You can synchronize most lists and libraries in a SharePoint workspace, although some heavily customized lists may have problems. When you create a SharePoint workspace, a number of content types appear categorized under the heading “Available on Server”. For example:

Content types under this heading are typically listed there because SharePoint Workspace does not yet support synchronizing them in a workspace. If you select one of these lists, you see an option to Open the list in a browser. If the content type is also supported in SharePoint Workspace, you see an option to Connect Listname to Server.

The following content types cannot currently be synchronized in a SharePoint workspace:

• Calendar/Events lists
• Wikis
• Blog sites
• Portal sites
• Form libraries
• Slide libraries
• Surveys
• Site directories
• OneNote notebooks stored in document libraries
• IRM-protected document libraries. However, individually protected files can be synchronized in non-IRM-protected document libraries, given proper authentication.

About synchronizing external lists in a SharePoint workspace

Most SharePoint lists are "internal" to the SharePoint site. Users create and save items directly in the list on the site. Some SharePoint lists are "external". These lists, which retrieve data by using the Business Connectivity Services (BCS) capabilities of SharePoint and Office 2010, pull data directly from external systems, such as Line-of-Business systems or Web 2.0 services.

You can download and synchronize external lists in a SharePoint workspace just as you would for other types of SharePoint lists. In the content pane of SharePoint workspace, these lists are sorted under the heading "External Lists" when content is sorted by "Type".

External lists must meet the following requirements to be synchronized in a SharePoint workspace:

· External lists must be hosted on SharePoint Server 2010 with Enterprise Client Access License.

· Your system must have Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 or higher.

· Your Microsoft Office 2010 installation must have the "Business Connectivity Services" option enabled. This option, which appears under "Office Shared," is enabled by default. If you voluntarily disabled this option during installation, you can update your installation using the Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel. If you are unsure about whether you can enable this option, see your administrator.

Joe Levine

In SharePoint Workspace, you can create Groove workspaces to be shared among invited members. Groove workspaces can include a variety of productivity tools. To see the list of tools that ship with SharePoint Workspace, look in the Tools group, and on the Workspace tab, click Add.

By default, every new workspace you create contains the Documents, Discussion, and Calendar tools. You can add several other types of ready-to-use tools such as Notepad, Sketchpad, and Pictures. All of these tools provide a specific set of built-in features and are intended to be used “as is”.

The Lists tool, unlike the other standard workspace tools, provides an open-ended custom tool development environment. The design of a Lists tool must include at least one data-entry form, and at least one “view” for sorting items created using the form. Forms in a Lists tool are created and updated in Microsoft Office InfoPath, and then imported into the Lists tool. Views are designed with the Lists tool designer after forms are imported.

This article describes how to build a simple custom Lists tool in a Groove workspace.

Example: Create the “Commuter Survey” Lists tool

Creating a Lists tool requires some planning. It’s important to consider the following questions:

· What information do you want to collect? It’s best to sketch out the form before you start designing it so that you know what data fields you’ll need, and approximately how you’ll want to lay them out.

· How should you sort the items in the list so that they’re easy to view, understand, and analyze? Answering this question will help you determine what views you’ll need, and what features to set up in the view. For example, should items be sorted in ascending or descending order, or perhaps grouped under headings? Should items be filtered according to one or more conditions? Is there numeric data to be totaled under a column?

In this article we’ll create a simple custom Lists tool for the purpose of conducting a survey. As such, it will contain a survey form template, and a view that shows data items that workspace members create. We’ll show how to create the form template in InfoPath, import it, lay out a view, and then publish the design. Finally, we’ll show how to further customize the design of the Lists tool once it’s already been saved and published.

Add the Lists tool to a workspace

To add a Lists tool to a workspace:

1. Click the Workspace tab.

2. In the Tools group, click Add, and then click Lists.

A new Lists tool appears with a Welcome page and “Start Here” button.

Add a form to the design via Microsoft InfoPath

To enter the designer, click Start Here. Once you’re in the designer, you create a new form as follows:

1. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click New Form.
Microsoft InfoPath launches and a blank form template appears.

2. Design the form as you’d like it to appear in the InfoPath form designer. For example:
Note that the form template is pre-loaded with a standard set of System fields, such as “Created by” and Modified by” fields. You can immediately drag these fields to the form, if desired. In addition to System fields, the form template is pre-configured with all settings that the Lists tool requires to function properly in SharePoint Workspace, such as settings for data connections, security, and lookups. If you create form templates in InfoPath without starting from the Lists tool designer, you will need to configure these settings manually in InfoPath. For more information, see Creating a new form in SharePoint Workspace online help.

3. Once the form is set up as desired, you must save it as an InfoPath form template solution (.xsn) as follows: Click the File tab, click Publish, and then click the SharePoint Workspace button.

4. Name the form in the Save As dialog box and click OK.
You can choose any location for saving the form. However, by using the “Publish” feature, the form is saved to the location that will appear by default when you import the form later – your Documents folder.

5. Return to the Lists tool designer.

6. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Import Form.

7. Select the InfoPath .xsn file you previously saved, and click Open.
The new form is listed under Form Templates. A view that corresponds to the new form is also automatically added to the design.

Examine and update the view design

Do the following to examine and update the view:

1. Click the view name.
You can then select tabs that show options for “about” information, properties, filters, column settings, and sorts.

2. On the About tab, you can change the name of the view as it will appear on the List view menu in the ribbon.
You might change the view name if you want it to reflect certain features you’ve set up for the view. For example, if you’re planning to sort view items according to a specific field, you might rename the view to reflect that.

3. On the Properties tab, you can set options that affect the appearance of the view, as well as enable or disable access to certain features. For details on setting properties, see Setting list view properties in online help.

4. On the Filter tab, you can set conditions for including or excluding data items that appear in the view. For details, see Creating view filters in a Lists tool design in online help.

5. Click the Columns tab to see the fields selected for the view, properties of each field column, and a preview of the view.
Initially, all fields you placed on the form in InfoPath, except for Rich Text fields, are preselected.

6. If you want, select each field and update associated column properties.
In particular, you will likely want to update each field column’s “Header Label”. The initial header label matches the field name which is typically too cryptic to be easily understood. In the example below, the column label for the “CreateBy” field is renamed “Employee”, and the new column label is reflected in the Preview.
For complete details on updated view columns, see Modifying view column properties in online help.

7. On the Sort and Group tab, you can set options for how items are sorted in the view.
By default, items are listed in the order in which they’re created. You can optionally choose to sort items in a wide variety of ways, such as in ascending or descending order, or grouped by values in a specific field column. For details, see Setting sort options in a list view in online help.

Update Settings and Options, as needed

Click Settings and Options to see a variety of settings and options that affect the entire Lists tool. Most options involve enabling or disabling features such as search or changing views. Default settings are typically appropriate from most Lists tool. For more information, see About Settings and Options in a Lists tool in online help.

Save & Publish the Lists tool

When you’re done updating the Lists tool design, click Save & Publish. The customized Lists tool appears in the window ready for workspace members to start creating items.

Update the Lists tool design after publishing

Designing a custom Lists tool is an iterative process. Despite the best possible up-front planning you might do, you’re very likely to discover features you want to add or change after saving and publishing the design. For example, you might want to add additional form fields, create new views, update how a view is sorted, and so on.

You can enter the Lists tool designer at any time to update the Lists tool design. On the View tab, click Enter Designer.

Updating the design of a form

Any updates to form templates must take place in InfoPath:

1. In the Lists tool, open the designer.

2. Click the form template you want to update.

3. On the Home tab, click Edit.
The selected form template opens in InfoPath.

4. Make the design updates you want.
The example below shows the Commuter Survey form with a new field added to the design.

8. Save the form just as you did when first creating the form: Click the File tab, click Publish, and then click the SharePoint Workspace button.
Keep the same form template name when saving. Click Yes to confirm overwriting the original form, when prompted.

9. Return to the Lists tool designer.

10. On the Home tab, in the Edit group, click Re-Import.
NOTE If you accidentally select Import Form instead of Re-Import, a new form template and a corresponding view will be created in the Lists tool design. If you did not intend to add a new form template and view to the design, you can delete them and then proceed to re-import the updated form template.

11. Find the form template .xsn file you previously updated and saved, and click Open.
A Field Changes dialog box opens that summarizes the updates you’ve made to fields in the form template. The example below shows that a new field named “WorkAtHome” has been added, and denotes that this field is not yet referenced in any views.

12. Click Continue.
The Form Templates preview now shows the new field.

13. If you want the new field to be referenced in a list view, you must add it to the list view design, on the Columns tab, for example:

14. When you’re done updating the Lists tool design, click Save & Publish.

For more information on creating custom Lists tools in SharePoint Workspace, start with Creating a custom Lists tool by importing InfoPath form template solutions in online help.

Joe Levine

Though inefficient, you can synchronize the data for calculated fields by opening and editing each item in the list. Whenever you save an edited item, the item is synchronized with the server. You might do this if, at the present time, you only care about the content of a few specific items. However, if you want to synchronize all items, editing each item one by one is impractical. In this case, it’s most efficient to disconnect the list from the server and then reconnect to it.

1. Select the list that has the unsynchronized fields.

2. On the Sync tab, click Change Sync Settings, and then click Disconnect from Server.

3. Click Yes at the prompt to confirm this action.
The list appears under Available on Server in the Content pane, all items are removed, and you see options to Open the list in a Browser or Connect to Server.

4. Click Connect to Server to start downloading the list once again to the SharePoint workspace.

Joe Levine

· You may have lost connectivity with the SharePoint server.
To test your connectivity, try going to the SharePoint site in a Web browser. To navigate quickly to the SharePoint site, you can click the breadcrumb link in the title bar:

· You might not have the required SharePoint server permissions to do the activity.
In order to check out a document for editing, you must have at least “Contribute” permission for the document. You can check your permissions on the SharePoint site: Click Site Actions, and then click Site Permissions.

· If you get an error while trying to check in a file, it is possible that the file might not actually be checked out. A file may incorrectly appear to be checked out for any of the following reasons:

o An administrator, for some reason, may have discarded the checkout directly on the server.

o You checked out the file in a SharePoint workspace, but then checked it in from the application or directly on the server.
For example, in Office Word 2010, on the File tab, you can click Info and then click Check In to check in a file that you had originally checked out from a SharePoint workspace.
In either case, the file retains a checkout marker in the SharePoint workspace until the next synchronization. To resolve this, try manually synchronizing the document library. If the file is already checked in, this will clear the checkout marker. On the Sync tab, click Sync and then click Sync Tool.
If you discover that the file is already checked in, but you’re certain that you yourself did not check it in, try viewing the file’s version history to see if you can identify who last checked in the file.

o Although highly unusual, your permissions may have changed since the time you checked out the file such that you no longer have editing access. Check your permissions as described earlier in this document.

· Files have been deleted on the SharePoint server.
In rare cases, you might attempt to check in files that were deleted on the SharePoint server during the period before the next synchronization. If you want to ensure that the files you want to check in still exist on the server, initiate a manual synchronization before attempting the checkin.

· New messages or invitations.

· Unread information in a workspace, a workspace tool, or a tool item.

· Status information, such as whether messages you have sent have been delivered or opened.

Responding to alerts

Click an alert to respond to it.

Click this type of alert	To
Information	Close the alert. Certain information alerts close automatically after a few seconds, depending on the relative importance of the information. In the example, the first information alert would close automatically while the second information alert would persist until you closed it.
Message or invitation	Open the message or invitation.
Unread	Go to the tool that has unread content. Note that clicking an unread alert will only go to the tool that contains unread content, it will not automatically navigate to the unread content. Once you go to the tool, on the Home tab, in the Track group, you can click Previous Unread or Next Unread to go to the previous or next unread content item.

You can also right-click alerts to see more options in a context menu.

Alert Type	Context Menu Options
Information	Click Stop Tracking to close alerts that track the status of messages or invitations you have sent.
Message or invitation	For a message, click Open or Delete. For an invitation, click Open, Delete, or Decline. If you decline an invitation, the sender receives an information alert to inform them that you have declined their invitation.
Unread	Click Open to go to the tool that contains the unread content, or click Dismiss to close the alert.

Managing alerts

Managing alerts can be a balancing act. You want to be notified about the information that interests you, but you probably don’t want to see alerts about every minor update. Sometimes you may not want alerts popping up in your notification area at all, such as when you’re giving a presentation. Additionally, if you have workspaces in which there is a lot of activity, you may quickly accumulate a large number of alerts in your notification area. SharePoint Workspace does not currently provide a feature for selecting and acting on a group of alerts simultaneously. For example, for unread alerts, you must act on each alert individually, either clicking it to go to the unread content, or right-clicking it to select a Dismiss option.

As a solution, you can selectively change the alert level for an entire workspace, or for specific tools in a workspace so that alerts for unread content do not appear in the Windows notification area. For any workspace, you may want to take a minute to decide how you want to be notified about unread content.

Customizing alert levels and settings

You can change global alert settings in your account preferences, or you can change alert levels for a workspace, tool, folder or file. For detailed information on setting options for alerts, see Setting preferences for alerts in SharePoint Workspace Help.

Changing the alert level for a workspace

1. In the Launchbar, right-click the workspace and then click Properties.

2. Click the Alerts tab.

3. Drag the slider to change the alert setting.

Changing the alert level for a tool in a workspace

1. Right-click the tool in the content pane of the workspace and then click Set Alerts.

2. Drag the slider to change the alert setting.

Changing the alert level for a folder or file

1. Right-click the folder or file and then click Set Alerts.

2. Drag the slider to change the alert setting.

Suppressing Alerts

To suppress alerts, on the File tab, click Info, click Manage Alerts, and then click Suppress Alerts.

While this feature is turned in, you will still receive data, but instead of alerts appearing in the Windows notification area, an alert indicator will blink above the SharePoint Workspace icon.

To resume showing alerts, on the File tab, click Info, click Manage Alerts, and then click Suppress Alerts again. If you do not remember if you enabled or disabled this feature, you can point at the SharePoint Workspace icon in the Windows notification area to pop up a status window:

About unread indicators

Unread items in a workspace are denoted with an unread marker: The unread markers disappear once you select or open the unread items.

You can clear unread markers on an item, in a folder, in a tool, in an entire workspace, or in all your workspaces at once. In a workspace, on the Home tab, in the Tracking group, click Mark Read, and then click the object for which you want to clear unread markers. In the Launchbar, on the Home tab, in the Actions group, click Mark Read, and then click Mark Read to remove unread markers from the currently selected workspace, or Mark All Read to remove unread markers from all workspaces.

Tools in a workspace that contain unread content are denoted with an unread marker in the content pane:

Similarly, workspaces that contain unread content are denoted with an unread marker in the SharePoint Workspace Launchbar.

The following table describes the meaning of the different unread markers you might see on workspaces and on workspace tools.

Unread Marker	Meaning
	The workspace or item has unread content added or updated within the last two days
	The workspace or item has unread content added or updated within the last seven days.
	The workspace or item has unread content added or updated at least seven days ago.

In the Launchbar, you can sort workspaces according to their unread status. On the View tab, click the Workspaces menu, and then click Last Unread Time.

Joe Levine

When you use SharePoint Workspace 2010 to take SharePoint content offline, you’ll find that it honors these settings and policies, but with some provisos. Here’s some information about how to best set permissions and policies to protect SharePoint documents and lists that may be taken offline in SharePoint workspaces.

Creating a SharePoint workspace lets SharePoint users download selected libraries and lists from a SharePoint site to a local computer so that they can access and work with this content any time, wherever they are, whether online or offline. However, a user’s ability to access or update the SharePoint content to begin with depends on the permissions and other security settings that are defined on the hosting SharePoint site. Site or content owners protect content by defining permissions and rights management settings on the SharePoint site, and these are applied in the associated SharePoint workspace.

Defining group access permissions for SharePoint libraries, lists, and documents is a mainstay of document protection. These settings determine the extent to which specific users or groups can access and work with content on the site.

For example, suppose that field researcher John needs to draft an article of his findings and get it reviewed before publishing on the web. John knows that he'll have no network access at his field location.  Fortunately, he has full permissions for a library on a SharePoint 2010 team site (granted by the site owner), so before going out into the field he synchronizes the library with a local SharePoint workspace on his laptop.  While offsite, he finishes the piece, strikes camp, and returns to town where he regains network access The document synchronizes automatically with the SharePoint site and John uses the Document Settings option on the SharePoint Ribbon to restrict document access to himself and his home-based colleague. An hour later, John receives his colleague’s updated document in his synchronized workspace, and he completes a final pass for his colleague’s signoff. Document permissions remain restricted until he resets them in SharePoint to allow broader viewing. John can do the same thing for any library of documents that he owns and wants to protect.

Setting Information Rights Management policies for libraries or documents on a SharePoint site provides another level of content protection. SharePoint Workspace respects IRM document settings that have been defined in a SharePoint site, but be aware that IRM-protected libraries are prohibited from download into a local workspace. In the case of Document-level policies (set from the associated Office application), SharePoint Workspace accepts IRM encrypted documents and handles them as expected. In the case of SharePoint Library-level policies (set from the Library Tools tab, in Library/Library Settings), SharePoint Workspace does not synchronize library content that is protected with IRM, limiting propagation of protected content.

The following table summarizes SharePoint Workspace behavior in the context of IRM protection for individual documents and libraries:

For information about setting access permissions for SharePoint content, see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262690.aspx and https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263239.aspx.

For information about setting IRM policies for SharePoint content, see https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/apply-information-rights-management-to-a-list-or-library-HA010154148.aspx.

Mena Paton

The Microsoft Office Upload Center (msosync.exe) manages synchronization between your SharePoint workspaces and their corresponding SharePoint sites. As a result, given the frequency of synchronization between a SharePoint workspace and the SharePoint site, the Upload Center icon is present most of the time in your notification area, and you are likely to see frequent notifications about synchronization activities. For example, you may see notifications about pending uploads or upload failures.

Note: SharePoint workspaces can synchronize only with sites running on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Online 2010 servers.

It may surprise you to discover, when you open the Microsoft Office Upload Center, that there is no feature present for exiting the Upload Center. This is because applications such as SharePoint Workspace rely on the Upload Center to be running in order to function properly. And although it’s possible to exit the Upload Center by clicking End Process in the Windows Task Manager, doing so is not recommended.

If you have a great amount of synchronization activity, you may also receive a large number of notifications, which appear above the Upload Center icon. If you are finding this distracting, you can select options to hide certain types of notifications or simply hide the Upload Center icon.

To change Upload Center settings, click the Upload Center icon, and then click Settings. Do one of the following in the Microsoft Office Upload Center Settings dialog box:

· To suppress notifications, uncheck any of the options for showing notifications.

· To hide the Upload Center icon, uncheck Display icon in notification area.

If you have hidden the Upload Center icon, and want it to show again in the notification area, you must first open the Upload Center. Click Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 2010 Tools, and then Microsoft Office 2010 Upload Center. In the Upload Center window, click Settings, and then check Display icon in notification area.

Joe Levine

SharePoint Workspace lets you make the most of My Site features by giving you around-the-clock access to your My Site content, even when you’re not on your network. Consider using your My Site as your central hub for all content to which you need frequent access. Your lists and document libraries can be available to you when you’re at the airport, on a plane, or just working from home. As soon as you connect to your office network, the SharePoint workspace containing your My Site content is synchronized with your My Site on the server.

You might enjoy the rich client features you’ll find in a SharePoint workspace. Switch quickly among your SharePoint lists with a single click. Use the familiar Office ribbon to start activities such as creating links, checking out files, or adding new or existing documents to the site.

To create a SharePoint workspace from your My Site, do the following:

1. Click My Content on your My Site.

2. Click Site Actions and then click Sync to SharePoint Workspace.

3. In the Sync to SharePoint Workspace dialog box, click OK.

Joe Levine

Your application runs in its own window, and you can design a user interface tailored to the needs of your users. In many cases, users access the Groove data exclusively through your application and do not need to use the SharePoint Workspace user interface. This allows you to focus your development effort on meeting the needs of your users, while letting SharePoint Workspace handle the task of replicating the data to all the members of the workspace. Note that the SharePoint Workspace 2010 application must be running in order for your application to access the Groove data.

The Groove Web Services SDK for SharePoint Workspace 2010  provides sample code, documentation, and WSDL definition files that provide access to the Web services API.

If you’ve written an application using the Groove Web Services APIs available with Groove 2007, you can run them on a SharePoint Workspace 2010 installation after making minor changes to your application. SharePoint Workspace 2010 encrypts the Groove Web Services request and response keys with DPAPI encryption before storing them in the registry. To port your application from Groove 2007 to SharePoint Workspace 2010, you need to modify the code that reads the registry keys. See the release notes on MSDN for details.

Josh Goldman