Recently in Sharepoint Category

Join me as we examine the nuts and bolts of SharePoint lists, and the many ways you can use them to manage and publish your content.  Click here for more information.

Thursday, February 11, 2010, from Noon to 1:00 PM Central Time

SharePoint lists allow you to quickly and easily integrate library content into your Intranet portal, making it possible to search, sort and filter without the need for programming or third party software.  You can create and manage research portals, virtual libraries, bibliographies, collections of external and internal links, or even use lists to generate update-able navigation within your site. You can transfer Excel or Access data to a SharePoint list in minutes. 
We'll look at examples, examine the uses, benefits and drawbacks of using SharePoint lists, then walk through the basics of creating lists, adding data, and presenting the information on SharePoint sites.

Learning Points: 
•    Understand the possible benefits and drawbacks to using SharePoint lists
•    Learn how to create a list, import data to a SharePoint list and incorporate lists into your SharePoint pages
 
Register for this Event
FEE: $30.00 USD per participant
$60.00 USD for 2 or more participants from the same organization

Here's another difference between MOSS and WSS.  MOSS does much nicer usage reporting.  But either way, to answer another question that was posed at the webinar, there is site usage reporting available in SharePoint for your sites, blogs and/or wikis.  That means you can check to see who visits your blogs and wikis, and how often.

It's important to regularly check the site statistics for the sources that you diligently maintain.  If you've promoted your content well, organized it in a meaningful way, and update it regularly, you'll want to know if all your effort is paying off. 

The WSS site statistics are quite basic.  Here's an example, from my SharePoint site, which runs on WSS:

Here's one, complete with graphs, from MOSS SharePoint.  Much prettier. 

One of the questions that came up during the Thinking Outside of the Blog webinar was "What is the difference between SharePoint WSS and MOSS?"  That was one of the first questions I asked when I started working with SharePoint, and while I looked it up at the time, I couldn't articulate the difference well enough to provide an intelligence response.  I'm appending some links below that answer this question, but I'll also summarize the major points that seem most significant:

• If you have SharePoint, by definition you have WSS.  WSS is free to most companies.
• MOSS builds upon the features in WSS, offering additional features of particular interest to enterprise users.
• Both include wiki and blog sites.  There doesn't seem to be a significant different between WSS and MOSS in this area.
• MOSS includes RSS feeds, user profiles, audience targeting, social networking web parts, and web parts that can integrate content from applications outside of SharePoint.

For more information see:

• Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Includes a list of features in MOSS that are not included in WSS.
• Compare WSS v. MOSS
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) from Wikipedia

I hope this helps.

This isn't just a goal, it's an online program that seems to fit the bill for an inexpensive Sharepoint session specifically for those of us who don't have rights to touch the server and/or Sharepoint Designer.  I must say, I'm intrigued.  I've subscribed to the RSS feed to keep on eye on the associated blog, End User SharePoint.  If anyone is familiar with the types of online programs presented by this company, please let us know.

Suddenly it seems that everyone is getting Sharepoint.  I've been working with it for a couple of months now and have found it to be very powerful but sometimes very frustrating.  Some of my frustrations might be mitigated if I was thoroughly trained rather than learning as I go.

So I've been watching for possible training opportunities and there are many to choose from. Just type "SharePoint training" into Google, and you'll find literally hundreds of companies that would love to provide you with training. But let's get real....in this economy thousands of dollars for a class and/or webinar just isn't going to happen.  Though I have to admit, this one just about had me salivating. 

The topic of SharePoint training came up recently on SLA's KM mailing list; the answers are listed on their KM Wiki. (Membership required.)  Nina Platt recommended Sharepoint Solutions, but there's that pesky money issue.  She also pointed out a webinar done by Factiva called "Taxonomy & Sharepoint: A Powerful Combination."  Anything on the subject of SharePoint and taxonomies is going on my to-do list!

Microsoft offers some online training as well as webcasts and podcasts, and the price is right. (free)

I don't have to remind you that there are always tons books out there related to any major software program.  Quite naturally, I'm a big fan of books, and I've been poring over a borrowed copy (thanks, Lisa!) of Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft) and it's not bad.  But there's a Murphy's Law of software-related handbooks.  They tend to include a lot of good information, but never have the answer to YOUR particular question. Google often does a better job on the question answering front. 

The other problem with books for these kinds of topics is that many of them concentrate more on technical aspects such as server configuration, something many of us have nothing to do with, so it's important to find one that's geared towards your particular use of the product.

Below is a quick poll on SharePoint Training.  If you've found a good book, website or seminar, please share by clicking on the "comments" link above.