Introduction
Welcome! This Step by Step book has been designed so you can read it from the beginning to learn about SharePoint 2016 and then build your skills as you learn to perform increasingly specialized procedures. Or, if you prefer, you can jump in wherever you need ready guidance for performing tasks. The how-to steps are delivered crisply and concisely—just the facts. You’ll also find informative, full-color graphics that support the instructional content.
Who this book is for
Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Step by Step is designed for use as a learning and reference resource by beginning-level and intermediate-level users who want to use SharePoint Server 2016 and/or SharePoint Online to create, modify, share, and manage sites, webpages, documents, and other content and capabilities; find information and people; and collaborate with others. Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Step by Step offers a comprehensive look at the capabilities and features of SharePoint Server 2016 and SharePoint Online that most people will use most frequently. The content of the book is designed to be useful for people who have previously used earlier versions of SharePoint and for people who are discovering SharePoint for the first time.
The Step by Step approach
The book’s coverage is divided into 14 chapters representing skill set areas. Chapters 1 through 3 address foundation skills such as navigating a SharePoint site and working with documents and information in lists and libraries. Chapters 4 through 6 show you how to make lists and libraries work for you, how to work with search, and how to use My Site and Microsoft OneDrive for Business. Chapters 7 and 8 focus on working with webpages and creating and managing SharePoint sites. Chapter 9 considers the social capabilities of SharePoint 2016, such as community sites, blogs, and wikis. Chapters 10 and 11 show you how to use business process features such as tasks and workflows. Chapters 12 and 13 cover using SharePoint with Microsoft Office applications and the power of business intelligence. Finally, Chapter 14 drills into content management and monitoring.
Tip
The first part of Chapter 1 contains introductory information that will primarily be of interest to readers who are new to SharePoint. If you have worked with SharePoint before, you might want to skip past that material.
Each chapter is divided into topics that group related skills. Each topic includes expository information followed by generic procedures. At the end of the chapter, you’ll find a series of practice tasks you can complete on your own by using the skills taught in the chapter. The practice files for the practice tasks are available from this book’s website.
Download the practice files
Before you can complete the practice tasks in this book, you need to download the book’s practice files to your computer from https://aka.ms/SP2016SBS/downloads. Follow the instructions on the webpage to install the files on your computer in the default practice file folder structure.
Important
The SharePoint 2016 software is not available from the book’s website. You must have access to a SharePoint Server 2016 deployment before performing the practice tasks in this book. Alternatively, you can use SharePoint Online for most practice tasks in this book.
Whenever possible, we start each set of practice tasks with a standard SharePoint 2016 team site, which occasionally must be a top-level team site. If you perform all the practice tasks in all the chapters, you might choose to start with a new team site for every chapter.
However, the practice tasks in Chapters 2 and 5 require additional settings for their practice sites. This is where the starter WSP files will come in handy. The starter WSP files contain lists, libraries, files, and pages that are needed for the practice tasks in the chapter. If you have sufficient rights, you can create a new practice site from the chapter’s starter WSP file by following the detailed step-by-step installation instructions in the setup guide that is provided in the chapter’s practice folder.
The following table lists the practice files supplied for this book.
The practice tasks in this book cover features across SharePoint 2016 solutions deployed on-premises and SharePoint Online.
SharePoint Server 2016 solutions provide different sets of features and functionality depending on the client access licenses (CALs) activated in your organization. There are two SharePoint Server 2016 CALs, as follows:
SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL
SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
SharePoint Online standalone subscription plans provide different sets of features and functionality depending on the plan you are subscribed to. There are two SharePoint Online plans, as follows:
SharePoint Online subscription plan P1
SharePoint Online subscription plan P2
To complete a practice task in this book, you need a SharePoint 2016 on-premises solution or SharePoint Online subscription plan that includes the SharePoint features used in that practice task.
See Also
For a list of the SharePoint 2016 solutions (Standard or Enterprise) and SharePoint Online plans (P1 or P2) you can use to complete each practice task, refer to Appendix B in the downloadable content. (The downloadable content for this book is available from the book’s Microsoft Press website at https://aka.ms/SP2016SBS/downloads.)
All practice tasks will work in SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise. All practice tasks that cover features included in SharePoint Server 2016 Standard will work in SharePoint Server 2016 Standard. If you are using SharePoint Server 2016 Standard and a feature is not available in it, you will not be able to complete practice tasks that cover that feature. For example, the business intelligence features are available only in SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise; therefore, the practice tasks in Chapter 13, “Work with business intelligence,” require SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise.
All practice tasks that cover features included in SharePoint Online P2 will work in SharePoint Online P2. Equally, all practice tasks that cover features included in SharePoint Online P1 will work in SharePoint Online P1. If you are using SharePoint Online P1 and a feature is not available in it, you will not be able to complete practice tasks that cover that feature. For example, the business intelligence features are only available in SharePoint Online P2; therefore, the practice tasks in Chapter 13, “Work with business intelligence,” require SharePoint Online P2.
See Also
For SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint Online feature availability across solutions and subscription plans, refer to Appendix C in the downloadable content. (The downloadable content for this book is available from the book’s Microsoft Press website at https://aka.ms/SP2016SBS/downloads.)
Ebook edition
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