Chapter9.Using Word 2003, Excel 2003, and Outlook 2003 with SharePoint Technologies

Chapter 9. Using Word 2003, Excel 2003, and Outlook 2003 with SharePoint Technologies

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Reviewing the Components of the New Microsoft Office 2003 System

• Using Office 2000 and XP with SharePoint

• Reviewing the Integration Between Word 2003 and SharePoint 2003

• Exploring Excel 2003's Integration with SharePoint

• Understanding Outlook 2003 Integration with SharePoint

In a typical organization that uses Microsoft Office products, most employees are experienced with Word, Excel, and Outlook, and use them to conduct their daily business. This chapter covers these three fundamental products with the intention of serving as a primer for users and administrators that provides an overview of the primary tools available when Word 2003, Excel 2003, and Outlook 2003 are used with SharePoint 2003 products. These three products tend to be the most used applications, and an administrator or user's understanding of how to use these products in a SharePoint environment affects the value that the other users on the network and members of the site receive.

Chapter 10, "Using Other Office 2003 Products with SharePoint Technologies" will cover, at a high level, the remaining products in the family, including Access, InfoPath, OneNote, PowerPoint, Project, and Visio to meet other business needs. These applications are typically used for more specialized projects such as creating business presentations, assisting with project management or project design, and creating work flow diagrams, or for specialized databases.

While SharePoint 2003 technologies provide a powerful set of tools without the Office products, they were designed to work with the Office 2003 family of products, and extend the capabilities of the Office 2003 products. In a nutshell, the SharePoint 2003 products make it easier for Office 2003 users to effectively share the information they are creating, regardless of the file type or format, and to facilitate collaborative efforts involving these documents.