What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is more a concept than a singular defined technology.  It is a browser-based collaboration and document management platform from Microsoft that is designed to help facilitate the sharing of information either through document libraries, blogging, wiki-style pages and much more.

Users will be able to collaborate better with their team and feel a more substantial part of the company by having access to a SharePoint site.

Navigating a Demo SharePoint Site

In this clip we will walk through a demonstration SharePoint site.  All SharePoint sites will look different depending on the amount of development that is performed by your SharePoint Designer(s) however some common features you may have include a Top Link bar, a Quick Launch bar, and various web parts like Announcements.

Adding and Removing Web Parts

Web Parts allow you to add functionality to your site in an easy and visually appealing manner.  To add or remove a Web Part you begin by navigating to the page you want to make changes to, clicking Site Actions and then Edit Page.  (Note:  If you do not have permissions to alter Web Parts you will not see these options on the page.)

First you will note that you can make changes to the existing Web Parts on the page (or remove

them by clicking the X next to the Web Part).  However, you can also click the option to add a Web Part and you will be shown a list of options to choose from.  You may also choose to import additional Web Parts that others (or Microsoft perhaps) has created for you to use.

Differing Levels of Permissions in SharePoint

There are four main permission groups.  View, Read, Contribute and Full Control.

You can place individuals within SharePoint groups for easy permission assignments or you can assign more direct permission settings to persons or groups.

This clip will show you how different persons with different permission settings will interact with a SharePoint site in different ways.  Some will only be able to read content, others may be able to contribute to a degree, while others can make major modifications to the site.

Adding a Comment to a Blog

To add a comment you need to begin with having the proper permissions.  If you have the permission to add a comment, depending on how the blog is configured, you can either add a comment directly to the blog or add a comment and wait for the administrator of the blog to approve or deny your comment.

Approving or Rejecting Comments to a Blog

If you have your blog sites configured to require approval of a comment before it becomes visible to other readers this will require an added step for a blog site administrator.  The person with permission to approve comments will have the Admin Links section within the blog.  Under those links will be one called 'Manage comments' where an administrator can delete, approve or reject a comment, as this clip will demonstrate.

Creating a Post to a Blog

This clip shows you how to add new posts to a blog site.  Not all blog sites on your SharePoint server will give you the permissions to add.  In fact, typically you may only be able to contribute to one blog, perhaps your personal one (if you are given one) or a team blog site.  If you do have the permission to post however, you will know by seeing the Admin Links section within the blog.

Adding an Announcement

Making sure your company or team is kept up to date can be a tedious task.  However, by adding announcements to one centralized location, like the team or company site with an announcements web part, makes it much more efficient.  In this clip we will show you how to add an announcement as well as how to add an attachment to that announcement so that viewers of the SharePoint site can gain more then a brief overview of an event (such as the addition of new printer to the department, as is the case in this demonstration) but can gain access to documentation that may help them to expand their knowledge beyond the simple announcement.

Using Access 2007 Datasheet to Add Announcements Quickly

One of the benefits to Office 2007 is the way it integrates so well with SharePoint 2007.  The products are designed to work in harmony in many ways.  One way is through your ability to quickly modify list items, like announcements, through Access.  To do this though you must have Access 2007 installed on the system from which you are connecting to your SharePoint site.  Once this is the case you can add announcements quickly in the datasheet, as we will show you in this clip.

Calendar Views and Adding Events

Your company site, team site or personal site may have calendars connected to them that you can add events to so others can quickly see scheduled events.  Imagine a company meeting or company picnic that you want others to be able to quickly see and keep in mind.  The calendar feature in SharePoint make that an easy goal to acheive by allowing you to add events to an easy-to-access calendar list.

This clip will show you how to navigate the calendar in SharePoint and how to add events to a calendar.

Connecting Your SharePoint Calendar to Outlook 2007

You don't have to go to your SharePoint site to see the calendar and events.  You can connect a calendar, even if you have very basic permission settings on the SharePoint site, to your Outlook client so that you can see the latest events and keep up-to-date quickly.

Working with a Discussion Board

This clip shows you how to view a discussion board and contribute content to that board.

We also look into making edits to the discussion topics so long as you have the correct permissions.  Then we look into approval/rejection for discussion board posts.  Finally, we show you how to turn the approval of content setting off for boards and lists that you no longer want to approve content for.

Creating a New Discussion Topic

With the proper permissions multiple users can add discussion board comments to existing threads or can create entirely new threads.  However, in some cases, a person may only have the ability to read topics and comments.  In this clip we review how to create a new discussion thread if a person has the permission to do so.

Adjusting Permissions on a Discussion Board

Because certain Discussion Boards may be more open to the people of your company (for example, in this clip we are working on a Human Resources Discussion Board that is asking for assistance from the entire company) you may want to adjust the permissions of individual boards or sites to allow for more of a contribution from members that typically only have view or read permissions.  This clip will show you how to modify the permissions of your people to give them the ability to contribute within the Discussion Board without interfering with their existing permissions elsewhere throughout the SharePoint site.

Performing a Simple Search

In this clip we show you how to perform a very simple search from the top search bar.  However, we also show you that there are a bevy of interesting Search Web Parts to choose from that can make your SharePoint search better.

Setting Up RSS Feeds for Announcements

At times we may want to check items like Announcements without visiting the SharePoint site itself.  You can do that by configuring an RSS feed to that announcement list (or to any list you want to be updated on regularly).  From any list you can choose Actions, View RSS Feed and then subscribe to that feed.  We will show you how to do that in this clip.

Setting Up RSS Feeds for Blogs, Discussion Boards and Galleries

There are so many different ways to view and then configure your RSS feeds.  This clip will show you that in Blogs the RSS feed is located in a different spot (not under the Actions menu where you will find it for pretty much every other RSS feed) in the bottom left hand corner of the blog site.

Configuring RSS Feeds with Outlook 2007

RSS Feeds can be configured to work with Internet Explorer, however, using them with Outlook is also a possibility.  In this clip we will show you how to configure your Outlook 2007 client to watch a SharePoint RSS feed site.

Using Alert Me to Receive Updates

You can be alerted by emails when announcements or other items are posted to the SharePoint site.  This feature is similar to RSS feeds in that you are notified through an alternate method to visiting the SharePoint site, but it is actually a bit more direct in that messages come right to your Inbox.  You configure these from the Actions menu to a list, board or gallery and choose Alert Me.  In this clip we will show you the settings you can choose in configuring alerts.

What is a Wiki LIbrary?

Wikiwiki means quick in Hawaiian.  A wiki site is a way to build an information knowledge base quickly and dispense information within your company (or to the world, if the wiki site is on the Internet).  In this clip we will explain the purpose of a wiki site as well as show you how to navigate one to begin seeing the possibilities for how this might help your team/department or company.

Navigating a Wiki Library and History

This clip helps to show you what a user with view/read permissions can do on a wiki site.  They have the ability to navigate through the entire site and read content.  They also have the ability to view version history if that feature is enabled for the wiki site.  They cannot, however, contribute to the site.

Working with a Wiki Site: Editing and Adding Content

With the permission to contribute to a wiki site you can edit existing pages and contribute new pages as well.  The value of editing existing pages is you can create links off to new pages that have either been created already or will be created at some future point.  By using the brackets [[ ]] and enclosing text, SharePoint knows that you want to create a link that will eventually have a page connected with it.  In that case the link will show up with a dotted underline.  If you have the permission to create new pages and you click a dotted underline link, the new page dialog will appear for you to begin adding the content.

Working with a Content Editor Web Part

The Content Editor Web Part is a bit more complicated than others we have worked with up to this point in the series.  It requires modifying the Shared Web Part to allow you to access the Rich Text Editor tools.  From that point it gets easier because you simply have to modify the table in the same way you would using a simple document processing tool (like WordPad).

Working with a Photo Library

Photo Libraries are a great way to showcase products as well as promote team spirit within your company.  The company picnic photos... where do they go?  Well... on your company photo library site in SharePoint!

Managing a Photo Library is pretty simple within SharePoint as we will show you in this clip.  Uploading photos, managing descriptions, editing photos and viewing as a slideshow... these will all be examined in the clip.

Working with Tasks

Tasks are work assignments, to-do items you might say, that are assigned to a person and viewable to others on the team so that they can see where tasks are at in terms of completion or who is holding a specific task.

In this clip we will show you how to work with the Tasks list including creating a new task and editing that task as progress is made.

Working with Issue Tracking

Issues are a step beyond Tasks in that an issue may contain multiple 'tasks' as part of a single issue.  It's a basic form of Project Management that might be used to see if a particular issue is still active or resolved (or if individual issues/tasks are resolved as part of an issue).

In this clip we will show you how Issue lists work and how you can use them to track the progress of a particular project.

An Introduction to the Document Library

A Document Library is the modern way of handling files and folders, as opposed to working through a shared out folder environment.  Document Libraries allow you to utilize workflow tools in SharePoint and make locating documents much easier through search settings that are included.

In this clip we will show you how to view, edit and save a document from a Document Library.

Creating New and Uploading Documents

You can add documents that have already been created to the document library by uploading them.  You can also create new documents directly from your SharePoint Document Library using the templates that are configured to be used within the library.

Approving Documents

Approving documents, comments, and so forth all require the proper permissions.  If you have the permission to approve a document, workflow document, comment, board post and so forth you can see in this clip how easy it is to follow through with the approval (or rejection) process.

Working with Workflows

There are different types of workflows you can establish.  One of the simplest forms has the document moving from one person to another for collaboration until finally it receives an approval status (as opposed to an 'In Progress' status).  This clip will show you the basics of workflows but each team will have its own style in working together and may or may not decide to use SharePoint for collaboration.  If SharePoint is used, then you will need to learn how to work with the tools provided.

Getting Started with My Site

My Site is like a personal, Intranet My Space or Facebook site that users can configure for within the company.  It is automatically setup by users if they click the link in the top right hand corner of their SharePoint site, however, if you do not see this link then it is possible you are using a Windows SharePoint Services server (as opposed to a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) in which case My Site is not one of the features, or your administrator has turned off this feature on the MOSS server.

If you can have My Site personal pages, configuration of the site, your profile, your blog, Web Parts and so forth is all up to you.  So you can learn quite a bit about SharePoint by configuring your personal My Site site.

Modifying Your Personal View

There are different ways a site may be viewed.  If you have low permission settings you have to take what is shown to you.  If you have modification permissions on the site you can alter the personal view of the site.  If you have higher permissions you can alter the view for all persons viewing the page.

This clip will walk you through the abilities you may have depending on your permissions.