A Practical Guide to SharePoint 2013: No fluff! Just practical exercises to enhance your SharePoint 2013 learning!

by Saifullah Shafiq

This book is a complete practical guide. It’s full of useful tips and exercises to get users started in no time! It has no fluff, just practical exercises that will provide users the knowledge and know-how to implement SharePoint solutions easily and professionally. SharePoint has a steep learning curve. Without a book like this, it will probably take users months to learn SharePoint. This book will save users great deal of time because it contains ready-to-use solutions and expert advice from someone who is a subject matter expert. This book has everything that users need to equip themselves to work professionally on SharePoint projects. The author is a 7 times awardee of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award.
SharePoint is a huge product. Each component or feature deserves a separate book. Discussing all great features in detail in one book is not possible. Author has tried to include the necessary content that will help users get started straight away. For beginners, the main problem they face is to setup an environment for SharePoint deployment. This book shows how to prepare the environment and then install each piece of software one by one.
The initial chapters of the book focus on SharePoint infrastructure and deployment and show how to install SharePoint 2013 on a clean machine. The intended audience of these chapters is people who are looking to become SharePoint 2013 administrators. Network administrators who are not SharePoint administrators but want to learn SharePoint administration will gain lot of useful information from these chapters. Chapters in the later part of the book contain information on some of the popular features of SharePoint 2013. These chapters discuss creating web-enabled InfoPath forms, securing sites with SSL, setting up Extranets, etc. These chapters are for the power users and advanced users who are comfortable with using SharePoint.
The book guides users in a step-by-step format and explains everything needed to install the software. This includes preparing the machine for the installation. Each exercise in the book is accompanied by screenshots so that even if a user gets stuck during the exercise, he can refer to the screenshot to get a better understanding of the step he is stuck on. Clear and crisp screenshots make this book unique. Some of the topics discussed in the book are advanced but explained in a very simple way with the help of screenshots.
This book is structured to build logically on the skills you learn as you progress through it. After the initial introduction and deployment chapters, the book moves into the more advanced part of the platform. Each chapter focuses on a new feature. If you are an advanced user, you can skip the initial chapters and go directly to the topic that you are interested in. All source code and files used in the exercises are available on the book’s website. Some of the topics discussed in the book are as
SharePoint Deployments - Configure Active Directory, SQL Server, IIS Roles!
SharePoint Cloud - Setup SharePoint in the cloud
Office 365 Development – Create your first SharePoint app in the cloud
SharePoint Modern Apps - Modern, state of the art applications using HTML5 and SharePoint 2013
Extranets
Business Processes - Leverage Business Connectivity Services to build Line of Business applications
Web Parts Development – Understand and learn to develop web parts
Electronic Forms - Learn to program web-enabled electronic forms using InfoPath
Public Websites - Design a branded public website using SharePoint Online/Office 365
SharePoint 2013 Search – Learn Search configuration, customization, Managed Metadata
SharePoint 2013 Branding – Learn how to brand sites to look elegant, classy and professional

378 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2014

Reviews

[Sahmed Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an excellent book. These days when you go to a book store, you find shelves loaded with books and deciding which one to choose is not easy. This book had been recommended by a friend, who is also a member of the SharePoint community and undoubtedly this was one of the few good books that I read recently. I am a SharePoint user and being an avid reader and someone who is always willing to learn new things, this book helped me in achieving my goal of learning more SharePoint. SharePoint was introduced in our company a few months ago. Our company had an adoption plan, they trained us on SharePoint and asked us to store all documents and communication in SharePoint. Initially it felt awkward because I was used to using file shares and storing files on hard drive but slowly and gradually I started liking SharePoint. Now everyone at every company use SharePoint. I am a business analyst and involved in multiple custom SharePoint projects. Being part of the time, it's always my desire to learn more. This book really helped me in learning new stuff. Book is easy to follow with screenshots and step by step user guide like instructions. I learned lot of new stuff, for example, sharepoint online, sharepoint search, sharepoint extranets. This book has put me on a path where I now feel confident that I will soon be able to develop SharePoint applications and that will be the happiest day of my life.

I highly recommend this book to everyone looking to learn SharePoint. It will be useful for those who want to be administrators since the book starts with a chapter on installation and configuration. Once you have learned installing it, you can learn to setup online version, use it on your mobile, develop solutions, for example, electronic forms, web parts etc. The language used in the book is plain and simple. I am happy that I am reviewing this book and I hope other users will find this review helpful.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no way I could have learned how to use Sharepoint on my own without countless hours of frustration, and probably a lot of aching muscles and nerves. This book allowed me to lay in bed and read, and then absorb the material while I slept. They say you practice in your dreams and that's exactly what I did. When I woke up in the morning, Sharepoint was so much easier to navigate and learn, and the frustration of understanding this complex program disappeared altogether.

The exercises were phenomenal and walked you through processes step by step without missing any key steps. That seems to be a huge problem when trying to learn programs…missing a step here or there. Our company just started using Sharepoint and there was no way I was going to be left in the dust. This book is a great investment and I lent it to my favorite co-worker. We were leaps and bounds ahead of all our office mates, which seemed funny at the time but you have to work smarter, not harder. This book is a must-have!

[Roger William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a SharePoint user, and based on several recommendations recently I had to read this book and I thought of writing a small review on the book as I believe reviews really help other users in making a decision. That's how I buy book. I love reading reviews and it just makes it easy for me to decide whether to read the book or not. I am not an advanced SharePoint user and this book was advanced for a person like me but I was still able to find a few chapters that were for the ordinary users and I loved reading those chapters. I believe the knowledge I acquired through this book will be helpful in my day to day job. The book is very well written. Each topic is explained using step by step instructions and with screenshots. I recommend this book to everyone looking to learn SharePoint. Be practical and learn SharePoint using a practical guide! Thumbs up!!