SharePoint For Dummies

All you need to know about SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server

SharePoint is an enterprise portal server living under the Microsoft Office umbrella. It can be used as a local installation (on-premises) or an online service. The SharePoint Online service comes bundled with Office 365. You can use SharePoint to aggregate sites, information, data, and applications into a single portal. SharePoint 2019 contains highly integrated features that allow you to work with it directly from other Office products such as Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and many others.

SharePoint For Dummies provides a thorough update on how to make the most of all the new SharePoint and Office features—while still building on the great and well-reviewed content in the prior editions. The book shows those new to SharePoint or new to SharePoint 2019 how to get up and running so that you and your team can become productive with this powerful tool.

• Find high-level, need-to-know information for “techsumers”, administrators, and admins
• Learn how SharePoint Online can get you started in minutes without the hassle and frustration of building out your own servers
• Find everything you need to know about the latest release of SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server

Get your hands on the best guide on the market for SharePoint!

Rosemarie Withee is President of Portal Integrators and Founder of Scrum Now with offices in Seattle, WA. Ken Withee currently works for Microsoft and is part of the Microsoft 365 team. Before joining Microsoft he was a longtime SharePoint consultant and the author of several books on Microsoft products.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started with SharePoint 5

Chapter 1: Getting to Know SharePoint 7

Up and Running with SharePoint in Three Minutes Flat 8

Wrapping Your Head around SharePoint 12

No, really, what is SharePoint? 12

A Microsoft product 14

Many different SharePoint definitions 14

More than a website 16

Taking a Peek at a SharePoint Site 17

Getting Familiar with SharePoint Terminology 20

Branding 20

Business intelligence (BI) 20

eDiscovery 21

Identity management 21

Mobile 22

Records management and compliance 22

Search 23

Social 23

Web content management 23

Workflow 24

Chapter 2: Introducing SharePoint in Office 365 25

Accessing and Using SharePoint 26

Getting Familiar with SharePoint Online 26

Determining What Version of SharePoint You are Using 28

Understanding Why SharePoint Online Has Become So Popular 28

Differences between SharePoint Online and SharePoint On-Premises 29

Exploring the Benefits of SharePoint Online 31

Data center and hardware 31

Software platform 32

Backup, redundancy, and security 33

Chapter 3: Wrangling SharePoint Functionality 35

Coming to Terms with Website Templates 35

Show Me the Apps 37

Working with Web Pages 38

Site page 39

Wiki page 39

Web Part page 40

Publishing page 40

Understanding Web Parts 40

Digging into SharePoint Features 41

Integrating with Office 2019 42

Part 2: Diving Headfirst into SharePoint 43

Chapter 4: Discovering SharePoint in Your Pocket 45

Installing the SharePoint Mobile App 45

Installing on iOS 46

Installing on Android 46

Signing into the SharePoint Mobile App 47

Finding Your SharePoint Stuff with the Find Tab 49

Exploring a SharePoint site 50

Opening navigation 51

Getting the Latest News with the News Tab 52

All About You with the Me Tab 53

Chapter 5: Understanding SharePoint Sites and Hub Sites 55

Accessing SharePoint Sites in Office 365 55

Exploring the SharePoint Team Site 57

Finding your way around 58

Uploading documents 59

Sharing your team site 59

Creating a SharePoint Site 63

Create a site from your web browser 63

Create a site from the SharePoint Mobile App 66

Requesting a SharePoint Site 67

Grouping Sites with Hub Sites 68

Chapter 6: Working with Web Pages and Web Parts 71

Understanding SharePoint Web Pages 72

Creating a Site page 72

Creating a Web Part page 72

Creating a Wiki page 75

Introducing the Ribbon 76

Deciding What Type of Page to Create 77

Digging into Web Parts 77

Adding a Web Part to Your Page 78

Choosing the Right Web Part 81

Changing Web Part Properties 84

Reviewing Web Part properties 84

Editing Web Part properties 85

Minimizing or deleting Web Parts 86

Connecting Web Parts 87

Managing Pages 89

Categorizing Your Wiki Pages 89

Taking a Sneak Peek into Custom Page Designs 91

Chapter 7: Adding Content to SharePoint 93

SharePoint as a Content Management System 93

Wrangling the Overwhelming Mountain of Digital Content 94

Getting Your Documents into SharePoint 95

Uploading a single document 96

Uploading multiple documents 97

Updating document properties using Quick Edit view 98

Creating New Content in SharePoint 99

Using the SharePoint Mobile App to Peek at Content on the Go 100

Chapter 8: Discovering SharePoint in Microsoft Teams 103

Using Teams in Office 365 103

Understanding the Marriage of SharePoint and Teams 105

Accessing SharePoint files in Teams 105

Using the Teams wiki and finding it in SharePoint 107

Adding SharePoint Pages and Lists to Teams 107

Chapter 9: Working with SharePoint from Microsoft Office 111

Getting Familiar with Office Versioning 111

Working with Office on Your Desktop or Laptop 112

Installing Microsoft Office 112

Saving a new document to SharePoint 114

Opening a document from SharePoint 116

Working with Office on Your Smartphone or Tablet 118

Saving a new document to SharePoint 118

Opening a document from SharePoint 119

Chapter 10: Getting Social 121

Sharing and Following SharePoint Sites 122

Setting up alerts 124

Managing alerts 127

Staying Up to Date with News 129

Information Sharing with Blogs and Wikis 130

Creating a blog site 130

Posting to a blog 131

Using wikis to collaborate and coauthor 131

Communicating with Discussion Boards 134

Creating a Discussion Board app 134

Posting and replying to a subject 134

Connecting with Others Using RSS Feeds 135

Viewing RSS feeds 136

Reading RSS feeds with Outlook 138

Using Comments in a SharePoint site 139

Part 3: Customizing SharePoint 141

Chapter 11: Customizing SharePoint with Apps 143

Introducing SharePoint Apps 144

Adding Apps to Your Site 144

Accessing App Settings 146

Configuring the General Settings 148

Changing the title, description, and navigation 149

Versioning settings 149

Advanced settings 152

Validation settings 156

Audience Targeting settings 157

Rating settings 157

Form settings 158

Developing a Custom App 158

Planning Your App 158

Creating Your App 159

Adding columns to your app 160

Working with the Title column 167

Importing a Spreadsheet as an App 169

Taking Your App to the Next Level: Calculated and Lookup Columns 171

Creating a calculated column 171

Using a lookup column 172

Keeping Track of Locations 173

Downloading Apps from the SharePoint Store 174

Chapter 12: Taking Control of Your Profile and Content 175

Organizing Your Personal Content with OneDrive 175

Saving stuff with OneDrive 177

Creating or uploading documents in your OneDrive 178

Expressing Yourself with Your Profile 179

Creating a holistic profile experience 180

Filling in your profile information 180

Tracking Your Favorite Sites 182

Reaching Out with a Blog 183

Chapter 13: Organizing and Viewing Content 187

Working with Documents 187

Using the ellipsis 188

Editing a document’s properties 190

Viewing documents in the browser 190

Sharing Your Documents 192

Recovering Deleted Documents 192

Uploading Documents into a Folder 194

Discovering SharePoint Views 197

Switching the view 197

Getting to know view formats 199

Creating a Standard View 200

Choosing columns for your view 202

Filtering apps with views 203

Grouping results 204

Quickly edit app data with Quick Edit 205

Choosing a display style 206

Managing App Data in a Datasheet View 207

Using Ad Hoc Views 208

Creating a Calendar View 209

Displaying Tasks in a Gantt View 209

Managing Existing Views 210

Modifying your views 210

Setting the default view 211

Other SharePoint built-in views 211

Displaying Views via Web Parts 212

Chapter 14: Creating Workflows with Microsoft Flow 213

Understanding Workflow 214

Introducing Microsoft Flow 214

Signing into Microsoft Flow 214

Getting familiar with Flow 215

Building your first flow 216

Using the Traditional SharePoint-Only Workflow 219

Getting Up to Speed on SharePoint Designer 220

Connecting to a SharePoint site 220

Creating a workflow 222

Rediscovering the Out-of-the-Box Approval Workflow 223

Chapter 15: Getting Answers with Microsoft Forms 225

Signing into Microsoft Forms 225

Creating a Form in Microsoft Forms 226

Analyzing Microsoft Forms Data 229

Displaying a Form in SharePoint 230

Capturing Forms Data in SharePoint 232

Part 4: Becoming a SharePoint Administrator 233

Chapter 16: Building Business Apps with PowerApps 235

Introducing PowerApps 235

Signing into PowerApps 236

Getting familiar with PowerApps 236

Building your first PowerApp 237

Sharing your PowerApp 241

Using PowerApps on your Mobile Device 241

Embedding a PowerApp within a SharePoint Page 242

Viewing SharePoint Sites in a Web Browser on a Mobile Device 243

Creating views for small screens 244

Targeting devices using channels 245

Chapter 17: Realizing You are a SharePoint Administrator 247

Changing Your Site’s Basic Information 248

Finding Site Settings 249

Digging into Site Settings 251

Look and Feel 251

Site Actions 254

Site Collection Administration 254

Web Designer Galleries 255

Site Administration 256

Search 257

Getting a High-Level View of SharePoint Features 259

Turning Features On and Off 260

Exploring Common Features 261

Extending SharePoint with Features 262

Changing the Look and Feel of Your Site 262

A note on fonts 264

A word on usability 265

The benefits of composed looks 266

Checking Out SharePoint Metrics 266

Chapter 18: Configuring Site Navigation 267

Changing Team Site Navigation 268

Staying local with Quick Launch 268

Adding quick links to a page 270

Taking on Advanced Navigation 273

Configuring SharePoint navigation 273

Configuring global navigation 274

Configuring current navigation 276

Configuring Static Navigation 277

Navigating with Web Parts 279

Understanding Managed Navigation 280

Chapter 19: Creating a Client or Partner Portal 281

Sharing a Site with External Guests 281

Inviting Guests Using Outlook Groups 285

Planning for Your Client or Guest Portal 286

Launching Your Portal 287

Creating a Public-Facing Website 288

GoDaddy 289

Wix 290

Working with an Existing SharePoint Online Public-Facing Website 291

Reviewing what you get with your site 291

Adding and editing web pages 292

Updating page properties 294

Changing the site’s look and feel 294

Using a vanity domain 294

Chapter 20: Securing SharePoint 297

Using SharePoint Groups 298

Adding users to a group 298

Understanding the permission structure 300

Securing a site collection 301

Securing Apps, Folders, Documents, and Items 302

Creating unique permissions for a subsite 303

Removing existing permissions 304

Creating unique permissions for an app or document 304

Managing permissions scenarios 306

Viewing a group’s permissions 307

Checking a user’s permissions 308

Granting Administrative Access 309

Viewing Site Permissions 311

Viewing Publishing Infrastructure Feature Site Permissions 314

Locking Down a Partner Portal 314

Permissions in SharePoint Online versus SharePoint On-Premises 315

Going Further with Custom Permissions 315

Part 5: Managing Enterprise Content 317

Chapter 21: Managing Content and the Content Lifecycle 319

Checking a Document In and Out 319

Configuring Content Approval 322

Turning on content approval 323

Identifying approvers 324

Casting an approving eye 325

Disapproving: Not just for stern parents 326

Getting alerts on approval/rejection status 326

Digging into a SharePoint Records Center 327

Defining the terms 327

Creating information management policies 328

Setting Up a Records Center 332

Using the Content Organizer 333

Managing Records in Place 335

Placing Records on Litigation Hold 336

Chapter 22: Finding What You Need with Search 339

Understanding How SharePoint Search Works 339

Searching for Content 340

Searching for a string using quotation marks 340

Wildcard searches 341

Including and excluding terms 342

Building compound search queries using Boolean operators 342

Getting fancy with the parentheses 343

Finding terms in proximity 344

Same meaning, different terms 344

Viewing and Refining Search Results 345

Making Search Your Users’ Best Friend 346

Removing Content from Search Results 351

Reviewing Search Analytics 352

Adding a Search Center Site 352

Chapter 23: Integrating with Power BI 355

Signing into Power BI 355

Installing the Power BI Desktop 356

Building Your First Power BI Report 358

Pulling Data into Power BI from SharePoint 360

SharePoint Library app 360

SharePoint List app 361

Displaying a Power BI Report on a SharePoint Page 362

Part 6: The Part of Tens 365

Chapter 24: Ten Hot SharePoint 2019 Topics 367

Getting Up to Speed with SharePoint 367

SharePoint Online Videos 368

SharePoint Online Official Documentation 368

SharePoint Development 368

SharePoint Workflow 368

Taking SharePoint for a Spin 369

Staying Current: The SharePoint Blog 369

New On-Premises Features in SharePoint 2019 370

Plan for SharePoint 370

SharePoint from the Leader 371

Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Maintain Control with Governance 373

Failure is Not an Option (Neither is Looking Away and Whistling) 373

Getting Executive Buy-In and Support 374

Building an Effective Governance Group 374

Finding the Right Level 375

Yours, Mine, Ours: Deciding Who Owns What 375

(Re)Visiting Social Networking Policies 376

Design and Branding 376

Content Management 377

Reusing Web Parts 377

Keeping Things Current: Web Operations Management 377

Chapter 26: Ten Ways to Become a SharePoint Server Guru 379

Getting Information from the Horse’s Mouth 380

Reading SharePoint Blogs 381

Finding Local User Groups 382

Building a Virtual Lab 382

Starting with a Good Foundation 383

Borrowing from Others 383

Getting Certified 384

Taking a Peek under the Covers 384

Digging Deeper under the Covers 384

Deconstructing a SharePoint Site 385

Index 387

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.