When you think of site collection, you should think of the term boundary. Whenever you create a site collection, you are in essence creating a boundary within your SharePoint farm. This boundary is a container for content and can have specific settings configured that will apply to all sites within the container. Following are some of those key settings that are applied at the site collection level:

Reviewing this list should give you an idea of the various configuration settings that are available across the site collection. These settings are configured once and then consumed by all webs within the site collection. These settings can also help you determine when you would create a site collection versus a web. For instance, you would want to create two separate site collections if you had two different teams, both of which needed to create templates and neither of which wanted to see the other team's templates. However, you could create a single site collection if you wanted all the teams to inherit the same navigation, list templates, and site templates.

So far, we have covered the different settings that you can configure at the various site levels, but we haven't really covered some of the administrative features that would play a part in determining whether to create a site collection versus a web. While it is likely that your administrators will have put procedures in place to help you determine what to create, it is also very helpful for you to understand these concepts so that you can be proactive in managing your content.

Now that you have a better understanding of the site collection boundaries, you should have most of the information needed to help determine if you should create site collections or webs. I say most, because sometimes the decision to create a site as a web is not really a black-and-white decision. In fact, it is often gray and cloudy! In many cases, you could go either way and, in many cases, whichever way you choose could potentially have an impact in one way or another. Let's review an example that shows how gray the choice can be at times. In this scenario, you have a need to collaborate on our internal projects. Here are some of the requirements:

In this scenario, there are a few things that stick out; first you want to use a common template among the project sites, so that leads you to creating a custom template within a site collection and then creating a site for each of the project sites. This will also allow you to easily create rollups of data from within the site collection (we will be covering this later in the chapter), but what do you do to accommodate for all of the large files that each of the project sites will need? Since you know you are going to be dealing with large amounts of data, you need to consider a few things. How many projects will you be doing in the next six months, next year, or next two years? At this point, you will need to make a few decisions about how to best separate the data. Could you do several site collections and group like projects together? Could you create a site collection for each year of projects? Do you create a site collection per project? The answer to these questions is "it depends." At this point, you are really making a management decision. You will need to look at your scenario and determine the best solution for you and your team. If you decide to manage multiple site collections, then managing SQL and database sizing will be easier. If you decided to create one site collection, then you will need to be careful with your site collection size and be sure to have a plan in place, in case you end up needing to store more content. Keep in mind that each team will likely come to a different conclusion as to what solution is best for them. This is common and, as long as you are following best practices for storage and configuration, the actual hierarchy can be flexible enough to meet your specific needs.

TRY IT OUT: Create a Web (Subsite)

In this Try It Out, you are going to create a web within your projects site collection. This will allow us to start to build a site hierarchy that can be used for the remaining chapter examples.

1. Open the Projects Site Collection that you created in the previous example.

2. Navigate to the Site Settings Page by selecting the Site Actions menu and the Site Settings Option.

3. In the Site Administration group, select the Sites and workspaces link, as shown in Figure 8-4.

4. Select the Create option at the top of the page, enter the following properties for the site, and then select Create. An example is shown in Figure 8-5:

   • Title: Project A

   • Description: Location to store all content for Project A

   • URL: /sites/projects/projectA

   • Template Selection: Team Site

   • Permissions: Use same permissions as parent site

   • Display on the Quick Launch of the parent site?: Yes

   • Display on the top link bar of the parent site?: Yes

   • Use the top link bar from the parent site?: Yes

   Don't worry if you don't understand all of these configuration options at this point in the chapter. You will be working through them later in the chapter, and by the time you reach the end, you will be familiar with how they all work together.

   

   Figure 8-4. FIGURE 8-4

5. Once the web (subsite) has been created, you will be redirected to the new site. Your screen should look similar to the one displayed in Figure 8-6.

How It Works

When you enter the data for the new site, the site is created within the site collection. Since you are creating the site from within a site collection, it is created within that site collection.

Figure 8-5. FIGURE 8-5

Figure 8-6. FIGURE 8-6

Features are a way within SharePoint to turn on or turn off certain functionality. Some common examples include the SharePoint Enterprise Features and SharePoint Publishing Features. By default, each of the templates provided by Microsoft has different features activated. This means that if you create a site using the Enterprise Wiki template, different features are activated by default than if you had used the Team template. This doesn't mean that you can't use the additional features, it just means that you first have to activate them. You can think of features like a light switch. When you want to see the functionality, you simply activate the feature. If you do not want to see it any longer, then you can deactivate the feature. Features can be activated at the site collection level and the web (subsite) level. When you activate features at the site collection level, you are basically allowing them to be used within the site collection. When you activate them at the web level, you are saying you want to use the feature on that site. The features can only be activated at the web level if they have been activated for the site collection.

Once a site is created, typically the first thing you need to do is to customize it to match your requirements. While Microsoft does a great job providing you with templates to get started, it is unlikely that you will be able to use the template as is without making modifications. We covered how to create lists and libraries in earlier chapters, but it is likely that you are wondering if there is an easy way to view all of the different types of content within your site. There are several different ways that you can view the content within a site collection, including those discussed in the following sections.

Site Hierarchy

This link can be accessed from the root site in the site collection. It provides a view of all of the webs (subsites) in the site collection, as well as a link to easily navigate to their site settings page. An example of this page is shown in Figure 8-8.

Figure 8-8. FIGURE 8-8

Site Content and Structure

When the publishing feature has been activated, an additional link is provided in the Site Administration section that allows you to see a tree view of the content within the site collection. From this view, you can easily create content, move content, and configure the content behavior (general settings, advanced settings, and permissions). This is a valuable tool that provides a quick way to work with content within the site collection. It is highly recommended that you take advantage of using this feature when creating and managing your content. An example of this page is shown in Figure 8-9.

Figure 8-9. FIGURE 8-9

TRY IT OUT: Create and Move a Site from the Content and Structure Page

In this example, you are going to use the Content and Structure page to create a new project site. You are going to create the site as a project site under Project A and then decide to move the site so that it is a sibling to Project A instead of a child. While it might not be common in the real world to create a site and immediately move it, it is common to move a site. So, we will just combine the two operations within one exercise.

1. Open the Projects Site Collection that was created in the previous example.

2. Navigate to the Site Settings Page by selecting the Site Actions menu and the Site Settings Option.

3. In the Site Administration group, select the Content and structure link. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-10.

   

   Figure 8-10. FIGURE 8-10

4. Select the drop-down menu next to Project A. Select the arrow next to the word New and then select Site. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-11.

5. When the create page loads, enter the following properties for the site and then click Create:

   • Title: Project B

   • Description: Location to store all content for Project B.

   • URL: /sites/projects/projectA/projectB

   • Template Selection: Team Site

   • Permissions: Use same permissions as parent site

   • Display on the Quick Launch of the parent site?: Yes

   • Use the top link bar from the parent site?: Yes

   

   Figure 8-11. FIGURE 8-11

6. Select OK and you will be redirected to the Content and Structure page. You should now see Project B listed under Project A.

7. Now that you have the site created, you would like to move the site so that it is under projects. Remember that you could have created the site directly under projects; we are just using this as an example so that you understand the process for moving sites.

8. Select the drop-down next to Project B and select the Move option, as shown in Figure 8-12.

9. Select Projects within the Move dialog and then click OK, as shown in Figure 8-13.

10. Once the site has been moved, you will be redirected to the Content and Site Structure page. Keep in mind that this move also updates the URL of the site, so if any users had the link saved, they will need to have the updated link to access the site.

How It Works

The Content and Site Structure page gives you an easy way to quickly work with and configure the content within your site collections. As seen is this example, you can easily create content and then move content around. In the example, you moved a site from one location to another, but you should also note that you can move lists from one location to another, and you can also move list content from one list to another (providing that the lists support the same content types). This is a very powerful tool that can help you manage your site collections, and it is recommended that you spend some time exploring this tool in detail.

Figure 8-12. FIGURE 8-12

Figure 8-13. FIGURE 8-13

Since there is a whole chapter dedicated to managing permissions, we won't spend much time on it here. You will have noticed that when you create new sites, you are given the option to inherit permissions or to create unique permissions. So far, you have been inheriting permissions. Many times for subsites it is likely that you will want to inherit the permissions of the parent site. However, if you are working with a site that needs restricted permissions or a site that you aren't ready for everyone to access yet, then you will likely need to choose the option that allows for unique permissions. Keep in mind that this is something that can be reconfigured at a later date. Let's look at this example. You have a web that you want to create, but you want to first spend some time configuring and designing it before you open it up to the larger audience. In this example, you could create the web with unique permissions and then, once all of your configuration has been completed, you can go into the site and set the site to inherit the permissions of the parent site.

SharePoint Designer is a design tool that can be used to customize and configure SharePoint sites. The typical progression of SharePoint development is to start with what you can do within the browser, then what you can do within SharePoint Designer, and finally what you can do with custom code solutions. SharePoint Designer is a very powerful tool that can be leveraged to do many great things, including the configuration of SharePoint workflows. However, like any good tool, it must be monitored to ensure that it is not abused and that it is being used in a way that adheres to the governance policies in place. It is likely that you will want your designers to be able to do certain tasks in SharePoint Designer but not others. When this is the case, you can restrict their access to SharePoint Designer by using the configuration options available within the site collection. To access this configuration, go to the site settings page and select the SharePoint Designer Settings under the Site Collection Administration Group. From this screen, you will be able to enable/disable particular feature sets within SharePoint Designer. By default, you will inherit the settings configured by your farm administrator. This means that if the farm administrator has disabled settings, you would have to go to them to get them enabled again. Figure 8-14 shows the different configuration options that you have available.

Figure 8-14. FIGURE 8-14

You may have noticed a link at the bottom of the Site Collection Settings called Help Settings. If you click this link, you will see that you can select different help catalogs to include in the SharePoint help for the site. This means that you can enable and disable the content that users will be searching for help. As you activate features within the site collection, they will automatically be enabled within this help catalog. You can also create a custom help catalog for your users and then load the catalog with help entries. To do this, you will need to activate the Custom Site Collection Help site collection feature. Once this is activated, a Site Collection Help library will be created for you. Within this library, you can then create content that can be included within the custom catalog. Once you create the catalog, you will see it as an option to be enabled within the Help Settings. Figure 8-15 shows an example of this page, which contains the available help collections.

Figure 8-15. FIGURE 8-15

One thing that will be important to you as you manage your sites is the ability to understand how the site is being used. Are users accessing the site consistently? When they access the site, what pages are they viewing? Having all of this information easily accessible will help you make modifications to your site that improve its usability and functionality. Out of the box, SharePoint provides several reports that provide information about the usage within the site and within the site collection. You can access these reports through the Site Web Analytics and the Site Collection Web Analytic reports in the Site Actions section of the Site Settings page. Figure 8-16 shows a sample of one of these report pages.

As you can see from this page, there are several different reports available as links in the Quick Launch toolbar. There is also a link at the top of the page that allows you to Change the Settings. Once this link is clicked, you will see several configurable options for both date and scope. You can also create alerts and reports so that you can be notified when certain criteria is met within the web analytic reports.

Figure 8-16. FIGURE 8-16

Within each site and site collection, you have the ability to control the navigation. Navigation includes two regions on the page, the top bar or global navigation region and the Quick Launch or Current navigation area. This is one of those areas where you will see different options based on the features that you have activated, including the names for the areas. For instance, if you only have the standard features activated, then the link to modify the navigation settings is called Top Link Bar and the navigation settings page will look something like Figure 8-17.

Figure 8-17. FIGURE 8-17

From this Top Link Bar management page, you will be able to modify the tabs across the top of the page. You will be able to create new links, and if you are a working from a web, you will be able to inherit the parent links. To manage the Quick Launch links, you will need to select the Quick Launch link under the Look and Feel section of the site settings page. From here, you will be able to create new content links and reorder the existing links. Figure 8-18 gives an example of this management page.

Figure 8-18. FIGURE 8-18

Once the publishing features have been activated, you will be able to manage both sets of links using the Navigation link under the Look and Feel section of the site settings page. This screen will allow you to manage both sets of links in one single location and will also allow you to configure an automatic sort order and provide an option that allows you to automatically show pages and subsites. Figure 8-19 provides a view of this management page.

When working with webs in a publishing site collection, you will notice a few additional options for inheritance. Each of these options is explained here:

Figure 8-19. FIGURE 8-19

TRY IT OUT: Modify the Navigation for the Projects Site Collection

In this Try It Out, you are going to modify the navigation settings for the Project site collection that you created in previous examples. You are going to configure the global navigation settings for the top-level site.

1. Open the Projects Site Collection that you created in the previous example.

2. Navigate to the Site Settings Page by selecting the Site Actions menu and the Site Settings Option.

3. In the Look and Feel group, select the Navigation link, as shown in Figure 8-20.

   

   Figure 8-20. FIGURE 8-20

4. In the Global Navigation section, select the option to Show subsites. Notice that your two subsites are now listed below in the Navigation Editing and Sorting section and then click OK, as shown in Figure 8-21.

   

   Figure 8-21. FIGURE 8-21

   You will also notice that Project A is listed twice. Once as a header (denoted by the folder icon) and once as a site (denoted by the site icon). This is because of the order of operations you worked through in the examples. You initially created the site without having any of the publishing features activated. Because of this, when you created Project A and selected the option to add it to the parent site's top navigation, it was created as a header. Once you have activated the publishing features, additional features are made available; however, the work you have already configured is not overwritten. This is something that is important to understand because it is likely that, as you are configuring solutions within SharePoint, you will start with a certain set of features and then activate additional features as you develop your final solution. In this example, you can simply delete the header link.

5. Highlight the Project A Header link and select the Delete option. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-22.

   

   Figure 8-22. FIGURE 8-22

   Now that you have modified the global navigation, you should see both project sites listed as tabs across the top of your home page. This is shown in Figure 8-23.

   All new subsites that are created will also have tabs created. If there is a certain site that you do not want to be displayed as a tab, then you can select the site in the configuration page and select the Hide option. As you can see in Figure 8-24, the Hide option is displayed in the top of the menu structure.

   

   Figure 8-23. FIGURE 8-23

6. Next you will want to configure the current navigation so that the subsites are displayed. Return to the Navigations settings page, and select the subsites option under the Current Navigation options, as shown in Figure 8-25.

7. You should again notice extra links in the Current Navigation settings. There is a Header called Sites and a link called Project A. Since you are now using the publishing features, these two items can be deleted. Once you have completed deleting the items, your finished configuration should look similar to the Figure 8-26. Click OK to save your changes.

How It Works

When you choose to use the same global navigation as the parent site, you are in essence just copying the navigation structure. Whatever configuration changes made at the top will be visible within your site as well.

Figure 8-24. FIGURE 8-24

Figure 8-25. FIGURE 8-25

Figure 8-26. FIGURE 8-26

TRY IT OUT: Modify the Current Navigation for Project A

In this Try It Out, you are going to modify the current navigation settings for the Project A site. You are going to configure the site so that both the current and sibling quick launch are displayed within the site.

1. Open the Project A Site that was created in the previous example.

2. Navigate to the Site Settings Page by selecting the Site Actions menu and the Site Settings Option.

3. In the Look and Feel group, select the Navigation link.

4. In the Current Navigation section, select the Display the current site, the navigation items below the current site and the site's siblings option, and then Click OK. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-27.

5. Once you navigate back to the Project A home page, you should see the content from the existing site, as well as the link to the sibling site, Project B. Figure 8-28 shows an example of this.

How It Works

By selecting this display for the current navigation, you are saying that you want to group your content at a high level, but list categories, and that you also want to see a link displayed on the site that will take you to all other sites that are at the same level of the site hierarchy.

Figure 8-27. FIGURE 8-27

Figure 8-28. FIGURE 8-28

Things to Note about Navigation

There are few more things we should note about navigation before moving on. The first thing has to do with security trimming. Security trimming is a great SharePoint buzzword that means you only see content that you have access to. This is a great concept, and many people who want to build solutions want to take advantage of this option. One thing to note about navigation, however, is that only links generated and added to SharePoint by SharePoint are security trimmed. This means that if you add a global navigation link to a different site collection, all users will see that link, regardless of the permissions to the site. If users click on the link from within your site but don't have access to the site collection, they will be prompted for credentials. This can become very frustrating for users, especially if they are used to only seeing links that they have access to.

Note

One option to get around the issues of unwanted items showing up in the navigation would be to instead use a redirect page. You could create a redirect page and then apply permissions to that page. That way, only a user who had access to that page would see the link in the navigation.

Another thing to note about navigation is that, in this release of the product, Microsoft has included some additional settings that let you control the overall behavior of navigation. When publishing has been activated, these settings can be accessed through the Site Collection Administration section on the site settings page. They allow you to enable or disable the following navigation options:

• Navigation Enabled: If you disable this option, all navigation bars will be hidden on the page.

• Security Trimming: If you disable this option, all navigation links will be visible to all users, regardless of their access permissions to those links. If they try to navigate to a link that they don't have access to, they will be prompted for authentication.

• Audience Targeting: If you disable this link, audience targeting will not be able to be used for navigation links.

The final thing that we will cover in the navigation section is a reminder to remember the small navigation options that can make a big difference:

• Portal Site Connection

• Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs provide a way for users to easily navigate through the tree structure that they are working within. From any level within the site structure, they can use the breadcrumbs to navigate to a different level within the site collection. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-29.

Figure 8-29. FIGURE 8-29

The Portal Site Connection is a configurable option within the Site Collection that provides a way for you to create a link as the topmost link displayed in the breadcrumbs. You configure this option from the Site Collection Administration group on the site settings page. Figures 8-30 and 8-31 show the configuration screen for this option, as well as the breadcrumb that displays the custom portal connection.

As you start working with site collections and sites, a question that is bound to come up is "How do I display data from one site on another site?" If the two sites exist within the same site collection, this can easily be done by using the Content Query web part (CQWP). If the two sites are not within the same site collection, then you must create a custom solution. This can be created using SharePoint Designer or by creating a custom web part.

Figure 8-30. FIGURE 8-30

Figure 8-31. FIGURE 8-31

Just as with many other things in this chapter, there is a breakdown between what templates are available for a site collection top site and the webs (subsites). We will first be covering the site collection top-level site templates. Site collections are created either from the Central Administration management site or from a custom process.

In Central Administration, when the option to create a new site collection is selected, a template selection panel is displayed where users are able to select the type of site template they would like to use for their site. Depending on your farms licensing, there are up to five different categories of sites available, including:

Meetings Templates

The next section of templates pertains to the creation of meeting workspaces. These templates are designed specifically with meetings in mind. There is a way to track the meeting minutes, meeting issues, and meeting documents. The list below represents the different styles of templates available for the meetings:

• Basic Meeting Workspace

• Blank Meeting Workspace

• Decision Meeting Workspace

• Social Meeting Workspace

• Multipage Meeting Workspace

These templates can be configured to support single meetings or recurring meetings. You can create the template as a top-level site collection or web, but you can also create these sites from directly within a calendar list. Within the new item form in the calendar list, you will see an option to store the meeting information within a meeting workspace. If you select this option, then you will be asked to select a template to use to store your meeting minutes. Figure 8-32 shows this option within a new calendar item, and Figure 8-33 shows an example of a meeting workspace that is associated with a recurring weekly meeting.

Figure 8-32. FIGURE 8-32

Figure 8-33. FIGURE 8-33

When you are working within a site collection, the templates available for creating additional webs depend on the features that you have activated. As you activate additional features, additional templates become available. To create a new site you can select the New Site link from the Site Actions menu. Once selected, a pop-up will be displayed that shows all of the different templates available. An example of this is displayed in Figure 8-34.

Figure 8-34. FIGURE 8-34

The listing of available templates includes many different templates in addition to the ones discussed earlier in the chapter, including the following:

These templates, called Web Databases templates, are configured to be used with Access Services. When you create a site with these templates you are creating a site that contains an access database and that uses Access Services web parts to display the site data. Figure 8-35 shows an example of one of these site templates.

Figure 8-35. FIGURE 8-35

The option to save a site as a template is located in the Site Settings page in the Site Actions grouping. It is important to note that you will only see the Save site as template link when the site you are working within can be saved as a template. Some sites, including those that enable publishing within the site, do not support the Save as Template option.

TRY IT OUT: Save Project A Site as a Template

In this Try It Out, you are going to modify the Project A site and then save the site as a template. You are then going to create a new site called Project C that uses your new template.

1. Open the Project A Site that was created in the previous example.

2. Create a new image library within this site and upload several images to the library. If you need instructions on how to create an image library, refer to Chapter 3. Figure 8-36 is a screenshot of the library page within my Project A site.

3. Open the Site Settings page for Project Site A, and select the "Save site as template" link in the Site Actions group. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-37.

4. As shown in Figure 8-38, Enter the following information to save the site as a template, and then click OK:

   • File name: CustomProject

   • Template name: Custom Project Template

   • Template description: This template contains the list and libraries to manage our custom projects.

   • Include Content: Yes

   

   Figure 8-36. FIGURE 8-36

   

   Figure 8-37. FIGURE 8-37

   

   Figure 8-38. FIGURE 8-38

5. Click OK on the pop-up screen (Figure 8-39) that confirms your site template was created.

6. Open the Projects Site Collection that was created in the previous example.

7. From the Site Actions Menu, select the New Site link.

8. In the create dialog, select the Blank & Custom filter. Notice that if you select the Custom Project template, the description you entered above is displayed on the right side of the dialog. Figure 8-40 shows an example of this.

   

   Figure 8-39. FIGURE 8-39

   

   Figure 8-40. FIGURE 8-40

9. Enter the following title and URL for your new site and then select the More Options button:

   • Title: Project C

   • URL: ProjectC

10. Notice that when selecting more options we have the ability to manage permissions and to inherit navigation. We will accept the defaults and click Create, as shown in Figure 8-41.

11. Once you are redirected to the new Projects C site, you will want to verify that your template was used. To do this, you can check to see that your custom library and content are included in the site.

12. From the Project C home page, select the Pictures link in the current navigation. Notice in Figure 8-42 that your list, Project Images, is included and is showing that there is one item in the list.

How It Works

When you saved your site as a template, the configurations and content were saved to the site Solutions gallery and made available for use within the site collection. When you created a new site, the new site was based on the site within the Solutions gallery.

Figure 8-41. FIGURE 8-41

Figure 8-42. FIGURE 8-42

When a template is created it is stored as a .wsp file within the Solutions gallery. This gallery can be accessed through the Solutions Gallery link in the Galleries section of the Site Settings page and is shown in Figure 8-43.

This Solutions gallery is basically a list that contains solutions that are used within the site collection. Because it is a library, you are able to upload additional solutions. This means that you can move templates between different site collections simply by saving them locally and then uploading them to a different site collections Solutions gallery.

Figure 8-43. FIGURE 8-43

One final area that I wanted to cover within the Templates section is the idea of creating a template that can be used to create new site collections. This is a question that comes up often; however, there is no solution that is available to power users to fill this request. If you have a need to use a custom template for your top-level sites, you will need to work with your system administrators and developers to determine the approach that is best for you. The approach could include several different options, including:

All of these topics go beyond the scope of this book; however, it is good for you to be aware of them. Your system administrators and developers should be able to work with you to determine the best approach to meet your particular requirements.

SharePoint Workspace provides this functionality and is available with a Microsoft Office Professional Plus license key. Users who have this client application installed will be able to connect with their SharePoint sites and download a local copy of the site. This copy will be synched with the live site on a regular basis to ensure that the content store locally remains current. When users are offline, they will be able to make changes to the content, and then that content will be synched to the live site when they are able to connect again.

TRY IT OUT: Connect to a Site Using SharePoint Workspace

In this example, you are going to open the SharePoint Workspace client application and connect it to your Projects site collection.

1. From the windows start menu, open the Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 client application.

2. From the Ribbon, select the SharePoint Workspace option within the New drop-down. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-44.

   

   Figure 8-44. FIGURE 8-44

3. Enter the URL for your projects site collection in the dialog, and click OK, as shown in Figure 8-45.

   

   Figure 8-45. FIGURE 8-45

4. A status dialog will be displayed that will display the progress of the site being created locally. When the dialog shows that progress is completed, click the Open Workspace button.

5. Select the Shared Documents library and click the Add Documents button on the Ribbon, as shown in Figure 8-46.

   

   Figure 8-46. FIGURE 8-46

6. Upload any document to the library. Once you complete this action, open the site in the browser and verify the document has been added.

7. Select the Sync Ribbon toolbar, and the under the Sync menu, select the option to Sync Workspace as shown in Figure 8-47.

   

   Figure 8-47. FIGURE 8-47

8. When the sync status (bottom right) shows as completed, close the client application and open the site in the browser. You should now see your document uploaded into the shared documents library. An example of this is shown in Figure 8-48.

Keep in mind that, for this demo, you remained connected to the server at all times, and you forced a manual sync. This was simply to show you the functionality. Under normal circumstances, the workspace would synch on a consistent basis.

How It Works

When you connect a SharePoint Workspace to a SharePoint site, you are creating a local copy of the content. This copy will be synched on a regular basis with the live site so that the content remains current. Whenever you are offline, this local copy can be used to provide access to the site content. Once you are online again, the changes you made in the workspace will be synched with the live site.

Figure 8-48. FIGURE 8-48