Creating SharePoint Discussion Boards


The discussion board serves as a place for creating individual discussions and can contain many discussions. For example, each department within a company could have its own discussion board. On the IT department's discussion board, there might be a discussion about the Windows 2003 migration, another discussion for Office XP questions and answers, and a third discussion for getting input on the budget for the next year.

Default SharePoint Discussion Boards

By default, SharePoint Portal Server includes a discussion board called General Discussion accessible by clicking on Manage Content from the portal Home page. For SharePoint Services sites, the template used determines whether a discussion board is provided by default. Most of the standard meeting workspace templates do not include discussion boards, whereas document workspace sites do include discussion boards.

Working with SharePoint Discussion Boards

The Discussion top menu bar contains the following options:

  • New Discussion Enables starting a new discussion.

  • Expand/Collapse If the discussion is currently displayed in expanded mode (all items are viewable"), clicking on this button "collapses" the discussion items so that only the top level is displayed. If the discussion is "collapsed" (only the top level is displayed), clicking this button expands the discussion so that all items are viewable.

The following options are available on the Discussion sidebar under Select a View:

  • "Threaded" view In Threaded View responses are under the item they are referring to

  • "Flat" view In Flat view items are displayed in sequence based on creation date.

Starting and Participating in a Discussion

By clicking New Discussion, a new discussion is created to elicit comments or feedback on a new subject or item. For example, a department that is trying out a new procedure with a pilot group of users might create a "Feedback Discussion" discussion board so that people have a place to post their questions, concerns, or feedback. Posting this information in one centralized place, on a discussion board where all members of the pilot group can view it, provides an easy way to share information and have a record of the discussions.

Enter the Subject of the discussion and the Text that describes what the discussion is about; then click Save and Close. The discussion is then available to other users for viewing or participation. To reply to a discussion item, follow these steps:

1.

If necessary, click the Expand/Collapse button to expand threaded discussions so that the individual content items can be viewed.

2.

Click on the actual item you want to respond to.

3.

Click on Post Reply to enter a response.

After you drill down to the discussion item you want, clicking on the item displays a page that displays the discussion item, and provides several buttons in the toolbar:

  • Post Reply Brings up a page where text can be entered in response to the discussion item.

  • Edit Message Brings up the discussion item for modification, assuming that the user has the appropriate rights to edit the item.

  • Delete Message Removes the discussion item, assuming that the user has the appropriate rights. This deletes just the specific discussion item, not the discussion (unless it is the only item in the discussion).

  • Approve/Reject Item Enables approving the item for all viewers to see, or rejecting the item, thus causing it to not be viewable by the general site users, assuming that the user has the appropriate rights. However, any user with the Manage Lists right can view, approve, or reject items. Using the approval feature is a good practice to follow because it enables someone to monitor what gets put on the discussion board.

    NOTE

    Requiring approval for discussion items is not the default setting. Therefore, if it is to be used, it must be turned on either at the time the discussion is created or through the Change General Settings option.


  • Alert Me Brings up a page where parameters can be entered for notification when the item changes.

TIP

Approvers can set an alert for discussions so that they are notified when items are added or changed. This prevents them from having to continually check for changes or additions while providing a mechanism for a timely approval process.


Filtering Discussion Detail

The various ways that the display of discussion detail can be changed or filtered include the following:

  • Individual comments can be shown or hidden by expanding/collapsing discussion items. To do this, click on the Expand/Collapse button.

    NOTE

    The Expand/Collapse button is available only when the Threaded view is used to display the discussion.


  • Customized views can be created that show or hide any of the information associated with the comment such as username, date posted, date modified, approval status, and approver's comments.

  • When a view other than Threaded is used to view the discussion, the view can be filtered on an ad-hoc basis using the columns displayed in the view.




Microsoft SharePoint 2003 Unleashed
Microsoft SharePoint 2003 Unleashed (2nd Edition) (Unleashed)
ISBN: 0672328038
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 288

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