SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and the Research feature of Office 2003 and Internet Exporer 6

A collegue of mine (thanks Carlo!) pointed out a standard feature of SharePoint Portal Server 2003: you can search your Portal through the Research pane in Office 2003 and Internet Explorer 6. There is actually not much information on this topic available. This information is for example NOT documented in the SharePoint Portal Server User help and Administrators help (some work to do for the next version of the documentation, you guys at Microsoft!!!!). In most online Microsoft documents you don't find much more than: Integration in the Microsoft Office System Research and Reference Pane: Microsoft Office System users can search a SharePoint portal site from the Research and Reference Pane I can't find anything on the “Reference Pane”, I think it is the same thing as the research Pane. You can find it under “Tools - Research...” menu in your Office 2003 applications. Funy thing is that they find it really important if you look at the default configured shortcut: Alt-Click. Microsoft offers even a whole one day course on the topic: http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/syllabi/2016afinal.asp

I did some Googling, but the only real documentation on how to configure it can be found in the whitepaper “Microsoft® SharePoint™ Portal Server 2003 - Specific Arabic Features“, a must read! I love those screenshots! Have a look at http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/arabicdev/dotnetservers/SharePointPortal/wpapers2003.asp#37 for the whole document.

In short (shameless copy of their information):

1. Microsoft Office System users can search a SharePoint portal site for Arabic data, from the Research and Reference Pane. Microsoft Office System users can search a SharePoint portal site from the Research and Reference Pane.

   
   Figure 22 - Share Point Portal Server 2003

   Through the Research options dialog box, the user can add SharePoint Portal as a service for searching. To enable this service, please follow the following steps:
   1. Launch any Office component (Word, Excel, etc...).
   2. On the Tools menu, click Research.
   3. In the Research task pane, click Research options.
   4. Add research services, click Add Services.

      
      Figure 51 - Share Point Portal Server 2003

   5. Add a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 site, type http://your root directory/_vti_bin/search.asmx.(Example: http://Share/_vti_bin/search.asmx.)
   6. Click Add. The service is automatically enabled for searching, and it will appear in the Search for list the next time you open the Research task pane.
   7. Select the portal name and write an Arabic word to search for (Example ãÇÌÏ), then press the Search icon

      
      Figure 52 - Share Point Portal Server 2003

This can also be configured in your Internet Explorer 6: View - Explorer Bar - Research...

If you like to know more about developing for the Research pane, check out the following articles and the SDK:

• Customizing the Microsoft Office 2003 Research Task Pane
• Build Your Own Research Library with Office 2003 and the Google Web Service API
• Office 2003 Research Service Software Development Kit (SDK)