Tracy van der Schyff

#Office365Challenge – Creating Discussion Boards in SharePoint. Discussion Boards are pretty nifty for creating quick topics and allowing “collaboration” on these. I think it’s important to keep in mind what you would like the output to be. If you want to do analysis on how many people said “so and so” – then Discussion Boards is not it. Rather user SharePoint Surveys or build a custom list.

“A place to have newsgroup-style discussions. Discussion boards make it easy to manage discussion threads and can be configured to require approval for all posts.”
See more about Apps: Around the Office in 365 Days: Day 74 – Adding Apps in SharePoint Online

To create your Discussion Board, click on the settings wheel > Add an app. Search for Discussion Board or simply click on the icon. I do not create the Discussion Board with the name (My Team’s Discussion Board), I use Acronyms. This keeps the URL short and clean as spaces are replaced with %20. I then rename the application afterwards

When created, navigate to the app, go to the List Tab (1) > List Settings (2):

In your settings page, go to List name, description and navigation and rename the app. Navigate back to your app by clicking on the name.

Now this is something I always say to my students: “SharePoint is consistent when it comes to how apps work – all you have to do is open your eyes – read what’s on the page.”

If you look at your app you’ll see the + New Discussion right there – go ahead – click it!!

Discussion Boards are made up of the following fields: Subject, Body, and Question:

When the discussion is added, you’ll see it on the page, keep in mind you might have many discussions going on at the same time. You have to click on the Discussion to open it and reply to it. You can reply to the Discussion or even to one of the existing replies. Notice the ability to mark a reply as best, and delete replies:

Discussion Boards have four different views by default – Flat, Subject, Featured Discussions as well as Management. Subject and Featured Discussions can only be accessed from the top level List Tab. Flat display the topic and replies, Subject displays all the topics in a list view, Featured Discussions shows all subjects marked as featured. Management displays all replies in a list view where you can easily edit or manage your replies:

And that really is all there is to it! See you tomorrow when we’ll create a Links List

Overview of my challenge: As an absolute lover of all things Microsoft, I’ve decided to undertake the challenge, of writing a blog every single day, for the next 365 days. Crazy, I know. And I’ll try my best, but if I cannot find something good to say about Office 365 and the Tools it includes for 365 days, I’m changing my profession. So let’s write this epic tale of “Around the Office in 365 Days”. My ode to Microsoft Office 365.

Keep in mind that these tips and tricks do not only apply to Office 365 – but where applicable, to the overall Microsoft Office Suite and SharePoint.