[BBLISA] What does SharePoint break for non windows users?

[Edward Ned Harvey (bblisa4)]

> From: John Stoffel [mailto:john at stoffel.org]
> 
> I find that sharepoint is a total pain inthe ass, because if someone
> locks a file, you're up shit creek trying to edit it again, unless you
> just copy it into a new name and then edit it and save your changes.
> And hey, presto, you lose all the supposed great features of
> sharepoint, such as collaboration.
> 
> Useless piece of shit.

Yes it can be configured and used that way, but for the reasons John mentioned, it's the worst way you could possibly use it.

Specifically discussing the document library module (or whatever it's called) here's another way you could use it:

As a starting point, imagine google docs. You login to google, and you edit all your docs in the web interface. It's not as powerful as the full-blown clientside word processor or spreadsheet application, but it's pretty powerful and good for lots of things. You can see other peoples' cursors flying around the screen as you all simultaneously edit the same file, you can chat with each other, and you see their edits taking place while they happen. All these capabilities exist in sharepoint too - I forget what they call it - I think it's Microsoft Web Apps. But unlike google docs, you're not forced to edit in the web browser. At the file selection page, you have the option of clicking "edit in browser," or "edit in client app." If you click edit in client app, what happens is that Word or Excel or whatever is able to use the https:// URL automatically, instead of disk. This means you have the full power of the client app, and the full feature compatibility of online web document editing. Collaboration, chat, mice flying around on the screen, etc. If for some reason you don't like or don't want any of that, you can do as John does - lock the file and download it, make changes, upload. Most people find that workflow to be a pain in the ass, but there are some situations where strict versioning and modification control are necessary.

Point is, it's a giant complex thing, with one hundred million configuration options. You can make it do whatever you want, and that's the reason these consulting companies exist - to walk you through what you can do, and make it work the way you want, and support your company using it in the ways that you want to use it. Not everything will work on every platform - the client-side simultaneous edit feature definitely doesn't exist in linux - So what you have to do is get people to represent their normal workflow behaviors, and get their involvement to make sure everyone can find a solution or workaround to every problem that matters to them.