SharePoint is a collaboration tool at its heart. Its primary goal is to make it easy for users to find and share information, and there are many features built into SharePoint to facilitate this. SharePoint’s library system feature can provide a superior alternative to the traditional file server. SharePoint lists can be an easy-to-design and easy-to-use alternative to sharing spreadsheet files or more formal database tables. Both lists and libraries can be customized and extended to provide enhanced appearances and functionality, such as calendars and blogs, to name a couple. All of this collaboration can be done through a browser interface and in some cases through integration with Microsoft Office applications.

Lists are a fundamental building block in SharePoint that provides a way for users to store and view data. SharePoint comes “out of the box” with many predefined list templates that are easy to use. Lists can be further customized by adding columns to store just about any type of information. Additionally, list columns can be validated as well as linked between other lists. Lists are a very flexible and powerful tool in SharePoint.

SharePoint Libraries share the same characteristics as SharePoint lists such as columns, views, and validation to name a few. What distinguishes SharePoint libraries is that each item in a library has a underlying document. So in addition to the data stored in library columns, the document stores its own data based on the type of document. Because of the extra data that can be stored in columns that can be used to filter and search by and features such as versioning, libraries are considered a great replacement for the more traditional file server system. Libraries are, like lists, a fundamental building block in a SharePoint site.

Views provide a flexible system to display SharePoint list and library data in an easy-to-read and easy-to-use manner. Every SharePoint list and library can have multiple views created and configured, and some list and library templates come with special views preconfigured. Views can be defined for personal use or shared use.

One of the nice features of SharePoint is its ability to integrate with Microsoft Office applications. Just about every Office application offers some level of integration with SharePoint whether it be simple, such as using an Excel spreadsheet to create a new list, or more full featured, such as Outlook integration. Some integration features enhance what is available online through a browser while others allow access to SharePoint content offline such as a mobile computer environment. This lesson will use a series of walk-throughs and exercises to show how each Office application can integrate with SharePoint.

Note that this chapter is exploring integration with Office locally installed on the machine connecting to SharePoint. Office Online Server is a browser based version of Office that allows you to create and modify office documents. With SharePoint 2019 Office Online Server can be integrated and is considered an essential piece for many SharePoint installations. That being said, since it is a separate product from SharePoint it is not covered as part of this course.

All SharePoint content is accessed through a site. A SharePoint site is the container for lists and libraries and provides a starting point for basic administration. The content, lists, libraries, and basic look and feel of a site is initially determined by the Site Template used to create the site.