planning and architecture for windows share point services 3.0, part 1

8/2/2019 Planning and Architecture for Windows Share Point Services 3.0, Part 1

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Planning and architecture for WindowsSharePoint Services 3.0 technology,

part 1

Microsoft Corporation

Published: March 2007

Author: Windows SharePoint Services IT User Assistance ([email protected])

Abstract

This book provides information and guidelines to lead a team through the steps of planningthe deployment of a solution based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Theaudiences for this book are business application specialists, line-of-business specialists,information architects, IT generalists, program managers, and infrastructure specialists whoare planning a solution based on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. This book alsoincludes links to planning worksheets for recording information related to your planning anddeployment activities.

This book is the first part of a two-part series. You can find the other part at the followinglink:

Planning and architecture for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology, part 2(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=85553&clcid=0x409)

The content in this book is a copy of selected content in the Windows SharePoint Servicestechnical library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81199) as of the date above. For

the most current content, see the technical library on the Web.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=85553&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81199http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81199http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=85553&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81199http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81199


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The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft

Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must

respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on

the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information

presented after the date of publication.

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO

WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN

THIS DOCUMENT.

Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without

limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in

or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means

(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without

the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other

intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly

provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document

does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual

property.

Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names,

e-mail addresses, logos, people, places and events depicted herein are fictitious, and no

association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address,

logo, person, place or event is intended or should be inferred.

2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, Access, Active Directory, Excel, Groove, InfoPath, Internet Explorer, OneNote,

Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint, SQL Server, Visio, Windows, Windows Server, and

Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in

the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of

their respective owners.


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ContentsPlanning and architecture for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology, part 1 ..... ....... 1

Contents ..................................................................................................................... ........ 3

Planning worksheets for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 .............................................. .. 7

Planning worksheets by task ........................................................................ .............. ..... 7

Planning worksheets by title ....................................................................... ..... .............. 10

I. Determine organization and user needs ..................................................................... ....14

Chapter overview: Determine organization and user needs .............................................. 15

Determine objectives for sites ................................................................................... ..... ... 16

Identify primary objectives for sites .................................................................. ..... ..... ....16

Identify primary environments for sites ........................................................................... 18

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................20

Determine user needs and features to use ........................................................................ 21

Determine user needs ..................................................................................... .............. 21

Special considerations ...................................................................................................22

Map user needs to features and determine which features to use ................................. .22

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................26

Determine number of users and user types ....................................................................... 27

Determine number of users ..................................................................................... ..... .27

Identify how users will interact with sites ........................................................................28

Determine user access requirements ............................................................................. 28

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................29

II. Plan Web site structure and publishing .............................................. ..... .............. ..... ... 30

Chapter overview: Plan Web site structure and publishing ...............................................31

Determine paths for sites .................................................................................................32

Specific paths ............................................................................................................... .32 Additional paths .............................................................................................................32

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................33

Determine sites and subsites needed ............................................................................. .34

Determine number of sites and site collections .............................................. ..... ..... ...... 34


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Decide whether to use individual site collections or subsites within one site collection .. . 35

Design site hierarchy ............................................................................................... ..... .36

Worksheets ...................................................................................................................37

Plan site navigation .......................................................................................................... 38

Create a site navigation diagram ................................................................... ..... ..... ...... 38

Understanding shared navigation .............................................................. .............. ..... .39

Determine which sites share the top link bar .................................................................. 40

Determine which additional links to add manually to the top link bar ................... ..... ...... 41

Worksheets ...................................................................................................................41

Determine individual site content needs and structure .......................................................42

Formal: Survey stakeholders and users ..................................................................... ....43

Informal: Rough organization with room to evolve ....................................................... ... 44

III. Plan for content and search ................................................................................... ..... .45

Chapter overview: Plan for content and search .................................................. .............. 46

Plan lists .......................................................................................................................... 47

Included lists .................................................................................................................47

About working with lists ................................................................................................ . 49

Plan for custom lists .............................................................................................. ..... ... 50

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................52

Plan document libraries ........................................................................................... ........ 53

Plan libraries ........................................................................................................... ......53

Plan versioning, content approval, and check-outs .................................... .............. ..... .54

Plan Information Rights Management ...................................................................... ..... .57

Plan content types ....................................................................................................... ....59

What are content types? ................................................................................................ 59

About column templates .......................................................................................... ..... .60

About folder content types .......................................................................................... ... 61

Planning document content types ................................................................................. .61

Planning list content types .......................................................................................... ... 62

After planning content types: next steps ........................................................ ..... ..... ...... 63

Plan workflows .................................................................................................................65What are workflows? ............................................................................................ ..... ....65

Plan for search ................................................................................................................. 67

About search in Windows SharePoint Services version 3 ...................................... ..... ... 67

Plan for search administration ......................................................................... ..... ..... ....68


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Link to worksheet.......................................................................................................... 69

Security considerations for search ................................................................... ..... ..... ...... 70

Sharing data across Web Parts .................................................................... ..... ............70Specify content as no crawl........................................................................................... 70

IV. Plan site and content security ........................................................................ .............. 72

Chapter overview: Plan site and content security .............................................................73

Plan site security ..............................................................................................................74

About site security elements .......................................................................................... 75

About assigning permissions .........................................................................................76

About fine-grained permissions and permission inheritance ...........................................77

Choose which levels of site security to use ........................................................ ............78

Plan for permission inheritance ......................................................................................79Worksheet.....................................................................................................................80

Determine permission levels and groups to use ...............................................................81

Review available default groups ................................................................ .............. ..... .81

Review available permission levels ................................................................................ 83

Determine whether you need additional permission levels or groups ......... .............. ..... .83

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................85

Define custom permission levels ........................................................................... ..... ...... 86

Customize an existing permission level.........................................................................86

Copy an existing permission level..................................................................................86

Create a permission level.............................................................................................. 87

Choose which security groups to use ...............................................................................88

Determine which Windows security groups and accounts to use for granting access to

sites ........................................................................................................ ..... .............. 88

Decide whether to use all authenticated users ........................................................... ....89

Decide whether to allow access to anonymous users ................................... ..... ............89

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................90

Choose administrators and owners for the administration hierarchy .................................91

Levels of administration ..................................................................................... ............91

Worksheet.....................................................................................................................92

V. Plan communication ......................................................................................................93

Chapter overview: Plan communication .................................................................. .........94

Communications components ........................................................................................94


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Plan presence integration ............................................................................................ ....95

About online presence ...................................................................................................95

Advantages of incorporating online presence ............................................... ..... ............96

Organizational considerations ..................................................................................... ... 96

Software requirements .......................................................................................... ..... ... 96

E-mail account requirements ......................................................................... ..... ..... ...... 97

Plan incoming e-mail ........................................................................................................98

About incoming e-mail.................................................................................................. .98

Key decisions for planning incoming e-mail...................................................................98

Configuration options and settings modes ................................................. .............. .... 102

Before configuring incoming e-mail....................................................................... ....... 103

Plan the Microsoft SharePoint Directory Management service .............................. ....... 104

Worksheet................................................................................................................... 105

Plan outgoing e-mail ............................................................................................... ....... 106

About outgoing e-mail.................................................................................................. 107

General requirements ...................................................................................... ..... ....... 107

Outbound SMTP server ............................................................................................... 107

From and Reply-to addresses ...................................................................................... 108

Character set ........................................................................................................ ....... 108

VI. Plan for site creation and maintenance ....................................................... ..... .......... 109

Chapter overview: Plan for site creation and maintenance ................................. ............110

Plan process for creating sites ........................................................................................ 111Determine who can create sites and a method for site creation .................................. .. 111

Plan for Self-Service Site Management........................................................................ 112

Plan for custom site creation processes ....................................................................... 114

Worksheet................................................................................................................. .. 114

Plan for site maintenance and management ...................................................................115

Plan for site maintenance .............................................................................................115

Plan for managing site collections ................................................................................116

Worksheet................................................................................................................. .. 118


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Planning worksheets for WindowsSharePoint Services 3.0

In this article:

Planning worksheets by task

Planning worksheets by title

This article provides links to worksheets that you can use to record information that you

gather and decisions that you make as you plan your deployment of Microsoft Windows

SharePoint Services 3.0. Use these worksheets in conjunction with not as a substitute

for Planning and architecture for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology.

Planning worksheets by task

For this task Use this worksheet To do this

Chapter

overview:

Determine

organization and

user needs[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Site objectives and environments worksheet

(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409)

List sites to

create, goals

for each site,

and

environmentsin which sites

will be used.

Users and user types worksheet


Record

number of

users, types

of users, and

user access

requirements.

7
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73270&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73270&clcid=0x409


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Chapter

overview: PlanWeb site

structure and

publishing

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Site hierarchy choices worksheet

(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73140&clcid=0x409)

Identify

shared orunique

elements, and

decide

whether to

create

subsites or

site

collections.

Site hierarchy planning tool (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?

LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409)

Create a site

hierarchydiagram in

Microsoft

Office Visio.

Site paths worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Record

managed

paths that

need to be

created for

hosting

collaboration

sites.



List sites to

create, goals

for each site,

and

environments

in which sites

will be used.

Chapter

overview: Plan

for content and

search

(Windows

SharePoint

Services)

Content type worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Plan a

content type.

8
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73140&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73149&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73311&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73140&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73149&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73311&clcid=0x409


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Document libraries worksheet


Plan libraries

based onsites and on

document

types.

Chapter

overview: Plan

site and content

security

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Administrators and owners worksheet


Record

owners for

each site

collection and

site.

Custom permission levels and groups worksheet


Record

custom

permission

levels and

groups that

need to be

created.

Site and content security worksheet


Record

inherited and

uniquepermissions;

record which

groups need

what level of

access.

Plan

communication

Plan for site

creation and

maintenance

Site creation worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Record a plan

for creating

sites.

9
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73312&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73128&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73133&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73136&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73139&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73312&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73128&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73133&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73136&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73139&clcid=0x409


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Site maintenance worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Record the

plan formaintaining

sites,

including

quota values

and automatic

deletion

choices.

Plan for and

design security

Planning worksheets by title

Use this worksheet For this task To do this

Administrators and owners worksheet


Chapter

overview:

Plan site and

content

security

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Record

owners for

each site

collection and

site.

Content type worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Chapter

overview:

Plan for

content and

search

(Windows

SharePoint

Services)

Plan a

content type.

10
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73145&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73128&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73311&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73311&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73145&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73128&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73311&clcid=0x409


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Custom permission levels and groups worksheet


Chapter

overview:Plan site and

content

security

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Record

custompermission

levels and

groups that

need to be

created.

Document libraries worksheet


Chapter

overview:

Plan for

content andsearch

(Windows

SharePoint

Services)

Plan libraries

based on

sites and on

documenttypes.

Site and content security worksheet


Chapter

overview:

Plan site and

content

security

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Record

inherited and

unique

permissions;

record which

groups need

what level of

access.

Site creation worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Plan for site

creation and

maintenance

Record a plan

for creating

sites.

Site hierarchy choices worksheet


Chapter

overview:

Plan Web site

structure and

publishing

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Identify

shared or

unique

elements, and

decide

whether to

create

subsites or

site

collections.

11
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73133&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73312&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73136&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73139&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73139&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73140&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73133&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73312&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73136&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73139&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73140&clcid=0x409


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Site hierarchy planning tool(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Chapter

overview:Plan Web site

structure and

publishing

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Create a site

hierarchydiagram in

Microsoft

Office Visio.

Site maintenance worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Plan for site

creation and

maintenance

Record the

plan for

maintaining

sites,including

quota values

and automatic

deletion

choices.



Chapter

overview:

Determine

organization

and user

needs

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Chapter

overview:

Plan Web site

structure and

publishing

[Windows

SharePointServices]

List sites to

create, goals

for each site,

and

environments

in which sites

will be used.

12
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73145&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73145&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73145&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409


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Site paths worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Chapter

overview:Plan Web site

structure and

publishing

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Record

managedpaths that

need to be

created for

hosting

collaboration

sites.

Users and user types worksheet


Chapter

overview:

Determine

organizationand user

needs

[Windows

SharePoint

Services]

Record

number of

users, types

of users, anduser access

requirements.

Workflows worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


Record

workflow

name, type,

purpose, and

details.

13
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73149&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73149&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73270&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73315&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73149&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73270&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73315&clcid=0x409


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I. Determine organization and user needsIn this chapter:

Chapter overview: Determine organization and user needs [Windows SharePoint

Services]

Determine objectives for sites

Determine user needs and features to use

Determine number of users and user types

14


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Chapter overview: Determineorganization and user needs

Each organization is looking for a solution that meets its unique requirements. This chapter

helps you identify your organization's requirements and determine which capabilities within

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can help you meet those requirements.

Whether you are a small business or department-level organization that wants to quickly

set up a place to share ideas or information, or a hosting company that wants to sell

services to other organizations, the information in this chapter helps you determine the

specific objectives for your sites, which capabilities to enable, and how to plan for your

specific sets of users.

Determine organization and user needs by using the following articles:

Determine objectives for sites helps you identify some primary objectives for your

SharePoint sites and consider the environments in which the sites will be used.

Determine user needs and features to use helps you identify user needs and then

map those user needs to features that you want to use in your sites.

Determine number of users and user types helps you determine server capacity

and any special features or settings you need to incorporate into your sites.

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Determine objectives for sitesIn this article:

Identify primary objectives for sites

Identify primary environments for sites

Worksheet

Before you can design your sites based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0,

you need to identify what you want to accomplish. This article helps you identify some

primary objectives for your SharePoint sites and consider the environments in which the

sites will be used.

Identify primary objectives for sitesSharePoint sites are flexible and can help you accomplish many different things. However,

to have a useful and successful site or group of sites, you need to be able to focus the sites

on some primary objectives. That is, you need to know what you are trying to accomplish

with a site before you can design it. For example:

Do you want to communicate with others in your organization by posting bulletins

or announcements and gathering feedback?

Do you want to foster team collaboration by giving team members a place to shareideas and work on projects together?

SharePoint sites can assist with both of these objectives. If you have multiple objectives,

you might best be served by creating multiple, possibly interrelated, sites. However, you

can have multiple objectives for a single site. If you are limited to a single site, organize the

site so that users looking for the communication point can find it right away, and users

looking to share information and ideas or store documents know where to start.

Review the following objectives. Consider which of these objectives most closely align with

your needs for each site you are designing.

Document storage

Document storage and workflow are key functions of many sites, even sites that are

primarily used for communication or collaboration. However, sometimes you might need a

dedicated document storage site for your organization. Whether you require a special site

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for document storage depends on many factors, such as how many documents need to be

stored, how many people are contributing documents, who needs to act on the documents,

and so on. You will have time to explore how to structure document storage later in the

planning process. For more information, seePlan document libraries (Windows SharePoint

Services).

Document storage sites or document storage sections of other sites often include the

following features:

The ability to check documents in or out, track changes to documents, and keep

multiple versions of documents.

The ability to route documents for approval or through specific processes before

publishing them to a larger audience.

Note:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes a workflow capability that you can

use to create a custom workflow process to route documents for approval.

The ability to tag documents with metadata, so that documents can be more

efficiently sorted and managed.

Communication

A communication site helps you broadcast information to a group of people and collect

information or feedback from that group. Communication sites are primarily concerned with

distributing information, data, and documents to other people. For example, a large

organization might have a central site for broadcasting organization-wide information about

policies or events (such as a human resources site or a company events site).

Many communication sites are also used for gathering and sharing information. For

example, a community bulletin board is primarily a communication site. People in the

community come to the site to read items and to post items for others to read.

Communication sites often include sections for:

Describing, publicizing, or announcing an event or other information.

Viewing calendar or event information.

Reading documents or editorial articles.

Posting or uploading information or documents.

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Collaboration

A collaboration site helps members of a team or organization work together. Collaboration

sites are primarily concerned with sharing information and documents, generating ideas,responding to other people's ideas, and tracking progress toward a goal.

Collaboration sites can vary depending on the team type, size, complexity, or objective. For

example, a small team that is working on a short-term project (such as organizing an

upcoming event or planning a new product launch) has different needs than a larger team

(such as a research department in a manufacturing company or the editorial staff in a

publishing company) that is working on a series of long-term projects. Members of an

organization working together to organize an event (such as a charity event) or to

encourage participation in the organization (such as a community or school organization)

have their own unique needs.

Collaboration sites often include sections for:

Sharing information and data.

Sharing documents.

Sharing calendar or event information.

Generating ideas and discussing ideas about a project.

Adding, assigning, and tracking tasks.

Worksheet action

Use the Site objectives and environmentsworksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?

LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409) to record which site

types you want to create.

Identify primary environments for sitesTo effectively plan your sites, you must identify for which environments the sites are

intended. Internet sites often have very different objectives and requirements than intranet

sites. For example, for an Internet site that you use to market a product, you typically do

not restrict who can view the content, but you tightly control who can add content to the

site. Conversely, for an intranet site meant for team collaboration, most users contribute

content and very few users just casually view the site. For some environments, the size of

your organization might influence your choices. For other environments, the mix of users

interacting in the environment might influence your choices.

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Consider which of the environments described in the following table are applicable to your

sites.

Type of site Factors that influence the

number of sites or type of

sites

Examples

Intranet The size of your organization Small organization

or small business

Department or group

within a larger

organization

Medium or large

organization

Extranet The mix of users, and use of

hosting

Combination intranet

and extranet, supported

by the organization

Combination intranet

and extranet, supported

by an external hosting

company

Extranet only,

supported by the

organization

Extranet only,

supported by an external

hosting company

Internet The mix of users, and use of

hosting

Internet site

supported by the

organization

Internet site

supported by an external

hosting company

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Worksheet action

Use the Site objectives and environments

worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409) to record which

environment the sites will be used in.

WorksheetUse the following worksheet to determine objectives for sites:

Site objectives and environments worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?

LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409)

20
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409


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Determine user needs and features touse

In this article:

Determine user needs

Special considerations

Map user needs to features and determine which features to use

Worksheet

In theDetermine objectives for sites article, you identified the objectives for the sites youwant to create in your Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 environment. In this

article, you will review those objectives and user needs, plus any special considerations.

Then, you will map those user needs to features that you want to use in your sites.

Determine user needsPreviously, you decided whether you were primarily creating sites for document storage,

communication, or collaboration. In addition to these high-level objectives, you need to

determine whether there are additional user needs you want to address by using your

SharePoint sites. For example, users might need to:

Interact with data and documents while traveling or working offline.

Send e-mail messages to other members of the community, send documents

through e-mail to a site, or archive e-mail messages in a site.

Quickly publish ideas on Internet blogs or wikis without requiring approval or

special permissions.

Stay informed about changes to the site.

Incorporate data from several sources.

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Worksheet action


worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409) to record any

additional needs your user community has or

requests that you have received from your users.

Special considerationsYour environment also influences your decisions about what your sites can contain. Identify

any special requirements or needs that you might have because of environmental factors.

Considerations include:

Client integration Which client applications do you have in your environment

that need to interact with your SharePoint sites?

Server integration Which servers in your environment need to interact with

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0?

Line-of-business application integration Are there any business applications

that need to be integrated with your SharePoint sites?

Add-on solutions, features, applications Are there any solutions that you have

in your current environment that need to be integrated with your SharePoint sites? If

you are upgrading, are there any solutions or applications that were integrated with a

previous version that need to be upgraded?

Hosting considerations If you are a hosting company, what do you need to do

to integrate with your billing, auditing, or other systems? Are there any features that

you want to provide at additional cost or features that you do not want to provide at all?

Map user needs to features and determinewhich features to use

The following tables include common list types, site types, and other features available in

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Map your user needs to particular features and reviewthe special planning considerations to determine if there are any requirements that you

need to meet or factors that you should consider before you use a particular feature.

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Communication features

Feature Description Special planning

considerations

Announcements Share news and information

with other site members.

Shared calendar Schedule and share event

information.

Links Share important links with

site members.

E-mail Send information to a site or

list, or to communicate with

all site members.

Requires an SMTP mail

server to authenticate users,

filter spam, and provide virusprotection for e-mail

messages. For more

information, seePlan

incoming e-mail (Windows

SharePoint Services).

Survey Gather data from site

members.

Presence Find out which site members

are online and ready to

communicate.

Requires a client application

to process the presence

information (such asWindows Messenger).

Collaboration features


considerations

Discussion board Share and generate ideas or

discuss solutions.

Issue tracking Track issues that site

members are working on.

Contacts Store contact information,

such as phone numbers,

addresses, and so on.

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Document storage and workflow features


considerations

Document library Store, share, present, and

track documents.

Consider content types and

metadata that you want to

support.

Picture library Store and share pictures.

Tasks Assign and track tasks.

Recycle Bin Recover deleted items,

documents, and lists.

Consider whether to turn on

Recycle Bins for site

collections.

Information management features

Feature Description Special planning considerations

Alert Track changes to

documents, items,

lists, libraries, or

the entire site.

RSS feed Subscribe to a site

and find out what is

new.

Requires RSS client application.

Auditing Flag what is

happening on the

site.

If you want specific auditing reports, you can

create them by using the object model. For

more information, see the Windows SharePoint

Server V3: Software Development Kit

(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=72207).

Offline Take documents or

lists offline to

continue working.

Requires client application.

Mobile View and

participate in the

site from mobile

devices.

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Feature Description Special planning considerations

Data connection Pull in data from

other applicationsand Web Parts to

display content

from other

systems.

Search Find information

within a specific

site, list, or

document library, or

across all sites in a

site collection.

For more information, see Plan for search

(Windows SharePoint Services).

Special site types


considerations

Blog Publish your thoughts and

ideas to share with the

community.

Permissions for blog sites

are configured differently

from other sites to prevent

people who can comment on

blog posts from creating

posts.

Wiki Participate in group content

authoring.

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considerations

Document Workspace Publish a document forreview or discussion.

Document Workspace sitescan easily multiply and get

lost. To more effectively

control your sites, use a

Document Workspace site

only when you need a

separate space with unique

permissions and additional

information about a particular

document. For general

collaboration on documents,

use document libraries

instead of Document

Workspace sites. Document

Workspace sites can be

created from several

Windows SharePoint

Services-compatible client

applications, such as

Microsoft Office Professional

2007.

Meeting Workspace Publish meeting agendas,notes, and follow up tasks in

one site.

Meeting Workspace sitescan also be created from

Windows SharePoint

Services-compatible client

applications, such as

Microsoft Office Outlook

2007.

Worksheet

Use the following worksheet to determine user needs and features:


LinkID=73269&clcid=0x409)

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Determine number of users and usertypes

In this article:

Determine number of users

Identify how users will interact with sites

Determine user access requirements

Worksheet

Part of understanding your organization's needs is to understand your users. How manyusers do you have in your organization? Will they all be using your sites based on

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 at the same time, and for the same reasons?

Are there special requirements in your environment that you need to plan for?

This article prompts you to ask questions about your users to help you determine not only

server capacity, but also any special features or settings you need to incorporate into your

sites.

Determine number of users

Step one in understanding your users is to estimate how many users will use yourSharePoint sites. Considerations include:

How many users in total do you expect to use your sites?

How many users do you expect to use your sites concurrently?

Worksheet action

Use the Users and user types worksheet

(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?

LinkId=73270&clcid=0x409) to record an

estimate of how many users will use your

sites.

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Identify how users will interact with sitesStep two is to identify how users will interact with your SharePoint sites. Identify what

percentage of users you expect to use specific feature sets in your sites. Considerations

include:

Communication Will users view announcements, calendars, and so on, or

contribute items to those lists?

Collaboration Will users add or change items in task lists or discussion boards?

Document storage Will users save to document libraries, or check documents in

and out?

Search Will users search for people, content, or information in the sites?

Third-party and earlier systems integration Will users query for data in a

database to display in a list or Web Part?

Worksheet action

Use the Users and user types worksheet


LinkId=73270&clcid=0x409) to record how users

will interact with your sites.

Determine user access requirementsStep three is to determine any special access requirements that your users might need.

Most of these requirements must be taken into account when configuring your servers and

making authentication choices. Considerations include:

Remote access Do users need to access your sites from outside of your

domain?

Internet access Do you need to expose your sites to the Internet?

Mobile access Do users need to be able to access your site from a mobile

device, such as a mobile phone?

Offline capabilities Do users need to be able to take the content offline and work

on it when not connected to your sites?

Anonymous users Do you require users to be able access the site

anonymously?

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Worksheet action

Use the Users and user types worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?

LinkId=73270&clcid=0x409) to record any special

access requirements for your sites.

WorksheetUse the following worksheet to determine the number of users and user types:

Users and user types worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?


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II. Plan Web site structure and publishing

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Chapter overview: Plan Web sitestructure and publishing

The effectiveness of a site, or a group of sites, depends on many factors, but key among

them is the ability to predictably locate the site and the content that you need within the

site. The structure of a site or group of sites and the navigation inside and among sites are

key to helping users find and share information and work together.

Depending on your role in the planning process, you may delve into your site structure and

navigation at different levels.

If you are a member of the IT group for your organization and are not involved

in planning the content in individual sites, but rather the overall framework for sites

use the following articles to plan site structure and navigation:

Determine paths for sites [Windows SharePoint Services]helps you decide

which paths to use for your sites.

Determine sites and subsites needed [Windows SharePoint Services] provides

information for site or application administrators who are creating sites.

If you are an administrator of a site and simply want to work on the structure of

your own individual site, use the following articles to plan site structure and navigation:

Determine sites and subsites needed [Windows SharePoint Services] provides

information for site or application administrators who are creating sites.

Plan site navigation [Windows SharePoint Services]helps you design the

navigation for your site.

Determine individual site content needs and structure helps you determine

what to put in your site and how to organize the content so that it is useful.

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Determine paths for sitesIn this article:

Specific paths

Additional paths

Worksheet

Specific pathsYou have the ability to use specific paths in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to

contain your SharePoint site collections, similar to the way that folders contain files or

documents in the file system. By default, when you create a Web application, two paths are

created for you:

Root path (/) This is an explicit inclusion that can contain one site collection. For

example, if you want a URL to appear as http://company_name/default.aspx, you

would create the site collection at this root path.

Sites path (/sites) This is a wildcard inclusion that can contain many site

collections. For example, when you use the /sites path, the URL for a site named

Site_A would be similar to http://server_name/sites/Site_A/default.aspx.

Note:

The name of the /sites path varies depending on the installation language.

Additional pathsYou can also create additional paths, allowing you to group site collections. Then, when

you create a site collection, you can choose to:

Create the site collection at the root of the Web application (if no site collection has

already been created there).

Create the site collection under the /sites path.

Create the site collection under any additional paths that have been made

available for that Web application.

In general, the /sites path should be sufficient for most installations. However, consider

using other paths for the following situations:

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You have a complex installation and anticipate having a large number of site

collections, and you want to group similar sites together. For example, you could use

/personal for individual user sites and /team for group collaboration sites, rather than

using /sites for all.

You want to be able to add a filter to your firewall or router to constrain a specific

namespace to internal access only. For example, you could expose the /team path for

external collaboration but not /personal.

Worksheet action

Use the Site paths worksheet


LinkId=73149&clcid=0x409) to record your

decision to use paths, and specify which pathsyou need to create to organize your SharePoint

sites.

If you have decided to use specific paths for your SharePoint sites, you can set them up

after deployment.

WorksheetUse the following worksheet when you determine paths for sites:

Site paths worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73149&clcid=0x409)

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Determine sites and subsites neededIn this article:

Determine number of sites and site collections

Decide whether to use individual site collections or subsites within one site

collection

Design site hierarchy

Worksheets

The information in this article is for site or application administrators who are creating sites

by using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. If you are hosting sites, but notdesigning or creating the sites, you can skip this article and continue on with the planning

process.

Determine number of sites and site collectionsSharePoint sites work best when they are focused on a single effort or are used by a single

team. They become difficult to maintain, out of date, and less useful when too many people

are coming to the site for different things. For example, if the same site is used for tracking

customers, storing company policies, and sharing documents about products under

development, the site is much more difficult to organize and can quickly become cluttered.

On the other hand, if you have too many sites, it can be difficult to locate the information

that you need.

A number of factors go into the decision of how many sites and site collections you need,

including:

How many users will use the sites.

How the users are related to each other or interact with each other.

How the users will use the site.

What type of content you expect to store in the sites.

The complexity of information that you are trying to organize.

Review your list of site purposes and users, and decide how many individual sites you

need.

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Worksheet action


worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73269&clcid=0x409) to review your list of

sites.

Decide whether to use individual sitecollections or subsites within one sitecollection

You must decide whether to create your sites as top-level Web sites in separate site

collections, or as subsites within the same site collection. This decision is based on how

much the sites have in common with each other, whether you want to be able to manage

them individually, and whether you want them to share elements, such as navigation or

search.

Within a site collection, all sites can use the same:

Navigation bars (top link bar and breadcrumb navigation)

Content types

Workflows

Security groups

Lookup fields across lists

Search scope

Feature set

Choose top-level Web sites in separate site collections when you:

Need separate security for different sites.

Note:

Although you can have unique permissions for a subsite, at times you might

want to be sure that there are no users and permissions in common betweentwo sites. In those cases, you should use separate site collections.

Might need to move the site collection to a different database in the future.

Want to be able to back up or restore that site only.

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Want to be able to scope a workflow to that site only.

Want to have a separate search scope for that site only.

Want to use quotas to separately manage the amount of space that each site takes

up.

Want to decentralize your administration and have site collection administrators

perform tasks, such as approving requests for access or confirming site use.

Choose subsites within the same site collection when you:

Want to share navigation between sites.

Want to have subsites inherit permissions from parent sites.

Want to share lists between sites.

Want to share design elements (such as themes or styles) between sites.

Worksheet action

Use the Site hierarchy choices worksheet


LinkId=73140&clcid=0x409) to record your

decisions about whether to create separate site

collections or subsites within a site collection.

Design site hierarchyDevelop your site hierarchy by using whatever method works best for you. Be sure to

identify which sites are top-level sites in a site collection and which are subsites of other

sites.

Worksheet action

Use the Site hierarchy planning tool


LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409) (a downloadable

Microsoft Office Visio file) or other method to

create a site hierarchy diagram, including all site

collections, top-level Web sites, and subsites that

you need.

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WorksheetsUse the following worksheets to plan sites and subsites:

Site hierarchy choices worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?



LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409) (a downloadable Microsoft Office Visio file)



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Plan site navigationIn this article:

Create a site navigation diagram

Understanding shared navigation

Determine which sites share the top link bar

Determine which additional links to add manually to the top link bar

Worksheets

Use this article to design the navigation for your site.

Create a site navigation diagramMake a diagram of the sites you want to create. For example, the following diagram is for a

small travel company named Margie's Travel. The company has a set of internal sites to

help them organize their core business, which is planning conventions.

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Your diagram might include a single site collection, such as the example for Margie's

Travel, or it might have multiple site collections if you have a more complex set of sites. Be

sure to include all top-level Web sites, subsites, Meeting Workspace or Document

Workspace sites, and other sites that you plan to create and leave room for future

expansion.

You might also want to include the lists and libraries for each site, especially if you are

deciding whether to create a subsite for document storage or one or more document

libraries. For more information about planning lists and document libraries, see Chapter

overview: Plan for content and search (Windows SharePoint Services).

Worksheet action

Use the Site hierarchy planning tool

(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409) (a downloadable

Microsoft Office Visio file) or other method to

review your site hierarchy diagram. Add your

navigation plan to this diagram.

Understanding shared navigationThe top link bar appears at the top of all pages in the site, below the site title. You can

share the top link bar between sites in a site collection, or have a unique top link bar for

each site.

The top link bar can display two levels of sites in a site collection. For example, the top link

bar for the Margie's Travel site collection might contain links for Margie's Travel Home,

Office Management, Convention Planning, and Sales and Marketing. In this example, the

top link bar looks like the following:

Home | Office Management | Convention Planning | Sales and Marketing

Note:

Although the top link bar can display two levels of sites, this does not mean that all

subsites at the second level have to be displayed on the top link bar. You can

determine whether or not a subsite appears on the top link bar when you create it,or by configuring the navigation later in Site Settings.

However, by default, sites at a third level in the hierarchy do not appear on the top link bar

for the top-level Web site, even if they share the navigation. For example, the Tips and

Reports sites would not appear on the top link bar of Margie's Travel Home because they

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are subsites of the Convention Planning site. If you want these sites to appear, you can

manually add them to the top link bar, or create them at the second level in the site

hierarchy (as subsites under Margie's Travel Home, rather than as subsites under the

Convention Planning site).

The top link bar cannot be shared between sites in different site collections. However, you

can always manually add a link to a site in a different site collection.

Determine which sites share the top link barIf you want the Home tab of a subsite to take you to the subsite's home page instead of the

shared navigation's home page, then you should use unique navigation. Otherwise, you

should use shared navigation. For example, the Margie's Travel site collection could share

the top links among all of the second-level sites, so that all sites have the same navigation:

Home | Office Management | Convention Planning | Sales and Marketing

This works for a small team, such as in Margie's Travel, where all of the users in the

organization work with all of the sites. Each user in the site collection uses each of the

sites, so a shared top link bar is useful. However, if the Convention Planning and Sales and

Marketing teams work fairly independently and do not need access to each other's sites,

then the navigation for Margie's Travel could be customized to be shared at the second

level, rather than the top level, as in the following:

Margie's Travel Home site: Home | Office Management

Convention Planning site: Convention Planning | Tips | Blogs

Sales and Marketing site: Sales and Marketing

Keep in mind that the new global breadcrumb navigation always contains a link back to the

top-level site in the site collection. Therefore, even though users of the Convention

Planning site cannot go to Margie's Travel Home from the top link bar, they can go directly

to it from the global breadcrumb navigation.

Note:

Although the choice of whether or not to share a navigation bar is made during site

creation, you can change this option later. You might have to manually create links

if you change your mind, but you can do so easily by using the Top Link Barpage

in Site Settings for the affected sites.

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Determine which additional links to addmanually to the top link bar

Whether or not you decide to share the top link bar, you can customize the top link bar to

include links to any other URL that you need. Depending on the extent of customization

you need, you can choose between the following methods to customize the top link bar:

If you want to add, remove, or rearrange the links in a top link bar, use the Top

Link Barpage in Site Settings for the site.

If you want to create an entirely custom top link bar, and apply it to all sites in a site

collection, or to sites in different site collections, use SharePoint Designer or Microsoft

Visual Studio. For more information, see the Windows SharePoint Services

(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=72207&clcid=0x409).

Worksheet action

Use the Site hierarchy choices worksheet


LinkId=73140&clcid=0x409) to review your site

and subsite decisions and record decisions about

how to structure the site navigation.

WorksheetsUse the following worksheets to plan site navigation: Site hierarchy choices worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?



LinkId=73144&clcid=0x409) (a downloadable Microsoft Office Visio file)

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Determine individual site content needsand structure

In this article:

Formal: Survey stakeholders and users

Informal: Rough organization with room to evolve

Creating a site is a quick process, but deciding what content to put in the site and how to

organize the content so that it is useful takes some time. You can approach this task in

many ways, but two recommended ways are:

Formal method Survey your stakeholders and users to determine what they

want to see in the site. Follow this formal process if you are creating a large or

strategic site, with multiple audiences coming to it for different needs. It takes careful

planning and review to ensure that all audiences can come to the site, find what they

need, contribute appropriately, and continue with their work.

Informal method Begin with a rough organization for the site, and from there, let

it evolve based on user needs and feedback. Follow this informal process if you have a

small, more casual collaboration site where most of the users are working on the same

set of tasks in a similar way.

In theDetermine objectives for sites article, you identified the objectives that most closely

aligned with your site needs. Use these objectives to help you identify a method for

determining your individual site content and structure.

Document storage site Depending on anticipated complexity, you might want to

follow either the formal or informal method. If you are building a large site to store

documents from several disparate teams, then you should approach the task of

organization formally. If this is just a small storage space for working documents used

by your team, then an informal process might suffice.

Communication site You might need to follow the more formal method and

determine exactly who is coming to the site for what information, and how to guide

them there.

Collaboration site You can probably follow the informal method, allowing the site

to grow and evolve as needed.

The following sections explain the process for each method.

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Formal: Survey stakeholders and usersIf you need to pursue a formal planning process for your sites, you need to create a formal

planning committee to obtain input from stakeholders and to perform the following steps:

1. Determine audience needs by performing an audience and stakeholder survey.

Find out what information each audience segment or stakeholder expects to see or

interact with.

2. Determine content needs by performing a content survey. Review and inventory

current content, content planned for the future, and underused or hard-to-find content,

and estimate the expected change in content over time.

3. Design your information architecture. Include which lists or libraries are needed to

organize information, what needs to be promoted on home pages, and whether or not

you need custom navigation to expose the information architecture to site users.4. Ask your target users and stakeholders to review prototypes of the information

architecture. Evaluate whether they find the information they need in your prototype.

Performing a content survey

Prior to planning your site structure, you must understand the content that you already

have in your organization. By conducting a survey of your current content, you can identify

content needs and design and deploy a solution that addresses those content needs.

There are several specific elements you should include in your content survey, including:

Number of documents. Location of documents.

Document types, both in terms of file types and classification.

People and business structure.

Content approval processes and workflow.

You can use your content survey to prioritize important content and suggest a structure for

that content. Content planning usually proceeds in stages. In the first stage, you make

large-scale structural decisions, such as which divisions or projects have separate content

needs and how many sites are needed for each separate body of content. Then, content

planning teams for each site, usually aligned to divisions or projects, decide on theappropriate structure to address the content needs at their level. This might require revision

of the large-scale structure as new content needs are identified. You might go through

several planning stages before deployment, and continue to plan for changes even after

your sites are operational.

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Informal: Rough organization with room toevolve

When you are creating an informal site, you can start out with a less rigid process, which

might include the following steps:

1. If you are integrating existing content into a new site, take some time to evaluate

what content you have and what you want to put into the site.

2. Then, generate ideas about what you think the site should include and create a

"must have" list. For example, a team collaboration site might include:

Documents (project documents, plans, proposals, presentations, bids

anything that your team needs to read or contribute to).

Team schedules (holiday schedules, individual work and vacation schedules,

project schedules, and so on). You can log shared events on your site and display

then in Calendar view.

Contact information (team members, partners, customers, suppliers and

vendors, and so on). You can create separate contact lists for internal and external

contacts, or mix them by using fields that you can sort and filter.

Tasks or assignments (identify who is doing what).

Frequently used links to other Web sites (including sites about related projects

or teams).

Important announcements or news that your whole team needs to hear about.

A blog perhaps as the public face for your collaboration site.

3. Review any user scenarios you might have and think about what you might look for

in the site if you were a particular user.

4. Add any missing elements to your original list, and if possible, have the list

reviewed by a few target users.

After you have identified the rough elements, you can get started with the site, and let the

team members work on the organization as they go.

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III. Plan for content and search

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Chapter overview: Plan for content andsearch

As the administrator, owner, or designer of a site based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint

Services 3.0, you are responsible for structuring the content in your site and making it easy

for users to find, contribute to, and work with that content. If you are creating a casual or

temporary collaboration site, you may be able to allow content to evolve as the site is

adopted. However, if you want your site to be useful in the long term, you need to pay

attention to how the information in your site is stored and displayed. The following articles

will assist you as you plan the content for your site:

Plan lists (Windows SharePoint Services) provides information about which lists tocreate, what field types to use for your data, and what views you may need to create

for your lists.

Plan document libraries (Windows SharePoint Services) provides information

about how to store documents in your site and how to control versioning, approval, and

other processes so your documents stay up to date.

Plan content types (Windows SharePoint Services)provides information about

when to use content types, and what content types to create so that similar data in

your site produces similar experiences.

Plan workflows (Windows SharePoint Services) provides information about when

to create workflows and how to structure them.

Plan for search (Windows SharePoint Services)provides information about how

searching works for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and how to manage search

settings.

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Plan listsA list is a collection of information that you share with Web site members. For example, you

can create a sign-up sheet for an event, track project status information, or share upcoming

vacation times on a team calendar.

In this article:

Included lists

About working with lists

Plan for custom lists

Worksheet

Included listsMicrosoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes the following types of lists by default:

Announcements Use an announcements list to share news and status and to

provide reminders. Announcements support enhanced formatting with images,

hyperlinks, and formatted text.

Calendar Use a calendar for all of your team's events, or for specific situations

such as company holidays. A calendar provides visual views similar to a desk or

wall calendar of your team events, including meetings, social events, and all-day

events. You can also track team milestones, such as deadlines or product release

dates, that are not related to a specific time interval. If you are using an e-mail or

calendar program that is compatible with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can

view and update your Microsoft SharePoint team calendar from the calendar

program. You can also copy events from your personal calendar onto the team

calendar and vice versa. For example, you can compare and update your calendar on

the SharePoint site with dates from your Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 calendar, by

viewing both calendars side by side or overlaid with each other in Office Outlook

2007. In addition, you can enable e-mail integration for this type of list and send

meeting requests to your team site calendar so that team meetings are automatically

added to the team calendar.

Contacts Use a contacts list to store information about people or groups that you

work with. If you are using an e-mail or contact management program that is

compatible with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can view and update your

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contacts from your SharePoint site in the other program. For example, you can update

a list of all your organization's suppliers from Office Outlook 2007. A contacts list

doesn't actually manage the members of your site, but it can be used to store and

share contacts for your organization such as a list of external vendors.

Custom Although you can customize any list, you can also start with a custom

list and then customize that list by adding only the columns you want. You can also

create a list that is based on a spreadsheet, if you have a spreadsheet program that is

compatible with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Windows SharePoint

Services 2.0, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. For example, you can import a list from

one that you created with Microsoft Office Excel 2007 to store and manage contracts

with vendors.

Discussion boards Use a discussion board to provide a central place to record

and store team discussions. The format of a discussio