Comments on: Can SharePoint 2007 Be Used as a Help Authoring Tool?

By: Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:04:54 +0000

No standalone tools accomplishes all the things that SharePoint does. Other tools do parts of it better. You could do a lot with Joomla (for a CMS) and WordPress (for a blog) and Mediawiki (for wikis), but not everything SharePoint can do. SharePoint is a unique product. My recommendation would be to identify the parts of SharePoint you’re actually using, and then identify products that specialize in those things. SharePoint tries to offer so many different features, it becomes too much. But I don’t think people use even a quarter of its features.

By: Villas in Italy

Villas in Italy — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:36:09 +0000

I know how you feel about SP. How about a suggestion or two for what you think accomplishes all the things you pointed out about SP, good and bad? Quite frankly, I am tasked with coming up with recommendations of possible replacements for our current SharePoint. Little help over here, ok?

By: Potterful

Potterful — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:23:52 +0000

FYI, my comments apply to MOSS 2007 within our firewall. Lew, SP 2007 is substantially different from SP 2003 because they included the MS Content Mgmt Server functionality. For us, upgrade was bumpy but worth it.
If people are up for experimenting re: F1, this article may be helpful depending on your scenario: http://www.thesanitypoint.com/archive/2009/01/14/press-f1-sharepoint-help-is-on-the-way.aspx

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:05:06 +0000

Potterful, it looks like we use SharePoint in similar ways. It can be confusing, though, for the user to click a webhelp link and suddenly see the webhelp frame, and not be able to jump back into SharePoint. It’s not a seamless user experience.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:04:03 +0000

Lew, the thing about SharePoint is that almost no other product does what it does. I’m mostly referring to SharePoint 2007. If all you need is a document management system, surely some other platform (even just a network file share) can accomplish that. But when you turn to a larger project like Documentum, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know Alfresco is a free CMS, but I know next to nothing about it. Good luck.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:02:15 +0000

forfear, did you see my previous post about the DITA importer for WordPress? That’s something I want to try, as soon as I can acquire the infrastructure to support PHP and MySQL.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:01:16 +0000

David, you’re right about the problems with external access and SharePoint. I’m sure that varies from company to company, but our SP site is totally behind a firewall, so it doesn’t work to deliver to external users.

By: Potterful

Potterful — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:58:51 +0000

The solution doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach but can be a blend of both authoring tool and SP, based on business needs, the info that is “truly” being consumed, and who maintains the info going forward.
**I currently use a Sharepoint document library as the “container” for an internal quality process guide (WebHelp set of files, generated by RoboHelp).
**A SharePoint list provides “quick” links to major sections within WebHelp and a link to a “printer-friendly” .doc version of the guide when needed.
**I would recommend developing in an authoring tool and publishing the output to a SharePoint destination.
**Benefit – Generate multiple formats easily for review or production purposes, provide easy awareness of broken links, missing images, browse sequences, etc and the whole RH project can be checked in to a version-control system for backup/rollback purposes. Note: versioning in SP can be a little hit or miss; especially when a site collection is redesigned and libraries change locations. (As Giovanni’s company gets up to speed on SP, this is very likely to occur.)
WebHelp topics show up in SP Search results(based on scope as Tom mentioned) or users can use the WebHelp Search.

By: Lew Hundley

Lew Hundley — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:31:10 +0000

Good eval about SP. We use it at my company, but just as a “gathering site”, if you will, for company messages and access to HR forms and static docs. We have tried using it for documentation, etc, and it isn’t pretty (also, not 2007 yet; they keep resisting the upgrade).

So, I know how you feel about SP. How about a suggestion or two for what you think accomplishes all the things you pointed out about SP, good and bad? Quite frankly, I am tasked with coming up with recommendations of possible replacements for our current SharePoint. Little help over here, ok?

By: forfear

forfear — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:48:40 +0000

well i think WordPress would make a fantastic tool.

With the right plugins, navigation set up, easy post writing, set up a related posts plugin.you’ve got a half decent online webhelp system.