Ishai Sagi is a SharePoint expert who has been working with Microsoft SharePoint since its initial release in 2001. Since then, Ishai has trained numerous end users, administrators, and developers in using Microsoft SharePoint or developing solutions for the platform. He has spoken at Microsoft conferences around the world, including in Spain, Israel, and Australia. Ishai received the Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP) award for Microsoft SharePoint in 2007 and 2008 as recognition for his contribution to the Microsoft SharePoint community.

Ishai also is the author of a popular SharePoint blog for developers at http://www.sharepoint-tips.com and manages the Canberra SharePoint User Group website at http://www.sharepointusers.org.au/Canberra/default.aspx.

Currently, Ishai is a SharePoint developer and a solutions architect in Canberra, Australia where he spends his spare time taking pictures of the wildlife. This might help explain the numerous pictures of kangaroos that can be seen in this book.

Introduction

Overview of This Book

The aim of this book is to be your companion as you use Microsoft SharePoint 2007. It lists common tasks that you need to do when you use SharePoint as a working tool and shows how to accomplish these tasks in an easy step-by-step process.

This book is written for people who are unfamiliar with or are unsure how to approach tasks in Microsoft SharePoint 2007. It even covers advanced issues, such as managing sites and security, editing pages, and using some of the more complex functionality available in Microsoft SharePoint 2007. However, this book is not intended as an administration guide, a developer handbook, or a complete and comprehensive user guide. Instead, this book focuses on assisting you with the basics—covering the essentials and making sure you know where to go to do the most common day-to-day tasks that you will encounter as a Microsoft SharePoint 2007 end user.

How to Benefit from This Book

We’ve designed this book to be easy to read from cover to cover. It is divided into four parts designed to make looking up problems easy.

Part I, “Solutions for Readers,” has the most common and basic tasks that do not involve changing anything in SharePoint, but just viewing, browsing, and finding information. This part includes

• Chapter 1, “About Microsoft SharePoint 2007”
• Chapter 2, “Finding Your Way Around a SharePoint Site”
• Chapter 3, “Solutions Regarding Files, Documents, List Items, and Forms”
• Chapter 4, “Searching in SharePoint”
• Chapter 5, “Personal Sites and Personal Details (Available Only in MOSS)”

Part II, “Solutions for Authors and Content Managers,” teaches you how to perform tasks that involve adding content to SharePoint or changing the way it looks. This part includes

• Chapter 6, “Creating and Managing Files, List Items, and Forms in SharePoint”
• Chapter 7, “Creating Lists and Document Libraries”
• Chapter 8, “Creating List Views”
• Chapter 9, “Authoring Pages”
• Chapter 10, “Managing Security”
• Chapter 11, “Workflows”

Part III, “Solutions for Site Managers,” has advanced tasks involved in creating and customizing SharePoint sites. This part includes

• Chapter 12, “Creating Subsites”
• Chapter 13, “Customizing a SharePoint Site”
• Chapter 14, “Managing Site Security”

Finally, in Part IV, “Appendixes,” you find shortcuts and links that will help you find your way and achieve some tasks faster.

This book is written with the firm belief that to learn, you must do. You can use this book as a reference tool when you are tasked with a certain job that you need help finding out how to perform, or you can use it as a learning guide if you have an environment to perform the tasks outlined in this book one by one. Whatever your choice, it is our hope that this book will be a helpful companion.

How to Continue Expanding Your Knowledge

This book does not claim to cover all of what you can do with SharePoint. If you find yourself in need of more information check out the SharePoint built-in help interface. Almost every page in SharePoint has a Help icon that will open the SharePoint help screen, enabling you to search for the topic you want. Additionally, you can find SharePoint manuals and help articles from Microsoft on the Microsoft help site at http://tinyurl.com/mosshelp.

If you cannot find what you want in the Microsoft help pages, plenty more help is available on the Internet from the SharePoint community, which is big and helpful both in blogs and discussion forums. To find solutions to problems, it is recommended to search using your favorite search engine. Many blogs and websites have information on how to achieve tasks in SharePoint.

If you have a question that you cannot find an answer for, the Microsoft forums are the best place to go to get answers. These forums can be found at http://tinyurl.com/sharepointforum.

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