SharePoint 2010 for beginners - Resources

I am a regular visitor of the SharePoint TechNet forum. There are often questions were to start to learn SharePoint 2010. I thought it would be nice to provide an overview of resources.

SharePoint Consultant (Power-user)

SharePoint out-of-the-box
I think it's important to start with learning the out-of-the-box features of SharePoint. This also applies for developers! Not every solution needs to be created in Visual Studio :-)

There are a couple of resources that can really help you with learning the OOTB features.

Book
I really recommend the following book:

Beginning SharePoint 2010: Building Business Solutions with SharePoint 

This is an excellent book with a clear explanation of all the SharePoint 2010 features. The book also contains exercises to really get to know the platform. You don't have a SharePoint environment? Just create a SharePoint Online site with the Office 365 trial. You need to choose the Enterprise version otherwise not all features are available.

Blogs
The best SharePoint blog on the Internet is NothingButSharePoint. They have articles for end users, developers and infrastructure specialists. You should check out their site on a daily basis. Do you have Twitter? Follow at @TeamEUSP

SharePoint Designer
This is a must have tool for every SharePoint specialist! SharePoint Designer allows you to create advanced workflows, page lay-outs and master pages. You want to show line-of-business data in SharePoint? You need SharePoint Designer. Click here to download the 32 bit version for free.

Books
I recommend the following books:

Beginner SharePoint Designer 2010
Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Step by Step

Both excellent books in teaching you everything about this great tool.

Blogs
One of the main experts of SharePoint Designer is Laura Rogers. You should go to her blog and read her articles.

Asif Rehmani is also an expert in SharePoint Designer. Check out his blog. He also has some free video's at his other site.

Sites
Click here for the official Microsoft site.

InfoPath
InfoPath is a great tool, I have really started to appreciate it over the last couple of years. You can create digital forms for SharePoint. The forms can contain rules and conditions without the need for coding.

Books
There is one book that really stands out:

Using Microsoft InfoPath 2010 with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Step by Step 

This book is a must have for every person with an interest in InfoPath.

Blogs
I advice to keep using the blogs from Laura and Asif. They have high quality articles about InfoPath. I also wrote multiple articles about InfoPath.

Forum
Do you have any questions or issues? This is the forum you have to visit: InfoPathDev.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is not my main specialism but I have started to learn more and more about the subject. I got my SharePoint Infrastructure certificates thanks to the following resources.

Books
The following book is really a great read for every infrastructure specialist but also for SharePoint Consultants:

Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration

You prefer a more visual learning method? I advise the following:

SharePoint 2010 Ignite - Only accessible for Microsoft Partners but free!
CTB Nuggets - High quality instruction video's.

Blogs
The following blogs are really helpful:

http://toddklindt.com/default.aspx
http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/
http://www.harbar.net/

Also check out NothingbutSharePoint because they also post Infrastructure related articles.

Sites
SharePoint 2010 for IT Pro's

Branding

Branding involves everything from master pages, css to page lay-outs. I really respect SharePoint branding experts because my branding skills are terrible ;-)

Books
To be honest, I have not read any books about branding. Go to Amazon to see a overview of the available books.

Blogs
There are two blogs essential for every branding expert:

http://heatherwaterman.com/
http://www.nothingbutbranding.com/

Development

Sandbox solutions, farm solutions and Visual Studio? You must be a developer and I am definitely not. Again, I have a lot of respect for developers because I have no feeling for code and you can create some cool stuff with custom code!

Blogs / Sites
SharePoint for developers
Get started developing

Also check out NothingbutSharePoint because they also post development related articles.

Books
There are a lot of development books available at Amazon.

General

The following sites are a must have for every SharePoint Specialist:

SharePoint 2010 Resource Center

SharePoint 2010 TechNet

Note
There are of course a lot more great blogs, books and articles out there and I am not trying to insult or please anyone. I just want SharePoint newbies to get started :-)

Posted in: SharePoint, SharePoint 2010