Solution Accelerators
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Office to PDF Conversion Solution Accelerator - from Bamboo Solutions
What Does It Do?
The Office to PDF Conversion Solution Accelerator allows you to automatically schedule the conversion of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and many other document types (see the Specifications tab) stored in a SharePoint document library to PDF. You can keep your source documents safe and secure by creating and updating them in a SharePoint Document Library stored on a secure site and then automatically converting these documents to PDF making them available through a shadow Document Library on another public site for quick and easy data distribution. This eliminates the need for individuals to have separate licenses for PDF conversion tools and allows users to ensure data integrity of documents that may travel outside their department or company.
| Office to PDF Conversion Solution Accelerator vs. SharePoint Out-of-the-Box Functionality |
SPS 2003, WSS 2.0 |
MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0 |
Office to PDF Conversion |
| Automatically convert your Office and other documents to PDF. |  |
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| A scheduler based on Windows NT Scheduler for configuring when and how often your documents are converted to PDF. | |
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| Option to convert only the most current version of a document to PDF or all of its versions (provided versioning is turned on for the Master Document Library). | |
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| Detects when document has been added or modified and performs conversion immediately. - New | |
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| Automatically copy one or all meta data fields from the Master Library to the Shadow Library keeping meta data in sync. - New | |
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| Store Master Library on a restricted site and display Shadow Library on a separate public site. - New | |
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| Option for viewing the corresponding PDF available in SharePoint Edit drop-down menu for each document item in the Master Library. - New | |
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 Includes partial support for this feature. Custom coding may be required. |
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Note: This component is 111 Mb, and takes approximately 10 minutes to download at 160 KB/s.
How Does It Work?
The Office to PDF Conversion Solution Accelerator has two main parts: The Conversion Activator and the Conversion Server. The Conversion Activator is installed on the SharePoint server and includes the configuration and scheduling list, services, and software for communicating with the Bamboo Conversion Server. The Conversion Server is installed on a separate physical server to handle the load of converting large numbers of files. Once the Conversion Activator is installed on the SharePoint Server, you must navigate to the ConversionConfigurationList and create conversion settings for each of the conversion types you want to convert (i.e. DOC to PDF, XLS to PDF or PPT to PDF). These settings include entering in the internal URL to the Master Document Library and the Shadow PDF Document Library, whether you want to convert all versions of each document or only the most current (provided versioning is turned on for the Master Document Library), and scheduling when the conversion should run and how often. In addition, you can indicate whether you want to convert documents as soon as they are added or modified and you can copy specific meta data columns or all columns from the Master Library to the Shadow Library each time the scheduler runs. You can also use this list to check the status, date and time the conversion was last run and any errors that may have occurred during the conversion process. After setting up each conversion configuration, you are ready to start converting your documents in your Master Document Library.
Why Did We Build It?
Most companies document critical business information in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint files, and other Office application file formats. These files need to be version controlled and, in many cases, an intact record of each revision made and archived for future audits. In addition, companies need to make these documents available for public viewing, both internally and externally. SharePoint is a good document repository for these Office documents; however, in SharePoint today, any user that has the rights to view these documents also has the ability to modify its contents. And if you only want to allow a certain group of users access to a "read-only" copy of these electronic documents, you have to manually convert each document to Adobe™ PDF outside of SharePoint and then upload it to a document library that was created specifically for public viewing.
