Strategies for Web Discussions Configurations

The following section reviews key strategies and decisions you must make based on your configuration. It is recommended that you decide which toolbar you want users to use and identify the Web discussions servers in your deployment.

Choosing a Toolbar

The Online Collaboration toolbar and the Web Discussions toolbar offer different features. The Online Collaboration toolbar offers slightly more flexibility and customizability, but is not available to users who are not using Office and Internet Explorer. The Web Discussions toolbar provides a way for users who do not have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Office 2000 installed on their systems to participate in Web discussions. A brief overview of each kind of Web discussions follows:

Online Collaboration Discussions. For users who have Internet Explorer 5 or Office 2000 installed on their computer, the Online Collaboration toolbar provides access to discussions from these applications.

Users who have Office XP installed on their computer can also access the Online Collaboration toolbar by clicking the Discuss link below the document title on the dashboard site.

Browser-Based Discussions. Browser-based discussions using the Web Discussions toolbar are available when you click the Discuss link below a document title on the dashboard site. Browser-based discussions allow users who do not have Internet Explorer 5 and Office installed on their computer to read and add discussion remarks.

It is recommended that Internet Explorer and Office users choose the Online Collaboration toolbar for maximum flexibility. From the Online Collaboration toolbar, users can subscribe to be notified of changes to the document or folder. Users can also specify which Web discussions server and insert inline discussion items in a Word or HTML document.

From Internet Explorer, you can only insert inline discussion items for HTML documents.

For more information, see Variables Affecting Web Discussions earlier in this chapter.

Choosing a Web Discussions Server

It is important to determine a strategy for choosing a Web discussions server before you implement Web discussions. Computers running SharePoint Portal Server are valid Web discussions servers. Consider the following conditions when you choose a Web discussions server:

• All computers are running Office XP. You can choose to centralize your Web discussions on any valid Web discussion server. In this case, have your users specify the same Web discussions server from the Online Collaboration toolbar, so that Office consolidates all discussions on a single Web discussions server.
• Some computers are running earlier versions of Office. You can choose to centralize your Web discussions on any valid Web discussions server. However, instruct any user accessing discussions from a computer running an earlier version of Office to avoid using the Discuss link to discuss documents.

  Users must specify the same Web discussion server from the Online Collaboration toolbar. In this scenario, Office consolidates all discussions on a single Web discussions server.

• Some computers are not running Office and Internet Explorer. Organizations with a mix of client environments, including computers without Office installed and computers with Office 2000 or Office XP installed, that plan to implement Web discussions are at increased risk of having Web discussions for the same document located on different Web discussions servers.

  You must specify a server running SharePoint Portal Server as the Web discussions server to allow non-Office clients to participate in Web discussions for any documents or to search for or subscribe to Web discussions.

You may want to instruct Office users to specify the name of the server on which the document is stored or accessed from the Web discussions server each time they choose to participate in or view a discussion. Otherwise, users may inadvertently distribute discussions across multiple Web discussions servers. In this case, you may want to disable the ability to discuss documents that are stored outside the workspace and store all documents that you want to be available for Web discussions in a workspace. This forces Office users to use the active document's server as the Web discussions server and minimizes the risk of multiple discussions.

By implementing a specific strategy, you can ensure that all users can view and participate in Web discussions.

Avoiding Multiple Discussions for the Same Document

It is possible to create two separate discussions for the same document if users specify an alternate Web discussions server with the Online Collaboration toolbar. When you specify an alternate Web discussions server, SharePoint Portal Server stores the Web discussion in the external discussion location on the alternate Web discussion server rather than in the internal discussion location on the server where the document is stored.