Your company is already heavily invested in SharePoint 2010. It’s an important part of how every employee works every day.
You may be one of the decision makers who determines when (or if) you’ll upgrade and migrate to SharePoint 2013; so you want to learn what the benefits and challenges are going to be for the everyday user as well as the overall effect on your organization’s business. Or you may be an end user or power user who has been told that your sites are being upgraded to SharePoint 2013, and you want to learn how to use the new features available to you and apply them in your job.
In either case, you need a hands-on guided tour of the new interface and the new features of SharePoint 2013—from a user perspective.
And this course is it!
This two-day course is designed for non-technical, non-IT Professionals who need a guided hands-on introduction to the major new features and new functionality of SharePoint Server 2013, and for IT Professionals who need to familiarize themselves with the new user interface and new features. The course is intended for business users who will be participating in a project to upgrade their organization from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013, and will not cover the technical upgrade process or information on administering the SharePoint server farm.
For a detailed list of the topics covered in the course, review the detailed course outline below.
This course is intended for:
- Non-IT Professionals who will be participating in SharePoint 2013 Planning and Deployment project(s) in their organization, or SharePoint users who need to familiarize themselves with the new user interface and new features of SharePoint 2013.
- IT Professionals (Administrators, Developers, Managers, etc.) who need to understand the new SharePoint Server 2013 interface and new features from the user's perspective.
After completing this course, students will be able to understand the:
- Concepts and terminologies that are unique to SharePoint 2013
- Changes to the end-user’s day-to-day experience after upgrading to SharePoint 2013
- Benefits and uses of many of SharePoint 2013's new features
In order to take this course, prospective students must have:
- At least 6 months experience working with SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010
- Intermediate-level skills with SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010
Students will receive a comprehensive course manual, which will include all presentation materials and lab exercises. The lab exercises are step-by-step and fully documented in the student workbook. To view
sample modules of our courseware click here.
Each student will be given access to his or her own SharePoint 2013 environment on the classroom hardware. In essence, students will be attending a class where a fully functional SharePoint 2013 environment has been set up for their use in learning the product. No pre-installation of SharePoint 2013 software or Office 2013 is required for this class.
Each student will need to bring a qualifying laptop to the class. Click here to verify that your laptop meets the minimum requirements.
(Note: This Course Outline is subject to minor changes and refinements based on student feedback and instructor experience.)
This course is divided into two distinct sections, each with its own focus. One section will be covered each day:
Day 1: A Day in the Life of a SharePoint 2013 End User
Microsoft has made significant improvements in how end users work, communicate, collaborate, and share information in SharePoint. SharePoint 2013 new features we will explore on the first day include:
Module 1 – Enhancements to the User Interface
Although the core foundational functionality remains the same, each new version of SharePoint contains many enhancements to the way users make use of this core functionality. SharePoint 2013 is no exception. This module will introduce you to the look-and-feel changes of the out-of-the-box user interface, where things are located, and explain enhancements that will make your work easier and faster. Questions answered in this module include:
- What has changed in the default Regular View in a browser?
- How does SharePoint 2013 work on a tablet (iPad/iOS, Windows, or Android)?
- How does SharePoint 2013 work on the variety of mobile phones?
- What has changed in the ribbon?
- How has the context menu on items in list and libraries been improved?
- How can I quickly share an item and quickly change permissions if needed?
- How can I preview documents in libraries?
- How can I quickly filter and search within a library?
- What are SharePoint 2013 Apps?
- What is the App Store?
- Which site templates have been deprecated (phased out)?
Module 2 – Social Networking - My Sites
Microsoft has invested heavily in learning how people share, discover, and communicate personally via tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. My Sites in SharePoint 2013 incorporate many of the features that employees are using in their personal lives for sharing, discovering, and communicating in a way that these same skills can be used for sharing, discovering, and communicating within the enterprise. Questions answered in this module include:
- How has the Newsfeed (or activity feed) been enhanced?
- How do I comment or reply to an item on the Newsfeed?
- How do I share something on my Newsfeed?
- What are hashtags? And how do I use them?
- How do I “Like” something in SharePoint?
- How do I follow People, Sites, Documents, and Topics?
- How do I see what other people are following?
- What is “SkyDrive Pro”
- How do I synchronize documents between my computer and My Site?
- How do I access my My Site documents from my mobile device?
Module 3 – Social Networking - Communities
The new Community Site Template in SharePoint 2013 improves how users communicate, share information, ask for assistance, and provide assistance, across your organization. Communities are much more than the old SharePoint Discussion Boards. Questions answered in this module include:
- What enhancements facilitate better online discussions?
- How do users earn “reputation” or “ranking” for helping others?
- How do users create “Badges” to encourage people to help others?
- How do people earn “Badges”?
- How do Categories work within Communities?
- How has blogging been improved and enhanced?
- What are Video Assets and how do I use them?
Module 4 – Search
In SharePoint 2010, most organizations utilized Enterprise Search. A few organizations took advantage of the enhanced search functionality by purchasing Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. In SharePoint 2013, the FAST technology is now incorporated in Enterprise Search to greatly improve how users find the information they need. Questions answered in this module include:
- How do the Slider and Graph Refiners work?
- How do Type Ahead Suggestions work?
- How do I preview items within my search results?
- How does Enterprise search show me where my search terms are used within documents?
- How do I follow and share items within my search results?
- How has People Search been improved to help me find people and associated documents?
- How do I search Communities to find discussions and conversation?
- How are videos rendered within search results?
- How are Business Intelligence reports rendered in search results?
- How does Unified search help me locate information in emails?
- How do I use the Content Search web part?
Module 5 – Office Web Applications
In SharePoint 2010, users loved being able to view and edit Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote documents right in the browser. The Office Web Applications for SharePoint 2013 bring many great enhancements users will love. Questions answered in this module include:
- How does Change Tracking work in the Word Web App?
- How do comments work in the Word and PowerPoint Web Apps to facilitate conversation and collaboration within documents?
- How does co-authoring work to allow multiple people to work on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote documents simultaneously in real time?
Day 2: A Day in the Life of a SharePoint 2013 Power User/No-code Application Developer
Site owners, designers, power users, and no-code application developers will appreciate many of the enhancements in SharePoint 2013 that provide more flexibility, as well as easier and faster development of business solutions. The new SharePoint 2013 features we will explore on the second day include:
Module 6 – Publishing and Web Content Management
SharePoint has been a powerful platform for public web sites since 2007. Most companies utilize many of these features on their internal intranet sites as well. Microsoft has continued to improve this functionality, and it’s been a major focus area in SharePoint Server 2013. Questions answered in this module include:
- How does the improved Rich Text Editor work? And how does it handle copying and pasting from Word?
- How has adding video to pages been improved?
- How do I use Image Renditions for reusing and resizing images?
- How do I use Machine Translation Services to render content in different languages or assist with human translation?
- How does Cross-site Publishing work for managing duplicate content in different site collections?
- How can I customize navigation via drag-and-drop?
- How does Managed Navigation work?
- How do I use Refiners and Faceted Navigation?
- How can I create Friendly URLs?
- How can web designers apply designs created in Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression Web, or other tools to SharePoint sites?
- How does the Design Manager work?
Module 7 – Access 2013 Web Apps
SharePoint 2010 introduced Access Web Applications to allow users to design an Access database and publish it to SharePoint for use entirely in the browser. Microsoft has taken this concept to the next level in 2013 with improved data scalability and ease of design. Questions answered in this module include:
- How is Access 2013 Web App data stored in SQL Server 2012 databases?
- How is Access 2013 Web App data accessible from external applications?
- How do I use the automatically created views to make application design easier?
- How do I use the Automatic Hot Keys?
- How do I use the Related Items control and Autocomplete control to make it easier for users to enter data?
- How can my Access 2013 Web Apps link to other SharePoint lists in other sites?
Module 8 – Excel Services
Excel Services was first introduced in SharePoint 2007 to allow Excel spreadsheets to be viewed, and interacted with, in the browser. Improvements in SharePoint 2013 make data mining easier for end users. Questions answered in this module include:
- How can I drill down into a Pivot Table or Pivot Chart to analyze my data?
- How can I change the fields in a Pivot Table or Pivot Chart in the browser?
- How do I use the enhanced timeline controls in Excel Services?
Module 9 – SharePoint Designer 2013
SharePoint Designer 2013 continues to be the power tool for managing and customizing SharePoint sites. This version moves SharePoint Designer 2013 toward more developer-centric capabilities. Questions answered in this module include:
- What happened to Design View?
- How can web designers apply designs created in Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression Web, or other tools to SharePoint sites?
- What has changed with the Data View Web Part?
Module 10 – SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows
Many organizations have come to depend on SharePoint Designer workflows for managing and automating business processes. The improvements to workflows in SharePoint 2013 are some of the most significant improvements in this entire release of the product. Questions answered in this module include:
- How does the SharePoint 2010 Workflow Platform differ in usage and integration from the SharePoint 2013 Workflow Platform?
- What’s deprecated (phased out) from 2010 to 2013 in workflows?
- How does Visio 2013 enhance the workflow design experience?
- How can I develop workflows visually through drag and drop activities?
- How have the task process activities been improved?
- How do I use Loops in my workflows?
- How do I create Stages in my workflows and have the logic jump between Stages?
- How do I use App Steps in my workflows?
- How do I use Copy and Paste when designing a workflow?
- How do I use the Workflow Manager for tracking, monitoring, and managing my workflows?