Using the Practice Files

When you install the practice files from the companion CD that accompanies this book, the files are stored on your hard disk in chapter-specific subfolders under Documents\Microsoft Press\SBS_WSSv3. Each exercise in a chapter includes a paragraph that lists the files needed for that exercise and explains any preparations needed before you start working through the exercise.

Whenever possible, we start each chapter with a standard Windows SharePoint Services team site which occasionally must be a top-level team site. If you follow all the exercises in all the chapters in sequence, you do not have to start with a new team site for every chapter. You can just use the same site throughout the whole book.

However, if you choose to do exercises independently and not in sequence, there are a couple of exercises that depend on other exercises performed earlier in the book. If this is the case, we will tell you where the prerequisite exercise is located in the book, so that you can complete the prerequisite exercises. However, you may not want to do the prerequisite exercise and this is where the starter STP files will come in handy.

If you have sufficient rights, you can create a new child site (see Using the STP Site Templates) from the chapter’s starter file provided on the CD ROM and installed in the practice folder for this chapter. The resulting child site will have the prerequisite exercises already completed for you. This option is for advanced users who might not want to do a prerequisite exercise from another chapter.

Exercises in some chapters use a subsite in addition to the standard team site. If this is the case, the practice folder for the chapter contains an STP file for the subsite.

All chapters, with exception of Chapter 1 and Chapter 16, have solution STP files. The solution STP files use the same titles as their corresponding chapters. Use a solution STP file for a chapter to create a new child site to see the results of exercises in this chapter.