SharePoint 2010 improves user experience, Office integration
Rebounding from bad press tied to Windows Vista, Microsoft is building a positive reputation for its newly-released 2010 products. SharePoint 2010 is continuing the trend.
A recent InfoWorld article points out, “SharePoint 2010 is a major upgrade from SharePoint 2007 in several areas. It has a much improved user interface, especially for online editing. It supports more browsers. It has even more integration features with Microsoft Office. SharePoint has long been a versatile platform for all sorts of internal and public Web sites, with an emphasis on group collaboration sites, and SharePoint 2010 has greatly improved and expanded those capabilities.”
Among SharePoint 2010’s advances are expanded social media capabilities. For example, creating and editing wikis is made easy. User-friendly tools such as wiki-style WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing set SharePoint 2010 apart from earlier applications requiring complex editing tools.
A NetworkWorld review touts money-saving, single-platform application consolidation, increased speed, and improved intuitive abilities. The article notes that the SharePoint Server 2010 option permits IT departments to “run applications such as enterprise search, content management, collaboration and business intelligence on a single platform…Together with improved Internet site capabilities, SharePoint 2010 means companies can avoid the licensing and training costs associated with separate apps.”
Other noteworthy aspects of SharePoint 2010 include:
- Better speed and intuition than Microsoft SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.
- Improved design and formatting features. For example, SharePoint 2010 allows pasting a complex Word 2010 document with tables into a SharePoint website without losing any original design; then using identical SharePoint formatting commands to refine the layout. MOSS 2007 offered limited formatting options.
- Enhanced ways to build social media sites. Without programming or additional applications, companies can use SharePoint 2010 to build sites similar to YouTube.
- Improved access to SharePoint via PC and Mac web browsers, as well as through such smartphones as iPhone.
- Pushing timely updates to published documents. For example, you can publish an Excel spreadsheet as a chart within SharePoint, then watch the published chart incorporate updates in near-real-time.
- Easy upgrading. Unlike migration to MOSS 2007 from earlier versions, changing to SharePoint 2010 will be less hassled—e.g., existing sites can use their existing MOSS 2007 user interface to convert.
If early reviews hold up, look for SharePoint 2010 to score high in popularity among Microsoft’s offerings.
Tags: Just Tips, SharePoint, SharePoint 2010
