SharePoint v3 How Do I Love Thee – Let me count the ways!

Be still my beating heart…these new and improved features in Windows SharePoint Services v3 are going to rock your world!

When is it due out? Probably around the same time as the release of Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange Server 2007 become available…end of January 2007 perhaps?

If you are using a hosted SharePoint Services site, you may want to ask your hosting company if they know more about when they will be converting their users to the new version.

Those of you that have already been working in SharePoint sites will truly appreciate many of these improvements. I know I will!

Check out this list of New and Improved features of SharePoint Services v3:

New!

1. Broadcast Information with Blogs: New features include posting via the Web, e-mail, or directly from Microsoft Office Word 2007; archive views; and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
2. Capture Community Knowledge with Wikis: Wikis are great tools to capture knowledge. Based on a “group editing” model, wikis encourage everyone to contribute. Wikis can be used as forums to brainstorm ideas, manage knowledge bases, create designs or instruction guides, or simply gather information in an easy-to-edit format. WYSIWYG and rich-text formatting enhance the editing experience.
3. Manage Document Metadata with Content Types: Content types enable documents with different metadata attributes to be stored in the same library. These attributes can be accessed and managed from Windows SharePoint Services as well as 2007 Microsoft Office system programs, such as Word, Microsoft Office Excel®, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint®.
4. Gantt Chart View: Task, issue, and project issue list data can now be viewed graphically, giving team members an at-a-glance indicator of a project’s current status.
5. Additional Workspace Types: Project Workspaces and Blogs/Wikis
6. People and Groups: The People and Groups list provides a unified place to find, communicate with, and manage people and their permissions. People Picker control provides a consistent user experience throughout the site for selecting people or groups.
7. Tree View and Breadcrumbs: New user interface (UI) elements help users identify where they are within a SharePoint site.
8. Continue Working While on the Road Through Outlook 2007 Offline Support: Document libraries can now be taken offline into Office Outlook 2007 folders. Changes can be posted back to the SharePoint library by re-syncing when a network connection is available.
9. Syndicate List Data with RSS: RSS feeds are automatically generated for any SharePoint list, enabling subscribers to keep up-to-date.
10. Distribution Lists: To help keep team members in the loop, an Active Directory® directory service distribution list can be generated automatically during the SharePoint site creation process.
11. Two-Stage Recycle Bin: Helps ensure that critical information isn’t deleted accidentally and can be restored by the user or administrator.
12. Folder and Item-Level Access Control : Access control has now been extended down to the individual folder or item level.
13. Rights-Trimmed User Interface: Users can see only the features that they have the rights to use.
14. Policy, Audit, and Compliance Features in Repositories: Including applying information rights management policies on download, tracking and auditing, and logging of all actions on sites, content, and workflows.
15. Large List Support: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has added capabilities, including index columns and increased column limits, to improve performance on large lists.
16. Features Assist Administrators in Deploying New Capabilities: Customizations to SharePoint sites can be organized into packages called Features for migrating between sites and servers. Administrators can selectively enable or disable Features to customize a site.
17. Master Pages: Page layout and style elements are now stored in master page definitions. Each site has a master page gallery that the site owner can use to customize the look of all the pages on the site.
18. Workflow: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 enables customers and partners to implement a wide range of workflow-enabled applications, including the ability to:

• Create workflows using development tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio® and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
• Associate workflows with content types, lists, or libraries.
• Initiate workflows automatically whenever items are added or modified, or initiate manually from the Action menu.
• Receive notification when a workflow requires interaction by the user.

Improved!

1. Predefined Workspaces : Teams can share documents, manage schedules, and stay connected.
2. Improved Workspace Types: Meeting Workspaces and Issue Tracking
3. Create Surveys, Discussions, and Links: Take advantage of these collaboration features to connect with team members, partners, and customers. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 adds new survey features including conditional branching and page breaks.
4. Calendars: New calendar views and recurring events added in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
5. Presence Awareness: Helps identify when team members are online.
6. Extranet Mode for External Access: New capabilities include better support for third-party authentication and trimmed UI to eliminate multiple authentication dialog boxes.
7. Integration with Microsoft Office System Programs: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 integration with 2007 Microsoft Office system programs has been dramatically enhanced, including offline support (Microsoft Office Access, Microsoft Office Outlook®) and content type support (Office Excel, Office PowerPoint, Office Word).
8. Two-Way Synchronization with Office Groove Workspaces: External users, such as partners and customers, can more easily participate in discussions and document collaboration, even across firewalls.
9. Stay on Top of New Information with Alerts and Event Notification: New capabilities in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 include alert filtering, custom formatting, and automatic delivery of task notifications.
10. Centralized Administration: Administration functions are now organized within a single location.
11. Manage Content with Check-in/Check-out Version Control: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 now supports major and minor version numbering and optional required check-out before editing.
12. Delegated Administration: Delegated administration rights can now be centrally managed and controlled.
13. Customize Sites with Web Parts: Simplified UI in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for browsing, selecting, and adding Web Parts to a Web Part page.
14. ASP.NET Framework: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has been upgraded to use the ASP.NET 2.0 framework for added scalability and reliability.
15. Self-Service Site Creation Helps Users Get Started Immediately: Delegated administration improves self-service capabilities in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
16. Browser Support: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 now supports Firefox and Safari browsers.
17. Quick Launch and Top Nav Bar: Users can now customize these UI elements through the browser by adding their own links.
18. Search: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 uses the new portal search engine technology.
19. Accessibility: New navigation features, keyboard controls, and dynamic content rendering in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 improve accessibility for all users.

Andrea Kalli

Your resource for Outlook training and SharePoint training

http://www.virtualassist.net/