Windows Sharepoint Services Overview
Windows Sharepoint Services allows teams to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration, benefits that help increase individual and team productivity. Windows Sharepoint Services is a service offered by The Message Center and provides team services and sites to Microsoft Office System and other desktop programs. It also serves as a platform for application development. Including such IT resources as portals, team workspaces, e-mail, presence awareness, and Web-based conferencing, Windows Sharepoint Services enables users to locate distributed information quickly and efficiently, as well as connect to and work with others more productively.

How Sharepoint Services Works
Windows Sharepoint Services sites take file storage to a new level, providing communities for team collaboration and making it easy for users to work together on documents, tasks, contacts, events, and other information. In addition, team and site managers can coordinate site content and user activity easily. The Windows Sharepoint Services environment is designed for easy and flexible deployment, administration, and application development. Sharepoint sites are made up of Web Parts and Windows ASP.NET-based components. Web Parts are designed to be added to pages and configured by site administrators and users, creating complete page-based applications. Windows Sharepoint Services ships with a number of ready-to-use Web Parts; more will be available in the future from Microsoft and third-party vendors.

Team Community
Sharepoint sites provide places to capture and share ideas, information, communication, and documents. The sites facilitate team participation in discussions, shared document collaboration, and surveys. Site content is accessible from both a Web browser and through clients that support Web Services. The document collaboration features allow for easy check in, check out, and document version control.

Individual Empowerment
Sharepoint site members can find and communicate with key contacts and experts, both by e-mail and with instant messaging. Site content can be easily searched, and users can also receive alerts to tell them when existing documents and information have been changed, or when new information or documents have been added. Site content and layout can be personalized on a per-user basis, and Web Parts can be used to present targeted information to specific users on precise topics.

Microsoft Office System programs use Sharepoint site content. All of a site's collaborative content—for example, documents, lists, events, task assignments, and membership rosters—can be read and edited within Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. Picture editing of Web-based photo libraries is also possible. Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 allows Sharepoint site event calendars to be viewed side-by-side with personal calendars, and it also creates meeting-specific workspaces to augment group appointments.