Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Plain & Simple / Johnathan Lightfoot, Michelle Lopez, Scott Metker

Q&A with Jonathan Lightfoot, author of "Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Plain & Simple"

Q. Why is your book timely-- what makes it important right now?

A. The SharePoint platform is still relatively unknown to many business users. Microsoft’s new release of SharePoint 2013 is starting to gain traction with organizations around the world. As such a lot of people who were relatively unfamiliar with the platform will need to start using it. "Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Plain & Simple" fills the need of getting people up to speed on the platform within a short amount of time. In doing so, we feel that this book will allow for a lot more people who are currently unfamiliar with the platform to begin to use the platform to assist them with collaborating and completing their tasks. Also, the book’s layout is easy to use. Most computer books tend to be mostly text ... "Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Plain & Simple" is mostly graphical in order to mimic the experience of using SharePoint 2013, which allows the book to more closely align with the tasks a person may be doing. So to have a book that is in the same format as what the reader is actually interacting with eases the learning process.

Q. What information do you hope that readers of your book will walk away with?

A. I hope that readers will be able to walk away with the ability to use the platform, of course but I also want them to be able to use this book to understand the moving pieces of SharePoint to imagine and develop solutions to their business challenges.

Q. What's the most exciting/important thing happening in your space?

A. It would definitely be the merging of systems. For years we have been promised an easier life due to the computer. And there have been several breakthrough products that have done just that. But in our current evolution we have the need for these systems to connect and interact with each other. In doing so we can truly begin to see computers easing our lives. The SharePoint platform is one of the systems that, on its own, is a powerful platform. But when you connect this platform with other systems, then you are able to really unleash its true power. "Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Plain & Simple" was written in such a way as to teach people how to use the platform in its most basic sense. But at the same time one is able to look at the book and with very little thought build on that knowledge and develop solutions for business problems.

Q. Can you give us a few tips to get us started?

1. If you are annoyed with seeing the Ribbon at the top of your page you can double-click any of the tabs and the Ribbon will be minimized. If you want to see it again simply double-click a tab to have it reappear
2. When creating a new library of lists, make sure that you do not use spaces in the name. This will make your life a lot easier when you decide to use SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio for interacting with the list or library. After the list or library is created you can always go back into the Look and Feel settings to add a space to the name, to make it easier to read.
3. When creating workflows, it is best to use Visio 2013’s Microsoft SharePoint Workflows template to make a graphical representation of the workflow. After you finish with Visio to make a graphical version of the workflow you are able to upload the drawing into SharePoint Designer to fill in the details.
4. When creating a new site, make sure that one of your first steps is to check the Regional settings for your site. By default SharePoint will use the Pacific Time zone.
5. If you have to create several sites at once and they are going to have similar lists and libraries, prepare the initial site and then use the “Save as Template” option in Site Settings to clone the site. In doing so you are able to choose this template to stand up the rest of the sites quickly.