Windows SharePoint Services FAQs

Windows SharePoint Services allows teams to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration, benefits that help increase individual and team productivity.

Windows SharePoint Services Support


Q. How do I add a web page to my site?

You can add a webpage to your SharePoint site by adding it as a Web Part. Learn more about Web Parts by accessing the SharePoint Help file from your SharePoint site's Nav Bar, and select "Customizing the home page."

Q. How do I Add a New User

Go to Site Settings
Manage Users
Select Add Users

Q. How do I Edit a Users Role

Go to Site Settings
Manage Users
Select the user
Change the Role check box


Q. How do I Change a Users Password

Go to Site Settings
View Information about Site Users
Select the user
Change Password
Add New Password
Confirm and OK

Q. How do I Edit a Users Information

Go to Site Settings
View Information about Site Users
Select the user
Edit User Information


Q. What is a Site Collection Administrator?

Site Collection definition: A set of Web sites on a virtual server that have the same owner and share administration settings.  Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites.  The only role that has permission over the entire collection of sites is the Site Collection Administrator.


Q. How do I open my site in FrontPage

Open FrontPage and select File | Open Site | My Network Places | type in the complete url (in the Site Name field) | Open.


Q. How do I view a usage report?

SharePoint has a built in usage report in which you can view usage by User, page, OS, Browser and referral URL.  The data collected in each of these categories is total hits, recent month, most recent day, most recent day hits.

Go to Site Settings
Site Administration
Select View Site Usage Data

Q. What software do I need to customize my site?

Considerable customization can be done using only your browser. However, to fully customize and utilize your SharePoint Site it is necessary to use Microsoft Frontpage 2003. 

Q. How do I Add a Theme to my site

Go to Site Settings
Apply theme to site
Select theme and Apply

Q. How do I select the root level template

We default the top level site to the Team Site Template.  We had an overwhelming number of requests for this because users were picking one of the other 7 templates (which do not display all of the functionality of SharePoint) and were dissatisfied.

When you create a sub site, you will be prompted to select a template.  You can use one of the 8 provided by us, or at the root level, upload/create your own.  Just add your template to the root level template catalog and it will in the list of available templates when you create your sub site.  For example:  http://sharepoint.yourdomain.com will be your home page with a link to your subsite http://sharepoint.yourdomain.com/marketing.  You can even add a Marketing link to the top nav bar of your home site through FrontPage.

Q. What software do I need?

Unless you're going to stand up your own SharePoint Server, there is no other software needed.  Although, if you plan to do any site customization outside of what the SharePoint interface is capable of, you may need Microsoft Frontpage 2003.

Q. How do I change the Quick Launch Bar?

This can be done at the time of a List or doc library creation (select "add this link to the quick launch bar"). 

If you need to add any other links to this bar, you can do it through FrontPage.  Open the default.aspx page and select Add Link or double click on the bar to edit.

Q. Are there different Language Packs available? Can My Top Level site be changed to a language other than English?

The following language packs can be used on all sub sites - Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.

Q. How do I Add an Email Alert

Go to the List you want to receive notifications for
Select Alert Me
Select the Change Type
Select the Alert Frequency

You should receive an email confirming a successful setup.

Q. How do I Manage a Users Alerts

Go to Site Settings
View Information about Site Users
Select the user
My Alerts on this site

Q. How do I get emails?

You can setup SharePoint Alerts that email based on certain conditions (see Working with Alerts in the SharePoint Help file from your site's Nav Bar).

Q. Information in Help doesn't match what I see in my Web site.

Help is written to document your Web site in its default configuration. Your team or administrator may have customized the site so that it no longer matches exactly with the information in Help.

Q. Site users report that they can't get to a list, document library, discussion board, or survey, yet I can see it listed on the Document Libraries, Discussion Boards, or Lists page.

The default view may have been deleted. Do one of the following:

Set an existing view as the default view
Create a new view to use as the default view

Q. I can no longer modify a view by using my Web browser

If a view is modified extensively by using a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services-compatible Web page editor, such as Microsoft FrontPage 2002, it can no longer be modified in the Web browser.


Q. I don't see my name in the list of users on the User Information page.

You have not yet participated in the SharePoint team Web site. Do any of the following:

Go to the Discussion Boards page and participate in a discussion.
Go to the Document Libraries page and upload a document to a library.
Go to the Documents and Lists page and add an item to a list, or respond to a survey.

Q. I just created a team Web site, but when I go to Site Settings, I'm denied access.

You have not yet participated in the team Web site. Do any of the following:

Go to the Discussion Boards page and participate in a discussion.
Go to the Document Libraries page and upload a document to a library.
Go to the Lists page and add an item to a list, or respond to a survey.
Go to the Create Page page and add a new list, document library, discussion board, or survey to the site.

Q. I can't change my password.

If you use your Microsoft Windows NT domain account to log onto your team Web site, you can change the password for your Web site by changing the password of your domain user account. 

Q. I set Edit access in my list or survey to None, and now no one can enter items in the list or respond to the survey.

Edit access includes the ability to create items. There is no setting that prevents users from editing their own items. However, you can prevent them from editing someone else's items by setting Edit access to Only their own. 

Q. I get a message that I didn't type a valid date.

Dates must be in the format nn/nn/nnnn or n/n/nn.

Q. I typed a Web address in a text field, and when I view the item, only part of the Web address is a hyperlink.

If the Web address includes a space, type %20 for the space. For example, http://example%20site.microsoft.com. 

Q. I typed a mailto: address in a text field, and when I view the item, it isn't an active hyperlink

All mailto: addresses must be in lowercase letters. For example: mailto:someone@example.com 


Q. Is my survey response truly anonymous?

Your user name does not appear in the results of a survey that is set to hide user names. However, an administrator with access to the database that stores survey results can match your identity to your response. 

Q. How many questions can a survey have?

You can add up to 1,024 questions to a survey.

Q. The Upcoming Events view shows me events that have already happened.

The Upcoming Events view includes all events that happen on the current day, since midnight.

Q. I can't copy and move files when I'm in Folder view in a document library.

Your security settings may be too strict. Try the following:

In Microsoft Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and click the Security tab.
In the Select a Web content zone to specify its security settings box, click Trusted sites, and then click Sites.
In the Add this Web site to the zone box, type the URL of your team Web site, and then click Add. 

Q. I want to edit a document in a document library, but I have Microsoft Office 2000 or earlier.

Click the hyperlink to open the document or save it to your hard disk.
Edit the document.
Do one of the following:
If you are using Office 2000, on the File menu, click Save as to save the file with its original name to the document library. This will over-write the original file.
If you are using an earlier version of Office, save the file to your hard disk, and on the page that displays the document library, click Upload Document to copy the file to the document library.

Q. I get an error message when I try to import a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that was saved as a Web page.

Windows SharePoint Services cannot import spreadsheets that were saved with interactivity. Try saving the spreadsheet again, without interactivity.

In Excel, on the File menu, click Save as Web Page.
Click Republish: Sheet, and clear the Add interactivity check box.
Click Save. 

Q. My Web site looks wrong and some features are not working.

Web sites based on Windows SharePoint Services work best with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape Navigator 6.0 or later, installed on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000 or later. If you are using another Web browser or operating system, some pages may not display properly, and some features may not work.

Q. I get an error message that the required program may not be installed properly.

You may have set up the required program to be installed on first use. Run the program so that it is fully installed on your hard disk, and then try using the feature again.

Q. Why am I not able to apply a theme to one or two pages in my Web site?

By design, you apply themes to an entire site. If you want to apply themes to individual pages or to further customize your Web site based on in any way, use a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible Web page editor, such as Microsoft Frontpage 2003. 



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