Customer Reviews

SharePoint 2007 User's Guide: Learning Microsoft's Collaboration and Productivity Platform

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Recommended for "Power-Users," or those people that are comfortable working in Office, etc. Not for techies, per se, and perhaps a bit much for the average user. Get it for those people that will comfortably read a 300 page book on a computer program and then actually do something with it. Don't get it for those whose permissions you wouldn't dare leave without significant restrictions.

Has been very helpful to me as someone new to SharePoint. Only 4 stars because it's a bit much for the average user that we have in our organization -- I 'm not sold that I could distribute this as a User's Guide and expect increased understanding of how it works from the typical user. Perhaps it takes this much detail to present the information, but the lack of a general "how-to" or "quick-start" section makes me think that most users will be intimidated by the size and scope of the book and never crack it open.

However, from a Power User perspective, this book is excellent. The writing is clear and well-organized. I've been able to find just about everything I've needed to understand and answered most questions that have come to mind. I like how the book presents the different choices available, without shoe-horning you into the author's preferred choice. Comparing it to explanations available online, the information it typically presented better in this book.

For any orgnaization that is implementing SharePoint for end-user use, this book is an extremely valuable. The documentation on Microsoft's website and within the help links within the Sharepoint portal are nearly unusable for an end-user, and definitely cannot be used as an initial learning guide. This book takes up the slack. If you have "power" end-users in your organization who will be using the out-of-the-box features of Sharepoint to customize their portals, this book is for them. It can also be used as a reference for learning how to implement features and navigate through the various setup menus.

S. Taylor (stusrt) - This is not a technical reference - it is for end users - "SharePoint 2007 User's Guide". While this book touches on how to programatically customize Sharepoint, it is not the main purpose. Once you have programmed your portal, and now need to release it to end users, give THEM this book. You'll be happy about how few questions you will get back about using Sharepoint, since they will be well informed.

Our company has used Sharepoint 2003 extensively, and have deployed many business applications on this platform. We have a migration program to Sharepoint 2007 going now, and this book has been the best resource to educate our end users and business managers on the new features and functionalities of this version.

I would recommend the book to fresh users being introduced to Sharepoint 2007 and to users trying to migrate to the new version, as its the simplest way to learn how to navigate through all the key features of the product. The book is concise, well written, and just the right reference guide to keep handy to become a power user of Sharepoint.

I have started developing sharepoint solutions at my company. This book is NOT for developers. It is for end users that will be just adding pages and content to sharepoint. I had to buy another sharepoint manual because this one didn't cut it. There are only 12 pages covering web parts, what I think is the most powerful and useful tool in sharepoint.
However, if you just need to use sharepoint as an end-user, this book is perfect.

There are several books available for SharePoint installers and admins and designers, but there really aren't many out there for end users. This is one of the few, and it does cover most of the important subjects. It has a few shortcomings:
+ The language is not very approachable. Long sentences, tedious writing, and a bit too formal.
+ It makes assumptions about user permissions. It often says, "You can do x, y, and z," but the truth is that the user has to have the right permissions in SharePoint to do all those things.
+ The screenshots have no callouts, so you have to study them closely to find what's important.
+ The authors take the old-style documentation approach, in which they describe the program in great detail, but rarely tell you how to use the program to accomplish real world tasks. For example, they frequently mention that document workspaces allow for collaboration, but never tell you what that collaboration might look like.

Despite those shortcomings I'm giving the book a generous 4 stars because I did learn about SharePoint by reading it. If your environment also includes Office 2007, you might want to wait for the end-user book by Vanessa L. Williams in the For Dummies series (NOT "SharePoint 2007 for Dummies," which is for admins.)

Great guide, SharePoint 2007 seemed a bit overwhelming, but this book guided me through the features and provided a clear path for understanding the power and flexibility behind SharePoint 2007. No technical background required, easy to read, well structured, I keep it at arm's reach as a quick reference.

This book gives you what you need to learn how to use SharePoint 2007 and is a great reference when exploring the various capabilities the product provides. This book walked me through the capabilities I needed to configure and use sites, lists, libraries, workflows, etc. Excellent read!

This is a great resource for people who are looking to learn more about SharePoint 2007. I found the descriptions and steps very easy to follow. I also really liked the notes placed throughout the book that helped me avoid many common mistakes I would have otherwise made. Overall very useful book and I still keep it at my desk as my primary SharePoint 2007 reference material.

I am a network engineer working for a renowned pharmaceutical company. We implemented SharePoint 2007 back in January. Training our end-users was a real challenge until I got a hold of this manual. I consider the SharePoint 2007 User's Guide as a great supplement to end-user training. A excellent end user reference book that is well written and easy to follow. Our older SharePoint 2003 users that want or need to brush up their skills see real value in this book. You will not be the least bit disappointed with this buy. I highly recommend it.

SharePoint 2007 User's Guide definitely touches on the many topics necessary for the end users to learn the MOSS productivity platform.
Overall, the book is very informative. My only complaint is the style that it is written doesn't include any examples/exercises for the user to follow. There are definitely how-tos in this book, however, there are more examples for what can be done and not how to do it especially in the waning chapters of the book. There is very little useful hands on in the chapters regarding Document Management and Collaboration.
Regardless, it is still a good short reading and if you are new to SharePoint you will get much out of it.
If you are interested in a more robust read try Beginning SharePoint 2007 from Wrox. A book on the same topic with much more useful content.