SharePoint Office Pocket Guide

What Software Do You Need?

SharePoint was designed to be used by different types of members with various responsibilities. Each team member's software needs depend on his role, as shown in Table 1-3.

Table 1-3. Software needs for different team members

Role	Responsibilities	Software needed
Administrator	Creates team sites, adds members	Web browser, Remote Desktop Connection utility included with Windows XP Professional (recommended)
Designer	Designs pages on site, creates site templates	FrontPage 2003
Contributor	Adds documents, lists, tasks, announcements, etc.	Office 2003
Contributor with data entry	Completes InfoPath forms	Office 2003, InfoPath 2003
Reader	Views sites and documents, but does not make changes	Office Reader
Programmer	Creates custom web parts	Visual Studio .NET, FrontPage 2003, InfoPath

Where's the server software? Actually, you don't need physical access to a SharePoint server to create or manage SharePoint sites. All those tasks can be done remotely from your own PC by viewing one of the administrative web pages in the browser. So, you have a few choices for how to get a SharePoint server:

• If you don't want to own and operate your own server, you can purchase SharePoint services on a monthly basis from an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is a simple and inexpensive way to try SharePoint out. In fact, Apptix offers a free 30-day trial at http://www.sharepointtrial.com/welcome.aspx.

• If you want your own server, you'll need Windows 2003. SharePoint is part of Windows 2003, so you can ...