It's possible to mark any forum post as "Propose as Answer". The idea is that this helps the Moderator by letting him/her quickly know which threads possibly contain a solution. He/She can then access the threads that include such a post and then decide whether the post is worthy of being changed from merely "Propose as Answer" to being marked as an Answer.

It's a good idea, but unfortunately there are many people who don't seem to get the idea behind it and who post a reply in a thread and then immediately mark their own reply as "Propose as Answer".

Well this post is to tell you that in all but one of the SharePoint forums, you are wasting your time if you do that because this is what I do when I do a sweep of the threads that include "Propose as Answer".

Firstly I of course find the "Propose as Answer" post.

a) If the person who has marked it is the person who posted it I remove the mark.

b) If the person who marked it is someone whose name I recognize (and can thus trust their judgement) I very very quickly scan the post and then 99% of the time Up it to Answer status.

c) If I don't recognize the name of the person who marked it, I spend more time looking at the post before deciding whether to "Up" it or not (in which case I remove the "Propose as Answer").

d) Posts which aren't answers at all (and it's always a surprise to see post marked "Propose as Answer" that include questions rather than answers - but it does happen) get the Propose as Answer removed of course.

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

So you see, don't mark your own posts with "Propose as Answer" and you have a chance that they will - at some later date - be marked as an answer. Mark your own posts and they won't be.

Note too that I also on occasion move posts directly to Answer status. But only when I read them the first time. So this (usually) won't apply to a post that has in the meantime been marked "Propose as Answer" by the poster.

When I was preparing to write my book and writing down a list of chapters, I had a chapter called "Backup and Restore" pencilled in.

When it came to writing it, I realised that I didn't want the title of this chapter to scare off potential readers of the book and it became "Making Copies of your Data and Using them".

It was a good title because when I started writing the chapter I had realised that I wanted to write about what a normal user (and a user with a bit of additional rights) could do and didn't want to write at all about the sort of stuff done only by the company's backup expert.

So that chapter started with having an Off-line copy (using Colligio but mentioning using Outlook 2007 for that); using Save List as Template  and using the Recycle Bin(s) and only when those sections were done did it mention backup and restore using both stsadm and SPD 2007.

Maybe the same sort of process went on in the brains of the people behind a newly released book which covers the same sort of things as my one - less than 20 page - chapter in their almost 400 page book.

They also didn't want to put people off with a title that included backup or Restore either, but in their case they went for a "finer" title rather than my simplistic one for my chapter and called it (as you'll all have no doubt realised by now) "SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide".

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584505990/heme0f

They start in fact with the same kind of thing as a chapter called "End User Resources" has Recycle Bins, Save List as Template and (which i didn't) Versions.

Up to about halfway in the book they also cover the same stsadm and SPD 2007 versions of Backup and Restore.

So why buy their book and not mine? (A stupid question as you should of course all buy my book and then look around for books that complement it. <grin>)

Well of course one reason is that they have a lot more room to go into more details about the various options available when backing up / restoring with SPD and stsadm. Another is that they have a chapter on Central Admin backup and restore tools - something that I'll obviously have to read because it never occured to me to use them. But perhaps the main reason as far as the first half of the book is concerned is a chapter on Tips and Tricks for SharePoint's Built-In Backup and restore Tools which are more chatty than the "what do you click" chapters but which helps you to avoid things like having your backups slow down the system to a crawl.

The other reason to buy the book is that it's a full offering that includes the kind of info that your company's Backup specialist needs to know. So there are chapters on both SQL Server 2005 Backup and Restore (plus one on SQL Server 2005 High Availability - I'm not sure how that made it in) and on Windows 2003 Backup and Restore (and again an odd one on Windows 2003 High Availability).

So there you have it. As I wrote in an earlier blog item, this is not a book that will get you a new job but may help you keep one.

I do think it's a worthwhile book to own, but I admit that, considering that it only just came out, I'm surprised on the space spent on Windows 2003 and the almost total lack of any mention at all of Windows 2008 (all I could find was a paragraph saying that it existed and wasn't covered in the book (!) - my own book came out over 3 months earlier and has a chapter on installing in Windows 2008 which only because I had written too *many* pages was moved to the web site for the book rather than being in the printed copy. It was in any case available from day one.).

I'm also a bit surprised by the space given to High Availability which seems to a certain extent to stretch the "Disaster Recovery" title quite a bit - for instance while using RAID-1 discs means that if one disk physically crashes you still have a copy of the data on the second disk (and if you notice you can slot in a new disk to go automatically back to Raid-1 status), and so actually you avoid the need to recover from a disaster as a disaster hasn't occured, it does seem pushing it in a SharePoint Disaster Recovery book to spend almost 3 pages explaining what all the different versions of Raid are for - especially when you see that the first 2 pages are very standard definitions of the different kinds of RAID systems with no reference to SharePoint at all.

In short there are places here where you get a strong impression that they had to stretch to reach the 400 pages they had been told to write. The book would have perhaps been better at 350.

However it has no competition except for individual chapters in some other books. So I'm going to read the chatty chapters to see when to use what method and then refer to the "how to do" chapters when I need to do things.

Oh, and I'd better add that there is a chapter on custom development and scripting to which my only objection is that it too has large chunks of text where - like the RAID section - there is standard information with several lots of consecutive pages where SharePoint isn't mentioned at all. Maybe this is just the fact that the book despite being from a normal publisher (Charles River) is also labelled as being "Course Technology - CENGAGE Learning". Perhaps being pedagogic demands such large amounts of basic knowledge. For me it goes just a little bit too far sometimes - surely its target audience knows what RAID is, for instance?

 

It's odd how the US and the UK share a common language but seemingly have a different outlook on everything else.

You would rarely (maybe never) see a blurb in a book written by a Brit that thanks God "for providing me with the skills to write this book", yet in technical books written by US authors you see it all the time. Similarly it seems to be par for the course for US authors to thank their "lovely wife XXX and our two wonderful children" (or even more excessive prose) whereas UK authors might just stretch themselves to a "thanks to my wife for putting up with me" in their blurbs.

In a similar way US computer magazines always seem to say that they like a product even if reading between the lines you realise they actually hated it, whereas UK computer magazines take delight in calling a spade a spade and saying that something is useless if that's what it is.

So (finally getting to the subject ...), it's not really suprising that the US and the UK have two different takes on the number of Windows 7 versions.

A US writer said in his piece that Microsoft have taken note of the complaints about the number of Vista versions and have announced both fewer versions and no overlaps (i.e. each version contains what the previous version did and a bit more). Theme: it's it wonderful ...

Meanwhile the UK PCPro magazine has a piece on its web site (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/246562/windows-7-to-come-in-six-flavours.html) complaining that there are almost as many versions of Windows 7 as there were of Vista (and thus that Microsoft haven't learnt a thing).

I'm with the latter interpretation. But then I'm a Brit (despite being an exile) and my book didn't thank God or go on and on about my wife (let only my "kid") either.

 

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.

(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 25th to 31st January 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now not amending the date of a KB article if the change made is marked as a version point change (so from 2.2 to 2.3 for instance).
This ought to mean that the amendment made is cosmetic rather than important as important text changes ought to result in a major version change (such as from 2.2 to 3.0).
Because of this change and to avoid unnecessary effort I will in future not amend the listings in the WSS FAQ sites if only a minor version change has taken place.
I will continue to amend both the date and version numbers of major version changes and of course will continue to add all relevant new KB articles that my RSS feeds and other sources give me.

I.1 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;950074

Error message when you complete the upgrade from an earlier version of GroupBoard Workspace to GroupBoard Workspace 2007: "Upgrade completed with errors"

26th January 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;962928

You cannot browse to an SSL-secured Office SharePoint Server 2007 site or to the Search Settings page for a Shared Services Provider

23rd January 2009

Modifed

None

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

II. Articles - 2007 Products

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://www.sharepointusecases.com/index.php/2009/01/use-case-integrating-microsoft-office-sharepoint-with-microsoft-dynamics-crm/

Integrating Microsoft Office SharePoint with Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Part 1 (Blog - Toni In)

28th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d5f7a3ac-b983-4065-9d29-1ad31029f154&displaylang=en&tm

Integrating SAP data by using the Business Data Catalog

28th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f159af68-c3a3-413c-a3f7-2e0be6d5532e&displaylang=en&tm

Analyzing Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Usage

23rd January 2009

******* SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and SharePoint section ********

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326288.aspx

Deploying Models and Shared Data Sources to a SharePoint Site (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb283155.aspx

How to: Publish a Report to a SharePoint Library (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326285.aspx

How to: Publish a Shared Data Source to a SharePoint Library (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326347.aspx

Viewing and Managing Report Server Items from a SharePoint Site (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

******* SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and SharePoint section ********

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326288(SQL.90).aspx

Deploying Reports, Models, and Shared Data Sources to a SharePoint Site (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb283155(SQL.90).aspx

How to: Publish a Report to a SharePoint Library from Report Designer (SharePoint Integrated Mode) (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326285(SQL.90).aspx

How to: Publish a Shared Data Source to a SharePoint Library from Report Designer (SharePoint Integrated Mode) (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326347(SQL.90).aspx

Viewing and Managing Report Server Items from a SharePoint Site (SharePoint Integrated Mode) (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

B. Other Office 2007 products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e06453b8-b2dd-4177-969c-2f89aa841e11&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 2

23rd January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f8b9301a-3175-4350-a554-3064ab9278c8&displaylang=en&tm

Planning Series I in Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

23rd January 2009

C. Other relevant products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7c2b5317-a40f-4e86-8835-d37170c5923e&displaylang=en&tm

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image (one - XPPro SP3 one - includes IE8 RC1)

28th January 2009 (not a "modified" as the URL for the previous version is different and still valid)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=13c7300e-935c-415a-a79c-538e933d5424&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (Trial Version - valid 60 days + 3x60 days)

27th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e8a5aec0-de34-405e-9304-1c378f44077c&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter  (Trial Version - valid 60 days + 3x60 days)

27th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b6e99d4c-a40e-4fd2-a0f7-32212b520f50&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Server 2008 Standard (Trial Version - valid 60 days + 3x60 days)

27th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6cf0f7b6-c0a7-48f8-977e-9bc76b97ff98&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Search Server 2008 Technical Library in Compiled Help format

23rd January 2009

Modified

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e0fadab7-0620-481d-a8b6-070001727c56&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 VHD

25th January 2009

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2007 Products

None

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1738

V.205 Erfolgreiche Portalprojekte mit Microsoft SharePoint (in German) (Microsoft Press, Germany - Reiner Ganser, Christoph Müller)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1739

V.206 Konzepte und Lösungen für Microsoft-Netzwerke. Exchange, SharePoint, LCS, MOM, SMS, ISA, VMWare, Citrix, Storage, iSCSI, SAN, NAS, Backup, Veritas (in German) (Galileo Press - Ulrich B. Boddenberg)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1740

V.207 SharePoint 2007 - Coffret de 2 livres : de la création d'un site collaboratif au développement associé (in French - the two books listed here as items 59 and 110) (Editions ENI -Sandrine Schmitt, Antony Bidet) *released*

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1737

VI.162 CardioLog 2007 (commercial - CardioLog)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1733

X.289 SPOShowBirthdayWebPart (codeplex - "Erw1n")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1734

X.290 Password Webpart (codeplex - Steve Robbins)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1735

X.291 SharePoint Property Bag Settings (codeplex - "havivi")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1736

X.292 CardioLog Lite for SharePoint 2007 (free - CardioLog)

Modified

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1412

V.128 Social Computing with Microsoft SharePoint 2007 (Wiley - Brendon Schwartz, Matt Ranlett, Paul Galvin) *released*

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1588

V.129 SharePoint 2007 - Personnalisation, développement et déploiement (in French) (Editions ENI - Stéphane Eyskens, Ludovic Lefort) *released*

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1584

V.179 Praxisbuch Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (in German) (Hanser Fachbuchverlag - Dirk Larisch) *released*

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

 

I've just amended the entry in the books list for "SharePoint 2007 - Personnalisation, développement et déploiement (Editions ENI - Stéphane Eyskens, Ludovic Lefort)"

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/2746046725/wssfaq0fe-21

to *released* status.

This means that French readers - in addition to the many translated books - now have 5 French language SharePoint books to choose from (one of which, admittedly, is for InfoPath 2007).

Meanwhile the (larger) number of German originals has increased with one converted to released status (Praxisbuch Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Hanser Fachbuchverlag - Dirk Larisch)

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/3446417079/wssfaq0e-21

and two (although one is only just a SharePoint one) new ones listed but not yet out

(see the total list at http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx in the German - Originals section for those).

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.

(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 18th to 25th January 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now not amending the date of a KB article if the change made is marked as a version point change (so from 2.2 to 2.3 for instance).
This ought to mean that the amendment made is cosmetic rather than important as important text changes ought to result in a major version change (such as from 2.2 to 3.0).
Because of this change and to avoid unnecessary effort I will in future not amend the listings in the WSS FAQ sites if only a minor version change has taken place.
I will continue to amend both the date and version numbers of major version changes and of course will continue to add all relevant new KB articles that my RSS feeds and other sources give me.

I.1 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New or Modifed

None

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

II. Articles - 2007 Products

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://www.sharepointusecases.com/index.php/2009/01/top-5-benefits-of-sharepoint-check-incheck-out/

Top 5 benefits of Sharepoint check-in/check-out (Blog - ToniIn)

21st January 2009

http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/pages/content-deployment-best-practices.aspx

Best practices - Content Development (blog - Stefan Gassner)

16th January 2009

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd348394.aspx

Using Solution Packages to Deploy Features and Content in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Joel Krist and Chris Hasz, Acona Consulting)

18th December 2008 (article dated December 2008)

B. Other Office 2007 products

None

C. Other relevant products

None

Modified

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c9d6c8c5-8a62-4961-8c1b-df08b667b1c4&displaylang=en&tm

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Technical Library in Compiled Help format (ver 3)

22nd January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=ba006584-711d-4ce7-9e1f-181aedf6434a&displaylang=en&tm

Office SharePoint Server IT Pro content CHM (Downloadable CHM version of SharePoint Server content on TechNet) (ver 4)

16th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5e94ad07-902c-422f-aadd-ff2bba9e540a&displaylang=en&tm

SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocol Documentation (ver 0109)

16th January 2009

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2007 Products

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032397233&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Site Customization with Silverlight 2.0 (Level 200) (Sahil Malik, Winsmarts)

15th January 2009

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032397231&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint for Internet Site Development-Enabling Social Networking (Level 200) (Brendon Schwartz, Telligent, Matt Ranlett, Intellinet Corporation)

13th January 2009

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1716

X.272 SharePoint Get Field Value in two relational list (codeplex - "halilbozdogan")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1717

X.273 SharePoint Tool Basket V2 (codeplex - Stephane Eyskens)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1718

X.274 SiteConfigurator 1.00 (codeplex - Stian Kirkeberg)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1719

X.275 PowerShell scripts: MOSS Search Management (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1720

X.276 PowerShell scripts: WSS Team Sites Management (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1721

X.277 PowerShell scripts: Delete Users in All SharePoint Site Collections (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1722

X.278 PowerShell scripts: Export Import SharePoint list (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1723

X.279 PowerShell scripts: SharePoint data management (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1724

X.280 PowerShell scripts: SharePoint Users Management (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1725

X.281 SharePoint Tools: SolutionExtension 1.0 (codeplex - "Trickass")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1726

X.282 Stsadm extensions for search (codeplex - "kiranchauhan91")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1727

X.283 PowerShell scripts: SharePoint Developer Scripts (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1728

X.284 PowerShell scripts: SharePoint Farm management (codeplex - Fabrice Romelard)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1729

X.285 SPSiteBuilder (codeplex - K Richie)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1730

X.286 SharePoint Custom Fields (codeplex - "ctapus")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1731

X.287 PowerShell scripts: Import Users And Groups (codeplex - Nicolas Schmitt)

Modified

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1392

V.122 SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide (Charles River, John L. Ferringer, Sean McDonough) *released*

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

When I first got the offer to write my book I wrote to the guy who proposed the book saying that wasn't it too late for a book on a SharePoint 2007 product. He replied (paraphrasing) that he thought there was time provided the book was out in 2008 and in fact we together finally got it out in early October of that year.

However I still remember that e-mail conversation when I see that SharePoint books are even now just being announced for publication in 2009 - some even for quite late in 2009.

The conclusion I've come to (based on not many statistics, but those available to me) is that general books no longer have much of a chance because the ones that came out early in the cycle are permanently placed at the top of the "Relevant Books" list that Amazon shows by default (based I would guess on their sales to date) when you do a search on SharePoint 2007.

The fact that I thought that one of those listed quite high up was useless doesn't seem to have had any effect on its sales!

The other thing though is that books on specific subjects still sell well. The book on content types that just came out (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584506695/heme0f) is the first specifically on that subject so there's a market for it. Similarly the Woody Windischman book on SharePoint Designer seems to be going well. Again there's been a built-up demand for a more complicated SharePoint Designer book than the Penny Coventry Step-by-Step title and the Wrox book from Woody presumably satisfies that built-up demand. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470287616/heme0f)

One area which is still almost totally free of specific coverage is the question of combining SharePoint and Reporting Services so I was glad a few weeks ago to see a book on that listed at Amazon but much less glad to see the proposed Publication Date of the 29th of July 2009.

Anyway for those who want to see what's being promised for that date (and most books never seem to hit their original dates so maybe 1st September 2009 is a better guess) here's the Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0470481897/heme0f but for those who can't wait, note that I've also collected both Reporting Services 2005 and Reporting Services 2008 books along with that book in Group W in my Books page

(http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx or http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/Lists/v3%20WSS%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx)

and all the 2005 and surprisingly many of the 2008 books are already out.

But for those who are in a book buying mood and don't want to struggle with trying to combine the knowledge gained from a general Reporting Services book with SharePoint, perhaps I can interest you in a book that is just out (i.e. available) on a subject that no-one else covers in such depth.

Yes, I've finally got to the promised part of this blog item on Disaster Recovery. I've not seen it yet, but I suspect that this could help you save your job, whereas the development books will only help you GET a job.

Here are the details

SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide (Charles River, John L. Ferringer, Sean McDonough)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584505990/heme0f

P.S. Don't let the Publication Date on the item on my books page fool you. November 4th 2008 was the date they had listed at Amazon when I first saw a listing of the book in June 2008. By the time it came out that listed date had slipped to the end of January 2009 and it has beaten that date in fact by coming out in the past couple of days. Do you see now why I'm estimating the SharePoint and Reporting Services book at 1st September 2009?

P.P.S. I amended the title and authors of the Disaster Recovery book following the comment here received from John Ferringer.

P.P.P.S. I've just amended the prices of the Disaster Recovery book to reflect the present situation. If you live in Europe you need to be very careful where you order from. In July 2008 Amazon France was charging over 60 Euros whereas Amazon Germany was charging less than 30 - even the difference in postage costs doesn't make much difference to that massive price gap - however move on to January 2009 and the *German* price is almost 60 Euros and the French price 30 plus change. That's so good a price it's actually worth buying the book from there even if you live in the UK (which is usually cheaper than both France and Germany) where Amazon want £46 plus or getting on for 60 Euros.

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.

(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 11th to 17th January 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now not amending the date of a KB article if the change made is marked as a version point change (so from 2.2 to 2.3 for instance).
This ought to mean that the amendment made is cosmetic rather than important as important text changes ought to result in a major version change (such as from 2.2 to 3.0).
Because of this change and to avoid unnecessary effort I will in future not amend the listings in the WSS FAQ sites if only a minor version change has taken place.
I will continue to amend both the date and version numbers of major version changes and of course will continue to add all relevant new KB articles that my RSS feeds and other sources give me.

I.1 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

None

Modified

None

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None


II. Articles - 2007 Products

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139163

Administrator’s Guide of Topics to Consider before Deployment (Shane Young, Randy Drisgill, Larry Riemann, Jennifer Mason, Chris Caravajal - SharePoint 911)

8th January 2009

B. Other Office 2007 products

None

C. Other relevant products

None


Modified

None

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2007 Products

None

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1709

VI.157 SharePoint Task Master (commercial - Bamboo Solutions)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1710

VI.158 SharePoint User Registration Accelerator (commercial - Bamboo Solutions)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1711

VI.159 SharePoint Custom Column Pack (commercial - Bamboo Solutions)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1712

VI.160 Data-Viewer Web Part (commercial - Bamboo Solutions)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1713

VI.161 SharePoint Team Calendar Web Part (commercial - Bamboo Solutions)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1714

X.270 Bamboo SharePoint Video Library (free - Bamboo Solutions)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1715

X.271 Bamboo SharePoint Analyzer (free - Bamboo Solutions)

Modified

None


V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

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.

(Items are added to the WSS FAQ throughout the week so you will find new items more quickly by checking at www.wssfaq.com or wssv3faq.mindsharp.com daily.)

From 4th to 10th January 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now not amending the date of a KB article if the change made is marked as a version point change (so from 2.2 to 2.3 for instance).
This ought to mean that the amendment made is cosmetic rather than important as important text changes ought to result in a major version change (such as from 2.2 to 3.0).
Because of this change and to avoid unnecessary effort I will in future not amend the listings in the WSS FAQ sites if only a minor version change has taken place.
I will continue to amend both the date and version numbers of major version changes and of course will continue to add all relevant new KB articles that my RSS feeds and other sources give me.

I.1 2007 KB Articles (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;960254

Error message when you click Checked out to me in the "Manage Content and Structure" page after you filter the picture library by a custom column: "Cannot find column [repro]"

7th January 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;960709

Cumulative update packages for the 2007 Microsoft Office core suite applications and for 2007 Microsoft Office servers: December 16, 2008

6th January 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;960295

The "request for access" messages are sent to an incorrect address when you use unique permissions on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 subsites

5th January 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;959617

E-mail messages that contain subjects that are larger than 124 characters are dropped when they are grouped by subject in a document library in a Windows SharePoint Service 3.0 site

3rd January 2009

Modifed

None

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

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://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.02.bookbi.aspx

Business Intelligence with SharePoint and Excel (TechNet Mag, Feb 2009 - Ben Curry, Bill English)

9th January 2009 (date added)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.02.insidesharepoint.aspx

Maintaining Security Account Credentials (TechNet Mag, Feb 2009 - Pav Cherny)

9th January 2009 (date added)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d007f35e-375c-4b11-bc40-bc9082bb224a&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft SharePoint Online Standard Developer Guide

7th January 2009

http://www.devx.com/codemag/Article/40508

SharePoint 2007 and the Thin .NET 3.5 Development Model (devx.com - Sahil Malik)

5th January 2009

B. Other Office 2007 products

None

C. Other relevant products

None

Modified

None

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2007 Products

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032396927&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Content Deployment (Level 200) (Spencer Harbar, independant consultant)

6th January 2009

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1699

VI.156 ECAL Tracker (commercial - RDA)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1698

VIII.05G Implementing and Administering Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 (Epm Learning) (msProjectExperts - Gary Chefetz)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1700

X.261 Choice Column Filter web part (codeplex - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1701

X.262 Quick Alert Web Part (codeplex - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1702

X.263 AD ChangePassword Web Part (codeplex - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1703

X.264 QuickTask WebPart (codeplex - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1704

X.265 CodePlex Statistics Web Part (codeplex - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1705

X.266 SearchCoder (codeplex - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1706

X.267 Tags Web Parts (free - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1707

X.268 Link Conductor (free - zevenseas)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1708

X.269 Tagged Links (free - zevenseas)

Note: I also added several commercial products from SharePoint Boost. This company has people going around spamming SharePoint forums; newsgroups

and even the web sites of User Groups on a regular basis and I am not going to give them additional publicity here by listing them. (I've also added a comment

about their spamming activities to each recent listing from this company in the WSS FAQ site.

Modified

None

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;960710

Cumulative update packages for Office 2003 SP3, Project 2003 SP3, Project Server 2003 SP3, Visio 2003 SP3, SharePoint Services SP3, and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SP3: December 16, 2008

6th January 2008

Modified

None

VI WSSv2 FAQ

New or Modified

None

VII. MS Articles

New or Modified

None