We’ve recently updated our free ViewRescue tool for SharePoint 2010 to version 1.1.2

This latest version will now work with customized Master Page templates, as long as you have an “AdditionalPageHead” control in your template.

See our website for the latest version (you can install this over the top of the existing version to upgrade) and details about this free tool  that fixes a common annoyance in SharePoint 2010.

A happy New Year to you – and 2010 looks like being an exciting one in the wonderful world of SharePoint

Here at Pentalogic we have a good crop of SharePoint New Years Resolutions.  We thought we would share them with you now – so that you can hold us to them if our resolve waivers down the line.

So here they are:

1. Join a gym.
2. Give up chocolate.
3. Read “War and Peace”.

OK, so we’re never going to stick to those, lets focus on something realistic.

1. Get all of our products “SharePoint 2010 Ready”. We are quite confident about this one. We have put a lot of work in already and we think we are pretty much there on several of the products, although there is still more to do.  And of course the SharePoint 2010 we see now could end up being very different from the eventual release candidate – so there may be even more work to do that we think.  But we have been here before with the move from 2003 to 2007, so we know the drill and we are confident that our products will be ready in good time.
2. Issue v3 of Planner. Planner is one of the best quick and easy SharePoint planning tools on the market and we are keen to keep it simple – that’s what people like about it.  SharePoint isn’t really the place to do full blown project planning – if you want an all singing, all dancing, project management suite then there’s Microsoft Project.  But if you want a smart and simple planning tool that works inside SharePoint then our Planner is ideal.  We have a long list of development ideas but this years new release will focus on using Silverlight to enable a more flexible, responsive and attractive display.  This will allow us to do all sorts of things that you have asked for that haven’t been possible up to now like drag and drop, rich text tooltips, multiple columns and summary tasks.  We are really exiting about Planner v3 and hope to release it in the summer – so watch this space.
3. Find out how our stuff gets used in the “real world”. We need you help with this one.  We were looking through our client list the other day and were amazed atr the range of organizations that use our stuff.  There are lawyers, military people, charities, Universities, power company’s, health clubs, TV channels – the list goes on!  It would be just great to know what our Planner, Reminder and PivotPoint get up to once they’ve left home.  We would love to here from you on this, so please get in touch and tell us how you use our stuff.

So, those are our new years resolutions – what are yours?

Customers tell us that because of the flexibility of Reminder, and the huge number of different ways in which a SharePoint installation can be set up: getting Reminder correctly set up and configured for the first time can be a bit of a challenge.

To help with this, in Reminder v1.7 we have added a Setup Diagnostic Wizard that will check for many of the common set up and configuration problems for you and suggest possible configuration changes to fix them.

The Wizard will check for a variety of common issues like:  problems with SharePoint outgoing email settings, non-matching authentication settings or insufficient account permissions – which are all frequent causes of trouble during the set up process.

To use the Wizard, go the the Configuration Tool in the “Start Program” files, and click the “Run Diagnostics” Button.

You will then see a window like this:

with any potential problem areas marked with a red cross and suggested remedies listed underneath in blue.

For further information on setting up and configuring Reminder please visit the on-line manual.

We hope this will help many users to solve simple set up issues on the spot, but if you are still having difficulties our free telephone and email support is always available.

We hope you find the tool useful and we look forward to hearing your feedback.

With the huge volume of messages landing in your users in-boxes every day how do you make your important SharePoint Alerts and Reminders stand out?

Easy with the new Rich Text Editor in v1.7 of SharePoint Reminder Webpart.

The Editor uses the SharePoint’s intuitive WYSIWYG interface, which will be easy for any user of Microsoft products to pick up.

It allows you to add Rich Text formatting including font sizing, text effects, color and tables to Reminder alert emails – helping you to get the message across!

A Rich Text Formatted Alert Email

Reminder is a hugely popular product – perhaps because email alerts for tasks and events are such an integral part of everyone’s working day now. SharePoint out-of-the-box offers an “Alert Me” function.  New users often see this and think they have something similar to the date based alerts they are used to receiving from Outlook for tasks and calendar events.  When they discover that SharePoint’s Alert Me feature will only notify them of changes to list items as they happen, disappointment often sets in.  Pentalogic Reminder addresses that issue by providing a more familiar date based alert system for SharePoint users.  It enables users to schedule alerts for both upcoming and overdue events in SharePoint and is still the only software of its kind to fully support SharePoint’s recurring events, allowing users to set up regular reminders for meetings, monthly reports. etc.

Reminder is the longest established SharePoint Alert product on the Market (and still the best we think!) we are always working on new features – both those requested by our customers and new ideas that our developers come up with.  The rich text editor had been on our to-do list for a while now, it has been regular customer request over the past few months, so we are glad to have got it out in time for Christmas!

Download a free 30 day trial of the new version of Reminder – and let us know what you think.

Have you every tried to use any of the SharePoint Reminder or Alert web parts on the market – including ours – with Recurring Events in SharePoint Calendar lists?  They just don’t work do they? If you want to send out Alert/Reminder emails about a regular event you have to set up each and every instance of the event as an individual list item in your SharePoint calendar list. Annoying isn’t it?

That’s what our customers have been telling us – and with the latest version of SharePoint Reminder Webpart we have introduced functionality which will allow you to use Reminder with SharePoint’s handy recurring events feature.

It hasn’t been easy. A SharePoint recurring event is actually just one list item – so it’s difficult to get the web part to interpret the recurrence specifications correctly.  There can be problems with things like getting the web part to send Reminder emails for overdue recurring events, and well as “due soon” events. Also we needed to make sure that if one item in a series of events changes – for example if you change your Monday morning meeting to a Tuesday on one week – the web part picks that change up and amends the Reminder emails it sends accordingly.

The new version has been through beta testing and we have had some very positive feedback:

“That little ‘Expanded Recurrences’ check box is a dream come true (I know, I need better dreams!)”

Toby Flowers, Delphi Global Technology

Existing clients can upgrade free of charge at out website, or if you are a new customer you might like to try our 30 day free evaluation trial.

For a quick introduction to the new feature take a look at our video.

Or for a full breakdown on how Reminder measures up to the competition see our SharePoint Alert enhancement software product comparison chart.

And if you have any questions or comments please do get in touch.