Mail Merge and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

In Word 2007 you have the possibility to merge a document template with data from a data source, creating for example a mailing very easily. The data source can be various types of documents, like Excel, Word or Access files. But it turns out that Word 2007 cannot handle data source documents on an http location.

When opening a mail merge template document and you try to connect a source document which is located on a SharePoint site (Mailings > Select Recipients > Use Existing Lists > My Network Places > Select document on SharePoint site), Word 2007 gives the error message “This file could not be found”. A workaround is to download the source document to the local computer (for example the desktop) and connect it there. The downside is that you have to download the document each time you want to do a mail merge.

Hopefully this issue will be fixed in the next Office Service Pack.

Outlook 2007 and SharePoint integration issues

Just the other day I ran into an issue with the integration between Outlook 2007 and SharePoint 2007. This issue is quite anoying from a user perspective:

When connecting a list to Outlook 2007, Outlook creates a PST file in C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\ called "SharePoint List.pst" or "SharePoint Folders.pst". When you are using Roaming Profiles, the Local Settings directory is not copied along with the profile. This sounds logical, because the PST can become very large and you don't want this data to be copied to the server.

But, and here is the catch, if a user logs onto another workstation Outlook does know it has connected to a PST file before and tries to open it. Because the file has not been copied with the profile, it does not exist.....presenting the user with an error message.

On the blog of Jose Barreto I found a post which explains how to disable the Outlook integration. By entering a key in the registry, connecting Outlook to SharePoint is not possible anymore. This will definately solve the issue, but will also prevent user from using the Outlook integration. Something I do not like.

After some more Googleing I found the Office 2007 System Adminstrative Templates on the Microsoft site. When importing them into a Group Policy, you have the possibility to configure some settings for Outlook 2007. And then especially the two following settings:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 > Tools Account Settings SharePoint

• Do not allow Sharepoint-Outlook integration
• Do not roam users' SharePoint lists

The first setting will do the same as explained in the blog post mentioned earlier. But the second one will just prevent SharePoint lists from roaming along with the user and solving the issue!!
Links:

• 2007 Office System Administrative Templates (ADM)
• Jose Barreto: Enabling and Disabling SharePoint Integration in Outlook 2007

Office 14 Sneak Preview

Aero XP has posted a sneak preview on Office 14 on their site:
Office "14:" An AeroXP Exclusive