SharePoint 2010 at Work

Preface

Most people have heard the timeless parable of the six blind men trying to describe an elephant. Each man touches the elephant and, based upon the part of the body he touches, proceeds to give a definitive description of “an elephant.” None of the descriptions are correct, and yet they are all correct. Talking about SharePoint, even for those of us who have worked with it for years, is like a blind man describing an elephant. It is impossible, and yet we do it every day.

The NothingButSharePoint/EndUserSharePoint community site that I run has hundreds of contributors trying to describe the SharePoint elephant on a daily basis. They examine the beast from every angle, as a Developer, as an IT Pro, or as an End User, each with a different perspective and for different reasons. This book is a compilation of stories from the end user perspective, for those who must use and support SharePoint at their companies but don’t have access to the technical server side of the platform.

Background

My official title in the SharePoint Community is Mark Miller, Senior Storyteller. As such, I like to think of the articles provided to EndUserSharePoint (EUSP) as stories, not blog posts. We “publish” content each day, as opposed to “posting” content. There’s a subtle distinction. Publishing insinuates something more than a simple thought dashed off and posted in a matter of minutes. To publish means the item is meant to be read as a thoughtful narrative. It is implied that there is an idea behind ...