Using Blogs in Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0
What is a Windows SharePoint Services Blog site?
A Blog, or web log, is an online journal that is created by an individual or team to communicate ideas to others with access to the site. In business, blogs are useful to build communities, express opinions or test ideas with team mates. Some organizations have chosen to extend their employee’s blogs to external Internet users to help teams get feedback on product ideas, generate a robust ‘power user’ community or to simply break down the barriers of communication between internal employees and external customers. Typically, a Blog site includes a number of posts by the site’s authors as well as a series of comments, which can be entered by authenticated visitors to the individual’s blog sites. Most Blog software, including Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, enables blog administrators to reject, publish or edit comments before they are made available to site visitors. However, as the power of Blogs is in their capability for candid feedback, most authors allow uncensored comments as long as established profanity or subject matter rules are followed.
How should I think of using a Blog in my business?
The uses for a blog in business are as many as the uses for email or instant messaging. No two companies will use Blogs for the exact same purpose. However, regardless of the business case that is developed to enable blogging, companies should create guidelines and administrative policies to help manage a blog that is appropriate for the selected audience. At a base level, blogs should create and post guidelines for appropriate subject matter, language and respect for other readers. Site authors should take responsibility for actively managing their blog’s content, removing any material which does not follow the guidelines. Companies should also speak with their legal advisors to ensure that the proper disclaimers are listed – especially if the blog is available to external Internet users and is accessible through a corporate website. The expectation should be that if an author takes the time to create a blog, then it is the author’s responsibility to ensure comments on their blog are in compliance with company guidelines. As such, it is often recommended that authors have control over who can publish comments as well as which specific users can create comments to begin with.
To read more about how blogs can be used in a business environment, refer to the article “Using Blogs and Wikis in Business” at Additionally, the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Team has their own blog built at
How does Windows SharePoint Services help me organize posts and comments?
A Blog site hosted on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 enables a number of features to help the blog author manage content as well as for blog users to locate relevant information. To begin, blog categories can be defined by the author, which enables new posts to be placed with other related posts. For example, in our Sales Support Blog above, there are two posts. One is categorized under the “Modern Product Line” and the other under the “Classic Product Line”. When the blog site was created, the author clicked on the link “Add a new category” and created these two, which describes the company’s product lines currently available to the marketplace. If a user wants to see all posts and comments related to the “Classic Product Line” category, they simply click on the “Classic Product Line” category to automatically filter out unrelated entries. To create a blog category, the user must have full control or design permissions.
How do I create a Blog post?
Blog posts can be created in many methods: While web and Microsoft Office Word 2007 are the most common methods, some companies allow their users to create blog posts via email, through Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 or through a compatible mobile phone. Perhaps the easiest is to create a blog entry directly from the Windows SharePoint Services Blog site. This method, which requires the user to be online during the writing of the post, is simple and provides the user with the capability to create the Blog post title and utilize rich publishing features such as font editors, color text, tables and other formatting capabilities. It also allows users to insert pictures into their blog post, which can be useful when creating team discussions regarding physical design images or other tangible products. To create a post using the web editor, click on the link “Create a Post” from the main site which opens a page where users enter the post Title, body content, category and published date. After the blog is created, a user can click “Publish”, which will put the post into the queue for approval or, if the user is an approver, automatically post the blog entry to the site. Alternatively, the author can save the post as a draft, enabling them to come back and finish the blog post at a later date.
The second method that can be used to post a blog entry is by using Office Word 2007 as a blog posting tool. By clicking on the link “Launch blog program to post”, users open Office Word 2007 to author a new post. Pictures, tables, images and formatting can all be used as if the user was creating an Office Word 2007 document. When the post has been completed, the user clicks ‘Publish’, which places the post into the queue for approval, or immediately publishes if the author is an authorized approver. Alternatively, a user can click on the pull-down arrow under the Publish button to select “Save as Draft”. When a user is offline, they can save their post as a work in progress, opening it back up and publishing it at a later time.
Users who wish to create a post from within Office Word 2007 can do so by selecting “New Blog Post” from the list of available template that appears when creating a new document. Some ‘power bloggers’ make posts to multiple blog sites, all of which are managed using Office Word 2007. To determine which blog site the post is meant to be posted to, the user selects the correct blog from a pull down list within the Office Word 2007 document, just under the title bar, after the word Account.
If there are multiple authors of blog posts, is it possible to enable one person to control the publish function?
Using Windows SharePoint Services, authorized users can control whether a blog post is pending, rejected or approved for being published to the site. To do this, an authorized user clicks on the link “Manage Posts” from the list of Admin Links listed on the main page of the site. This will expose a view of all posts made to the site, including a column on the far right that shows the Approval Status of the blog post. To change the approval status, a user clicks on the down arrow that appears when the mouse hovers over the title of the relevant blog post and selects “Approve/Reject” from the pull down list that appears. A separate page appears which allows a user to select Approved, Rejected or Pending as well as comments on the reason for the approval change.
How can I control what comments get posted to my Blog?
Generally, all users except those withRead Only permissions have the capability to submit comments on an individual author’s blog post. Windows SharePoint Services allows a comment title and body text to be entered and automatically links the comment to the appropriate post, including the selected category. Before the comment is viewable to all site visitors, however, the comment must be approved by a site member with design or full control permissions. Once approved, the comment will be viewable by clicking on the ‘Comments” link at the bottom of each post. Approval for comments are handled by clicking on “Manage Comments” from the Admin Links list on the main page, and then can be approved using the same steps for publishing posts as outlined above.
Can I edit posts or comments before and after they are published?
Though it is not common practice to edit posts or comments after or before they are published, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 does allow users with full control or design permissions to edit posts and comments. When a user with ‘edit’ rights visits a post or a comment, the “EDIT” button will appear. Clicking the button opens the post or comment for edits, which will be automatically posted to the blog site. If a user edits a post or comment, the original author’s name will be retained as the ‘created by’ tag.
How do I set Permissions on who can post, view or edit blog posts and comments?
Within the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Blog site is a link to ‘Set blog Permissions’. This link opens an article that steps users through the process of adding users to a blog, configuring permissions, specifying whether or not content approval is required, who can view draft items and which items people can read and edit. By default, users with Full Control or Design permissions have complete ability to create, edit and approve posts, including the capability to create categories. Users with ‘contribute’ rights can comment on a post, but cannot create a new post nor approval comments for approval. Users with ‘read’ access rights can only do that – read posts and comment, but not create content for approval on the site. Using the details of the guidance provided by the site, users with full control access can modify the settings to support the business rules and policies required by the Blog site.
How do I stay informed of changes to Blogs I’m interested in tracking?
Through RSS Syndication, users can stay up to date on changes made to blogs they are interested in. Using an RSS reader, such as the one provided in Office Outlook 2007, users receive a daily update of changes made to a blog within their Office Outlook 2007 application. By clicking the RSS feed button on the bottom-left hand side of the main page, users can subscribe to a feed of all posts and comments on the site.
How do I go back to read old posts?
By default, the Windows SharePoint Services Blog site limits the number of posts that appear on the main page. Older posts and comments can be viewed by clicking on the Archive (Calendar) link on the left hand side of the site. This brings up a calendar that allows a user to scroll through posts received each day of the month. The user can also create additional filters to sort through posts on a particular category.
How do I forward a Blog post to somebody else?
The easiest way to send a post to somebody else is to click on ‘Email this Post’, which is a link located below every post on the Blog site. By clicking this link, Windows SharePoint Services opens the users default email client and automatically pastes a link to the actual post within the Windows SharePoint Services site.
Is it possible to use Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to create new Blog posts?
Using a feature of Windows SharePoint Services known as incoming email capture, it is possible to send an email to a blog rather using Office Outlook 2007. For example, a sales blog owned by Toni Poe might be . Copying this email address would upload the content of the email to the blog, enabling it to be published as outlined above. This makes it possible to use Blogs as a repository for related email issues. In order to enable this feature, your IT Administrator must configure the network and Windows SharePoint Services site to allow incoming email to a particular email address.
For more information, see the TechNet articlePlan Incoming Email (Windows SharePoint Services) at:
Technical Dependencies
The Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Blog site requires the following to be installed
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0*
*Review Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system requirements for additional information:
More Information
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is technology in Windows Server that offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect people, information, processes and systems both within and beyond the organizational firewall. Now available at no additional cost, Windows SharePoint Services makes it simpler for IT professionals to implement and manage a team collaboration infrastructure. Application Templates are tailored to address the needs and requirements for specific business processes or sets of tasks for organizations of any size. The templates provide out-of-the-box, customizable scenarios which solve business needs as well as providing a starting point for partners and developers looking to build more sophisticated Windows SharePoint Services solutions.
For more information on the technologies described in this article, please visit:
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:
Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services:
Microsoft Office Word 2007:
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007:
The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred.
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
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