Customer Reviews

Microsoft® SharePoint® Products and Technologies Resource Kit (Pro-Resource Kit)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been using the Microsoft Resource Kits on many products over the past 10 years and the SharePoint 2003 kits is one of the most comprehensive produced to date for a Microsoft application. The book is designed as a resource Kit to pull together all relevant information in one location.

Our company placed an order on Amazon.ca as soon the SharePoint Resource Kit was listed as the early SharePoint 2003 printed documentation was sparse and the book was a welcome addition. We found it better to have a paper book with all the information in one location rather than just links to websites, whitepapers, and webcasts to rely upon alone. We now have 3 copies for our project teams to used for their SharePoint work as well as the Internet resources.

I found the structure of the book confusing at first as we used it to help learn the product but now it is a great daily resource. The Adobe PDF manual and several tools are included on the CD-ROM and are great for finding support materials in a jiffy.

Yes, its a buy...

This book is like the 'Da Vinci Code' for SharePoint. It has a lot of information. A LOT OF INFORMATION. The problem is, the layout and order of presentation in the book make it almost impossible to read and find information. Loading the included disk is a requirement. Use the PDF and search electronically for the information because the printed index is incredibly lacking.

Because it is so hard to find stuff, one thinks that MS is trying to hide information or that critical information was left out.

Good resource, but be prepared for a continent spanning search for information that will takes days, leave you bedraggled, and make you think you've solved centuries old mysteries once you finally find what you are looking for. Pack lightly, carry currency, and perhaps a firearm (for the book, share point machine, self, your choice).

This is the book that *should* have shipped with every copy of SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

I haven't looked at the paper copy in quite some time; the searchable PDF copy of the book that comes as part of the Resource Kit CD is actually much more useful for me, because it's searchable. I refer to it constantly.

SharePoint as a technology is a tremendous product. This book, however, does not come close to doing it justice. I found the verbiage to be incoherent in various places, and occasionally terms were simply never defined. Further, at one point the author says "At the time we had to go to press with this chapter, the information on how to use Microsoft SharePoint Server 2003 extranets was in the beta stages of being written"... When I purchased this book about SharePoint products and technologies, I assumed the author would be able to write about SharePoint portal server 2003 without requiring other authors to pave the way. In short, this book seems to be a repurposing of information from other sources in a pell-mell fashion. Consequently I cannot recommend it.

I've been an IT professional since 1995, and over the years, the Micsrsoft Resource Kits have tended to be my bibles for the most in-depth, thorough information. But they've been slipping and slipping badly in recent years, and the seem to have less and less to say that isn't just as easy and user friendly to download off of MS.com. Well this book is a TRUE TREASURE. While there is a decent amount of okay Sharepoint information on MS.com, this is an in-depth, invaluable users manual for the real world that beautifully puts a ton of critical information in one place and with depth. It frames and organized everything I've been struggling with (and the list was pretty darned long) with an otherwise great product experience with SharePoint. It's back to the classic era of MS Resource Kits: if you are deploying and managing SharePoint, this kit is a MUST HAVE. Keep it up Microsoft--is there any way you can get the writers who did this book to create a similar effort for Windows 2003?

This is in fact a good referece for SharePoint. My biggest complaint is that it is overly wordy without adding anything. You won't be disappoint in this book; however, don't be surprized when you find yourself skipping ahead because of word dribbling.

As a new Sharepoint Administrator, this book has been a valuable tool during the implementation process of my site. Bill does a great job of explaining some of the more difficult to understand features in language that is easy for even beginners such as myself to follow. If your task is to implement a new Sharepoint site, this book will be your best friend.

Bill English and crew have come through. Haven't completely digested it yet(1172 pages) but my initial take is that it is worth the investment. Easy reading for a technical tome. The first six parts, Chapters 1 - 18, provide everything you need to design, setup, and configure your solution. Parts VII through XI, Chapters 19 - 42, provide specific details for customizing, managing, and maintaining your implementation.

This is an excellent resource for SharePoint Portal Server 2003. I especially like the fact that it comes with a searchable electronic version of the book on CD along with some other useful tools and examples.

Bill provides in-depth information about the various aspects of planning and deploying a SharePoint portal that will help you avoid the common pitfalls of the process. The only way to undo some design choices is to start over. It's better to get it right the first time.

In addition to planning and deployment, Bill covers the common administrative tasks in an easy to follow step-by-step mannner. Click here, enter this, do that, click there. Concise, point-form instructions that let you get things done when you need to without plodding through a bunch verbiage.

I have even handed this weighty tome to an end user that took an empty site and had it themed and full of content within a couple of days. This is part of a project converting an ASP based Intranet resource site over to SharePoint. They have all of the documents that they want to share and I just turned them loose. Hours of time saved for me because with the easy instructions provided in the book, they were able to just do it themselves.

One caveat to the potential purchaser is in order. This is not a book for developers. While it does provide some insight into web part development, it is fairly sparse. This is a book that is directed solidly at the Planning, Deployment, Operation, and Maintenance of a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 installation. And in that, it succeeds marvelously.

Dave - Application Architect - Stryker Canada LP

This book is big. So, you're thinking to yourself: Big is good, right? Not always, and this book exemplifies the bad.

This book definitely has a ton of useful information, but most of that information is poorly presented, poorly organized, and annoying -- if not hard -- to find when you need it. And, much of the stuff you'll want to know IS NOT HERE.

Also, don't even think about reading this book straight through. Yes, pieces of it are written in a narrative sort of way AS IF you were supposed to read the book. But if you try to do that, it will be very clear that the editors never read it straight through. I have to wonder if the authors even did. Yep, this is a book for skimming. You skim and skim and skim until you find the right administrative command to do your work.

Unless, of course, your work involves customizing SharePoint at all. Then you're pretty much up the creek, unless you know someone who's done it. Or, if you're super-unfortunate like me, you just decided to spend months figuring it all out.

Microsoft Press almost always lets me down, but this particular book is only about 80% useless. I'm giving it 3 stars since most technical books are even worse, and this is at least average per the sad state of technical literature.