Section 2.1. Before You Begin

2.1. Before You Begin It's easy to create new web sites using SharePointin fact, perhaps it's too easy. Before you begin, it's important to understand how SharePoint structures sites and how those structures affect what you can do later. The simplest site structure is a single top-level site located on a single server. In that scenario, members of the site have one set of permissions, and those permissions determine which lists and libraries they can see, as well as what actions they can take on those lists and libraries. Lists and libraries in this simple site are stored in subfolders (for example, http://www.mysite.com/Lists/Announcements), but those subfolders exist within the site's boundaries. The concept of site boundaries is important for the following reasons: Member permissions may or may not be inherited across site boundaries. Lists and libraries cannot be easily shared across site boundaries. Searches do not cross site boundaries (unless you purchase SharePoint Portal Server, which provides cross-site searching). Notice that I haven't mentioned workspaces. That's because workspaces are a type of site and so establish new boundaries. Let's extend the simple scenario above: you open a document in Word and choose Tools Shared Workspace to share the document on http://www.mysite.com. SharePoint creates a new document workspace site and copies that document up to the workspace. The new workspace site is named after the document (http://www.mysite.com/ProjectPlan, for example) and has only one member: you. That's because new workspaces use unique permissions, and by default you have to add members manually. To change the default permissions so that all members from the parent site automatically have access: Open the workspace in the browser. Choose Site Settings Go to Site Administration Manage Permission Inheritance, select Use the same permissions as the parent site, and click OK.