Chapter 25: Collaboration with Outlook and Windows SharePoint Services

Windows SharePoint Services (version 3) is a collaboration tool used to build Web sites for team members to share data such as contacts and documents. One of the biggest advantages of Windows SharePoint Services, other than the fact that it allows team members to share information and collaborate easily, is that it fully integrates with the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Windows SharePoint Services allows you to share documents created with Microsoft Office system applications and even lets you share contacts stored in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with other team members.

Understanding Windows SharePoint Services Collaboration

Windows SharePoint Services V3 is a workgroup-class, Web-based portal product that can be used for collaboration, including document management for a team or workgroup within an organization. Each team requiring this collaboration functionality will typically have its own SharePoint site that team members can use to share documents, have threaded discussions, share lists of important information, and more.

Windows SharePoint Services is a Web-based tool, but it also provides integration with Microsoft Office system applications. Windows SharePoint Services provides a number of collaboration features, including the following:

• Document sharing  Document sharing allows you to store documents on the SharePoint site, which can then be accessed by other team members. This is useful for sharing project-related documents, for example, or any other document that other team members might need access to. In addition to simple document storage, document sharing provides version control tools such as document check-in and checkout so that a document is not accidentally modified by more than one user at a time.

• Picture libraries  Picture libraries are similar to document libraries in that they store pictures that can be shared among team members. This is basically a Webbased photo album.

• Lists  Lists are formatted lists of information. The list format can vary based on the type of information being stored. A number of lists are predefined, such as Announcements, which are displayed on the main SharePoint Home page; Calendar, which can contain events relating to your team or project; Links, which stores Web links to pages that your team will find useful or interesting; and Tasks, which helps your team members keep track of work.

• Discussion boards  Discussion boards allow team members to have threaded discussions on specific subjects. Discussion boards are useful to replace e-mail exchanges when more than two people are involved, as those involved can place comments and replies directly in the appropriate thread rather than exchanging a large number of e-mail messages.

• Surveys  Surveys are simply a method of polling other team members for information.

As stated earlier, one of the key features of Windows SharePoint Services is its ability to integrate with Microsoft Office system applications. The features in Windows SharePoint Services that integrate with the Microsoft Office system include document sharing, which can be done from almost any Microsoft Office system application; lists, which can be synchronized with Microsoft Office Excel 2007 or Microsoft Office Access 2007 files; and Calendar lists, contacts, and alerts, which can be linked into Office Outlook 2007. In addition, Microsoft SharePoint Designer can be used to edit and customize Windows SharePoint Services pages. This chapter focuses mainly on the integration of SharePoint and Outlook 2007. SharePoint and Outlook 2007 have the tightest integration, as they are both collaboration tools, although each has a different focus.