- \n
- Searchable<\/li>\n
- Categorized<\/li>\n
- Retrievable chronologically<\/li>\n
- Available to new staff when they arrive on the scene<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
To create our Office ‘Knowledge Blogging System’, we take the following steps:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Create a blog site (we have two, 1 for technology issues where categories are based on topics such as different types of technology, and another blog whose categories are actually the names of the various clients we support). In this example, I’ll be creating the blog for ‘client support’ (categories, named after clients)<\/li>\n
- We’ll change the behavior of how posts are moderated. By default, a blogging list in a blog site will require posts to be approved. We’ll turn that behavior off (we’re a small team of 10 people \u2013 much like a department in a larger firm), we are looking for ‘speed’ of information instead \u2013 your environment may be different or the content may be more sensitive<\/li>\n
- We’ll set blog alerts so that when a new post is created, everyone receives a ‘blog notification’ which is basically the entire content of the post, as an email \u2013 i.e. this would have been the typical ‘hey guys, I learned this, try and retain it’ email and where the life of it would have stopped. Instead, everyone gets the email as a byproduct of saving the content into SharePoint \u2013 now and for the future<\/li>\n
- Create the necessary categories (in our case, these will be names of clients we support and store information about)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Simple, effective and awesome, I think anyways.<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Step 1 \u2013 Create a Blog Site<\/h2>\n
In this instance, I’m going to create a site (a “web” if you want to get technical) underneath our ‘client management’ site. The steps to create a blog site are really straightforward and illustrated in the next few screenshots, using SharePoint 2013 (for a 2010 version of these instructions, go here: http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/b\/canitpro\/archive\/2012\/07\/23\/building-a-knowledge-blogging-system-in-sharepoint.aspx<\/a>)<\/p>\n
Choose the Settings Cog and Site Contents<\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/image_thumb4.png\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nGo to the bottom of the Site Contents Page and you should see “Subsites”. Click “+New Subsite”.<\/p>\n
![\"clip_image001\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/clip_image001_thumb.png\" "\\"clip_image001\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nCreate a new SharePoint Site, using the “Blog” Template.<\/p>\n
![\"clip_image001[5]\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/clip_image0015_thumb.png\" "\\"clip_image001[5]\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nNow we have a blog site, ready to roll. Style it\/theme it in whatever manner you want. The next step is to click ‘Manage Posts’ and change the default ‘approval’ behavior to allow posts to be posted immediately (we want none of that pesky approval process, for our small team\/content \u2013 again, your mileage may vary).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Step 2 \u2013 Change the Approval Behaviour for posts to not require approval<\/h2>\n
Isn’t it great when you can just skip a step. Microsoft took a page out of the “we love our users” guide and have removed “Content Approval” as a required default in 2013 blogs, so just move on. Nothing to see here.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Step 3 \u2013 Configure the list to set all necessary staff to receive Alerts (emails) of new posts<\/h2>\n
You may have a different way you will want to approach this (such as a workflow, etc.). However, the quick and dirty way to enable everyone on your team to receive the latest blog content (knowledge!), is to subscribe them to alerts, from the Blog Posts list.
\nSimply open the Blog Posts list (choose “Manage Posts” on the Blog home page), choose Alert Me, Set alert on this list and set the appropriate notification settings. For us internally, sending alerts when ‘New items are added’ made the most sense. See below for the visual steps necessary:<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/image_thumb5.png\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd spam the heck out of your team
![\"Winking](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/image_thumb6.png\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Step 4 \u2013 Create your categories<\/h2>\n
In our case, for this particular blog (again, we employ two different blogs, your mileage and use will vary), our categories will be defined as the clients we support. For the purposes of this blog entry and confidentiality, I’ve made up a few\u2026 Click on Categories and change the defaults if desired (Events, Ideas, Opinions, etc.) and add any additional categories you made need.<\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/image_thumb7.png\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Step 5 \u2013 Register Microsoft Word (2007 minimum) as your Blogging Editor<\/h2>\n
Or download, install and configure Windows Live Writer, which is out of scope of this post\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
If you don’t have Word 2007-2013, Windows Live Writer is a great, SharePoint capable Blogging Tool. I happen to prefer Word 2013 (SmartArt anyone?) but Windows Live Writer is free and there are lots of cool add-ons for it, that you can’t get with Word. And if you have Word 2003 or older, Windows Live Writer will be the tool you want to seek out. (Get it here: http:\/\/download.live.com\/writer<\/a>).<\/p>\n
Simply click on ‘Launch Blogging App’ if you have Word locally installed.<\/p>\n
![\"clip_image001[7]\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/clip_image0017_thumb.png\" "\\"clip_image001[7]\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd then accept the various defaults (or change them, I don’t care)<\/p>\n
![\"clip_image002\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/clip_image002_thumb.png\" "\\"clip_image002\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"clip_image003\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/clip_image003_thumb.png\" "\\"clip_image003\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nStep 6 \u2013 Finally, post away and enjoy the result<\/h2>\n
In Word (or Live Writer), blog away \u2013 always be detailed and don’t be afraid to add illustrations to make your point \u2013 that’s the beauty of using Word (and SmartArt) for providing clear messages \u2013 A picture is worth a 1000 words as they say.<\/p>\n
Here’s a basic sample, but you’ll get the picture. And, the net\/final result is your team will receive an email with the blog post (just as though you sent them your informative\/knowledge email), but you’ll have the added bonus of a blog post that is permanent and searchable as well (future proofing).<\/p>\n
Here’s the blog post being created, in Word<\/h3>\n
![\"image\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/image_thumb8.png\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nHere it is in SharePoint<\/h3>\n
Benefit: Permanent, Searchable, Categorized, and Thin (only a browser needed to retrieve the information) <\/em><\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/image_thumb9.png\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd here is the Email Notification that follows<\/h3>\n
Benefit: still arrives as a real time email. I.e. the old school (and only) way this content would have been disseminated. The recipient can choose to read it if it is of immediate interest or delete it, with the confidence of knowing they can find it when they need it<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/brainlitter\/2014\/05\/image_thumb10.png\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"