Since I last wrote about SharePoint v3 books here, many weeks have gone by and especially in the last couple of weeks there have been a flood of books that have made it to the Amazon US NON Pre-Order list. I have to write it that way because a couple of times I've been told by the author that a book is out only for Amazon to either not remove it from pre-order status or to half remove it (= remove it; change it back to pre-order; make it non-available and various other options designed to make me mad).

Anyway here as far as I can remember are all the new ones I haven't mentioned before (crosses fingers that when I import a URL in Safari in this garden usage Mac they will look like URLs to you [Later: they didn't look anything more than text so it was either do a bit of A+slashA html work on them all or (as I did) go to a PC; use IE in design mode]) - not in any particular kind of order ...

Beginning SharePoint 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007 (Wrox - Amanda Murphy, Shane Perran)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470124490/heme0f

Inside Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MS Press - Patrick Tisseghem)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735623686/heme0f

Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Version 3 (MS Press - Ted Pattison, Daniel Larson)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735623201/heme

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Administrator's Pocket Consultant (MS Press - Ben Curry)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735623821/heme0f

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Development Unleashed (Sams - Kevin Hoffman, Robert Foster)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672329034/heme0f

Professional SharePoint 2007 Development (Wrox - John Holliday, John Alexander, Jeff Julian, Eli Robillard, Brendon Schwartz, Matt Ranlett, Dan Attis, Tom Rizzo)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470117567/heme0f

Microsoft SharePoint Bible (Wiley - Avitiva Corp, Wayne Tynes, Simeon Cathey, Wynne Leon)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/047000861X/heme0f

Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Wrox - Göran Husman)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470125292/heme0f

P.S. I'll be back tomorrow with a place where you can find links to masses of free chapters from many of the above books. So look for that if you want to read several people's take of "An Introduction to SharePoint"

P.P.S. and silly me, here is the page of all SharePoint v3 books both released; pre-order and ?not yet started?.

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx

I've been reading a book called "The Myths of Innovation" which is a small, circa 150 page black-covered hardback volume from O'Reilly (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596527055/heme0f).

It's the sort of book you can give as a present to just about anyone with a brain rather than I would say to someone who has decided to be the creator of the next great thing on the Internet.

It's in a way a curious book for O'Reilly to be publishing. O'Reilly as most of you know started life as a publisher of books for Unix specialists and I doubt if Unix in a Nutshell (or one of the more specific books in the same series) would be a book you could give to your Dad as a present. Now obviously O'Reilly has in the meantime moved away from the Unix niche - first to include similar Windows books and more lately more general computer books such as the Office 2007 Missing Manual series and (for your computer using Dad !) the simpler "Missing Manual - Starter Edition" books, but this is the first book from them I've seen that barely makes it as a computer book at all.

In fact although the first chapter has the author visiting Google to look at how innovation is supposed to happen there and although there are throughout the book many references to innovations that are in the computer area, there are many other references to innovations that go back centuries (the printing press) or even millenium (pyramids; Roman buildings).

The one main thing I've got so far is that innovation doesn't just happen. First the circumstances need to be right - you couldn't have a World Wide Web without an Internet - and secondly most innovations come as a result of a lot of hard work with time often being spent on failed efforts. Also, at least until recent times, innovators have often been before their times and have got no recognition at all.

So that's what this book is really about - a discussion of innovations and innovators throughout the ages - rather than a "Innovation in a Nutshell" guidebook to how to become an innovator.

The most that can be said is that innovations often come as a result of a lot of reading and studying and that by reading this book maybe some potential innovator will at least realise he/she needn't give up yet and may even get some inspiration. For the rest of us though this is just an interesting read of the kind of book you can pick up; read a few pages with interest and then put down for a while.

Ideal then for bed-time reading. Not so good if it's the only book you have with you for a long airplane journey. (Mind you it's better for that than Unix in a Nutshell!)

Note that the word SharePoint site is intentionally vague - i.e. it covers both the back (v2) applications and the new v3 applications.

There are two main impulses for this blog item. One naturally is the fact that I am suddenly more interested in Mac/SharePoint issues () and the other that there was a newsgroup post in the last week asking how Mac users edit their SharePoint sites.

There I replied that they do this probably through the use of Parallels or BootCamp (notice how I don't bother to explain these terms which are obvious to a Mac user ) because editing SharePoint sites using anything than the Windows Tools designed for this would be asking for trouble.

Hence they need access to a Windows environment and if all they have is a Mac (make that: "if they are lucky enough to have a Mac" ...) then they'll need to either use a Virtual Environment (Parallels - or in fact the latest VMWare version for the Mac which I think is still in beta) or dual boot their Mac using BootCamp to become a Windows machine.

The only snag with the latter is that BootCamp, as far as I know, only supports XPPro or Windows Vista. In other words if you want to do development work on a server operating system, you are out of luck.

An administrator who doesn't want to use a Mac for editing his site(s) but only for accessing them and amending the data in them (maybe because like me his Mac is smaller and lighter than the PC he normally uses), is mostly OK with a Mac.

Safari seems to work better than Firefox with at least v2 sites (I've not tried it with v3 sites yet) as you can for instance do right-click on a file name to Save it to the Desktop. This means that I can add new content to the WSS FAQ sites and also get hold of the latest version of the file I keep on the www.wssfaq.com site that contains all the amendments I've made to the sites during the week. I can't do that in Firefox.

I can't of course use Outlook Express (XPPro) or Windows Mail (Vista) as my newsreader, but Thunderbird works on the Mac as it does on the PC (= occasionally annoyingly and slightly less handy than OE or Windows Mail). So I can keep monitoring and posting to the SP newsgroups from the Mac.

What I can't seem to do is post replies to Forum messages. I can open the forum message (via a newsgator RSS feed) in Safari OK. I can login and I can get the Reply page (as me) but it won't let me enter any text into the reply box (which doesn't actually look like a box either). So that's a negative, but I don't access the forums 4 times a day as I do the newsgroups and I reply there much less often, so it's not a particularly major negative. It IS curious though.

Then there's .WMV files (meaning Microsoft web casts). I can download them from the Microsoft site OK. But I can't seem to get the MacBook to run them. Neither (Microsoft) Media Player for the Mac or Quick Time with the very latest plug-in from a third-party company but from the Microsoft site seem to want to do much with the picture part of these.

So all in all, Mac as a user [and note that I've not above mentioned the usual things like No Multiple Uploads etc.] is reasonable for quick glances while sitting on the back porch and using the wireless interface, but perhaps you shouldn't throw away your PC yet if you are serious about Administering SharePoint sites and especially if you want to develop for them.

Note: All of the addresses of the KB / Articles - 2007 Products / MS / Non-MS Articles below were valid at the time I added them to the WSS FAQ
site and to this file. I can't guarantee that they still are.

(This is also posted to the WSS newsgroup at microsoft.public.sharepoint.windowsservices - web access via http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/server/sharepoint.mspx)

(Items are added to the WSS FAQ throughout the week so you will find new items more quickly by checking at wss.collutions.com or www.wssfaq.com daily.)

From 28th May - 3rd June 2007

I 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;936908

A subsite that you create in SharePoint Server 2007 does not inherit master page settings from its parent site, and you receive error messages on the Site Master Page Settings page

30th May 2007

Modified

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;937290

Error message when you try to upgrade from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or to SharePoint Server 2007: "Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'AllUserData_Url'" (ver 2.1)

31st May 2007

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;932376

How to configure SharePoint Server 2007 to use a database that is hosted on a server that is running SQL Server in an untrusted domain (ver 1.2)

14th May 2007

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=927675

No Adobe PDF documents are returned in the search results when you search a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web site (ver 1.2)

14th May 2007

II. Articles - 2007 Products  (no longer with all links to articles for other Office 2007 and other 2007 Products)

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/helloitsliam/archive/2007/05/30/moss2007-javascript-item-menus-part-3-real-world.aspx

MOSS2007 – JavaScript Item Menus Part 3 (Real World Examples) (Blog - Liam Cleary)

30th May 200

http://sharepointblogs.com/nmoutdoors/archive/2007/05/30/getting-away-from-fully-trusted-web-parts.aspx

Getting Away From Fully Trusted Web Parts (Blog - Scott)

30th May 2007

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/helloitsliam/archive/2007/05/30/moss2007-javascript-item-menus-part-2-real-world-examples.aspx

MOSS2007 – JavaScript Item Menus Part 2 (Real World Examples) (Blog - Liam Cleary)

30th May 2007

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457205.aspx

Visual How To: Writing a Filter Provider Web Part for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Joel Krist, Akona Systems)

30th May 2007

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb460810.aspx

Visual How To: Writing a Filter Consumer Web Part for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Using Excel Services (Joel Krist, Akona Systems)

30th May 2007

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/helloitsliam/archive/2007/05/30/moss2007-javascript-item-menus-part-1-real-world-examples.aspx

MOSS2007 – JavaScript Item Menus Part 1 (Real World Examples) (Blog - Liam Cleary)

30th May 2007

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/HA102105871033.aspx

InfoPath 2007 features that are unavailable in InfoPath Forms Services

30th May 2007 (date added)

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/05/feature-stapling.html

Feature Stapling (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

29th May 2007

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa981559.aspx

Comparisons of SharePoint Search Versions

28th May 2007 (date added)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e719ecf7-9f46-4312-af89-6ad8702e4e6e&DisplayLang=en

SQL Server 2005 Samples and Sample Databases (February 2007) [Ed. not included with Windows Internal Database installation]

28th May 2007 (date added - actually Feb 2007)

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastRegistrationConfirmation.aspx?culture=en-US&RegistrationID=1290617384

TechNet Webcast: Controlling Your SharePoint Server 2007 Sites with IT Governance (Level 200) (Kevin Remde)

25th May 2007

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastRegistrationConfirmation.aspx?culture=en-US&RegistrationID=1290617402

TechNet Webcast: Technical Overview of Forefront Security for SharePoint (Level 200) (Blain Barton)

25th May 2007

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastRegistrationConfirmation.aspx?culture=en-US&RegistrationID=1290617451

MSDN Webcast: Windows SharePoint Services and Forms Services (Level 200) (Lynn Langit, Mike Benkovich)

25th May 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/05/sharepoint-deployment-optionsfeatures.html

Features: SharePoint deployment options : Features or Content Deployment? (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

21st May 2007

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb428856.aspx

Visual How To: Creating and Exposing Search Scopes in SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise Search (Partick Tisseghem, U2U)

17th May 2007 (same date as the other ones - this one was missed)

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/05/deploying-web-parts-as-feature.html

Features: Deploying web parts as a feature (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

11th May 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/04/deploying-master-pages-and-page-layouts.html

Features: Deploying master pages and page layouts as a feature (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

27th April 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/04/feature-to-create-lookup-fields-on.html

Features: Feature to create lookup fields on Codeplex (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

20th April 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/04/deploying-content-types-as-feature.html

Features: Deploying content types as a feature (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

17th April 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/04/sample-code-creating-list-based-site.html

Features: Sample code - creating list based site columns as a feature (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

14th April 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-debug-sharepoint-feature.html

Features: How to debug SharePoint feature receivers (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

20th March 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/04/creating-list-based-site-columns-as.html

Features: Creating list-based site columns as a feature (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

9th March 2007

http://sharepointnutsandbolts.blogspot.com/2007/04/creating-lists-with-vsewss.html

Features: Creating lists with VSeWSS (Blog - Chris O'Brien)

2nd March 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/jackiebo/archive/2007/02/27/displaying-a-list-on-another-site-in-the-same-site-collection.aspx

Displaying a list on another site (in the same site collection) (Blog - Jackie Bodine)

27th February 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/jackiebo/archive/2007/02/26/supercharge-your-sharepoint-wiki-adding-columns-and-creating-dynamic-tables.aspx

Supercharge your SharePoint Wiki - Adding Columns and Creating Dynamic Tables  (Blog - Jackie Bodine)

26th February 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/jackiebo/archive/2007/02/23/lookup-count-related-the-magic-behind-sharepoint-s-comments-column.aspx

Lookup (Count Related) – The magic behind SharePoint’s # Comments Column  (Blog - Jackie Bodine)

23rd February 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/jackiebo/archive/2007/02/23/sharepoint-content-migration-object-model-and-content-migration-packages.aspx

SharePoint Content Migration Object Model and Content Migration Packages  (Blog - Jackie Bodine)

23rd February 2007

https://blogs.pointbridge.com/Blogs/morse_matt/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2

How to use WSS v3 with ADAM for user authentication (Blog - Matthew Morse)

5th December 2006

B. Other Office 2007 products (selected few only since 1.1.2007)

None

C. Other New 2006/2007 Products  (selected few only since 1.1.2007)

None

Modified

None

Deleted

None

III WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1085

V.55 Pro SharePoint 2007 Development Techniques (Apress - Margriet Bruggeman, Nikander Bruggeman)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1086

VI.46 SharePoint List Filter - Multiple Drop-Down (commercial - KWizCom)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1086

VII.05 Pro SharePoint Solution Development: Combining .NET, SharePoint and Office 2007, Chapter 1 - Office Business Applications (Apress - ISBN: 1590598083)

Modified

Various v3 books were released in the past week. See the books page http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IV WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New

None

Modified

None

V. MS Articles for WSSv2

New

None

Modified

None

VI Non-MS Articles for WSSv2

New

None

Modified

None

VII WSSv2 FAQ

New

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSS%20FAQ/EditForm.aspx?ID=650

III.122 How do you migrate SharePoint 2003 databases from a separate SQL Server 2000 box to a new SQL Server 2005 box (directly applies to SPS 2003; probably to WSS 2.0 as well in essence)

Modified

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSS%20FAQ/EditForm.aspx?ID=242

III.77 SQL Reporting Services on a WSS Server. How do I get it to work?

 

It's odd how things play out sometimes. I was at the library and for the first time the box behind the current issue of the UK computer magazine PcPro had a back issue in it. What's more it was the one for June 2007 (July 2007 being the one available for reading in the library only). So I borrowed it - along with 3 Mac magazines it should be said, but that's the first one I read when I got home.

The coincidence was that that issue contained 32 reasons they had put together why people should use PC rather than Macs, and for balance (their idea of balance) there were 10 reasons from the same publishers Mac mag as to why people should use the Mac rather than a PC.

I actually learnt a couple of useful things from that list of 32 things, one of which was that Ctrl+Mouse Click is the equivalent of Right Mouse Click (as you have only one button on the Mac mouse (and notebook equivalent) but I'm not sure about one of the other points which was that Mac graphics are useless.

Certainly the graphics processor (the Intel built-in Graphics Accelerator which uses system memory) is one I would turn my nose up in a PC system. Shared Memory is Bad. In fact I've often turned my nose up at the sort of portables offered in the big electronic stores here (rather than in specialist computer shops) which seem to often match fast processors; a large hard disk; and lots of memory with just this graphics "card".

Now they said it was useless for games - and it might be - but I don't play computer games (I do play board games) with the exception of chess and that doesn't exactly demand massive amounts of graphics power. Otherwise it's giving extremely sharp text on its own 13.3 inch monitor and that's all I really want and am bothered about. The machine doesn't seem to miss the presumably 128MB the graphics card is grabbing of the 512MB available (I'm waiting for the 2x1GB Kinston memory I ordered - like everyone else who bought this Mac model I guess).

(At this point an aside: why is it that the 12inch screen models of PC portables cost much *more* than their 15 1/2 inch or even 17 inch brothers whereas with Macs the 13.3 inch models are cheaper ? That by the way was another reason for picking the Mac - I couldn't justify another full-size portable but I could justify a much lighter and much smaller portable. All the rest was bonus.)

Anyway so much for coincidences. PcPro - not for the first time (I used to pay exhorbitant overseas charges to subscribe to it) excelled itself even with ths Mac-knocking piece which they in fact followed by a long and detailed article on how to run Windows programs on the Mac BootCamp and the like)

Good magazine spoiled only for people outside the UK by the price of single copies or subscriptions (both many times the price of a UK street copy let only the cheaper price of a sub.

On the Web by the way at www.pcpro.co.uk where once you've registered (free) I really recommend the Real World Computing section.

(Every pressed Back in the wrong Tab - and lost almost your entire newly written blog)

This is now going to be the short version I'm not writing all that again ...

The built-in Apple programs are fine but I'm missing guidance on the simple stuff like Copy/Paste (don't write in, someone's told me already) so I'm going to buy this

Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596006608/heme0f)

and this

Mac OS X Tiger: Missing Manual

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596009410/heme0f)

Both are in O'Reilly's Missing Manual series which suits my style of learning (and reference) [although the Starter Editions of them are too simple for me] and neither are particular expensive at Amazon US. (I hate to think what they would cost in a Finnish bookstore!).

The only snag is that the latest editions are from 2005 (late 2005 but still) which does seem a long time ago in computer terms.

But I can't find anything better so the order goes in and in a couple of weeks or so when they finally arrive here I'll be able to report on whether buying them was one of my better ideas or not.

Why both ? Because a) I *am* moving from the PC to the Mac so need to know equivalents and b) because one Amazon reviewer said the first book didn't go far enough and that you needed the full one once you'd moved across. It sounded reasonable and anyway getting two is more economical than buying just one (4.50 per order + 4.50 per book to here I think - something like that anyway.).

P.S. I'm not abandoning the PC. The Acer will remain my main machine. The phrase "I *am* moving to the Mac" just meant that my background when using the Mac is someone who knows a fair bit about the PC - hence "I am moving". It doesn't mean by any means that I am abandoning the PC. But I might I suppose do more of the fun things (music, photos) on the Mac. I'd us it for web casts too if I could get those wmv files to work on the Mac (which try as I may, I can't).

Actually, let's start with the packaging.

I already have a white Apple Ipod (Video 80GB) and a white Apple (IPod) loudspeaker so I know just how much care they take into ensuring that even the packaging is right, so there were no surprises that this MacBook's packaging was perfect.

(It will probably be no surprise to you to hear that my MacBook is white too. In fact this is because the three available models are white; white; and black with the black seemingly costing quite a bit more mainly because it is black. Not for me then - and before you ask I didn't pay any more for the Ferrari trim on my Acer because that portable cost no more than the equivalent model in their business series.)

So packaging aside, then.

Even opening it was different, as was attaching the power cord. No I've not gone mad, the portable just opens - there are no latches to move to the side - and the power cable seems to attach itself to the power input to the machine via magnetism. You'll just have to do it yourself sometime to see what I mean.

The first start-up had me worried a bit. I'd realised when I left the shop (in Helsinki) that I hadn't checked that the Operating System was English. I also knew that Finnish was the default in the Apple Shop's European site when the destination was Finland although you could select English

The machine came with a couple of DVDs with labels in English with the Operating System and programs so I was expecting to start it up; have a Finnish OS and needing to start using those DVDs right away.

In fact the first screen asked me what language I would be mainly using (odd wordage that) my machine in. Sighs of relief as I could naturally choose English although Finnish was on that first selection page as well.

Then I had my location. Well Finland wasn't listed but I usually use England for IE so that was OK wasn't it ? (Not really but read on). Next was if I wanted to move from another Mac (No) and then there was which Keyboard I have British English or US English ?

Hang on, something wrong here! Looks again and sees that there is a boxed marked "Show All"; select that and there's a long list of possible keyboards including Finnish (Extended). Well who knows if mine is Extended or not but it's the only Finnish one listed at all so that's what I'm going to pick. But First! Back to the Location page - yes, there's a "Show All" box there too - select that, than Finnish and move back to the Keyboard page.

Here by the way I notice a nice touch. My going back has not removed from the installation routine the selections I made on the Mac Transfer and the Keyboard pages. So havng set Location to Finnish in two clicks I'm back to Keyboards with Show All already selected. Nice.

The next nice touch is that the installation routine than automatically looks for wireless connections in the neighbourhood (finds 4) and when I select mine it asks me for my password and I'm off. Then I'm creating an account and it wants an image to be associated with that account and offers to take my picture using the built-in camera and use that. (I can't resist even though I look as awful as usual).

That's about it really. The installation was complete but the software update ran automatically and presented me with a list of 8 selected updates (including the biggie - a new version of the OS) without me having to tell it to search etc. etc. as Microsoft insists that you do. Again nice - not necessary, but nice. With those updates uploaded and installed I re-boot; try www.wssfaq.com (!) and turn it off for a while. (The Acer is waiting; MVP work won't keep).

In something like 1984 I had a Macintosh at home for the weekend on loan. Much as I would have liked to have bought it, it was way beyond my price range (I was living in Germany at the time and German (and probably European) Mac prices were way in excess of the US prices (as - thanks to the weak dollar - they continue to be) and of course Macs weren't cheap in any case compared to PC clones.

So it remained somewhat of a dream that I couldn't justify.

By the time I finally had the feeling that I had enough spare money, I was an MVP for STS (later WSS) and it seemed crazy to spend money of a Mac when my "work" needed a PC. It also seemed crazy to need to buy software when I had enough betas (and an MSDN subscription) for all my needs.

Then of course came the move by Apple away from the PowerPC chip and with their Boot Camp the possibility of having both.

It was tempting but I'd just around then bought my Acer Ferrari and it was going to be asking my wife to swallow a bit much to go out and buy a Mac as well.

So why now ?

In typical "careful with money" fashion, because the end 2006 model (i.e. the one which has just been upgraded with a slightly faster processor and 20GB more disk space) was available at a price that would shock people in the US but which here was a bargain - or at least it seemed so to me, so I jumped.

I'm going to be blogging quite a bit in the next few weeks about my experiences with it, but to end this blog with a SharePoint note, Safari shows www.wssfaq.com as it should and without the oddness (empty column of space) that you get with Firefox.

Now how do you do Copy/Paste and why doesn't Ctrl-C Ctrl-V work ? :)

I've been wondering why so many people (as seen in newsgroup postings) have had problems getting search to work *at all*.

After all, all you need to do is get Shared Services setup; start the SharePoint Server Search Service and by default it will search your "Local Office SharePoint Server sites"

Hah!!

In fact all that has been specified by doing that lot is that *when you have specified Crawl Schedules* it will start indexing your "Local Office SharePoint Server sites".

The default for Crawl schedules is namely Off (actually not specified and thus Off).

Now this combination to my mind is Microsoft playing with us. Why give us a default "sites to search" and yet don't bother setting indexing of those "sites to search" going?

... and why remind the administrator that he's using the same username for the Central Administration application pool and yet don't remind the administrator that he hasn't turned crawling on yet ?

Someone wasn't thinking about how normal people behave.

Normal people expect if they are being spoon-fed to be spoon-fed with everything they need to do. Normal people expect that if a logical default is set that another logical default connected to it and essential for it is also set etc. etc.

We know they are all brilliant in Redmond but don't they have user testing labs too? I certainly thought they did. Maybe what they need is an "Administrator's Testing Lab" to get the illogical stuff out of their installation material (or some of it).

By the way I found the confirmation about "By default, this content source is not scheduled to run or crawl...." in page 568 of the Administrator's Companion book (MSPress http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735622825/heme0f). It's a pity imo it wasn't in bold text there.

P.S. I've of course earlier added the pdf image and run the IFilter but none of the PDF files contents were appearing on the Search page. Was it perhaps because the PDF files were ver 7.0 or ver 8.0 files? That would be a valid reason given that we still only have a 6.0 IFilter available to us from Adobe. However the reason is more prosaic - in addition to not including .pdf files in the lists of recognizable file types, Microsoft also haven't included .pdf in the list of file types that are going to be searched. For that you need to go to the "Manage File Types" section under Search settings.

P.P.S. Don't think of looking for this "Manage File Types" in a WSS 3.0 installation. I have been told in a newsgroup that it's not there and that instead there's KB Article 927675 that you should look at. (Not that it worked for him ....)