Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/37773
Meanwhile, law firms are evaluating the need to rebuild their websites for a variety of reasons. For some, mergers, acquisitions or rebranding initiatives have forced the issue. In some cases it is driven by consolidation initiatives to reduce the number of systems within the firm or to better integrate websites with attorney profiles and marketing systems. In addition, expectations have increased dramatically over the past couple of years for what an intuitive and compelling website experience should be. If you are already using SharePoint in your firm, it makes sense to consider whether the WCM capabilities of SharePoint 2010 will meet your firm’s needs. MANAGING WEB CONTENT WITH SHAREPOINT 2010 Some of the capabilities that support Web content management at large law firms include the following: • Empowering Content Authors: One of the primary drivers in selecting a WCM system is to empower your content authors to manage the process of authoring, approving, translating, updating and publishing content while reducing reliance on information technology professionals. Relevant content can be easily created, associated with other relevant website content, optimized for search engines, and published more quickly and frequently. SharePoint provides a rich WYSIWYG authoring experience, allowing authors to view content as it will be displayed on the public website. Content authors do not need HTML knowledge to create content but can edit the source HTML if needed. The asset library makes it easy to manage approved photo, video and audio assets, and makes them readily available to content authors. Through the use of SharePoint’s content types and page layouts, authors can choose from multiple pre-approved layouts when creating content. The use of these page layouts forces consistency in the look and feel of your website. • Multilingual Capabilities: Firms are looking to reach a wider audience and extend their global reach by translating their Web content to multiple languages. Significant enhancements in SharePoint 2010 make translating content even easier. SharePoint 2010 now allows content authors and approvers to work within the system in their preferred languages. By installing the appropriate SharePoint 2010 language packs on SharePoint servers, the out-of-the-box menus, commands, ribbons, field labels and help content will be translated to the author’s selected language, making it easier and more natural to work within the system. To best understand the multilingual capabilities as it applies to your firm’s content, it helps to walk through the set-up process. Multilingual translation capabilities are configured and managed through what are known as “variations.” Variations do not automatically translate content; rather they are used to manage the workflow of content translation. Variations are available only for SharePoint sites based on the publishing site template and are enabled from the Site Collection Administration page. Once enabled, the www.iltanet.org Portal Platforms 41