Sharing Information

In an office, one of the most common barriers to sharing information is figuring out where to put it. If you store documents on your own hard drive, you have to figure out how to give other people secure access. On a network server, you have to deal with filenames, permis­sions, and the logistics of figuring out how to get people working cooperatively.

Several years ago, Microsoft introduced SharePoint Team Services and SharePoint Portal Server—two versions of a Web-based server package designed to make it easy for members of a workgroup to communicate, collaborate, and share information with one another, preferably while using Office XR As befits a Microsoft "version 1.0" product, the two mem­bers of the SharePoint family were loaded with promise but also plagued by design limita­tions and some usability snafus.

With the release of Office 2003, Microsoft has updated its SharePoint servers as well. The two products are considerably more usable and useful than their predecessors, and they inte­grate tightly with Office 2003.

SharePoint services expand the capabilities of a Web server to allow members of a team to store docu­ments, carry on discussions in a threaded bulletin-board format, create lists, and share tasks, contacts, and calendars. The server administrator defines permissions for team members, giving some full administrative rights over the team Web sites and allowing others rights to upload files, change documents, or create new special-purpose sites.

SharePoint sites come in two varieties:

• Windows SharePoint Services is an add-on to Windows Server 2003. It replaces the previous FrontPage Server Extensions and SharePoint Team Services. Its primary pur­pose is to create a customizable Web site for a single team.
• SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is an enterprise-strength version of the same software that adds the capability to integrate business applications, create separate sites for dif­ferent business units, and take advantage of sophisticated document workflow systems.

Questionnaire:

• Explain about Sharing Information in MS office?