Figured that I would end the week by providing a useful tip for all of the Project Server administrators out there. Here’s a neat trick to searching the Project newsgroups directly from your IE search window by using the Search Providers feature.
1) Add the Search Provider to your current list…to do this, click on the drop down arrow on the Search Bar, and choose the “Find More Providers” option.
2) Scroll to the bottom of the site, and pick the option to “Create Own Search Provider.”
3) You then need to enter the URL of a search executed using the “TEST” string. Here’re the search URLs for the Microsoft Project, Microsoft Project Server, and Project Server Developer newsgroups:
- MPP: http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.project/search?group=microsoft.public.project&q=TEST
- MOPS: http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.project.server/search?hl=en&group=microsoft.public.project.server&q=TEST
- MOPS DEV: http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.project.developer/search?group=microsoft.public.project.developer&q=TEST
(I point out that you can use the URLs from any search provider as per your preference. These just happen to be the same ones I have used for a couple of years.)
4) Select Install Search Provider
…and you’ve successfully added those providers to your Search Provider list.
To use this newly set up feature, type a string in your search window, and select the appropriate site to search through.
…thanks to Rob Mouton for the suggestion from his internal IT newsletter a couple of months ago. See Rob, people do read that stuff.