What is sharepoint workspace. Getting started with SharePoint

Flexible management tool

Microsoft's browser-based content management system allows you to centralize a secure space for document sharing and team collaboration. Serving more than 200 thousand organizations around the world. These companies use SharePoint to create intranets, store, organize, and share information with the entire company in one central location.

SharePoint is a flexible tool and can be used in many different ways:

• storage location for documents;
• collaboration tool for handling daily workflows and reading company communications.

What is a SharePoint site?

When we talk about websites, we mean places where people can work together and find and save information. They also make collaboration easier. You can invite your team members to work on the site with you.

They offer a common platform for joint activities. In other words, when many people save content on a site, that content can be accessed and shared by members of the site, and everyone knows where specific documents (and their latest versions) are stored. Updated task lists, the latest version of your calendar - they are all stored on your team resource. Therefore, you do not need to constantly request these documents. You (or the site administrator) can decide who has access to each section. Rights can be based on things like geography, departments, general tasks.

Search value

Think about the amount of content that is created throughout your organization, from documents and reports to image files. Depending on the size of your company, finding the right document can be difficult, whether it's a PowerPoint presentation, Excel sheet, .doc, or other piece of content. This is why search is such an important aspect of Microsoft SharePoint.

List and libraries

Sites are made up of SharePoint lists and libraries. What is this? Lists are the basic building blocks of SharePoint Designer. Almost everything we create in SharePoint is stored there. This element consists mainly of headers and rows of data, just like an Excel spreadsheet. An example would be a list of clients. A SharePoint list is much more dynamic compared to storing data in Excel.

Such elements can be accessed and updated by all team site members—without having to create a new version. What does it mean?View of the project list, including task due dates, can be accessed, added and edited by anyone with access from anywhere at any time.

Advantages of the resource

SharePoint 2013 file sharing became popular because it was an easy way to share documents online. After all, it has so many advantages. Many organizations that have adopted SharePoint have taken advantage of the ability to upload documents and share that data with others.

One great example of sharing on a website is a company extranet where users are not in the same location or authentication domain. Using forms-based authentication, accounts can be created for people across physical and corporate boundaries. By providing one place for shared documents around a task rather than a corporate entity, SharePoint goes beyond file sharing.

Microsoft SharePoint Issues

A functional resource with great data management capabilities has its own vulnerabilities. SharePoint - what is it? The challenge lies in supporting certain industry standards. SharePoint's records management capabilities allow you to preserve documents for legal or historical reasons. This can be a problem in some industries (medical and financial) where there are complex regulatory requirements for record keeping. In such cases, you should consult with a professional regarding your specific industry solution.

What is SharePoint Workspace?

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 allows you to access SharePoint content while connected to a SharePoint server or while working offline. When you are connected to a SharePoint server, all updated content on the server and in your workspace is automatically synchronized. When you're not connected, changes you make in your workspace are cached on your local computer. The next time you connect to the SharePoint server, all changes are automatically synchronized.

SharePoint workspaces provide easy navigation for accessing and working with SharePoint content. A user who knows how to work with a SharePoint site already has all the skills needed to use a SharePoint workspace.

Types of workspaces in SharePoint Workspace

SharePoint Workspace has three types of workspaces: SharePoint workspaces, Groove workspaces, and public folders.

SharePoint workspaces, new only in this version of the product, allow you to create copies of a SharePoint site on your computer that are automatically synchronized with the server. This type of workspace can only contain one participant: its creator.

Groove workspaces are already familiar to users of a previous version of the product, such as Office Groove 2007. This type of workspace typically contains a number of work tools that are added as needed, as well as two or more participants who join by invitation.

SharePoint workspace items

1. SharePoint document libraries synced in this workspace.

2. SharePoint lists synced in this workspace.

3. Lists or libraries not supported in a SharePoint workspace. A web link is provided to navigate to this SharePoint site content.

4. Content of the dedicated document library.

This document describes how to create a SharePoint Workspace starting from a SharePoint site.

Groove workspace elements

In Groove workspaces, groups or organizations with common goals can share and collaborate on ideas. A Groove workspace typically contains two or more "members" (users who have joined the workspace by invitation). The contents of the workspace are constantly changing. All participants currently connected to it immediately see all the updates added by themselves or other participants. To receive and send updates, you must be connected to a workspace.

Groove workspaces allow participants to work with a variety of specialized application tools available. For example, suppose you hold weekly meetings to discuss the development of marketing materials. Activities may include setting deadlines, assigning tasks, and reviewing completed work. To make this meeting easier, workspace participants can send files in the Documents tool, discuss issues using the Discussion tool, and collaborate on an agenda using the Calendar tool. All elements interactively at the same time in the workspace can interact using real-time conversation.

1. Tools in this workspace.

2. Participants in this workspace.

3. Content of the selected workspace tool.

4. An element with new or unread content.

5. Inviting new participants to the workspace in the window Invite to workspace.

6. Record a conversation in the work area.

Create a SharePoint workspace

You can create SharePoint workspaces starting from a SharePoint site in a web browser or from the SharePoint Workspace Launchpad.

Create a SharePoint workspace that loads items from all lists and libraries

The easiest way to create a SharePoint workspace is to go to a SharePoint site and sync it to your computer. This loads all items from supported lists and libraries into your SharePoint workspace. Please note that document library item content is only loaded on demand as documents are opened in a SharePoint workspace.

Unsupported lists and libraries appear in the workspace content area along with links to the SharePoint site.

Note: SharePoint Workspace will warn you if the selected SharePoint site is very large and it may take a long time to load all the items.

Create a SharePoint workspace synced with a specified list or library

In some cases, you only want to sync a specific list or library to a SharePoint workspace on your computer. You can do this without wasting time loading items from other lists and libraries.

Note: You can also configure SharePoint workspace creations to load a collection of specific lists and libraries. See the article "Create a SharePoint workspace and load items from selected lists and libraries" in Create a workspace for more information.

Sync SharePoint workspace content with SharePoint server

The SharePoint workspace automatically syncs with the SharePoint site, as shown below.

When you save changes made in a SharePoint workspace, they are immediately posted to the SharePoint site.

All content in the SharePoint workspace and SharePoint site is automatically synchronized as often as possible, at least every 10 minutes depending on network traffic.

You must complete all steps to save Content synchronization. However, because the updates that come to the SharePoint site are not sent directly to the SharePoint workspace, you can sometimes manually start synchronizing your SharePoint workspace to ensure that you have the latest content.

You can sync a single list or library, or all lists and libraries in a SharePoint workspace at once.

Sync a specific list or library

Sync all lists and libraries in a SharePoint workspace

On the tab Synchronization click Synchronize and then select Synchronize workspace.

The status bar will show the synchronization progress.

Go to SharePoint workspace

Navigate to a SharePoint workspace using the launchpad

To go to any of the SharePoint workspaces you've created, simply open it in the Launchpad.

Launch a SharePoint workspace.

On the launcher, open the tab Home.

To open a SharePoint workspace, double-click its name.

Navigate to a SharePoint workspace on the file system

SharePoint workspaces can be accessed directly from the file system.

If you're running Windows Vista or later, workspaces are stored in the Workspaces folder in your user profile directory.

If you are using Windows XP, workspaces are stored in the Workspaces folder in your My Documents directory.

Opening the Workspaces folder will automatically launch SharePoint Workspace if it's not already open. Workspaces appear with the same icons as on the launcher.

Note: Only SharePoint 2010 and Groove workspaces are listed. Keep in mind that only SharePoint workspaces that contain at least one document library will be shown, and only Groove workspaces that contain at least one Documents tool.

Open any workspace "folder" to see a list of all the Documents tools in it.

Creating a Groove Workspace

You can create a Groove workspace from the launchpad.

On the tab Home click the button Create and select Groove workspace.

Provide a workspace name.

Click the button Create.

The SharePoint Workspace app creates a Groove workspace and lists as an initial member with the manager role. Now Add or update workspace tools and invite other users to join as members you can.

Inviting users to a Groove workspace

To invite a user to a Groove workspace, you can do the following:

Once the invitation is received, the recipient must open and accept it. You will then receive an “invitation confirmation” message.

Once you accept the invitation, the workspace is sent to the new member's computer and is added to its list of members.

12 answers

What is SharePoint?

The latest version of Microsoft SharePoint software is really two different products:

• Windows SharePoint Services is a free download for Windows Server. In the latest version, known as WSS v3, colocal website templates include basic blog and wiki services, as well as list templates for image libraries, document libraries, contact lists, calendars, tasks, and more.
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or MOSS for short is built on Windows SharePoint Services. As a member of the Office Server product platform, it uses Microsoft Office client software to deliver content on the Internet. Integration with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access and InfoPath delivers rich web content from your favorite content creation tools.

Why is it so popular

File sharing SharePoint initially became popular because it was an easy way to share documents online. Many organizations that adopted SharePoint in the 2003 versions took advantage of the ability to submit documents to Document Leaders and share those documents with others.
Company extranets One great example of this online sharing is a company extranet where users are not all in the same location or authentication domain. Using forms-based authentication, accounts can be created for people across physical and corporate boundaries. By providing one place for shared documents around a task rather than a corporate object, SharePoint goes beyond generic file sharing.
Content Management There are many other content management systems, but MOSS uses the functionality of the previously named Microsoft content management system, which itself often costs more than MOSS. Check out this great list of public websites and blogs hosted on SharePoint. And that's not all of them. Search Search is significantly improved in SharePoint 2007 technologies. Unlike the previous version 2003, search results are crisp, relevant and effective. Poor search in SharePoint 2003 products leads to a lot of dissatisfaction with the product.

what is sharepoint

Sharepoint is really two different technologies: Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS). WSS is free and comes with Windows Server 2003. MOSS is not free.

WSS provides a wealth of functionality for managing documents and projects on the Internet. It manages documents in "document libraries". These are folders with permissions and different types of your documents. Projects, tasks, issues or any tabular data are managed in lists. Lists are similar to document libraries. They have permissions and opinions. It also provides easy search.

MOSS provides better search (it should be at least). It also has more publishing options (WSS doesn't work). And you have more control over page layouts. This meant more for internet style sites, and WSS meant more for intranet style sites.

and why is it popular?

WSS is popular partly because it's free and partly because it just does so much out of the box. You can solve many common office queries using WSS. In WSS, things like issue tracking, project management, and document management are trivial. However, this is a blacksmith of all trades - good for many, master of none.

MOSS is probably less popular because it's not free and, having used it for a year, I don't see the same value in it as WSS. The search isn't that good. It really helps to create a company directory.

I've been working with SharePoint since v.1 and I can say that SharePoint is:

• Document Management Server
• Web Content Management Server
• Portal solution
• Search engine
• List-based repository
• Collaboration site
• Replacement for shared files
• etc...

But if I have to sum it up in one sentence what I can tell SharePoint is:

Sharepoint is Microsoft Web OS.

This is the real secret of his success. Many people thought that web OS was something like these. A web OS is not something that is meant to look like a desktop OS. Web OS must be WEB PLATFORM, in which all kinds of applications can be created and users can collaborate.

Think of SharePoint as Windows version 2.0 :-)

The previous answers describe what sharepoint is, but don't do a good job of describing why it's popular. Yes, it gives you all that neat doc-managed stuff out of the box. Yes, it integrates tightly with Office.

OOB functions make up 1/10 of the story. Sharepoint provides an extensive .Net object model that allows you to customize an object at its heart. People are coding amazing things with MOSS 2007. With the object model, you can create and customize sites using code in response to external events. You can write custom "web parts" (controls placed on special pages) that consume both internal (sharepoint) and external data.

Very good points, but I'll try to add something. :)

SharePoint is not only 2 technologies. It is a collection of products and technologies combined by Microsoft into one huge product that comes in two flavors. Two options: Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). MOSS does come in Standard and Enterprise.

[Some of the technologies used in SharePoint: Windows Workflow Foundation, ASP.NET, Web Parts, XML (including XPath, XSLT, etc.), SQL, Web Services - to name a few that I can think of my head]

Regardless of the version you choose, SharePoint provides web capabilities to enable users to create, organize, distribute, and maintain information. Because of this, the most common uses for SharePoint sites are intranets and project/team sites.

SharePoint also has incredible capabilities as an application platform. By looking at the web part and the work parts, you can start to understand the potential. For example, automating authorization processes within an organization can be quickly developed without any code using SharePoint Designer. (FYI: More complex workflows will require Visual Studio, but many simple workflows can be developed using SharePoint Designer's point-and-click functionality)

Although MOSS only extends over WSS, it adds a large number of features that can be very important and useful to a business. Some of the most important features available in MOSS rather than WSS are records management, document retention and audit policies, browser-based forms (InfoPath forms without InfoPath installed on the client machine), and some business intelligence capabilities. Surprisingly, we are seeing interest in MOSS's social media features. (easy to read list of non-WSS features that MOSS has)

Why use SharePoint? I've been doing research on this subject for a while now and I found a study that mentioned 5 main benefits:

• Ease of access to information.
• Optimized intercom
• Improved end user productivity
• Optimized document management methods
• Save IT time

Sorry if this turned into a battle.

SharePoint is the reason I'm considering using suicide booth.

In all seriousness, the rest of the answers are spot on. The differences between WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 are usually passed over by people ("why pay for MOSS when WSS is free?" for example). SharePoint is a very complex and rich product that is integrated into other Microsoft applications such as Project Server 2007 and Team Foundation Server.

Many people find it quite difficult to understand what SharePoint is. Perhaps you are just like that. Maybe you've already tried working with this thing called SharePoint for some time, but you still haven't fully figured it out. You want a simple one-sentence definition so everything is immediately clear. And you won't get this simple explanation from me, because SharePoint is not a simple thing. SharePoint is not a “thing” at all, i.e. it is not one thing. SharePoint is not a program, but a platform. It is a collection of very different products and technologies brought together under the single name SharePoint. This is a tough decision that will allow you to do a lot of different things. And with each new version of SharePoint, Microsoft adds more and more inventions to this platform. If you understand all these diverse benefits that SharePoint has, you can choose the right combination of those things that make sense for you.

More precisely, not quite like that. After all, SharePoint is a server product. You don't install SharePoint on your computer. It is already installed somewhere on the servers, and you just connect to it. Of course, there are some related programs that you can install on your computer, such as SharePoint Designer or Visio. But you won't necessarily need them, since you typically use SharePoint either through Microsoft Office (Office for SharePoint is a native program) or through a web browser.

So, we understand that SharePoint is a big product, that it is installed on the server, but what does it do anyway?

Microsoft talks about SharePoint in 6 different aspects: Sites, Communities, Content, Search, Insights, Composites. But this doesn’t make it any clearer. These are special terms. Of course, we can translate each word and understand its meaning, but we still won’t understand what lies behind it until we delve deeper into the product. I’d rather give you my version of these terms.

Firstly, you can make websites using SharePoint. SharePoint creates websites. This is a powerful engine for creating websites. You say you need a website - and, lo and behold, you have a website. You need one more - oops, you have one more. You don't need any special programs, you don't need to be a programmer or web designer.

What kind of sites does SharePoint create? This could be your personal website, or it could be your team website, or a company website. Or it could be a public site for everyone. You can participate in the creation of the site, or you can simply use sites that are created by other people. But unlike most of the sites we visit on the Internet and which we only read, SharePoint is primarily designed for creating sites in which we are members, i.e. we can connect to sites and change and supplement them. And here we come to the second principle.

SharePoint helps you work with other people. Even if it's just you working on one Word document at a time, SharePoint allows you to do this. You might want to make your company's knowledge base, like your own Wikipedia, that hundreds of people can edit - SharePoint can do that too. It can give you a shared calendar, a shared task list, a discussion board. SharePoint gives you it all. It helps you keep track of a huge, gigantic amount of information, letting you know if anything has changed. The idea, (ideology) of working together is (initially) built into this thing. It turns out that you can take all this heap of information that is generated in your company in the course of daily work: documents, tables, presentations, plans, pictures, audio, video and even databases... take all this and upload it to SharePoint, and all this because

SharePoint gives you a place where you store your content, your information, your everything. Instead of storing it on your computer or in a shared folder on a server, or sending it back and forth via email, you just put everything on SharePoint. There must be places where information is under super control, monitoring, audit, accessible only to a narrow circle of people, where you work with data of a certain type. The other part can be made available to everyone absolutely freely if you so choose. You can put everything in there. And this does not become an obstacle to your work. You continue to work exactly the same as you did before. You just save it all in SharePoint instead of your local drive, or you create a document on your desktop, or update a meeting schedule from your laptop, and then want to look at it all from your smartphone - and you don't have to worry about how it ends up in one place in another, you can even edit documents directly from the browser, all within SharePoint. Apparently, after some time of such work, you will accumulate a bunch of all sorts of files, information and data... and many people will work with this information, and anxiety (danger) will arise about how not to lose it all (search).

And in the next part we deal with search. in SharePoint allows you to search your farm for the information you need. SharePoint has a built-in powerful search engine. This is not something that people might think is like it was added later (It was originally intended to be there). This brilliant and sophisticated search engine allows you to search not only for information in a ton of different ways, but also for people, and do so with information security in mind, i.e. no one will see in the search results what they should not see.

OK. All we've talked about so far are things that are useful, but not mind-blowing (if all you want is to work with your files the old-fashioned way). But the next part is Understanding. Here SharePoint helps to collect all the information together, and not just collect it together, but collect it together to better understand it, organize it so that new meaning appears in a huge amount of different data. Take data in various formats - tables, blogs, data from other systems and present them in such a way that it becomes clear. And if you go further, you can make a control (monitoring) panel in which information can be displayed in real time.

If you are watching this now (have watched it up to this point), then, despite what you work now, although most likely it is mental work, and you are paid for your brains, and not for manual labor. This means that part of your job is to make decisions, and for this you need information, and not the kind that needs to be collected from different places every time, but the kind that you need in the form that is convenient for you, relevant and direct in front of your eyes. So, SharePoint helps to collect (provide you) such information. But that's not all.

SharePoint can still be built upon (added on top of itself)... After all, not a single program, not a single platform, not a single operating system knows what exactly you need. And SharePoint has fantastic expandability. It was designed from the start to be extensible and customizable. You don't need to be a programmer. Using programs like SharePoint Designer or Microsoft Office Visio, you can create your workflows without coding. But if you know how to code, you can do even more (SharePoint's extensibility options are almost endless). SharePoint can also talk to your old databases and applications. It can retrieve data from them and give you access to view and use it. And all this right from SharePoint, securely, under control.

Now, if all this seemed like too much, then you are absolutely right. ... (? he attitude to take more than anything) SharePoint is not a program, it is not a solution to one problem, it is a platform that you can use to find hundreds of solutions to hundreds of problems. And that’s why it’s difficult to grasp it all, because for you it’s one thing, but for another it’s completely different.

But SharePoint makes websites, it helps you work together with other people, it gives you a place to store your data, it gives you the ability to search through it all, it helps you consolidate information for better understanding, and it can also be expanded and customized. Each of these features is quite deep on its own, and you could spend months working with SharePoint and not fully grasp it. You can be satisfied with the website creation capabilities by making a public website. You can live in the Construction section, creating business processes and applications for SharePoint, you can live in the Understanding section, making dashboards and monitoring for better understanding of information, or you can simply save some documents there and use them as needed. And that's all good.

Translation and adaptation of this:

Lately at various conferences I have been hearing the same question:

Why do I need SharePoint?

The question is trivial, the frequency of its asking is due to the fact that many large and not very large companies receive SharePoint along with various Microsoft software packages. But I have not yet heard any clear answers to this question.

Below is a “short” answer, maybe you will find something for yourself.

• If you manager or IT director companies of more than 5 people and
  • Are you using MS Office?
  • Send documents by email
  • Uses shared folders to store documents electronically
  • Do you have processes for coordinating and approving documents?
  • Store data in Excel or Access
  • Do you want to create a knowledge base?
  • Do you want to deploy helpdesk?
  • Use Microsoft BI tools
  • Want to display data from different sources in one place
  • Do you want to deploy a corporate portal for employees?
  If one of the above is true, then you definitely need SharePoint. It will help you create a single repository of documents and tabular data with rich display and search capabilities. SharePoint allows you to create solutions without a development environment or coding. Advanced users will be able to independently create and improve solutions in SharePoint.
• If you project manager, then you should be familiar with MS Project and Project Server products. The latter is an add-on to SharePoint.
  But even without Projet Server you can:
  • Create separate sites for projects with a few clicks of the mouse, where you can post and approve documents
  • Store and display task lists from Microsoft Project on the portal
  • Track risks and issues
  • If necessary, create an interface to other project management systems on the SharePoint portal
  • Get a summary of your projects
  • Receive reports and KPIs on the portal
• If you architect or lead developer and are developing enterprise software, then you need SharePoint because:
  • it includes document management capabilities
  • it has a reliable access control system
  • it integrates with MS Office
  • it allows you to search all content
  • it supports long-running workflows that can last longer than the servers' uptime
  • it has a modular user interface
  • it allows integration with other systems
  • it supports scalability of all its components
  • almost all SharePoint functionality can be expanded and customized
  • contains a system for installing and uninstalling applications, much easier than writing installers manually
• If you IT specialist, then you definitely need SharePoint. It will allow you:
  • Collect data from various systems in one place
  • Display tables, graphs, reports, KPIs on the portal
  • Automate organizational processes using simple tools
  • Post web content without web development skills
  • Manage multiple services with complex topologies using a simple GUI
  • Script any action using PowerShell
• If you average .NET developer, then you can in SharePoint:
  • Apply existing skills
    • for interface development
    • to create solutions for integration with other systems
    • to create workflows
  • Having studied the platform in more detail, you will be able to create any solutions and turn from an ordinary developer into a highly paid specialist :)
• If you web developer, then your skills will be in high demand in the SharePoint environment
  • for portal branding, this is now a very popular topic
  • to develop web page layouts to host content
    (html + css + js)
  • to create data views and search results
    (xslt + html + css + js)
  • for javascript or silverlight applications, most SharePoint functionality is available on the client side

Despite the rich possibilities, there are not as many examples of successful implementations as we would like. This is due to the fact that the SharePoint platform is complex, and there are not enough specialists. For the most part, there is a lack of developers who have a good command of the functionality and can assemble a solution from it.

If you have any questions about SharePoint, then join the community http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/35899/sharepoint-in-russian, support its development and you will be able to receive a lot of useful information.