Re: publishing large numbers of docs to SharePoint Wiki pages

[Daniel Friedman <daniel -dot- friedman42 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I have had a lot of experience with Sharepoint, and there was a similar
thread on LinkedIn. I'll just copy my response here:

Using SP to create a help system because it can do websites is like using
excel as a database because it can do tables. Is it technically possible,
yes, but it is going to suck for everyone involved.

Here are the top shortcomings (I am basing this on SP 2007, so MS may have
updated some things by now):
1. Poor support for changing content formatting. You can't make custom
styles in the default Sharepoint settings. And you want to stay the hell
away from trying to edit the CSS for Sharepoint wikis. There are so many
inherited stylesheets that create Sharepoint .asp pages, and you are very
likely to break something and not be very popular with your Sharepoint
admin.
2. No TOC or indexing support.
3. Poor search. May as well not exist. There is little point, IMO to having
an online help system if people need to know the navigation tree for the
website in order to find relevant content.

Based on the above, you're better off making manuals using Word docs which
will have proper TOCs and you can take advantage of Sharepoint's version
control and use check-in comments as a changelog for your documents.
On Jan 28, 2015 7:42 AM, "Robert Lauriston" <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:

> SharePoint's rudimentary wiki might be adequate for organizing a
> library of attached files on various subjects.
>
> https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Create-a-wiki-72fa1950-4e1c-4869-8730-8eb0312151ab
>
> Trying to use it as if it were Confluence and build a real wiki from
> existing content, I think you'll end up with a tar-baby.
>
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 9:18 PM, Jay Maechtlen <techwriter -at- laserpubs -dot- com>
> wrote:
> > As I understand it, these will be SharePoint's "Wiki pages".
> > I need to understand more about how SP works, and I need to discuss all
> this
> > with the guy who is setting everything up.
> > But it seems there's only "a guy" setting things up, so I'm afraid
> there's
> > nothing too fancy here.
> > regards
> > Jay
> >
> >
> >
> > On 1/27/2015 4:02 PM, Ryan Young wrote:
> >>
> >> What sort of wiki are you using? Confluence has an "import word" feature
> >> that automatically creates pages for each section of a document. There
> are
> >> some quirks, but it works pretty well.
> >>
> >> You can also import files in bulk from SP to Confluence by simply
> dragging
> >> and dropping them onto the Confluence attachments page. But that will
> only
> >> create attachments, not wiki pages.
> >>
> >> Finally, Atlassian has a Confluence-Sharepoint connector
> >> <
> https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/SPCON/Confluence+SharePoint+Connector+Home
> >.
> >> But it looks like it only works if you want to keep both SP and
> Confluence
> >> going. Plus, it's pricey.
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 3:18 PM, Jay Maechtlen <
> techwriter -at- laserpubs -dot- com
> >> <mailto:techwriter -at- laserpubs -dot- com>> wrote:
> >>
> >>     My (new!) employer has large numbers of documents used as guides
> >>     and references by customer service centers and other users.
> >>     They have decided to move them from their current repository to a
> >>     SharePoint site with Wiki pages.
> >>     I have a number of concerns, and want to understand some of the
> >>     abilities and limitations of that platform, and suitable
> >>     approaches to make this thing work as well as possible.
> >>
> >>     I think we'll have a combination of "throw existing docs int
> >>     position as quickly as possible" and "rebuild docs as appropriate
> >>     to break them into suitable topic-sized chunks".
> >>
> >>     The good news is - it shouldn't be boring!
> >>     Regards
> >>     jay
> >>
> >>     --     Jay Maechtlen
> >>     626 444-5112 <tel:626%20444-5112> office
> >>     626 840-8875 <tel:626%20840-8875> cell
> >>     www.laserpubs.com <http://www.laserpubs.com>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jay Maechtlen
> > 626 444-5112 office
> > 626 840-8875 cell
> > www.laserpubs.com
> >
> >
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> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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> > Procedure Guides, eBooks, and more using Microsoft Word |
> > http://bit.ly/doctohelp2015
> >
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