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 BoardsBy 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 BoardsThe Discussion top menu bar contains the following options:
The following options are available on the Discussion sidebar under Select a View:
Starting and Participating in a DiscussionBy 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:
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:
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 DetailThe various ways that the display of discussion detail can be changed or filtered include the following:
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