Invalid look-up value error message when trying to upload Visio or other files to SharePoint

Posted: May 26, 2015 | Author: Tamara Bredemus | Filed under: 2010, 2013, ECM, Metadata, SharePoint | Tags: Metadata, Upload Issues | Leave a comment

Ran into an issue the other day. A user was getting an error message when he tried to upload some Visio diagrams.

The strange thing was some of the Visio diagrams uploaded to the SharePoint Online site without any issues.

After searching the internet for the error message I ran across Vaikun Rajanihanth’s post from 2012 Invalid lookup value. The author correctly identifies the issue as the file was down loaded from another SharePoint site before the user tried to upload it to the current SharePoint site. The file still maintained the metadata from the first SharePoint site which caused the conflict while uploading the file to its new SharePoint location. The author details how to resolve the issue for a Word file, but the solution could not be applied to the Visio diagram because “Check for Issues” does not appear in the Info or Backstage view of the Visio file.

To remove the prior SharePoint metadata from the Visio file take the following steps…

Right click on the file name and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
In the Properties widow, click the Custom tab.
If there are no values in the Properties field, this is not the fix you need.
If you do see values in the Properties field, you are on the right path.
To remove the Properties, select the first Property and then click Remove.
Repeat this process until all Properties are removed.
Click OK.
You may now upload the file to your new SharePoint location without any issues.

Build Your Own Fantasy SharePoint Team

Posted: September 2, 2014 | Author: Tamara Bredemus | Filed under: 2013, SharePoint, Team | Leave a comment

Everyone is excited about their new Fantasy Football Teams and Leagues here in the United States. A lot of deliberation and planning go into selecting members of your team. Hours even days are spent pouring over players’ stats and skills before making the final choices.

What about our Fantasy SharePoint Teams? Imagine if you could build your dream team from the ground up.

What stats and skills would you pull onto the team?
Would you define roles and the skills needed to fulfill those roles OR would you define the skills and then define the roles based on the people with the various skills?
Would those skills be different if it was SharePoint Online, On Premises or Hybrid?
Would personality traits enter into the equation? If so what would they be?

Here’s a couple I think are needed regardless if you go old fashioned roles based or skills based.

Know and understand the tools available in the browser to prevent over development. Exam 77-419
Information Architecture / Library Science background
Search Engine Optimization
Keyword Query Language
Understand how SharePoint interacts with other Office Applications.
Create Search Results templates for SharePoint 2013
Know and understand SharePoint Designer Workflows, …
Can work in one or more of the following languages:
- HTML5
- CSS3
- Net
- XML
- Understand and can make use of the client-side object model and REST APIs.

It’s only a start.

Add your skills list to the comments below.

Is SharePoint Social Dead?

Posted: March 13, 2014 | Author: Tamara Bredemus | Filed under: 2013, Social | Tags: Office Graphs, Oslo | Leave a comment

Yep.

Just like everything else at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2014 (SPC14), SharePoint Social is being pushed into Heaven or Hell depending on your point of view. In fact it’s being pushed so hard it got pushed right out SharePoint and into Yammer and new apps.

Basically we are talking about no updates or enhancements to on-premises SharePoint Social.

According to Jared Spataro, the General Manager of Enterprise Social at Microsoft, “… SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1), …makes it easy to connect an on-premises SharePoint deployment with an in-the-cloud Yammer network.” (Work like a network! Enterprise social and the future of work blog post)

DON’T PANIC!

Take a look at some of the new apps that make this loss more palatable:

Office Graph – Not just an org chart. Office Graph shows how you are working with people in the organization. Meetings you’ve both attended, documents you’ve worked on together and discussions you’ve shared are all incorporated into the relationship model. Office Graph serves up your connections instead of you having to search for your connections.
Oslo (codename) – I hate to say it, but it makes me think of Pinterest for Business. With so much information out there users are depending on images, context and search to find what they need to get the job done. Oslo takes care of the search and presents the information in a graphical format. Think of it as dynamic personal navigation.
Yammer Group Experience – You’ll need O365 for this one. When you create a group anywhere in O365 you will get a group inbox, discussion, Outlook web apps calendar and a SharePoint document library. That’s a lot of Office Apps seamlessly integrated to get the job done.

What does this mean for you?

Start considering a hybrid solution. Remember your organization’s Yammer environment can be locked down as tight as you’d like, but it’s still in the Cloud.
If you started using SharePoint Social features, stick with what you’ve got, but start planning for a change.
Don’t panic. SharePoint Social isn’t going away…at least not today.

Links to Additional Views Disappear in SharePoint 2013 When OOTB Style is Applied

Posted: December 16, 2013 | Author: Tamara Bredemus | Filed under: 2013 | Tags: Change view, Views | 10 Comments

Here’s some magic for you. If you add an out of the box style to a view of an App (list or library) the links to the views disappear. We are not talking custom code here. We’re talking about selecting a view style from the Style drop-down.

Surprise!

View with no Style added.

Add Style.

Links to additional views are missing.
Style is applied, but your links to additional views have disappeared.

You can still get to the additional views by clicking on the List or Library tab, and clicking the drop-down for Current View:

This is NOT the type of behavior I expected. How about you?

Please comment if you see different behavior in your uncustomized environment.

Metadata Rules Folders Drool Demo in SharePoint 2013

Posted: November 21, 2013 | Author: Tamara Bredemus | Filed under: 2013, Metadata | Tags: Demo, Metadata | 3 Comments

Watch a video of the demo from SharePoint Saturday and the 2013 Minnesota Government IT Symposium . Create this once on your site and show your users the power and freedom of metadata.

Want to learn how to explain metadata to your users without using the old, “Metadata is data about data” definition? Check out What the Heck is Metadata?

Peek a Boo Where is My View in SharePoint 2013

Posted: April 4, 2013 | Author: Tamara Bredemus | Filed under: 2010, 2013, SharePoint | Tags: Change view, Views | 12 Comments

It should come as no surprise to anyone that how we switch views in SharePoint 2013 lists and libraries has changes.

To make it easier to spot the differences between 2010 and 2013 let’s do a side by side comparison.

2013		2010
Document Library In 2013 the Add New Document option is at the top of the library. In 2010 the link is at the bottom.

What to click on to change views The Library tab is available in both 2013 and 2010. Notice in 2013 all views are listed. In 2010 you need the dropdown in the breadcrumb

Make the View Menu appear In 2013 click the ellipse. In 2010 click the dropdown in the breadcrumb.

View Menu from Library tab Icons in 2013 look cleaner, but basically remained the same.

With another web part on the page In both 2013 and 2010 adding another web part to the page makes the Ribbon disappear. Users must select the web part they want to work with before the contextual Ribbon re-appears. In 2013 the views remain listed. In 2010 the dropdown in the breadcrumb disappears.