ISU Sycamore Root Intranet - Frequently Asked Questions

The Search box at the top of each Root page will let you search content within the scope of the site you are viewing.  For instance, a search on the Employee hub will yield all results from all sites under that hub while the same search on the Office of Information Technology site will only yield results from the OIT site specifically.  

In addition, the Campus Directory link will take you to a page with a specially configured search bar which will find content throughout the Office 365 environment so it is useful for finding people, sites, documents etc. on either hub.  Visit that link for more information.

The Sycamore Root - Employee and Sycamore Root - Student links will take you to those respective hubs.  From the hub sites you can search the entirety of that section of the intranet or engage with the explicit list of active sites on the hub page.  

In addition to the site lists on each hub page the Offices & Departments drop-down lists all of the active sites in the hub.

Options for learning how to edit Sycamore Root sites are outlined on the SharePoint Training Page and include official Microsoft resources as well as more personalized training from the IT Business Analyst.  

How you approach the building of your Sycamore Root site will depend on multiple factors.  The steps below outline a generic process that should be applicable in most situations.

1. Gather Your Content
   1. Starting From Scratch
      1. Gather Resources
         1. Text - Write/edit/acquire the text you will need for your page.
         2. Images - Best practice is to gather all of the images you would like to use in one folder.  Edit them as necessary ahead of time and upload them as needed when building your site(s).
   2. Converting Old Web Content
      1. Pick a Page
         1. From the original external Internet site choose a page to convert  
      2. Identify and Categorize Content
         1. Analyze the information provided on the page you've selected.  Use the Intranet Content Identification Worksheet.xlsx if you find it helpful.
            1. Determine which elements need to be exposed to the general public (Internet)
            2. Determine which elements need to be maintained internally for the campus audience (Root)
            3. Determine which elements (if any) should be retained internally for your department only (Teams etc.)
2. Decide how you want to present the Root content to those visiting your page(s)
   1. Decide which content elements should be grouped together and on which page they should exist
      1. Should it have its own page or be included with other data?
      2. Front page or sub-page?
      3. What order is best to present the data?
3. Build a page
   1. Use the Communication Site tools to build pages, add sections and configure web parts to display your data. 
      1. Build in big chunks and don't worry too much about the layout.  The most important part is to get your data onto the page in an appropriate web part.  Everything can be tweaked and shuffled endlessly, get something on the page.
      2. Be as modular as possible with your data.  For instance if you have several blocks of text on the page, but they aren't related to one another, use separate Text web parts for each of them so that it will be easier to move them around if necessary.
4. Build your site
   1. Repeat the first three steps to flesh out the other pages/content 
5. Link your site
   1. Link the pages and data using the navigation bar, and links in context throughout the site
   2. Link to the external web as appropriate
   3. Link from the web to Root as appropriate
6. Make it pretty
   1. Now that you have the content mostly where you want it and linked together in a logical manner you can work on colors, fonts, images etc. to get the aesthetic you want for your site.  

All editors of a site (coordinators and members) will have the ability to add/remove editors of a site:
 

To add an editor:

1. On your Sycamore Root Site
2. Click Site Access link in the upper-right corner
3. Type their name in the box
4. Select their name when it appears in the list
5. Drop down the menu right under their name and select Edit
6. Click the Share button

To remove an editor:

1. On your Sycamore Root Site
2. Click Site Access link in the upper-right corner
3. Expand the Site Members - limited control list
4. Find the person you wish to remove and select Remove from the drop-down associated with their profile.  

NOTE:  You will have to make access changes in each hub independently.

Generally campus data/services will break down into those of public interest (how to enroll, what degrees are offered) and those which are only meant for internal consumption (guest parking passes for department visitors, how to submit workman's comp claim) but some things are of interest to both audiences (campus maps, department hours).  In those circumstances our recommendation is to host the data in the service which reaches the widest intended audience and link to it from other sites as appropriate:  Public and general information should be on the external web site, campus-only content should be hosted in Root and department-only content should be housed in Teams.  That way the information can be maintained in a single location while being accessible from multiple places.  

NOTE:  The Employee and Student hubs are independent and content must be created/maintained in both if relevant.  If the data is too onerous to maintain in two locations separately it is recommended to host that content in the Student hub (due to its more open access policies) and then link to it as needed from the Employee hub.