About a week ago when I'd just added links to a number of On-line chapters to the WSS FAQ sites and was starting to read all those (Introduction to...) Chapter Ones, I wasn't particularly complementary about one aspect of Chapter One of the Wrox book "Beginning SharePoint 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007" by Amanda Murphy and Shane Perran.

It was in fact that old aversion of mine to inaccurate naming of the SharePoint products and in this case it was mainly that having done a good list of why you would want to use Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, they went on to give an equally good list of when to use MOSS 2007 only they called that "SharePoint" and only "SharePoint". Well Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is SharePoint too!

I thought at the time that the problems this caused in that chapter might well vanish when they moved on because this book is after all named in the sub-title as being specifically a book on MOSS 2007 (even though the main title line is the equally confusing "SharePoint 2007" because of course WSS 3.0 is also a SharePoint product that came out in 2007).

Anyway, now that I've got hold of a copy of the book, I can confirm that I was right. Once past chapter one and the naming confusions this is a very valuable book for anyone wanting to quickly get up to speed on just what MOSS 2007 is and what it's main constituent parts are. (Just ignore that it often says only "SharePoint" - this is MOSS 2007 stuff)

I'd actually recommended it a couple of times in the SharePoint public newsgroups before I'd done more than glance through it - because the chapter titles covered everything that those two people wanted to know.

Now however I've sat down and actually read it (or most of it at this stage) in detail and I am fairly amazed by the massive amount of ground they cover and the detail (but clear detail with many useful small screen shots) they include.

Now I know a fair bit about most of the things covered by this book, but even so I found myself finding small but useful details that I didn't know.

A simple example of that was for instance the section on Image Libraries. I've been used to Document Libraries since SharePoint Team Services (v1, to you late comers) and Image Libraries are nothing new to me as a storage location for images. Also the *concept* of adding PowerPoint slide shows to an Image Library was clear as well, but in a few clear pages the writers of this book were able to show me that there was much more I could do with these things than I'd imagined. Practical things in a company situation too ...

If anything the only problem is deciding who should buy the book. My conclusion is that it should be bought by people who already know the SharePoint v2 products on behalf of people new to SharePoint. That way the people with the existing knowledge (of I would hope by now MOSS 2007 and not just the v2 products) will have time to quickly run through the chapters to try to pick up the information they didn't already know before passing the book on to the real target audience.

The other open question I have is whether that target audience is Administrators or Users. I rather suspect the actual target audience is the Administrator who also does the site design, but I actually think the book could very well be given to key power users so they could use as much of the wide range of things offered by MOSS 2007 (and mentioned in this book) as possible.

The only snag is that they will probably then make the poor site administrator's life a misery if he is the kind of person who (wisely?) wants to offer as little functionality as possible to make his/her job as easy as possible.

But that's hardly the fault of the book's writers. Buy it!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470124490/heme0f

 

The story so far. Two days ago I installed Windows Server 2003 Standard R2 on a trial versions of the Mac VM Software called "Parallels" using the default Networking of accessing the Internet via the Mac's connection.

Yesterday I changed the networking so that it grabbed (no reconfig needed in Win 2003) a suitable address from my wireless network. It could still access the Internet but now it was in the same network as my Vista machine.

I still couldn't access the WSS site from either Vista or the Mac (non-VM) and while the Win 2003 Server could ping the Vista machine; it couldn't ping back. Looking through all the Parallels manual didn't help (although my earlier read had produced the idea to change the Networking so it wasn't completely wasted time).

So off to work on the bus (for a change) and time to wonder. It's probably nothing to do with Parallels and something (stupid!) that R2 does that the earlier Windows Server 2003 didn't do.

(Moans about why do Microsoft do these things were kept to a minimum as I really hate people who use the public newsgroups provided by Microsoft to slam Microsoft.)

Comes home to try to see if I can find anything. Can't find anything via Google so look at Services. Oh look, there's a "Windows Firewall" and it's running. At first glance it doesn't seem to be blocking anything but I'm getting bored with not being able to connect so it's time for the big hammer. I stop the Windows Firewall.

Now, the Mac's copy of Safari accesses the WSS server (using nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn); asks me for a name and password and then says it doesn't like servername. Ditto Firefox (on the Mac).

Well, a couple of months ago that would have stumped me, but in the meantime I know about Alternate Accessing Methods and I quickly generate a couple of Internet alternatives (http://nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn and http://nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:portnumber for the two standard (port 80) and Central Administration sites; do a iisrest for luck and then try Safari and Firefox on the Mac again. This time they work.

Walk downstairs to the Vista portable (which has Office 2007 installed) and try there. It can access the WSS site as well.

So now I have a rather odd situation. A small MacBook with a small hard drive that includes a VM of Windows Server 2003 with WSS 3.0 installed. So that can travel with me and I can check Admin options etc. I can also check what people with Safari and Firefox can see (and not see).

Then at home I can use that same MacBook as my server and try out all the functionality that the combination of Office 2007 and WSS 3.0 can offer (and there I'll probably have more servers - such as MOSS - on USB drive-based VMs).

Not exactly what you would first think of, but much more interesting than running a second PC portable with the same amount of RAM and VMWare Workstation or VM Server or VPC I think you'll agree.

I've known for a long time that having my wireless network "protected" by WEP wasn't particularly safe. I knew that someone in the street could grab half-an-hour of my traffic and then use a free program from the web to delve through that traffic to get access.

But this is Finland; I live in a quiet residential area with only a few neighbours and so all I did was to pull out the plug to the wireless router and use the desktop when I accessed my bank.

But then I bought the Mac and it lists all the wireless networks it can find. I bought a book on the Mac and it suggested a free program to give even more information. I installed that and now I knew that one neighbour (slightly further away from the others probably, as it is a weaker signal) had a completely open wireless network; several had WEP and one or two had WPA.

So I wondered and did a quick Google search.

That led me to Georg Ou's article here

http://www.lanarchitect.net/Articles/Wireless/SecurityRating/

which says newer techniques can break WEP in minutes.

Well I might spot a guy with a computer sitting in a car for 30 mins, but 5 mins - no chance. It was about time I did something.

The first thing was to see if my wireless router already had WPA support. Surely not, as if it had I'd have used it when I did the installation.

Well, I have one from D-Link and I quickly found (via a link in their most asked questions section) the note that Revision 2 of my model has WPA support. Do I have Revision 2 ? Who knows - it doesn't say in the manual.

So I go to look (good job I still have the manual as that appears to be the only place where I have written the password for accessing it down). I access the router with the standard 192.168.0.1 URL for D-Link and the password doesn't work - ooops ... I then discover that 192.168.0.1 is actually my Ethernet router (also from D-Link) and I try 192.168.0.2 and that password and now it works.

I still can't find if it's revision 2 but it obviously is because there's a WPA option.

So I select that. Write an even longer password than before. Write it again only in the D-Link manual (!) and press OK a couple of times and head off downstairs to set-up the Mac and the Vista portables to access this revised wireless device.

The Mac is no problem at all. It tells me I've changed it; asks me for the new password and that's it. Done.

The Vista refuses to access and it takes an awful lot of (intelligent(?)) messing about before I find a place where I can amend the settings.

The problem is here (in the Vista machine) that there are several (4) WPA options each of which can be either TKIP or AES mode. I probably try 6 of the 8 possible options before I hit the one that works. (Which turns out to be WPA Personal + TKIP which according to the security article (see above) is the minimum I need to have [AES would be better, it seems - the article says that is "rock-solid" whereas "TKIP may be under attack in the near future"])

Anyway the motto of all this is that if you are running WEP on you wireless router, first check whether that same router supports WPA and change it. If not think of getting a new wireless router and if you do make sure that new router has WPA AES support to avoid the need to buy yet another new model when TKIP has been cracked.

P.S. Having that unprotected access point in the neighbourhood is something of a mixed blessing. If my wife upstairs pulls out the plug on my wireless access point (to access her bank!) then the Mac just switches automatically to the only other access point it can access (namely the unprotected one)and the only visible sign of this is a minute scrolling bar at the top-right of the screen with the new name. So my browsing gets slightly slower (and possibly becomes illegal) and as far as I can see if she then plugs my wireless router back in, the Mac doesn't switch back because of course as far as it is concerned it is still connected (to that unprotected network). It's simple to switch back but it needs to be done.

It's unfortunate that some times really stupid names are required in order to sell books.

I'm talking about the "For Dummies" series which any self-respecting Computer Pro wouldn't usually touch with a bargepole, but which often are far better than their title would suggest.

The first "For Dummies" computer title I bought (and if truth be told the last) was the one on Firewalls. I had been to a presentation given by one of the co-authors and liked his style and so I bought the book.

It actually taught me a lot - even though I already had a reasonable knowledge, it filled in the gaps.

I've now been looking at Chapter One ("Getting to Know SharePoint") of "Microsoft SharePoint 2007 For Dummies (For Dummies - Vanessa Williams)" -

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470099410/heme0f

and it's a very good (26 page) overview both of how we got here and of what you can use "SharePoint" for.

The author is fully aware of the need to get the names right and early on makes sure both that she defines "WSS" and "MOSS" as the names she will (mostly) use later (*) and also in an inset box mentions the use of "SharePoint" as inexact but as something she will use when she means something that's available in both products.

(*) The sentence defining "WSS" and "MOSS" is oddly inexact. Here it is

"I focus on the two primary SharePoint products: Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS)."

Spot the problem ?

She carefully defines the abbrieviations she is going to use and equally carefully gives MOSS its full name including the 2007 - which for MOSS isn't really necessary as there is as yet no other MOSS  - yet she misses out the 3.0 which is necessary to define the correct one of the two different WSS "editions" (2.0 and 3.0).

Very odd.

But most people will make the correct assumptions and correctly ignore this, and for *end-users* new to any SharePoint product, this still remains the best introduction chapter I have seen.

Note: All of the addresses of the KB / Articles - 2007 Products / MS / Non-MS Articles below were valid at the time I added them to the WSS FAQ
site and to this file. I can't guarantee that they still are.

(This is also posted to the WSS newsgroup at microsoft.public.sharepoint.windowsservices - web access via http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/server/sharepoint.mspx)

(Items are added to the WSS FAQ throughout the week so you will find new items more quickly by checking at wss.collutions.com or www.wssfaq.com daily.)

From 4th June - 10th June 2007

I 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;937884

How to index SharePoint Portal Server 2003 list items in SharePoint Server 2007

6th June 2007

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;937207

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: May 15, 2007

1st June 2007

Modified

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;936759

E-mail notifications for alerts are not sent when content in a migrated list or in a migrated document library changes after you perform a database migration to upgrade to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (ver 1.3)

31st May 2007

II. Articles - 2007 Products  (no longer with all links to articles for other Office 2007 and other 2007 Products)

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=92311&clcid=0x409

SharePoint Products and Technologies customization policy

6th June 2007 (date added) (paper is June 2007)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6803aa1d-0578-4d7d-bc2f-9600f0440d92&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 (ver 6.0.5000.0)

4th June 2007

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e7bfee42-2d3c-4810-97f8-4d89d7428a5f&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 (ver 6.0.5000.0)

4th June 2007

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/spstuff/archive/2007/06/03/sharepoint-2007-installation-step-by-step.aspx

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Installation Step by Step (Blog - Gene) [Ed: the original title was the inexact "SharePoint 2007 Installation ..."]

3rd June 2007

http://davidmcnamee.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=18

Enforcing Required Fields on SharePoint Server 2007 Publishing Pages via Content Types and Page Layouts (Blog - David McNamee)

30th May 2007

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032329673&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Forefront Security for SharePoint Virtual Lab

7th February 2007

B. Other Office 2007 products (selected few only since 1.1.2007)

None

C. Other New 2006/2007 Products  (selected few only since 1.1.2007)

None

 

Modified

None

Deleted

None

III WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1089

III.02.12 Limits: Practical Limits for Mobile sites

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1104

III.26.08 Alerts: Why are My alerts going to the Exchange badmail folder?

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1107

V.56 Microsoft Sharepoint 2007 für Dummies (Wiley - Vanessa L. Williams) (In German)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1090

VII.06 SharePoint 2007 User's Guide: Learning Microsoft's Collaboration and Productivity Platform (APress - ISBN 1590598296) (Chapter 1 - Introduction to SharePoint Technologies)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1091

VII.07 Workflow in the 2007 Microsoft Office System (APress - ISBN 1590597001) (Chapter 1 - Introduction)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1092

VII.08 Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005 (APress - ISBN 1590598091) (Chapter 1 - SharePoint Business Solutions)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1093

VII.09 Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in VB 2005 (APress - ISBN 159059813X) (Chapter 1 - SharePoint Business Solutions)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1094

VII.10 Pro InfoPath 2007 (APress - ISBN 1590597303) (Chapter 1 - Introducing InfoPath)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1095

VII.11 Beginning SharePoint 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007 (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-470-12449-9) (Chapter 1 - Getting Started with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1096

VII.12 Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-470-12529-8) (Chapter 1 - Introduction to Microsoft SharePoint 2007)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1097

VII.13 Professional BizTalk Server 2006 (Wrox - IBSN 978-0-470-04642-5) (Chapter 1 - Technology Primer)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1098

VII.14 Professional Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-470-10917-5) (Chapter 1 - Why Virtualize)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1099

VII.15 Professional Visual Studio 2005 (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-7645-9846-3) (Chapter 1 - A Quick Tour of the IDE)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1100

VII.16 Professional Windows Workflow Foundation (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-470-05386-7) (Chapter 1 - In Introduction to Workflow and Windows Workflow Foundation)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1101

VII.17 Beginning Excel Services (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-470-10489-7) (Chapter 1 - Overview of Excel Services)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1102

VII.18 Professional Excel Services (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-470-10486-6) (Chpater 1 - Introduction to Excel Services)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1103

VII.19 Professional SharePoint 2007 Development (Wrox - ISBN 978-0-470-11756-9) (Chapter 1 - The Microsoft Application Platform and SharePoint)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1105

VII.20 Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 Bible (Wiley - ISBN 047000861X) (Chapter 1 - Introducing SharePoint Products and Technologies)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1106

VII.21 Microsoft SharePoint 2007 For Dummies (Wiley - ISBN 0470099410) (Chapter 1 - Getting to Know SharePoint)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1088

X.57 WSPBuilder (free - Keutmann, Codeplex)

Modified

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=958

I.31.01 What issues are fixed in fix packs to MOSS 2007?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IV WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New

None

Modified

None

V. MS Articles for WSSv2

New

None

Modified

None

VI Non-MS Articles for WSSv2

New

None

Modified

None

VII WSSv2 FAQ

New

None

Modified

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSS%20FAQ/EditForm.aspx?ID=71

III.06.3 Site Migration from WSS to WSS

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSS%20FAQ/EditForm.aspx?ID=189

III.55.01 Alerts aren't working even if the Timer Service is running. What might be wrong?

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSS%20FAQ/EditForm.aspx?ID=174

VII.03 Web Hosting for WSS sites (in alphabetical order)

I've now had a look through the on-line chapters of the two more general Wrox books that have come out so. In both I liked the text much more than that of the "Bible" but I didn't like the sloppy way they handled the naming of the products.

One of the things that people who know me from the newsgroups will know is that I am a pain for wanting people to get the names right.

If we are to answer a question properly in a newsgroup we need to know which product people are using yet often they don't say and even when they are specifically asked they say things like "I'm using SharePoint 2007" which is pretty useless information considering that there are two SharePoint products that came out in 2007 (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007).

There are also people who claim to be using SPS 2007 (no such thing) or STS 2.0 (ditto) or WSS (good enough a description when there was only one SharePoint version called WSS but now no use) etc.

I take this so seriously that my chapter of the MVP book (also Wrox in fact) spends a good bit of time making quite sure people know both the correct names and the correct abbrieviations.

Not so unfortunately both of these sets of authors (although - as above - apart from the names, the texts are mostly fine).

Amanda and Shane in "Beginning SharePoint 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007" -

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470124490/heme0f

are the worst (of these two sets of writers) offenders in this aspect of name usage.

They are absolutely fine when they spell out the names Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in full and they are completely correct in their descriptions of what sort of thing WSS 3.0 alone is sufficient for. Most people wondering whether to use WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 will find this very useful. However these people will also find it difficult to know where the discussion of what's in WSS 3.0 stops and what's in MOSS 2007 starts because most of the time Amanda and Shane are talking about "SharePoint".

Sometimes by this they mean both products but mostly they seem to mean MOSS 2007. Yet if that's the case why do they later introduce the term "SharePoint 2007" which yes, you've guessed it, seems to mean MOSS 2007. as well.

So for now the jury is out on this one. I suspect that once we've got past the first chapter they will be talking only about MOSS 2007 and then it won't really matter what they call it for short (except for poor newsgroup answerers in future) and we'll have the benefit of their wide practical knowledge which despite the name confusion in chapter one does shine out there.

The other chapter one - this time from Göran Husman's Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 -

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470125292/heme0f

was more of a standard approach (with, for instance, a very long table comparing what you get when working with different Office versions) and as such means that I probably wouldn't buy the book for myself. (But then which self-respecting SharePoint MVP would buy a book titled "Beginning ..." !)

The names were a bit off here too for a pedantic person like myself with things like "they released version 3.0 which is known as Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server" when adding 3.0 and 2007 respectively to the product names was absolutely necessary. There was also for my taste far too much of "SharePoint 2007" (again!)

Aside: what to use? "The v3 SharePoint products" if you want both; otherwise having established the abbrieviations use WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 all the time (and never as happens here more than once just WSS when you mean WSS 3.0).

However like the Amanda and Shane book, this one too if you could forget about the name usage and a few minor inexactitudes (I don't feel quite so worried about my coming errors any more having read these first three Chapter Ones), this chapter wouldn't put me off recommending this book for people new to Administrating SharePoint systems - just as I would probably still advise people wanting to do useful things with MOSS 2007 to buy the ... Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007 book. I wouldn't be surprised if the Beginning in that title was a trifle wrong though, as I suspect they'll manage to go much further than you might think in their "building". Given that, even I might well consider buying this one (despite "Beginning ..."!) - but I'd want a look through the remaining chapters to see if the naming problem vanishes when it's all about MOSS 2007.

Even though most of those SharePoint on-line chapters I mentioned in the previous blog are variations on an "Introduction to SharePoint" theme, it's still worth glancing through them.

Not so much to help you decide which books to buy, although that too, but mainly to help you decide which books not to buy.

I've started working through these on-line chapters and the first one I looked at was the Sharepoint "Bible" from Wiley. Well I m certainly NOT going to buy that !

There are continual references in that chapter to WSS 2007. Even in the early betas the WSS version was never called WSS 2007 and always WSS 3.0.

If the guys can't even get the name of a product right, what sort of message does that give you about the quality of the rest of the book ?

Certainly this is enough for me to completely discard all thoughts of buying the book. There are after all enough books written or co-written by SharePoint MVPs (the "Bible" as far as I can see wasn't) and say what you will about SharePoint MVPs, but we do have a good knowledge of the various SharePoint products and versions of products - and we sure as heck don't call WSS 3.0 "WSS 2007".

 

P.S. This makes you wonder if that book ever had a review process and if so who reviewed it. Our MVP book did and we had a very good technical reviewer who pointed out several minor (my story!) inaccuracies in my chapter. I have a horrible feeling that - in the severe time pressure I was in to make changes to the text as a result of his suggestions - I missed one (a trip to England and away from computers came at just the wrong time), so I do know how mistakes can stay in a text, but this WSS 2007 is so blatant an error and occurs something like ten times in that chapter, that even the most time-pressured author couldn't miss amending this when the mistake was pointed out to him/her.

For some time now I've had a page in the WSS FAQ sites with links to Chapters from v3 SharePoint books (and ones useful for SharePoint admins/developers) that have been made available free on-line by the publishers.

However this past week I have extended it dramatically from 5 to 21 chapters by searching publishers' sites.

You'll find all 21 links here

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/VII%20Book%20Extracts.aspx

There is one snag. In most cases the publishers let you have a free look at Chapter One. Most of these are SharePoint books (rather than books related to SharePoint) and thus almost every free chapter is "An Introduction to SharePoint" in various shapes, forms and lengths.

I'm a bit worried (perhaps not the right word) about this because I wrote the first chapter in the MVP's SharePoint book (Real World SharePoint 2007: Indispensable Experiences From 16 MOSS and WSS MVPs) out in mid August and available for Pre-Order here

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470168358/heme0f

The reason I'm worried (apart from the chance using this chapter will give for thousands of people to find the mistakes that are no doubt there - hopefully though not any biggies) is that my chapter is not representative of the book. The rest of the book IS for the target audience of SharePoint Pros looking to that little extra from this (apart from me) illustrative set of MVPs, whereas mine is a chapter designed to get people with no pre-knowledge quickly up to speed with the main aspects of WSS v3 (and thus also with the underlying aspects of MOSS 2007) so that they can understand the rest of the book.

(and to those who wonder why a book with that title needs an Introduction chapter for people who haven't used a SharePoint product before, has your boss never turned up unexpectably at your office/cubicle/desk clutching a book he's bought and saying "I want you to do X - here's a book to help you".?)

More than one of mine has  ...

Since I last wrote about SharePoint v3 books here, many weeks have gone by and especially in the last couple of weeks there have been a flood of books that have made it to the Amazon US NON Pre-Order list. I have to write it that way because a couple of times I've been told by the author that a book is out only for Amazon to either not remove it from pre-order status or to half remove it (= remove it; change it back to pre-order; make it non-available and various other options designed to make me mad).

Anyway here as far as I can remember are all the new ones I haven't mentioned before (crosses fingers that when I import a URL in Safari in this garden usage Mac they will look like URLs to you [Later: they didn't look anything more than text so it was either do a bit of A+slashA html work on them all or (as I did) go to a PC; use IE in design mode]) - not in any particular kind of order ...

Beginning SharePoint 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007 (Wrox - Amanda Murphy, Shane Perran)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470124490/heme0f

Inside Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MS Press - Patrick Tisseghem)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735623686/heme0f

Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Version 3 (MS Press - Ted Pattison, Daniel Larson)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735623201/heme

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Administrator's Pocket Consultant (MS Press - Ben Curry)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735623821/heme0f

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Development Unleashed (Sams - Kevin Hoffman, Robert Foster)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672329034/heme0f

Professional SharePoint 2007 Development (Wrox - John Holliday, John Alexander, Jeff Julian, Eli Robillard, Brendon Schwartz, Matt Ranlett, Dan Attis, Tom Rizzo)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470117567/heme0f

Microsoft SharePoint Bible (Wiley - Avitiva Corp, Wayne Tynes, Simeon Cathey, Wynne Leon)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/047000861X/heme0f

Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Wrox - Göran Husman)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470125292/heme0f

P.S. I'll be back tomorrow with a place where you can find links to masses of free chapters from many of the above books. So look for that if you want to read several people's take of "An Introduction to SharePoint"

P.P.S. and silly me, here is the page of all SharePoint v3 books both released; pre-order and ?not yet started?.

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx