I recently came across these additional resources from HP and Dell which I though might be helpful

• http://h71019.www7.hp.com/activeanswers/Secure/548230-0-0-0-121.html
• http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/services/dell_small_sharepoint_farm.pdf
• http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/services/dell_medium_sharepoint_farm.pdf
• http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/services/dell_large_sharepoint_farm.pdf

It turns out that there’s a problem with this feature if you’re using Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2002760 for further details and a fix.

In MOSS, one can consider using the “Site Content and Structure” as described in http://blog.henryong.com/2008/01/21/how-to-movemigrate-sharepoint-list-itemsdocuments-and-preserve-metadata-properties-at-the-same-time/. However, our particular site was on WSS and this wasn’t an option.

Fortunately, I came across the “SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard” by Chris O’Brien on CodePlex – see http://spdeploymentwizard.codeplex.com/

It took a a few attempts on a test site to get it working exactly as needed but it worked a treat. So, if you need to copy lists (or sites or libraries or list/library items) in WSS and retain all metadata while doing so, do check out the SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard.

Further details at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/emea/default.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2008/03/26/sharepoint-conference-building-a-sharepoint-designer-mashup-part-1.aspx

In addition to these steps, I’ve also found it necessary to make the adjustment described in these articles…

http://www.sharepointbloggers.com/2009/03/how-to-use-url-parameter-to-filter-data.html or http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831093.

This Service Pack impacts the full suite of Office products but where SharePoint is concerned….“Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server SP2 include fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms. SP2 provides the groundwork for future major releases of SharePoint Products and Technologies”

The download links for the SharePoint updates are:

MOSS: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b7816d90-5fc6-4347-89b0-a80deb27a082

WSS: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=79bada82-c13f-44c1-bdc1-d0447337051b

One interesting benefit of SP2 is the increased backup/restore limit in SharePoint Designer. Here’s what the TechNet article on SharePoint Designer site backup (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc706870.aspx) says “If you have not installed Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 2 (SP2), backups that are performed by using Office SharePoint Designer are limited to 25 megabytes (MB). After you install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2, the limit is increased to 2 gigabytes (GB).”

For further information on the announcement as well as the rationale behind dropping Office from the name, check the post on the Microsoft SharePoint Product Group Blog – http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/14/microsoft-sharepoint-14-is-now-microsoft-sharepoint-2010.aspx

No details as yet on the next version of WSS.

As a Microsoft Partner with a proven track record in delivering projects with Microsoft Enterprise technologies (e.g. Exchange, Dynamics CRM, SharePoint), Central Solutions are in a great position to help you and your organisation benefit from BPOS.

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite is a set of messaging and collaboration solutions hosted by Microsoft and consists of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications. These online services are designed to give your business streamlined communication with high availability, comprehensive security and simplified IT management. Your business benefits from always up-to-date technologies that are deployed rapidly, maximising your valuable IT resources and reducing your need for infrastructure investments. For further information, see http://www.microsoft.com/online

Companies with Microsoft SA (Software Assurance) can avail of SPDS services with Central Solutions at no extra charge. SDPS is designed to help organisations plan an effective deployment of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. SDPS includes a broad range of planning tools and services that help optimize the effectiveness of SharePoint’s core capabilities, and help lower the cost of deployment and adoption.

Through a range of 1, 3, 5, 10 or 15-day programmatic planning sessions, Central Solutions will conduct a highly effective planning process for deploying or getting more out of a customers’ SharePoint investment. An SDPS engagement focuses on three main MSSP sections: Qualify and Develop, Solution, Proof, mapping these to Solution Development, Strategy Briefing and Architecture Design, and Proof of Concept and Production Pilot respectively. Not all SDPS engagements include all of these sections. For example, only the 10-and 15-day engagements provide a Proof-of-Concept. A summary of the deliverables are provided in the table below.

Our consultants will work with your decision makers, stakeholders and subject matter experts during the engagement to build a business case and deliver an effective solution.

Further information is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/packagedservices.mspx

The templates can be downloaded from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0a87658f-20b8-4dcc-ad7a-09ad22641f3a