[UPDATE] – Michael Gannotti has a nice video on other tips here. He talks about many challenges.
First let me say, I myself am a big Mac OS X user. I have developed iPhone Apps and use the platform on a regular basis, have my iPhone working with my Exchange 2007 account etc. So I definitely know of some of the challenges using SharePoint on the platform as I have experienced them first-hand. One of the most important facts is that ActiveX Controls only exist in IE. That said, we must understand how a Mac User can still work with SharePoint/Exchange, let me point you to things that have been enhanced.
On this post, I wanted to simply highlight some of the recent improvements that Microsoft and Apple have both come up with.
Recent Improvements for the SharePoint User Experience
There are a few recent updates that one can immediately benefit from if he/she is a Mac User:
- Microsoft Office 2008
- Document Connection Add-On
- Snow Leopard – Tight integration with Exchange 2007
The nice thing about the Document Connection add-on is that one can browse documents very much like the Web Folders on Vista. In addition, some of the things one can do using this add-on are:
- Check-in/out
- Work on documents offline
- Add documents to Favorites
- Track SharePoint multiple Sites you work with including Workspaces
- Track your Drafts, much like the SharePoint Drafts folder on your Vista machine
FIGURE 1 – Shows the Document Connection Add-On browsing a SharePoint Site
FIGURE 2 – Add a document to Favorites context menu
FIGURE 3 – Shows documents that you have added to your Favorites
If you are trying to access a site which is using Forms Based Authentication (FBA) or non NTLM, you will get a credentials box as shown below.
FIGURE 4 – Authentication box when you try and access a SharePoint site not using NTLM
Snow Leopard – Exchange 2007 tight integration
Leave it to Apple to take the lead in making sure they continue enticing users who obviously use their Macs for more than just home. Apple now has captured the attention of the Enterprise User by not only having Exchange 2007 account setup on the iPhone, but now full integration on their latest OS X, Snow Leopard.
With said integration you now have the following:
- Exchange Contacts synched in the Address Book
- Mail Program (mostly better than Entourage and an awesome alternative now in my mind)
**NOTE: **It seems that Microsoft is looking to replace Entourage with the release of an Outlook for the Mac version, checkout <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20110211193130/http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/08/13/new.office.for.mac.planned/" target="_blank">this post</a> 3. iCal – your Exchange calendar is synched with iCal 4. Notes are also synched! 5. Tasks – These are shown as “To-Do’s” on the Mac!
I patched my Exchange 2007 server, then configured the Address Book and Mail Program, they worked flawlessly!
Exchange Tasks on iCal
On Mail, the Exchange Tasks are called To Do. You can see them FIGURE 5 how this looks on Mail vs Exchange (FIGURE 6)
FIGURE 5 – An Exchange Task is shown on the Mail program on the Mac
FIGURE 6 – An Exchange Task (Mac To Do) on Outlook Web Access
Exchange Notes on the iCal
When you browse the iCal, you will see on the left navigation a list of both, Exchange and local (Mac) Notes. iCal groups them, in my case they are under SharePointAce Consulting Group, LLC To Do.
FIGURE 7 – Exchange Notes using iCal Notes
FIGURE 8 – Outlook Web Access shows same Note as iCal
RSS Feeds
Since RSS is a big part of SharePoint (see chapter 6 on the book I contributed to Social Computing with SharePoint 2007), it makes sense to also include such capability on the Document Connection add-on. Figure 7 shows the RSS subscription I am using. Great for keeping track of all SharePoint data!
Well, I hope this makes sense to you and helps you understand a little detail on how the Exchange and SharePoint User experience looks.
-Oscar