7/7/2010We have a small office of 3 full and 1 part time employee and we want to put SharePoint on a server and spend the least amount of money as possible. What would be the minimum requirements? Memory? Disk Space for SP & SQL? etc.. 11/11/2008
How to setup a website for Anonymous Access
- From the Home page go to Site Actions and click on Site Settings
- From the Site Settings page go to User Permissions and click on Advanced Permissions
- From the Permissions page go to Settings and click on Anonymous Access
- From the Anonymous Access page select Entire Web Site click OK.
9/30/2008
Track important changes with alerts and RSS
Alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) are two services for staying updated with new information and content changes. Both alerts and RSS reduce the need for team members to search for new information.
Alerts and RSS can keep users updated on changes to a site, but how users receive the information differs for each service. Alerts send the information as e-mail messages, if the server is configured to send outgoing e-mail. RSS technology enables people to receive updates, known as RSS Feeds, that are collected with the feeds from other sites that they subscribe to, such as news and blog sites. There are several programs that read or collect RSS Feeds, including Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Windows Internet Explorer 7.
For example, the Adventure Works Marketing team uses both alerts and RSS Feeds. The group uses alerts to track announcements that are of interest to the group. They use RSS Feeds to accumulate new information that members can retrieve by using Web browsers.
Using alerts
In Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can sign up for alerts for the information that you to want to receive in your mailbox. If you have permission to manage the list or library, you can also set up alerts for other people on your team.
You can use alerts to track announcements, tasks, calendars, and other list items for your team members or yourself. For example, if you are a project manager and have permission to manage lists, you can send alerts to people who may be affected by changes to your project.
For example, the Adventure Works Marketing team uses an Announcements list in its workspace. The manager configures an alert to send e-mail to each team member when any of the following events occurs:
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A change is made to an existing announcement. |
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A new announcement is added. |
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An announcement is deleted. |
If you want to stay informed by using alerts but don't want to receive an alert for every change, you can customize which changes you want to be notified about, or you can receive alerts in a daily or weekly summary.
Using RSS Feeds
RSS technology enables readers to consolidate updates from different sites in one location, such as a browser page or an e-mail folder.
When people visit a list or document library, they can click a button to open a page where they can subscribe to the RSS Feed. The RSS Feed contains the title and some other properties of the recently updated document or list item. From the RSS Feed, people can click the title of the item to view the latest information.
If multiple readers are available, people can choose which reader will receive the RSS Feeds.
For example, the Adventure Works Marketing team uses RSS readers to learn when updates have been made to calendars and document libraries.
The behavior of RSS Feeds may differ, depending on your situation. Site administrators and owners can customize the RSS settings and frequency for site collections and sites.
Customize pages on a site by adding Web Parts
If you have permission to edit pages on your site, you can use Web Parts to customize your site to display pictures and charts, portions of other Web pages, lists of documents, customized views of business data, and more. Depending on the Web Part, users also might be able to work with or modify the data in the Web Part through the browser.
What are Web Parts and Web Part Pages?
A Web Part is a modular unit of information that forms the basic building block of most pages on a site. A Web Part Page is simply a Web page that is composed of Web Parts. For example, the home page of the site for the Adventure Works Marketing team is a Web Part Page that contains Web Parts called Announcements, Calendar, and Links. You can also create a blank Web Part Page and choose the layout of the Web Part zones, which are the areas of the page that contain Web Parts.
The following schematic drawing shows Web Parts on a Web Part Page.
Web Part zone containing a single Web Part
Web Part zone containing two Web Parts
Ways you can use Web Parts
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes many Web Parts that are ready to use on your site. The Web Parts that actually appear depend on which site template was used to create your site, and which lists, libraries, and Web Parts are available on your site.
When you create a list or library, a Web Part of the same name is created automatically. For example, if you create a library named Contracts, a Web Part named Contracts is also created. The Web Part displays a view of the data from the library that you created. You can change the view that the Web Part displays without changing the library itself. By default, your team site has Web Parts for the following lists and libraries: Announcements, Calendar, Links, Shared Documents, Tasks, and Team Discussion.
If you have permission to edit pages on your site, you can add Web Parts to a page or edit the current Web Parts on a page by clicking the Site Actions menu and then clicking Edit Page, which places the page in Edit Mode.
This picture shows a Web Part Page in Edit Mode.
In Edit Mode, you can edit Web Parts by clicking the Web Part menu . You can move Web Parts among the zones on the page by dragging the Web Parts to different zones. To add Web Parts, click the Add a Web Part bar at the top of a Web Part zone and then select the Web Parts that you want from the Add Web Parts dialog box.
A common use for Web Parts is to display summarized views of lists and libraries that appear elsewhere on your site. For example, you can insert the Tasks list on any page where you want to be able to view the contents of the Tasks list. You can insert this same Web Part on multiple pages. You can even insert it on the same page multiple times. Each time the data in the Tasks list changes, the changes are reflected in every instance of the Web Part on all pages. If you want to be able to view the contents of another list side by side with the contents of the Tasks list, you can insert Web Parts for both lists on a single page to consolidate the information in one location.
Understand groups and permissions on a site
The permissions you have on a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site determine whether you can access the site and what you can do with the content on it. You can have different permissions for different sites and subsites. You can even have different permissions for different content on the same site.
The content and the menu options that you see on a site vary according to the permissions that are assigned to you. A site owner usually grants you permissions to a site by adding you to a SharePoint group, such as Visitors. The group has a permission level that you receive by being a member of the group.
What permission level do I have on a site?
You can have the following experiences when you access a SharePoint site according to your permission level.
The following assumes the default SharePoint groups and permission levels for a site. Your experience may vary according to how the site owner assigned permissions on your site.
You have the Read permission level
If you can view the site but not make changes to the site or to the content on it, you belong to the Visitors group, which has the Read permission level. For example, if you can view a site but cannot edit a document on the site, you have the Read permission level.
You have the Contribute permission level
If you can view the site and change the content on the site, but not make changes to the site, you belong to Members group which has the Contribute permission level.
You have the Full Control permission level
If you can change the content and the settings on the site you belong to the Owners group which has the Full Control permission level. One of the common tasks that a site owner performs is managing permissions.
You do not have permission to access the site
If you receive the Error: Access Denied message when you attempt to access a site, you do not have the permissions necessary to view the site. Click Request access to ask the site owner to grant you the necessary permissions.
The ability to request access is an optional feature of a SharePoint site. If the feature is enabled, you can request access to a site.
Managing permissions on a site
As a member of the Owners group you determine the level of access to your site. You can grant users access to the whole site, or to specific information on the site, such as a list or even a single file. Assigning permission levels to a specific item can help you to protect sensitive content, such as a contract or budget information, without restricting access to the rest of the site.
SharePoint groups and permission levels help you to efficiently manage access to sites. You add users to SharePoint groups and assign permission levels to your site and to its contents. By default, permissions on lists, libraries, folders within lists and libraries, items, and documents are inherited from their parent site. However, you can assign unique permissions to items at a lower level, such as subsites, libraries, or even files.
SharePoint groups
Each site comes with a default set of SharePoint groups, such as Owners. The name of the SharePoint group matches the name of the site. For example, if the name of the site is Marketing, a group will be called Marketing Owners. You can add people to these groups, so that you can later grant access to the group instead of having to grant access to each individual user. You can also create SharePoint groups to provide custom levels of access. You might want to provide more liberal or restrictive access to a specific group than you would to the default members of your site. For example, if you have a group of marketing managers that often gives confidential presentations, you might want to create a Marketing Managers group that can share information that is restricted from all other users of the site.
Permission levels
Each permission level has a set of permissions associated with it, based on the intended roles and tasks for that level. For example, the Members group has the Contribute permission level by default. As a site owner, you choose which permissions are associated with each permission level (except for Limited Access and Full Control, which cannot be customized) or add new permission levels to combine different sets of permissions. Some sites have additional groups and permission levels that are tailored to the purpose of the site, such as publishing or records management sites.
Introduction to collaboration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Most people spend the greater part of their work day involved in collaborative tasks. They share information, they work together in teams, and they manage projects. It can be a challenge to collaborate effectively if you do not have tools to easily communicate, share information, and coordinate projects details and deadlines among a large group of people.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help you get your work done more efficiently because it provides organizations with a platform for sharing information and working together in teams. A SharePoint site offers specific kinds of tools and workspaces that you can use to communicate with team members, track projects, coordinate deadlines, and collaboratively create and edit documents.
Improve team productivity
Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes many different kinds of site templates that you can use to create a site. For example, the Marketing Department at Adventure Works uses a site created from the Team Site template to manage a range of team projects and document-related tasks. The members of the Marketing Department use their team site every day to create and manage documents, track issues and tasks, and share links and contacts. Because they have one location for these activities, members of the Marketing Department can save time and enjoy increased productivity.
The site template for a team site includes:
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Shared Documents library |
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Announcements list |
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Calendar |
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Team Discussion list |
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Tasks list |
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Links list |
If you want to get your team up and running quickly, you can easily create a site by using the site template for a team site. This all-purpose template can meet a diverse range of needs. It can store long-term routine information for a single department or short-term information for a special project that spans several departments. By creating a team site to use as a collaborative workspace, your team can become both more efficient and more productive and ultimately achieve better business results. You can also customize your site to meet the needs of your team or project by adding lists, libraries, or other features.
Manage projects more efficiently
An Office SharePoint Server 2007 site includes several features that you can use to manage projects and coordinate tasks and deadlines among people. The Marketing team site at Adventure Works has a calendar that team members use to track important meetings, industry events, and trade shows. Marketing team members link the calendar to their personal calendars in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 so that they can view this information along with their personal calendar information. The Marketing Department also uses a Project Tasks list to visualize and track the key phases of marketing projects.
There are several different ways you can use a team site to manage projects more efficiently:
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Use built-in features such as the Project Tasks list template, which enables you to visualize task relationships and project status with automated Gantt charts. |
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Coordinate the team's work with shared calendars, alerts, and notifications. You can connect a calendar on your SharePoint site to your calendar in Office Outlook 2007, where you can view and update it just as you do your personal calendar. |
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Create Meeting Workspace sites to gather materials and documents related to a meeting. |
Create, review, and share documents
An Office SharePoint Server 2007 site also helps groups of people to create and edit documents collaboratively. For example, the Marketing Department at Adventure Works uses two different kinds of libraries to manage the content that the team creates:
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Team members save general marketing and budget documents to a Shared Documents library, where other team members can easily read them or check them out and edit them. |
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The team uses Slide Libraries to save and reuse slides for various presentations. |
For special projects that involve only a few people, team members sometimes create Document Workspace subsites on their team site. Document Workspace sites help you to coordinate work on a single document or a group of documents.
There are several different ways to save and work on documents and other files on a team site:
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Use document libraries to store and manage important documents. Features such as versioning help you keep track of revisions to a document. Or you can require check-out for documents in a library to prevent multiple people from making changes at the same time. |
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Create Document Workspace sites to coordinate the development of specific documents. |
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Use Slide Libraries to share and reuse Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 slides in a central location. |
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Take document libraries offline in Office Outlook 2007 to enable people to view and edit documents while they are not connected to the network. |
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Use workflows to manage collaborative tasks such as document review or approval. To learn more about workflow, see the Enterprise Content Management section of this training course. |
Capture and share community knowledge
An Office SharePoint Server 2007 site provides organizations with a central location to capture best practices, share information, and promote standardized business processes. The Marketing Department at Adventure Works uses both a wiki site and a blog site to capture and communicate information of interest to the team. Marketing team members use a wiki to compile general information about company and team processes that will be helpful to new team members. Any member of the team can add information to the wiki or update the wiki posts.
Several members of the team also routinely post industry-related or marketing-related information to a blog site, where other team members can read the posts and comment on them. The marketing blog provides team members with a forum to share new ideas, opinions, or inspiration.
Here are some ways you can use a team site to capture and share collective team knowledge or important information:
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Track updates and information with alerts or Really Simple Syndication (RSS). |
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Use blogs to share or promote information. |
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Capture community knowledge or document internal processes by using a wiki. |
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Use surveys or discussions to gather information or encourage dialogue. | |
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