Search Center gave multiple errors per page but then did render the search results and it did allow right clicking to open the desired result in a new window. There are deffinately some possibilities here. We’ll just need more time to work with it.

    • Matt Bramer says:

      Thanks for your feedback JoyceMR!

      There must be some settings that are causing the error. Just out of curiosity, I tried this on a another computer here (Office 2010 and WSS 3.0, XP SP3), and I didn’t get any errors. I’d be a bit lost as to how to track down these settings, but if I remember correctly, Outlook uses Word as it’s HTML rendering engine. Settings between these two must be causing this issue altogether.


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