Introducing Windows SharePoint Services | Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003

In Chapter 16, Making a Site Database-Driven, you learned about Windows SharePoint Services, and how it can make a Web site database-driven. But what is SharePoint, and how can it help you create and administer sites faster and smarter ? SharePoint is a collaborative environment that is especially designed to work with Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and the Microsoft Office System. It provides a group of individuals with a place on the Web where they can view documents, post information, and track ongoing jobs ”all through a Web browser. Whenever you need to get people together for a discussion, to take a vote, or to share comments on documents, consider using SharePoint to give them a place to work together from their individual locations, without having to arrange meeting times and travel routes.

Getting Acquainted With SharePoint Standard Features

A SharePoint site enables you and your co-workers to use lists and other shared documents to complete projects collaboratively. You set up a meeting workspace, invite your co-workers to your site, and work on the document or project together at the same time. You might be discussing the project on the phone, while editing it in the online workspace through your Web browsers. SharePoint also provides document checkout and versioning, which helps co-workers track when a document has been changed.

A Web page on a SharePoint site has standard features, such as those illustrated in Figure 18-1.

Figure 18-1: Pages on a SharePoint site present team members with navigation elements that make shared documents easy to find.

When you open a SharePoint site in FrontPage, you can customize the standard navigational elements: add custom pages, or change the order of the items contained in the Quick Launch bar, or Top Link bar. If you want to make the pages match the look of your corporate Web site, add a corporate logo or a theme that includes your company colors.

Understandng What You Need to Do to Install SharePoint

FrontPage enables you to create SharePoint Web sites on a Web server that operates Windows Server 2003. Windows SharePoint Services, in fact, is being advertised as a part of Windows Server 2003. What if you don t have Windows 2003 Server installed yet?

You can gain access to SharePoint by installing the predecessor to Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint Team Services (STS). You can find STS on the Office XP CD, for instance. (However, keep in mind that SharePoint Team Services is only included with the Developer edition of Office XP.) One advantage of using STS is that it will run on Windows 2000 servers. Another is that you can use Internet Information Services server version 5.0 (which you may have already) rather than the newer version 6.0. In contrast, Windows SharePoint Services only runs on a server that supports the .NET framework, such as Windows Server 2003. To find out more about how to buy Office XP, consult http://www.microsoft.com/office/howtobuy/purchasing.asp .

Understanding How SharePoint Streamlines Production

Each project or document that you want to share with your co-workers can have its own Web site on a Windows SharePoint site. Once you set up the site in FrontPage, you and your co-workers can contribute, using only your Web browsers, or with Office System applications, such as Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003.

When you work with a Web site hosted by an ISP, or that supports the FrontPage Server Extensions, you create or edit pages, then publish them on the remote site. When you create a Windows SharePoint Services site, it is immediately live on the server. You then create and edit pages directly on the server. Those changes become visible immediately ”you don t have to publish them, or transfer them from your computer.

Note	One of the advantages of working with SharePoint is the ability to administer the site remotely from any location. You can connect to the site from any computer, as long as you use an account that has administrator rights on the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services.