Just as Microsoft's products have become the de facto standard with daily desktop tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, SharePoint is becoming the de facto standard web platform for team and company collaboration. There are other products that provide collaboration, but few integrate as seamlessly with a company's existing IT investments just as Office, Active Directory, Windows 7/Vista/XP, or SQL Server has, thus making the deployment process rather palatable to the IT department and workers within a company.
Another huge benefit of SharePoint is that it seamlessly integrates with the desktop technology of Outlook, Word, Excel, Access, and Visio, so an end user's acceptance is much easier and quicker as they feel that this is an extension to their tool set, and not a replacement.
- Q: Do I need to be technical to do this?
- A: No. If you have an MP3 player then you are more than qualified.
- Q: Is this book appropriate if we use SharePoint 2007?
- A: The functionality discussed is for SharePoint 2010. However, much of the content is relevant for SharePoint 2007.
- Q: If we use SharePoint 2010 and an earlier version of Office, will the book be of value?
- A: Yes, but not all the Office integration points exist in versions of Office prior to 2010.
- Q: Do you reference third-party products that work with SharePoint?
- A: No. However, you may contact the authors for further information and references.
- Q: Do I need SharePoint Designer installed on my desktop?
- A: No, not for this book. SharePoint Designer functionality is not referenced.
- Q: Will the stated functionality work if our SharePoint server is hosted externally?
- A: Yes. One of SharePoint's greatest traits is that it delivers content and functionality from anywhere to anyone.
- Q: Is mobile device integration discussed in the book?
- A: No. Mobile integration with SharePoint is a broad subject and could even have a separate book dedicated to it.
- Q: How large does my company need to be to gain value from SharePoint?
- A: This is a difficult question to answer, because SharePoint can be used in many ways. The right question to ask is: How much information does my company use on a day-to-day basis and do I or my team have problems finding important information and keeping it up-to-date?
Our rule of thumb is that if you are receiving more than 100 e-mails a day, you probably need a better tool than Outlook to be more organized.
- Q: Does SharePoint work with Internet Explorer 6 or previous versions?
- A: It may work, but these versions are not supported by Microsoft. SharePoint 2010 does work with other browsers.
- Q: What is webinizing information?
- A: Chapter 1, Where Should End Users Start with SharePoint? explains about webinizing information.
- Q: How do I start webinizing my information?
- A: Start by writing down what you did today or over the past couple of days. Ask yourself questions such as: How much follow-up with co-workers was required? Was finding information a challenge? How do I control the document version? Was finding the status of a certain task an issue?
- Q: Does this book address the different editions of SharePoint 2010?
- A: Yes.