Creating Themes in SharePoint 2010 using PowerPoint Themes

Creating Themes in SharePoint 2010 can be a complicated task but there is very easy way of creating and using themes from PowerPoint 2010 in SharePoint 2010.With the below steps themes created in Power Point can be uploaded and used in SharePoint:

1. Save any PPT as thmx file:

2. Open your site collection in which you want to use this theme and go to Site Actions --> Site Settings and under galleries go to Themes Section. Upload the theme which was saved in the Step 1:

3. Once we have uploaded the .thmx file it is available to be used in the site collection.
4. The theme now can be applied from Site Actions --> Site Settings --> Look And Feel --> Site Theme.

Supressing Window Prompt in SharePoint 2010 Intranet Sites

Some of the users for the SharePoint sites were facing repetative Windows Prompt to provide the credentials. This can be supressed if for the users in Win 7 by adding the URL of the site with the user credentials (This works for any site though) with the following steps:
1. Go to Windows Credential Manager. You can do so by typing "Credential Manager" in the Win7 Search Box or by navigating through Control Panel --> User Accounts --> Credential Manager.
2. Click on the Add a Windows credential in the Windows Credential Section.

3. Add the URL of the Site, User ID and password of the user. You need to make sure not to add http in the URL of the site else it will not accept and throw an error.
4. Once this is done you will be able to access the site without the credential pop up again and again. The only glitch is if we change the password, we will need to update the pwd here as it is not automatically synced up.

Interesting Survey on SharePoint Usage and Stats

An interesting survey on SharePoint usages :)

Fall 2011 SharePoint Survey Results

View more presentations from OpenText Global 360

SharePoint 2010 Licensing for Dummies

Recently I was working on setting up a SharePoint 2010 Farm and understanding licensing was a nightmare. So many options and different products makes it a complicated matter. I tried to put a small table which helps on high level to understand what licenses are required. This is not comprehensive list but just a quick reference guide for dummies to get a idea about the various different licenses required and various option to set up a SharePoint 2010 Farm:

Wherever I mentioend SQL Server 2008 we can also utilize the free version of SQL which is SQL Server 2008 Express depending upon the requirment. Since this version of SQL does not need any license I have not added in the table below but obviously it has its own limitations. If you are using SQL Server Express Edition you dont need SQL Server Licenses as well the the CAL or Processor License.

Farm Type	SharePoint Server 2010 (Enterprise or Standard)	SharePoint 2010 CAL (Enterprise or Standard)	SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites (Ent or Std)	SQL Server (Enterprise or Standard)	SQL Server (CAL or Processor License)	Windows  Server 2008 (Enterprise or Standard)	Windows Server 2008 External Connector	Windows Server  2008 CAL	FAST     Search
SharePoint 2010 Foundation Farm only for Intranet Sites	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes (With Windows valid license you can use SharePoint Foundation for free)	No	Yes (A CAL for each user accessing the site)	No
SharePoint 2010 Foundation Farm only for Internet Sites	No	No	No	Yes	Yes (Better to get the processor based license)	Yes (With Windows valid license you can use SharePoint Foundation for free)	Yes (All the server in the farm will need this.)	No	No
SharePoint 2010 Server Farm for Intranet Sites	Yes (Depending on your need decide Enterprise or Standard Server for the FARM)	Yes (Depending on your need decide Enterprise or Standard CAL's for each user)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes (A CAL for each user accessing the site)	No
SharePoint 2010 Server Farm only for Internet Sites	No	No	Yes (Depending on your need decide Enterprise or Standard version	Yes	Yes (Better to get the processor based license)	Yes	Yes (Each Server require an external connector.)	No	No
SharePoint 2010 Server Farm only for Internet Sites with FAST Seacrh	Yes (Need Enterprise version to use FAST search)	Yes (Need Enterprise CAL's to use FAST search)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes (A CAL for each user accessing the site)	Yes
SharePoint 2010 Server Farm Both for Intranet and Internet Sites	Yes	Yes (Depending on your need decide Enterprise or Standard CAL's for your intranet based users)	Yes (Depending on your need decide Enterprise or Standard version	Yes	Yes  (Better to get the processor based license)	Yes	Yes (Each Server serving the external users require an external connector.)	Yes (A CAL for each user accessing the site)	No

Also read very helpful FAQ from Directions on Microsoft @ SharePoint Licensing

Good Video on JQuery

Found an interesting and very informative video on JQuery. This can be downloaded from the below link after putting some details:

http://www.intertech.com/Register/Registration.aspx?AdID=42

The direct link to download is (not sure will it work):

http://www.Intertech.com/Downloads/OxygenBlast/jQuery/jQueryWebinar.wmv

Hope you find it useful.