Customer Reviews

Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Designer 2007 Step by Step

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this book because it was the only one on this topic available at the time. I am a beginner when it comes to SharePoint, but I am also an experienced web designer. This book is written at my level exactly, and I found it easy to learn from. However, there are some errors in it. For example in several places it says that CSS styles should be contained in a <script> tag, when it should have been a <style> tag. There are little problems like this throughout the book.

Because I am experienced with web development already, it was easy for me to see and account for the mistakes in the book.

There are grammar problems, and even I caught some misspelled words. Additionally, the practice and example files that come with the book are not very helpful.

This book was the first one available, and perhaps in a rush to have it published, it was not carefully edited. If there are other books available now, I would recommend looking into them instead of this one.

This is not a bad read for novice instruction. This book does not get into as much detail as our group would have liked seeing in the first book release for this product, but it still provided some good examples and a platform to build upon.
I would definitely suggest it for new site owners that need to be able to make custom changes and do not have much of experience with this kind of product. Experienced web designers will not get much of a benefit from this book.

Like many tech book series, Microsoft's "Step by Step series has had its hits - and not infrequent misses. On the whole, I have found the Step By Step books to run toward the superficial, which sometimes is acceptable and sometimes not. "Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Step by Step", however, is one of the best I've seen in this series to date.

Microsoft SharePoint is a complex platform. Newcomers get confused between the various incarnations of SharePoint. Further complicating matters are the interplay between SharePoint Designer and Microsoft's Visual Studio. Bottom line is the SharePoint universe is complex. Author Penny Coventry deals here with Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and what it does. She warns at the outset that the reader must have access to a server running Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Server 2007. I have seen reviews of this book criticizing the lack of a sample site on the accompanying CD. The author is clear that she does not provide the commercial software for this: if you want it, you have to buy it or otherwise have access to a running site.

Another issue is that this book is intended for the novice user of SharePoint Designer 2007, a product that has its roots in Microsoft's now discontinued Front Page 2003 product, which was intended exclusively for website design. SharePoint Designer is, in the final analysis, a programming tool with web design capabilities. Thus, the user with a programming background, especially in Visual Studio, who is looking for an introduction to SharePoint web design will be much more at home with the content of this book than will a web designer with no programming experience who is trying to learn about SharePoint itself.

If you have no experience in with SharePoint, programming SharePoint or web design, this is not the book for you.

Author Coventry, much to her credit, explicitly points out that SharePoint Designer actually has little usefulness for the average SharePoint worker. It is intended for the jobs that can't be accomplished using only a browser, but don't require the full power of Visual Studio. Ms. Coventry also maintains an excellent website in support of the book in particular and SharePoint in general. The URL is listed in the book.

With all those caveats and conditions out of the way, it's time to discuss the book itself.

"Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Step by Step" is unusually well done. Its flow is well designed, beginning with a detailed history of SharePoint Designer, some information on SharePoint and how it interacts with Designer. And then it is on to doing things using SharePoint Designer 2007. Once again the potential reader is warned: if you don't have access to a server running SharePoint, this book will be of little use to you.

Coventry does a good job of explaining how SharePoint Designer works. Much of what she says will be familiar to a large degree to someone with experience with web design tools like FrontPage or DreamWeaver, but the information about SharePoint will be new.

Overall, a solid introduction to SharePoint Designer, but make sure you already have some understanding of SharePoint and access to a SharePoint server before you pick this one up.

Jerry

Fantastic instructional materials on how to use SharePoint Designer 2007 effectively! I made the mistake early on of buying SharePoint books that focused on infrastructure-related topics on SharePoint. This book provides practical and powerful insights on how to exploit the user-facing capabilities of SharePoint. I was cautious about purchasing a Step-by-Step series book due to my past experiences reading books in the series that had what I believed to be superficial content. This instance broke that mold in style. It was evident that the author not only has book knowledge of the subject, she also has practitioner knowledge. It seemed like she anticipated every question that I had as I read through the book. Excellent work!

There are different levels of publications. Many publishers print beginner-, intermediate-, and advanced-level books. The Step-by-Step series is for beginners and should be rated accordingly.

An ignorant intermediate-level reader picks up a Step-by-Step publication and rates it four stars because it was good, but beginner. Then an ignorant advanced-level reader picks up the same Step-by-Step book and rates it three stars because it was good, but too beginner. Pick on your own size and rate according to the target audience. What the hell?

OK, now a word about the content - this is a good introductory book, but requires a focused learner who has access to SharePoint Designer software and a SharePoint site. Good book, but this is not a baby topic and so a hands-on reader would gain more from it than a passive reader.

I'm a novice to SharePoint Designer so I wanted to find a book that would walk me "step by step" through the process. The content was good but what was frustrating was that the author kept referring to a fictitious company, "Consolidated Messenger..." but the files or links were not available. If a book references files that will enable you to work through scenarios, with accompanying images in the book, the reader should be able to access them.

Great book for the advanced information worker that needs to do work on Sharepoint.

Supporting Sharepoint in our organization as well as being president of a local Sharepoint user group, I do see one common problem - people using Sharepoint Designer that have no understanding of the underlying technology. So let me reiterate: Sharepoint Designer is for the ADVANCED Sharepoint user.

The reader of this book should have a basic understanding of programming concepts and working with web pages, as it's VERY easy to render a Sharepoint page unusable with relatively "simple" changes. (Don't forget to make a backup first!) Chapter one does a very good job of getting the user started and should be required reading for anyone using SHarepoint Designer.

The biggest plus on the Microsoft Step-by-Step books is that the reader is given the opportunity to learn exactly what they need, when they need it. This book is well written and Penelope Coventry does a thorough job (in my opinion). The CD that comes with the book is a HUGE plus as well, with full examples and test files the user can learn on before making changes to Sharepoint sites.

I also recommend the reader look at Office 2007 books, as the integration between Sharepoint and Office is powerful and can really extend the reach of your Office apps. (I like "So That's How! 2007 Microsoft Office System: Timesavers, Breakthroughs, & Everyday Genius", by Evan Archilla & Tiffany Songvilay)

There isn't much information out there in print about SharePoint Designer. I got my copy last week and tore through a few of the lesser covered topics in the community (DFWP, contributor settings, reports)... I was very impressed. This is a fantastic resource for those working with SPD!

Although I have reasonable skills with programming and web design, there was a lot about SPD and how it works with MOSS that were not obvious to me. I was skeptical about buying a "beginner's" book, but it turned out to be a good choice because it got me going with SPD - it unlocked enough of the secrets so now I can figure out the rest on my own.

If you are in the same situation as I was, i.e. having just gotten SPD and needing to figure out quickly how to make it do all of its tricks, this book will be right for you.

We are just finishing up our first SP project and this book was INVALUABLE resource. If you are doing SP work you should get this book!

Sharepoint Designer is not only for SP projects, it is also a great xhtml & javascript editor, with nice intellisense! It is making my life much easier.

I know of no other resource that has so much on SPD and I doubt there is anything in print that has more on it.

When you are buying SPD, buy this book as well - you will thank me later!