SharePoint® 2007 Collaboration For Dummies®

Chapter 1. Collaborating with SharePoint

In This Chapter

• Using Microsoft SharePoint Services to effectively collaborate

• Understanding the major components of SharePoint 2007 and how they work

• Navigating a SharePoint site with the greatest of ease

• Getting the online SharePoint help you need

• Searching the SharePoint site for information

Webster's dictionary defines collaboration — from the Latin for laboring together — first and foremost as "working jointly or together especially in an intellectual endeavor." As you find out in this chapter, SharePoint 2007 makes this kind of "working together" especially easy and efficient. SharePoint makes it possible for your teams to readily access the information they need to make decisions and to share essential ideas and feedback.

This chapter begins by describing what exactly SharePoint 2007 is before moving on to explaining just a wee bit about how it does its magic. (I cover just enough of the magic, mind you, to give you a basic understanding of how you and your teams interface with the software in the process of collaborating and yet hopefully not enough to overwhelm you by drowning you in totally incomprehensible geek speak.) As part and parcel of this general introduction to the wondrous workings of SharePoint 2007, I also introduce you to each of the major components that make up this very versatile software tool.

The chapter then goes on to give you all the information you need on navigating a typical SharePoint site before grounding you in ...