One of the fun aspects of my job is that I get to intentionally break Web Parts or cause errors so that I can figure out a) what not to do and b) how to fix problems. I recently spent some time playing around with the SharePoint Navigators Web Part, which lets you easily create customized tabs, menus and tree items. After my time in the sandbox (and thanks to some guidance from Bamboo PM Girl and one of our engineers), I came up with solutions to two possible problems:

• Recovering a Navigators Tab
• Recovering a Navigators List

Because let's be honest: Even the best of us make mistakes sometimes and delete items that we shouldn't. So relax, sit back and let's break some Web Parts.

(The steps and screenshots below are for SharePoint 2007—although the basic steps are the same for SharePoint 2010. Read KB.12512 to learn how to recreate a Navigators tab or list in SharePoint 2010.)

Note: These steps only work for project sites that were created using PM Central's project site templates. If you created team sites using PM Central's project site templates, these steps won't work.

Recovering a Navigators Tab

Use Case: Your organization uses SharePoint Navigators and its Navigators List in SharePoint Project Management Central to create custom tabs for a project site, but someone accidentally deletes one of the tabs on the project site.

You can recreate the tab by using the Navigators List from another project site. You'll need Design or Full Control permissions to perform these steps.

To recover the tab:

1. Navigate to another project site (or create a new project if you don't already have one). Go to the project site's Navigators List by selecting Site Actions > View All Site Content and selecting the list. In this example, the list name is Project Site Navigators.

   

2. Locate the list item that you want to recreate and note its field values.

   

3. Return to your original project site with the missing tab. Go to the Navigators List by selecting Site Actions > View All Site Content and choosing the list. Add a new item by selecting New > New Item.

   

4. Create the list item using the same field values that you noted in the other project site's Navigators List. Make sure the sort order is correct. Click OK.

   

5. The list item appears in the Navigators List, and it is displayed on the project site again.

   

   

You can also recreate the tab by saving the Navigators List from another project site as a list template. Read more about this in the next section.

Recovering a Navigators List

Use Case: Your organization uses SharePoint Navigators and its Navigators List in SharePoint Project Management Central to create custom tabs for its project site. Someone accidentally deletes the Navigators List, which is used to display the tabs, and the tabs no longer appear on the project site.

You can recreate the Navigators List by saving the Navigators List from another project site as a template, then applying the template to the original project site to recreate the list. You need Design or Full Control permissions to perform these steps.

To recover the list:

1. Go to another project site (or create one if you don't already have one). Go to that project site's Navigators List by selecting Site Actions > View All Site Content and selecting the list. The list should contain the same columns as the list that you want to recreate.
2. View the list settings by selecting Settings > List Settings. Under Permissions and Management, select Save list as template.

   
   

3. Save the list using the name of the Navigators List. In this example, the list name is Project Site Navigators. Make sure that the Include Content option is selected. Click OK.

   

4. Return to your original project site and select Site Actions > View All Site Content > Create. Under Custom Lists, select your list template. Name it using the name of the Navigators List. Click Create.

   

   

5. The navigation is back on the project site.