I am extremely happy you are reading this book. It tells me that you are planning to install SharePoint 2007 or at least... more

I am extremely happy you are reading this book. It tells me that you are planning to install SharePoint 2007 or at least are curious about it. Congratulations! This is a very good move! This is the third generation of SharePoint, and it is so much better than its predecessors. In fact, at the TechEd 2006 conference I heard a Microsoft representative talk about how they build a new software application: “First we do a lot of planning, analysis and of course guessing at what the customer wants in such a product; this results in version 1.0. Of course, we quickly realize that we missed a number of things, so we learn from that, rebuild the product, and then release version 2.0. This version will most likely also miss some important features, which our customers tell us in a very frank and honest way. So, we sit down again, add the missing features, plus a lot more, and fix weaknesses, and then we release version 3.0. And this time we usually get it right!”

If we apply that logic to the different SharePoint versions, we see that in 2001 Microsoft released version 1.0 of SharePoint Team Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2001. In 2003 Microsoft released version 2.0, which was known as Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Finally, in late 2006 they released version 3.0, which is known as Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. If you ask someone who has been working with all these versions, they will tell you that Microsoft’s story about software versions is indeed true; version 3.0 of SharePoint, also known as “SharePoint 2007,” is a fantastic application. It has almost everything you would want in such a program. I love it, and I am sure you will it too!

So what is SharePoint 2007, and what can it do for you? That is the subject for this book. You will learn step by step how to install, configure, and maintain a SharePoint environment, regardless of the size of your company. You will also learn how to take advantage of all the cool features it includes, such as extended integration with products like MS Word and MS Outlook. And, hopefully, you will find this book easy to understand, and sometimes even fun to read. The objective in this chapter is to show you why SharePoint is such an interesting product and to give you some ideas of what you can do after installing it.

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In this chapter, you learn how to prepare and install the Windows SharePoint Server 3.0 (WSS) system with both types of... more

In this chapter, you learn how to prepare and install the Windows SharePoint Server 3.0 (WSS) system with both types of available database configurations. You also learn how to prepare for the installation and understand the different types of system user accounts involved in this action. After the installation is done, you learn how to check that everything is okay. You also learn basic troubleshooting techniques.

Tip

WSS can run in either an NT 4 or Active Directory domain. It also runs in a workgroup environment (for example, a stand-alone server). The instructions in this chapter use an Active Directory domain.

This chapter is organized by initial sections describing what you are about to do and why, then a step-by-step description on how to do it, and finally some more information on the steps involved, including any tips and tricks based on real-world scenarios.

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In the previous chapter, you learned about the different installation scenarios available and how to set up WSS to work... more

In the previous chapter, you learned about the different installation scenarios available and how to set up WSS to work with either SQL Server 2005 Express or MS SQL Server. In this chapter, you learn more about configuring and managing installed WSS, including how to activate and configure the search feature. In order to successfully manage the WSS environment, you need to understand important concepts in the context of that environment, such as web sites, site collections, and the security model. The objective in this chapter is to give you the knowledge needed to set up the WSS environment so that it will match the needs of your users.

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In this chapter, you will learn how to install MS Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) with both types of available database... more

In this chapter, you will learn how to install MS Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) with both types of available database configurations. You will also learn how to prepare for the installation and to understand the different types of system user accounts involved in this activity. After the installation is completed, you will learn how to check that everything is okay and some basic troubleshooting tips.

This chapter is organized into initial sections that explains what you are about to do and why, followed by a step-by-step description showing how to do it, and finally some more information, including any tips and tricks based on real-world scenarios.

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In this chapter, you learn how to configure and manage the MS Office SharePoint Server 2007. You learn about configuring... more

In this chapter, you learn how to configure and manage the MS Office SharePoint Server 2007. You learn about configuring shared services, global searching, how to import user properties from the Active Directory, and how to target information for different groups of users. Even if you do not plan to implement MOSS at this time, this chapter may still interest you because it describes the features that are specific to MOSS, as opposed to the pure WSS environment. This will help you understand the differences, and when using WSS with MOSS is a better choice than using WSS alone.

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So far you have seen how to install both WSS and MOSS, and in last chapter you learned how to configure the portal site... more

So far you have seen how to install both WSS and MOSS, and in last chapter you learned how to configure the portal site in MOSS. But the fun does not stop there. There are lots of other interesting things you can do in your new SharePoint environment, and they all build on WSS sites.

This chapter will tell you a lot more about creating sites for both MOSS and WSS. Before you read this chapter, you should have a pretty good understanding of the basic administration. Be sure to read Chapters 3 and 5 before reading this chapter because this will make it much easier to understand the information presented here.

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SharePoint 2007 is a great tool in itself; you can use it straight out of the box to build sites for an intranet,... more

SharePoint 2007 is a great tool in itself; you can use it straight out of the box to build sites for an intranet, an extranet, public Internet sites, and team sites. It will help users find the information they need, quickly and easily. But the real magic comes when you integrate other products with SharePoint! There are lots of products that can use SharePoint’s document libraries directly for storing files and documents, but one product family really shines when it comes to SharePoint integration: MS Office, which most people associate with the typical desktop applications (MS Word, MS Excel, and so on). There are also a lot of other programs that have an excellent integration with SharePoint, especially MS Outlook, MS OneNote, and MS InfoPath. In fact, today it is hard to find any program from Microsoft that does not have some sort of integration with SharePoint 2007; it is safe to say that SharePoint is the central information database in a Microsoft-centric IT environment.

This chapter will tell you how this integration works, and what differentiates previous versions of MS Office from the current MS Office 2007 release. You will find a lot of examples and step-by-step instructions on how to use a number of applications together with SharePoint 2007. All of this information is valid for both WSS and MOSS, unless stated otherwise.

Tip

Entire books are devoted to each MS Office component, and more books are devoted to their integration. This chapter obviously can’t cover the breadth and depth of MS Office integration. Instead, the focus is on knowledge and techniques that can be useful with SharePoint administration. Specifically, we will focus on Outlook, InfoPath, and OneNote.

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So far, you have seen how to configure both WSS and MOSS specific settings. In this chapter, you will learn about more... more

So far, you have seen how to configure both WSS and MOSS specific settings. In this chapter, you will learn about more advanced administration, such as how to manage user profiles, import properties from the Active Directory, configure and manage global search and indexing, and more. This chapter is important if you want to master SharePoint’s more advanced features. It contains a lot of details, and a lot of step-by-step instructions on how to configure these settings. Note that some of these settings will apply to both pure WSS installations and MOSS farms, while others only apply to MOSS; be sure to read the title of each section carefully.

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SharePoint 2007 is full of interesting and powerful features, as you have seen in the previous chapters.... more

SharePoint 2007 is full of interesting and powerful features, as you have seen in the previous chapters. The administrator has full control over the SharePoint environment, while at the same time users have more power than ever to organize, share, and search for all types of content, such as news, documents and electronic forms. Still there is one very important feature that has only been covered partially in this book so far and that is how to manage the content itself. This chapter will discuss this matter in much greater detail and will help you understand how get the most out of SharePoint’s content management features.

This chapter will cover MOSS web content management functionality. This is a very important chapter, since the features discussed here are among those most demanded by the users — and we must never forget that the reason we deploy SharePoint 2007 in the first place is to build a solution that will empower our users. This chapter will also compare the content management functionality between SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007, which will help you find arguments you may need to gain approval to upgrade to the newest version of SharePoint.

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Every computer user manages files and documents every day. It is an important and often frustrating task to find the needed... more

Every computer user manages files and documents every day. It is an important and often frustrating task to find the needed file quickly and to be sure that it is the correct version. Every step you can take to make this task easier will be received with applause from your users. If you also can make it just a bit more fun, they will cheer. File and document management is this important! SharePoint can help you make this happen. And this chapter is all about how to help users find their files more quickly and easily.

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The previous chapters have covered all the details about how to install SharePoint, how to do important configuration... more

The previous chapters have covered all the details about how to install SharePoint, how to do important configuration settings, and how to create sites for your users. This chapter will focus on two specific types of web sites: a public Internet site, and an intranet portal site. Typically, the first type of site is used for exposing content to external users, such as partners, or even anonymous users on the Internet; the other type is used to publish information for internal users within an organization. Some of the information in this chapter has been discussed previously in other chapters, but here you will see how all that information is used for building these two specific types of sites. The purpose of this chapter is to give you a realistic example with a complete step-by-step description on how to set up and configure these types of sites.

This chapter also compares how to build these sites using WSS alone and using MOSS. This is both a technical issue and a financial matter: If you want to use MOSS for these types of sites, then you must purchase the appropriate type of SharePoint 2007 client access license (CAL). If you instead will use a WSS environment, there are no SharePoint CALs; instead, you must make sure to have the proper Windows Server 2003 client access license model.

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In this chapter, you learn how to configure and manage the MS Office SharePoint Server 2007. You may recall from previous... more

In this chapter, you learn how to configure and manage the MS Office SharePoint Server 2007. You may recall from previous chapters that MOSS is an optional add-on to the WSS platform. It will enable you to build more advanced sites, such as portals, intranets and Internet sites, along with the WSS team sites. MOSS will also make it easier for users to navigate between sites and sharing information within the whole organization. The objectives for a portal site are different than for the team sites, thus new functionality is needed: You could say that the portal site is the place where a few people create and manage information directed to many, whereas the team sites are the places where a group of people create and manage information that is directed to the other members of this group.

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SharePoint is built to allow an ordinary user with the proper permissions to easily change the layout of sites without... more

SharePoint is built to allow an ordinary user with the proper permissions to easily change the layout of sites without any extra tool besides the web browser. This feature is very important since it makes it possible for nondevelopers to quickly adjust a portal site or a team site to their own needs. No web designer or administrator is required for this task. The key to this functionality is the use of Web Parts and their Web Part zones in SharePoint web pages; just add any new Web Part needed to the preferred location on the page. In order to allow this, SharePoint has specially constructed Web Part pages, also known as Smart Pages, and every MOSS site and WSS site is built upon such Web Part pages.

However, sometimes it may be necessary to do more modifications than are possible using a web browser; this is where SharePoint Designer 2007 comes in. This program was especially designed with SharePoint 2007 in mind and has a lot of features for enhancing the look and feel of SharePoint sites. No other design tools for web sites have this functionality, so even if you today prefer other design tools, you will need to use SharePoint Designer when it comes to SharePoint.

When SharePoint 2003 was released, it requested FrontPage 2003 for this type of customization. SharePoint Designer 2007 is the next generation of FrontPage and now contains a lot more functionality that did not exist in FrontPage, such as Master Pages and page layout files. FrontPage simply does not understand how SharePoint 2007 works, so you should avoid customizing SharePoint 2007 with FrontPage 2003. If you are serious about getting the most out of SharePoint 2007, then you need to understand SharePoint Designer. This chapter will help you understand how to use this tool for customizing any type of MOSS 2007 or WSS 3.0 site.

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By now I am sure you agree that SharePoint 2007 is a great product and a fantastic tool for managing information for your... more

By now I am sure you agree that SharePoint 2007 is a great product and a fantastic tool for managing information for your organization, regardless of what type of tasks or activities you may have. When a SharePoint project goes from being a test installation into a production environment, it will suddenly contain important information that constantly grows every day. Sooner than you might expect, SharePoint will be a mission-critical application in your environment. How can you protect it? By making backups, of course! As the old SharePoint geek joke goes: “What do you call a SharePoint administrator who does not make backups?” The answer: “Unemployed!”

This chapter tells you how to keep your job as a SharePoint administrator. It starts by describing what information you need to protect and then lists all available options. You will learn how to perform backup and restore procedures. You will also read about other options, such as MS SQL backups and third-party backup tools.

Just remember this: If you do not regularly verify that your backup solution works (that it actually is possible to actually restore data), you can save a lot of time and effort by skipping the backup process completely; the result will be the same. During my 29 years in the computer business, I have seen a large number of backup solutions that do not work when you actually need them! A lot of IT administrators seem to think that it is enough to get some sort of backup solution, manage to get it running (at least one time), and then just relax and be happy. In my experience as a consultant hired by customers to help them deal with disasters, the number of restore failures is close to 50 percent, for many reasons, such as wrongly configured backup procedures, hardware problems, and media problems. Please make sure you don’t join this group. Restore the data and make sure that you can read it; you will be surprised how often it will fail the first time you try to restore it. By performing these fire drills regularly, you and your team will gain experience in how to perform a quick restore that actually works; this will help you all sleep better at night, and it will help you retain your jobs.

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