In this chapter you will learn to:
Create a Meeting Workspace.
Understand the home page of a Meeting Workspace.
Add items to a Meeting Workspace.
Customize a Meeting Workspace.
Every company holds meetings. Usually those meetings have a specific agenda. Sometimes participants need to prepare for the meeting by completing some task prior to it, whether it is reading a document, putting together a list of questions, or perhaps bringing a prototype with them. Often, a meeting becomes inefficient because the preparation tasks that participants are expected to do are not communicated effectively. In addition, after the meeting is over, sometimes meeting notes or follow-up steps are not given to the participants.
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services provides a feature called Meeting Workspace, which helps to improve communication before and after a meeting by supplying a common place to store information that is relevant for the meeting. By providing a single point of communication, Meeting Workspaces can help make meetings more efficient— something every organization, large and small, can use.
In this chapter, you will learn to create a Meeting Workspace by using a template for a SharePoint event. After the Meeting Workspace is created, you will learn to add items to it, such as objectives, agendas, and attendees. You will also learn to customize the Meeting Workspace by adding a Web Part and then adding items to the Web Part.
See Also
Do you need only a quick refresher on the topics in this chapter? See the Quick Reference entries in Quick Reference.
Important
Before you can use the practice files provided for this chapter, you need to install them from the book's companion CD to their default locations. See "Using the Book's CD-ROM" for more information.
Important
Remember to use your SharePoint site location in place of http://gardenco in the exercises.
There are two different ways to create a Meeting Workspace. The first is to create a new SharePoint subsite manually and then apply the Basic Meeting Workspace template to it. The second way is to use one of the default SharePoint events to generate the Meeting Workspace associated with this event. Both will be covered in this section.
When you create a Meeting Workspace by using the Basic Meeting Workspace template, some default content is added automatically. Three lists—Objectives, Agenda, and Attendees—and a document library are created, which function just like any list or library, as discussed in Chapter 4 and Chapter 6, respectively. Each of these lists has a Web Part on the front page of the Meeting Workspace, making it easy to convey information in any of them. Additionally, the Attendees list displays the name of the user who created the Meeting Workspace as the meeting organizer.
In this exercise, you will create a Meeting Workspace by using the Basic Meeting Workspace template to use for storing notes from the weekly status meeting.
OPEN the SharePoint site in which you'd like to create a Meeting Workspace. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to create a site. If in doubt, see the Appendix .
On the top link bar, click Create.
The Create Page page appears.
Under the Web Pages section, click Sites and Workspaces.
You are taken to the New SharePoint Site page.
In the Title box, type the name of the workspace you would like to create, for example Weekly Status Meeting.
In the Description box, type a description for the Meeting Workspaces, for example This site contains information about the weekly status meeting.
In the URL Name: box, type the URL for the Meeting Workspace, for example weeklystatus.
Leave the default settings for the Permissions section. You have now entered everything you need to create the new site.
Click the Create button.
A new site is created at http://gardenco/weeklystatus and you are taken to the Template Selection page.
In the Template box, select Basic Meeting Workspace.
Click OK.
You are taken to the newly created Weekly Status Meeting page.
CLOSE Internet Explorer.
You might want to create a Meeting Workspace for an event that is already in a SharePoint events list, which is even easier to create because Windows SharePoint Services performs most of the work for you.
In this exercise, you will create a Meeting Workspace for recurring Public Workshops events. There are many people involved with the Public Workshops and having details in a Meeting Workspace on the SharePoint site makes it much easier to communicate information, including changes, to everyone involved. You will be adding information to this workspace in the next several sections.
OPEN the SharePoint site in which you'd like to create a Meeting Workspace. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to create a site. If in doubt, see the Appendix .
BE SURE TO complete the steps to create recurring Public Workshops events in the "Add, Edit, and Delete List Items" exercise in Chapter 4.
Alternatively, you can create a practice site for this chapter based on site template Chapter 8 Starter.stp in the practice file folder for this chapter. The practice file folder is located in the My Documents Microsoft PressSharePoint Services SBSChapter 08 folder. See ‘Using the Book's CD-ROM’ for instructions on how to create a practice site.
Under the Events Web Part, click one of the Public Workshops events.
The Events: Public Workshops page appears.
Select the Use a Meeting Workspace to organize attendees, agendas, documents, minutes, and other details for this event. checkbox.
Click Save and Close.
You will be taken to the New or Existing Meeting Workspace page. Because a Meeting Workspace was not created for this event yet, you will create one. All of the information is already filled out for you.
Click OK.
A new site is created at http://gardenco/Public%20Workshops and you are taken to the Template Selection page.
In the Template box, select Basic Meeting Workspace.
You are taken to the newly created Public Workshops page. In the left pane, notice the links for each recurrence of the event.
CLOSE Internet Explorer.
Once you have created a Meeting Workspace, you should familiarize yourself with the home page layout. On the home page of a generic workspace are Web Parts for Objectives, Attendees, Agenda, and document library. These are the items that apply to every meeting. A meeting should always have at least one objective as well as an agenda, to let people know what the meeting is about. The meeting workspace is organized in a way that makes it easy for the organizer to communicate why they are holding the meeting. Also, there must always be a list of meeting attendees. The document library does not necessarily have to be used, but it is convenient to have one created as a place to store documents that attendees might need to read before the meeting, a Microsoft PowerPoint file containing the presentations, or meeting minutes after the meeting concludes.
If you create a Meeting Workspace from a recurring event, additional information is provided on the Meeting Workspace page. At the top of the page is the Date and Time of the meeting as well as the Location of the meeting, if specified. This is useful information to have in case someone needs it. Additionally, on the left side of the page is a list of dates that represent each instance of a recurring meeting. Each of these dates has its own Meeting Workspace page associated with it, enabling you to have different objectives, agendas, attendees, and documents for each specific instance of the meeting. For example, the Public Workshops meeting presents a different topic each month, so it makes sense to have different objectives, agendas, attendees, and documents for every monthly event.
To get the most use out of a Meeting Workspace, you need to add information and relevant details to it so people are motivated to visit your Meeting Workspace. In this section you will add information to each of the default Web Parts in the Public Workshops Meeting Workspace.
First, the topic for the next Public Workshop focuses on dealing with weeds in the garden. Catherine Turner wants to communicate this focus to anyone who visits the Meeting Workspace page.
In this exercise you will add this topic as an objective to the Meeting Workspace.
OPEN the Meeting Workspace that you created in the previous exercise (http://gardenco/Public%20Workshops in the example). If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
You can also get to the Meeting Workspace by opening the base SharePoint site (http://gardenco), clicking one of the Public Workshops under the Events Web Part, and then clicking the Workspace link.
On the left side of the page under Select a date from the list below:, click the date of the next meeting (1/4/2005 in this example; your date will vary based on the date you perform this exercise.).
Under the Objectives Web Part, click Add new item.
You are taken to the Objectives: New Item page.
In the Objective box, type the meeting objective, for example How to efficiently get rid of weeds from your garden..
Click Save and Close.
You have created the objective for this Public Workshop and are taken back to the home page of the Meeting Workspace. The new objective appears in the Objectives Web Part.
CLOSE Internet Explorer.
Next, Catherine Turner wants to communicate the agenda for the next Public Workshop. This includes assigning an owner to each agenda item and scheduling a time for the Public Workshop. Catherine has decided that Mike Galos will present the Introduction session and the Weeding Tools session. She will present the pros and cons of weeding with chemicals as well as answer questions. Each session will last for 15 minutes.
In this exercise, you will create an agenda for the Meeting Workspace based on this scenario.
OPEN the Meeting Workspace that you created in the previous exercise (http://gardenco/Public%20Workshops in the example). If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
On the left side of the page, under Select a date from the list below:, click the date of the next meeting (1/2/2005 in this example; your date will vary based on the date you perform this exercise.).
Under the Agenda Web Part, click Add new item.
The Agenda: New Item page appears.
In the Subject box, type a subject for the agenda, for example Introduction to weeding.
In the Owner box, type the name of a person who is responsible for this agenda item, for example Mike Galos.
In the Time box, type the time for this agenda item, for example 5:00 PM – 5:15 PM.
Click Save and Close.
You have created the first agenda item for this Public Workshop and are taken back to the home page of the Meeting Workspace. The new agenda appears in the Agenda Web Part. Using steps 2–6 as a guide, create another three items for the workshop agenda. The information for each agenda item is provided in the following table:
Subject
Owner
Time
Using chemicals to kill weeds
Catherine Turner
5:15 PM – 5:30 PM
Tools to help remove weeds
Mike Galos
5:30 PM – 5:45 PM
Questions and Answers
Catherine Turner
5:45 PM – 6:00 PM
You have created the final agenda item for this Public Workshop and are taken back to the home page of the Meeting Workspace.
CLOSE Internet Explorer.
Finally, since you specified that Mike Galos will be presenting two topics in the meeting, you need to add him to the Attendees list. Listing Mike as an attendee ensures that the visitors to the workspace know that Mike will attend the meeting and they'll be able to contact him by e-mail if necessary.
In this exercise, you will add a user, Mike Galos, to the attendees list.
OPEN the Meeting Workspace that you created in the previous exercise (http://gardenco/Public%20Workshops in the example).
On the left side of the page, under Select a date from the list below:, click the date of the next meeting (1/4/2005 in this example; your date will vary based on the date you perform this exercise.).
Under the Attendees Web Part, click Manage Attendees.
The Attendees page appears.
Click Add Attendee.
You are taken to the Attendees: New Item page.
In the Name box, type the e-mail address or user name of the attendee, for example gardencodommikeg.
In the Response drop-down list, select Accepted.
In the Attendance drop-down list, select Required.
Click Save and Close.
You have added Mike as an Attendee for this Public Workshop and are taken back to the Attendees list. You may add additional attendees if you want by using the same procedure.
Now that you have added all the information to the default Meeting Workspace, you might want to customize the Meeting Workspace home page to present more information. You can do this by adding Web Parts and lists.
Note
If you add a Web Part to any page in a Meeting Workspace that has multiple dates listed on the left-side of the page, the Web Part is added to all pages.
In this exercise you will add a Web Part to the Meeting Workspace. Catherine wants to ensure that all attendees know what they are expected to bring with them to the meeting; therefore, the Web Part you will be adding is Things To Bring.
See Also
We will look into customizing a SharePoint site using Web Parts in detail in Chapter 12.
OPEN the Meeting Workspace to which you would like to add a Web Part. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to add Web Parts. If in doubt, see the Appendix .
On the left side of the page, under Select a date from the list below:, click the date of the next meeting (1/4/2005 in this example; your date will vary based on the date you perform this exercise.).
On the right side of the page, near the top, click Modify this Workspace and then click Add Web Parts.
The Add Web Parts tool pane appears on the right side of the page.
In the Add Web Parts tool pane, click Things To Bring.
Click the Add button.
The Things To Bring list is now added to the home page of the Meeting Workspace.
In the upper right corner of the Add Web Parts tool pane, click the Close button to close the tool pane.
Now that there is a Things To Bring Web Part, you need to add items to this Web Part. In our scenario, Catherine Turner wants to make sure the attendees bring chemical weeding samples to the Public Workshop.
In this exercise, you will add that item to the Things To Bring Web Part.
OPEN the Meeting Workspace to which you added the Things To Bring Web Part in the previous exercise. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.
On the left side of the page, under Select a date from the list below: click the date of the next meeting (1/4/2005 in this example; your date will vary based on the date you perform this exercise.).
Under the Things To Bring Web Part, click Add new item.
You are taken to the Things To Bring: New Item page.
In the Item box, type the name of the item, for example Weed removal chemical samples.
In the Comment box, type a reason for bringing the item, for example Please bring samples to aid our presentation as well as promote sales.
In the Owner box, type the name of the person responsible for bringing the item, for example Catherine Turner.
Click Save and Close.
You have added an item to the Things To Bring list for this Public Workshop and are taken back to the home page of the Meeting Workspace. You may add additional items to the Things To Bring list using the same procedure.
CLOSE Internet Explorer.
Meeting Workspaces communicate key information about a meeting.
You can create a Meeting Workspace from recurring events if you want to have different information each time the meeting occurs.
After the Meeting Workspace is created, add relevant information to the Objectives, Agenda, and Attendees Web Parts.
Use the Document Library in a Meeting Workspace to store presentations, documents, pictures, meeting minutes, or other material relevant to the meeting.
You can customize a Meeting Workspace by adding Web Parts.