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FAQ

With Windows® SharePoint™ Services Beta 2, you can find out how easy it is for teams and individuals to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration. SharePoint sites allow users to work together on documents, tasks, contacts, events, and other information.

Windows SharePoint Services environment is designed for easy and flexible deployment, administration, and application development. This beta version includes the following new and improved features:

The top 10 reasons for deploying Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services Beta 2 include:

1.		Windows SharePoint Services Beta 2 Takes File Sharing to a New Level

		Instead of just dumping files into directories, Windows SharePoint Services supplies Web sites with document storage and retrieval with check-in and check-out functionality, version history, custom metadata, and flexible, customizable views. Users can find and share data, with the added assurance that data will not be lost.

2.		You Can Share Many Kinds of Information

		SharePoint sites store event calendars, contacts, Web links, discussions, issues lists, announcements, and much more. By using Windows SharePoint Services, you can create smart places that help your users share information and get work done, not just a place to save files.

3.		Users Get the Authority, Flexibility, and Customization They Need

		You can grant users the ability to create sites, allow them to control site membership, monitor site usage directly, and moderate content submissions. Users can even create site templates and share them with one another, reusing customized, proven site solutions.

4.		IT Gets the Management Tools it Needs

		Despite the authority delegated to users, Windows SharePoint Services still enables you keep which sites are created, who owns them, how long a site has gone unused, and so on. You can enforce quotas for sites, users, and storage, block users from adding specific file types to sites, and automatically delete sites that are unused for long periods of time.

5.		Windows SharePoint Services Scales to Enterprise Deployments

		You can deploy Windows SharePoint Services in server farms that support tens of thousands of sites, and can handle the typical load of hundreds of thousands of users. Windows SharePoint Services supports load balancing for Web servers and server clustering technology for all data—including configuration, documents, and list data.

6.		If You Want to Start Small, Windows SharePoint Services Runs on a Single Computer

		Despite the fact that it was engineered to scale to large enterprise deployments, Windows SharePoint Services runs well on deployments for small business, departmental, or pilot environments.

7.		You Can Enhance Your SharePoint Sites Using Web Parts

		Site owners and users can add the Web Parts you provide to their site pages, adding new features to the sites they already use. ASP.NET developers can write Web Parts to provide data access, Web services, and many other applications and content to SharePoint sites.

8.		You Can Manage Windows SharePoint Services the Way You Want

		You can manage and configure Windows SharePoint Services right out of the box by using a Web browser or command-line utilities. You can also manage server farms, servers, and sites by using the Microsoft .NET Framework–based object model and Web services, making possible a great many custom and third-party administration solution offerings.

9.		You Can Use Microsoft Office System 2003 as a Powerful Set of Collaboration Tools

		Thanks to the Web services provided by Windows SharePoint Services, programs in the Microsoft Office System—including Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint®, Microsoft Office InfoPath™, and Microsoft Office OneNote™—can use information in SharePoint sites natively. Programs in the Microsoft Office System allow users to add members to sites, assign tasks, and communicate with members both by e-mail or in real time by using online presence, all while working on documents stored in SharePoint sites. With Microsoft Office Outlook®, users can view calendars and contact lists stored on SharePoint sites, and can create and manage sites devoted to editing documents and organizing meetings.

10.		You Can Organize Sites and Site Content by Using Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Windows SharePoint Services provides large numbers of individually productive places. SharePoint Portal Server connects these places to people, teams, knowledge, and applications to create smart organizations. It adds site organization and navigation, content topics, targeted news, personalized sites, content search, organization-wide alerts, enterprise application integration, and more to a Windows SharePoint Services deployment.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/sharepoint/top10.mspx

08/06/2003