Essential SharePoint

Chapter 2. Getting Started

There are several ways to get SharePoint Services. The biggest choice is whether to host SharePoint on your own server or whether to buy the services from a hosting provider. The primary advantage of hosted services is that you don't need to wrangle with installing and maintaining SharePoint yourself. The main disadvantage is that you lose some of the flexibility and control you get from using your own server.

In this chapter, I show you how to get started using a hosted site; then I explain how to install SharePoint on your own server. These two tasks build on each other: if you create a hosted site first, you'll be better prepared when you install SharePoint. Even if you don't intend to host your own site, you can still develop some advanced skills by completing the chapter.

Before You Begin

It's easy to create new web sites using SharePoint—in fact, perhaps it's too easy. Before you begin, it's important to understand how SharePoint structures sites and how those structures affect what you can do later.

The simplest site structure is a single top-level site located on a single server. In that scenario, members of the site have one set of permissions, and those permissions determine which lists and libraries they can see, as well as what actions they can take on those lists and libraries.

Lists and libraries in this simple site are stored in subfolders (for example, http://www.mysite.com/Lists/Announcements), but those subfolders exist within the site's ...