OneNote as an Alternative to the Meeting Workspace in SharePoint 2013

Introduction

In every organization, meetings are a substantial part of its daily work. At least the same attention need to be paid to the Information that are part of these meetings. These are:

  • Attendants
  • Agenda
  • Filing/Storing of documents
  • Tasks assign to attendants
  • Decisions made in the meetings

Covering all of these points and even more the meeting workspaces in SharePoint 2010 were a great tool. An integration in Outlook 2010 was given and all attendants were granted permissions automatically on the SharePoint site. Unfortunately, Microsoft discontinued the meetings workspaces in SharePoint 2010 – along with some other interesting features – and Lync and OneNote were introduced as a replacement.

Although there are some companies that developed their own solutions. AvePoint with its Meetings App may be the pioneer in this area. However, you can also find blogs and boards in which possible solutions are discussed and good ways of dealing with the loss of the beloved meeting workspace have been found. I found the Alternative for meeting workspaces from Frank Op ‘t Landt and used this to proof how OneNote would fit in to this.

This article will show how you can use OneNote in combination with SharePoint 2013 and Outlook 2013 as an alternative for the meeting workspaces in SharePoint 2010.

Organizations in SharePoint

For every meeting instance, you should create a separate SharePoint site. Within each site, the following libraries and lists need to be created:

Libraries:

  •     Notebook: Library in which the OneNote Notebook for this meeting instance is stored.
  •     Documents: Library for all documents that you need to save, like presentations.

Lists:

  •     Meeting-Dates: List for all dates a meeting is placed on.
  •     Agenda: List for all Agenda items considered worth discussing.
  •     Tasks: SharePoint Task list for all tasks that incur in a meeting.
  •     Decisions: List of all decisions made in a meeting to a certain Agenda.

These lists/libraries are placed as webparts on the start page of the SharePoint site and connected over the date of a meeting from the “Meeting-Dates” list like in the blog post of Frank Op ‘t Landt. By selecting a date the respective agenda items, tasks and decisions appear at this time.

Department Meetings

Figure 1: Start page of the Meeting Space

All attendees can create new agenda items that they think are worth discussing. These items don’t need to be discussed in the next meeting, so they don’t get a specific date. To meet this requirement another webpart can be placed on the SharePoint site to display all agenda items without a date.

Pending Agenda Items

Figure 2: Pending Agenda Items

Alternatively, the already existent webpart can be used: The very first entry in the Meeting-Dates lists should be without a date. Then create a view of this list only showing elements without a date OR elements which dates are greater than “[TODAY]-7”, so that elements older than 1 week are not displayed. We are not interested in old elements.

Agenda Items Without A Date

Figure 3: Agenda Items without a Date

By picking the entry without a date, we get all the agenda items that are still pending. This little trick also addresses a problem with the connection of webparts: By entering the start page, SharePoint activated (selected) the first item. But what if the date selected is not the date we wanted information about? Well this could let to confusion if you just looked at the right pane but not what date was selected. By having the empty date in our list it just shows us the pending agenda items. This is a good reminder that there are some more things that need to be discussed.

Organization of OneNote

The structure within the notebook is up to you. A possible approach could be the following:

  • A section per meeting instance
  • Within the meeting instance, a site per meeting. If a meeting requires more sites you can do so or create subsites beneath the site.

If only a small group of people is allowed to access the notes creating a notebook per meeting instance or project is recommended. The picture below shows the weekly team meeting in a separate section and per meeting a separate site.

Head of Meeting Notebook in OneNote

Figure 4: Head of the Meeting Notebook in OneNote

If you want to print the notes later, it does make sense to change the paper format to Din A4. Save this adjustment to your site templates in OneNote so that for your next meeting you only have to add a site and it automatically is in Din A4 (or which format you which).

The details about the meeting in Outlook can be imported via the meeting details in OneNote.

Meeting Details Import Window in OneNote

Figure 5: Meeting Details Import Window in OneNote

Attendees

Through the function of the meeting details in OneNote, all the information are gathered from Outlook. You can record the attendance of persons throughout the boxes in front of the names: Activate it, if the person participated.

Names

You can reduce that list after checking the attendance in order to save space for notes. This is very useful in meetings with many participants.

Agenda

In SharePoint, activating a date on the start page shows the agenda items to this meeting. If you also want to see Agenda items in OneNote, you need to set it up manually. Categories are a nice feature to realize this in order you need to search for an agenda item or something else (see the next chapter “categories”).
If no conclusion or decision is made for an element on the agenda list, just add the date for the next meeting to that item so that it will pop up again.

Categories

Categories support users with the possibility to arrange their notes and search them later. Standard categories are “task”, “important” or you can just highlight your notes. Nevertheless, you can also add your own categories and tag your notes with them, like an agenda category.

Categories in OneNote

Figure 6: Categories in OneNote

OneNote offers many symbols and other possibilities to visual improve your categories so that you can overview your notes more easily.

Symbols in OneNote to Create New Categories

Figure 7: Symbols in OneNote to Create New Categories

Search for your category and it displays all of it.

Search for CategoriesFigure 8: Search for Categories

Filing

OneNote transferred the files embedded in the outlook. You can save more files by directly dragging them into OneNote or save them in the other document library. In case you have to save many files or maybe files that are bigger, it is recommended to save it to SharePoint. In SharePoint, you can just connect a file directly to an agenda item to achieve a connection.

Tasks

In OneNote, you can create tasks with the categories. After you categorized the tasks, you can add a task in Outlook and assign it to other users. This is a bit complex since you have to add it in OneNote and afterwards switch to Outlook. Another annoying point is that, after you assigned it to another person you still can see the task in your task list.

Another way would be to save all the tasks to SharePoint. Unfortunately, there is no connection for tasks between OneNote and SharePoint, but you have the advantages of the standard task list in SharePoint.

Decisions

Decision can be made in OneNote just like agenda items with a categorization. Again, the advantage is in SharePoint: Enter a decision in a short and concise text and connect it over the webpart with a meeting date or an agenda item. This way you will find all the import information about your meetings in one click. For a more detailed view you can open OneNote.

Use of the solution

Preparation of a Meeting

The meeting organizer must provide a SharePoint page that fit the functions that were discussed earlier in this article. All participants need to be granted access to the site and an OneNote notebook has to be placed in the document library.

The organizer now can create an appointment or appointment series in Outlook. If the attendees not locally, but remotely will attend the meeting a lync online meeting should be chosen instead. This is also advisable if usually, all participants are on the spot since it can be the case in future meetings, a participant must participate remotely.
The link to the SharePoint site is inserted into the description of the Outlook item. Thus, the participants can directly access the page.

The Organizer now created an appointment, or a recurring appointment series. If participants not locally, but remote will participate in an online meeting, should be here in Outlook “Lync attend meeting” can be selected. This is also advisable if usually all participants on the spot, because it can be the case in future meetings, a participant must participate remotely. The link to the SharePointseite is inserted into the description of the Outlook item. Thus the participants directly on the page can be accessed.

Information about the SharePoint Page

Figure 9: Information about the SharePoint Page Provided in the Outlook Element

Attendees now can (if granted write access) create new items in the agenda list and express their wishes about new topics. In the example the elements D and E were added without a date.

Agenda Itens Without a Date

Figure 10: Agenda Items without a Date

However, the items A, B and C have been added to the meeting on 10th of April 2015.

 Agenda Items for a Specific Date

Figure 11: Agenda Items for a Specific Date

During a Meeting

One person of the group of participants writes all result discussed in the meeting into the notebook. This person is responsible, that all participants are registered, notes on the agenda points, distributes tasks to participants and decisions are recorded in writing.

Notes Taken During the Meeting

Figure 12: Notes Taken During the Meeting

At the end of a meeting, a pdf file can if necessary be created and sent to appropriate persons if head of Department or other persons on decisions from the meeting must be informed.

Post Processing of a Meeting

If tasks were given to participants, they must now be completed. On the basis of the due date of the task, the task in the next meeting appears and the result of the task can be discussed then. The follow-up of appointment is also the preparation of the subsequent appointment, for example the determination of agenda items is used within a series date.

Tasks & Decisions in SharePoint after the Meeting

Figure 13: Tasks and Decisions in SharePoint after the Meeting

Optional Add-Ons

The SharePoint site can be extended to other social features. This could be to facilitate communication among the employees, on the other hand provide a greater acceptance.
So, you could query the feedback of the employees to further customize the page to the proposals of the employees. As a discussion platform is conceivable, the new issues be discussed with all participants, to share advance basic settings and information. Within the actual date only a decision would have to be made there (as long as the participants were able to follow the thread) already have all the information and not more complex must be brought to stand.

Summary

Advantages of the Solution

  • Cost-efficient
  • Fast and easily viable
  • All needed programs are generally available (SharePoint, OneNote, Outlook)
  • Central filing

Disadvantages of the Solution

  • OneNote integration in Outlook, but no direct integration with SharePoint
  • Synchronization (for instance for tasks) between OneNote and SharePoint would be desirable

Conclusion

The meeting workspace in SharePoint 2010 have provided a wealth of function the users. Especially the integration with Outlook 2010, as well as the permission of the participants on the SharePoint site associated has significantly simplifies work.   Finally yet importantly due to the lack of both these functions it may seem very overkill, the chosen OneNote as tool of choice by Microsoft, to now perform this job.  Users already using OneNote, aware of the usefulness of this tool. The present article should reinforce this point once again and to the meeting workspace site from SharePoint 2010 bring closer the possibility of an alternative the reader.  Furthermore, the hope of greater integration of OneNote in SharePoint leaded still so that among other things can be linked to tasks from a task list directly with OneNote.

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Christian SchmutteAbout the Author: As a Consultant at arvato Systems perdata GmbH for Microsoft SharePoint in the area of Collaboration and Communication, I am always interested in new ideas and solutions, especially by using the Microsoft standard features. Furthermore, I also like the ability to enhance this experience with Infopath and SharePoint Designer as well as Nintex Workflows.

  • SharePoint 2010 + 2013
  • SharePoint Administration
  • Infopath Solutions
  • Workflow Solutions with SharePoint Designer and Nintex Workflows
  • Document management
  • Office 365
  • Project Management
  • Consulting
  • Training and Workshops

Check out last years European SharePoint Conference video:

European SharePoint Conference 2015 takes places in Stockholm Sweeden from 9-12 November 2015. View Programme>>

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