Datasheet

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Part I: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007
Integration with Microsoft Office
The subject for most of this book, integration with Office is at the heart of SharePoint, and as you will
see, SharePoint is the glue that brings together almost all of the applications that make up Microsoft
Office 2007 and makes them accessible from the desktop or the Internet. It is also safe to guess that this
interaction will feature more and more with future releases of the Office application suite and
SharePoint. Many of the features of SharePoint are available from within the Office applications and can
be used without ever opening a web browser.
Of course, the major functionality is available in SharePoint, but many SharePoint users only interact
with the software using, for example, Microsoft Outlook 2007. Each application in the Office suite has
been revamped to increase its interaction with SharePoint and make it easier to interact with it. Some of
the more noticeable changes have taken place in Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, and Access 2007, and chapters
are devoted to these applications later in this book.
Referring back to metadata, Microsoft Word 2007 makes use of Document Information panels to display
the associated metadata from SharePoint. If your SharePoint document has metadata associated with
it, the Document Information panel will open, allowing you to supply this information directly from
within Microsoft Word 2007. It is also possible to create customized Document Information panels to
request additional information about a document from the users.
Alerts
If you need to know when a document has been saved to your SharePoint site or has been updated,
SharePoint can tell you by using email alerts. Alerts are a powerful feature of the software and can push
information out to you, removing the need to constantly check for changes or updates. Alerts are a
feature of document libraries, and all items within them are switched on by your site administrator. You
can choose to receive alerts or alerts can be set for you by the administrator. For task - based items, the
system will alert you when a task has been assigned to you, and upon completion, the originator of
the task will receive an email informing them of that completion.
Email alerts also form part of the out - of - the - box workflows available within document libraries. You can
configure alerts to be sent right away when a new document is placed into a library, when a document is
changed, or you can sign up for a weekly or daily summary of changes. You can also specify at what
time your summary alert report is issued.
Alerts are another SharePoint feature that enables you to push information out to colleagues rather than
them having to continually check online to see if a document has been saved to a library or edited.
Item - Level Security
Access to a SharePoint web site is secured by using a username and password. In addition, the built - in
security system in SharePoint can work right down to the individual document level. If colleagues do
not have permission to view a document, they will not even be aware of it in the interface. SharePoint
uses security trimming both in its menus and at the file level. If you don t have security permission to
use a particular menu or file, then you will not see it. This removes the hassle of clicking on something
only to be told that you have no permission to use it. Security is discussed as required as you progress
through the book. A high - level overview of SharePoint security is provided at the end of this chapter.
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