Using Bookmarklets

Just as users can add tags or notes to SharePoint pages, lists, and libraries, they can add tags to external sites. These are referred to as bookmarklets. A bookmarklet is a JavaScript control that users can save as a bookmark in their browsers and when accessed, allows the user to add tags or notes to external sites. SharePoint users who are at all interested in external research are likely to be excited by this feature because it can easily allow them to tag non-SharePoint websites, such as legacy intranets or non-Microsoft sites in use inside the organization as well as resources available on the Internet.

The following steps illustrate how to use this powerful tool:

1. Access a My Site and click the My Profile link.
2. Click the Tags and Notes tab.
3. Scroll down to the Add SharePoint Tags and Notes tool. As stated in this section, “This tool helps you conveniently tag or post notes on sites directly from your browser. Add it to your browser’s favorites or bookmarks into the ‘Links’ or ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ group. Then show the ‘Links Bar’ or ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ to see it.” Just right-click the link that reads “Right click or drag and drop this link to your browser’s favorites or bookmarks toolbar to tag external sites,” and then select Add to Favorites.
4. A message will appear that reads “You are adding a favorite that might not be safe. Do you want to continue.” Click Yes.
5. Then give a name to the favorite, or keep the default Tags and Note Board, and click Add.
6. Now access an external website, such as Microsoft.com, and access the Favorites menu. Click the entry Tags and Note Board, as shown in Figure 23.16.

   Figure 23.16. Adding a bookmarklet to a non-SharePoint site.

   

7. A Tags and Note Board tab will open, where the user can add Tags from the Tags tab, or click Note Board and enter more involved notes. In this example, the user wants to tag this using managed metadata (covered in Chapter 22, “Managing Metadata and Content Types in SharePoint 2010”) and types the word Project, and then chooses from the options provided by the managed metadata, as shown in Figure 23.17. When done, click Save.

   Figure 23.17. Tagging an external site with managed metadata.

   

8. To now access this bookmarklet, return to the My Site and click My Profile. The recent tagging of the external site will be shown in the Recent Activities section under the Overview tab, as well as on the Tags and Notes tab.

For “extra credit” in this exercise, it is recommended for the administrator or tester to visit a number of sites and apply numerous tags and notes to sites and then return to the My Site for the logged-in account and experiment with the different ways of sorting the links, which are functional but come up short in several areas. For example, if a user tags dozens of sites and pages, both external and internal, with a term such as SharePoint, it can be an arduous task finding a specific website based on the tag, unless the tags are well thought-out.