Why SharePoint 2013 & How do I learn It?

Why SharePoint 2013 & How do I learn It?

It has been an important question around now like is SharePoint 2013 a new platform with lot of new features? Is it worth to migrate our sites to SharePoint 2013? Does it provide a user friendly environment?

To all of those questions the answer is Yes.

Yes it is a platform with lot of new features.

Yes it is worth to migrate our SharePoint 2010 sites to SharePoint 2013.

Yes it provides an amazing user friendly experience to the users working on it.

This new version of SharePoint promises us with new rich features making our sites ‘Live’. It includes an improved web content usability, Asset management, Cross Site Publishing, more advanced Search Capabilities, well improved workflows and most importantly better site performance.

Let us discuss about the difference what this new version will provide compared to SharePoint 2010. Let’s see one by one all the new features which 2013 version wants to share with us.

Search:-

SharePoint 2013 version provides us an advanced feature in search where it provides the complete package of Microsoft’s FAST search technology.

In search functionality, there is a new upgrade to the crawling and indexing components in SharePoint search. Here in this new version frequent crawling of large amounts of content is possible where it was not available in 2010 version.

Query Conditions/ Rules Engine:-

This feature allows your web pages to dynamically feature content which will be relevant for each user. At a high level, a new query engine has been added to search, which allows for rules to be applied and results displayed to be reordered based on specific conditions.

This is a new feature which was not available in SharePoint 2010.

As a user we will have greater control over how the results are sorted and displayed based on user attributes. This flexibility is a huge advantage for SharePoint 2013 over SharePoint 2010. It gives you flexibility to adapt the search as you learn more about your user’s search and expand your solutions.

Query Actions with Custom HTML:-

This new feature allows you to control how the search results will be presented. You can now specify which types of records in your search results will be displayed with custom HTML.

There was not an efficient way to customize how search results were presented in SharePoint 2010 so here we have an added advantage in SharePoint 2013.

This feature gives you multiple options for visually promoting or drawing attention to files presented on the basis of user attributes. This capability can be used in search results and also with search-driven pages.

Intranet-Related Search Advantages

Along with the search enhancements mentioned above, the following improvements will also be important to our Intranet users.

From the search results page, users can preview Microsoft Office files in search results by simply hovering over them. Search results are sorted and optimized based on users clicks. The ability to preview files before opening translates into more accurate search results for the end users, as the result set is automatically tuned.

This is a new feature and was not available in SharePoint 2010.

This capability will make your search results more relevant as well as important files easier to find. It also makes browsing through search results much simpler when you’re looking for the right file.

Improved Web Content Usability

Copy Paste:-

Users can now copy content directly from Word and paste it into the SharePoint text editor. The text will be displayed in the site’s defined style, meaning less editing is required. This is a big time saver and solves one of the biggest requests a user has to put for Developers to perform this activity.

There are some significant improvements in how the HTML is scripted when being used in SharePoint 2013 thereby editing web pages and content is easier and more efficient compared to in 2010 version.

Branding:-

Branding and page design can now be done through non-SharePoint tools, such as Adobe Dreamweaver and other third-party HTML editing tools.

This feature was not available in previous versions and has been newly added to SharePoint 2013 version. A web designer without SharePoint experience can now use their favorite design tool to change the look and feel on your Intranet or corporate website.

The new features in a publishing site minimize the amount of SharePoint knowledge that is required to successfully design and brand a SharePoint site. Professional web designers who know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript already have the skills necessary to design a SharePoint 2013 site . It too provides a lot of Themes which is as easy as changing your desktop background. You can change in colors of the site, put in background images without even touching the Master Page.

Video Embedding: -

Videos can now be embedded natively in a page. The file can be stored in a third-party video hosting solution such as Vimeo or, in some web parts, inside SharePoint.

Earlier it has to be assed using a custom web part but now it is easily available in SharePoint 2013.

Digital Asset Management:-

Users with a large volume of images, videos, and other content find it critical to have a robust and efficient way to organize their assets. SharePoint 2013 now includes more features and scalability to your content

It was limited in SharePoint 2010 and now it has many new added features within it.

Cross-site Publishing:-

SharePoint Server 2013 includes cross-site publishing for web content management that enhances the authoring and publishing processes of your organization. Cross-site publishing lets you store and maintain content in one or more authoring site collections, and display this content in one or more publishing site collections. When you change the content in an authoring site collection, those changes are displayed on all site collections that are reusing this content

Other Significant Features in SharePoint 2013

SkyDrive:-

Users can now share documents and files from a personal SkyDrive or keep them secured for their personal use. SkyDrive files can still be indexed and located through search if they have been shared to that user.

This feature was not available in previous versions of SharePoint .This allows for very easy file collaboration without the user needing to email or store the file inside a SharePoint document library hence providing one more alternative to store their data.

Workflows:-

This new platform allows for more no-code functionality and is much more scalable than SharePoint 2010. The new platform allows for more flexibility and better performance than experienced with SharePoint 2010. SharePoint Workflow now includes much more scalable options with more flexibility.

It has an improved version over the performance where we can have higher volume workflow with automation.

With SharePoint 2013, the old SharePoint 2010 engine is maintained as is but a new add-on called “Workflow Manager” can be downloaded and installed separately. Workflow Manager can run on its own server and has its own respective databases for the manager itself and the Service Bus thereby improving the performance.

Better Site Performance:-

As per Microsoft’s focus on its cloud version of SharePoint, the new version of on-premise and SharePoint online has been optimized for faster load times and better overall performance.

The Design Manager:-

This is an entire new web-based tool to help users to manage Master Pages, Composed Looks, Devices and Reusable style templates.

The tool helps broaden the audience of designers that can work with SharePoint. For example it simplifies transforming an HTML page into a Master Page. This means you could have an expert in design create an HTML and CSS design for you and pass it to your team that will use the Design Manager to integrate the HTML into a functional master page in SharePoint. A very new feature in SharePoint 2013.

Device Channels:-

The Design Manager can also provide the team with a way to specify different master pages for different devices such as iPhone, Windows Phone, Surface and i-Pad. This can prove very useful if the requirements to make SharePoint available on all devices making it an important feature in SharePoint 2013.

Multiple Browser Performance:-

A growing need today in an organization is the cross browser and device support. We are finishing an era where choosing between Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome were our only considerations. SharePoint 2013 works great on all these browsers now. With the device channels in the Design Manager for device support and the native use of HTML5, it definitely helps jump start collaboration on multiple browsers and devices.

Apps and the App Store:-

Yes we have an app store; SharePoint 2013 introduces the concept of apps into our wonderful SharePoint experience. Now an organization can create its own Private App store with applications that interface with other in house applications. This will help everyone to add an app or share an app on their SharePoint Site easily.

As default it provides a lot of apps which will ease the users and effort of a developer in making them.

Apps for SharePoint are self-contained pieces of functionality that extend the capabilities of a SharePoint website. You can use HTML, CSS, JavaScript and protocols like the Open Data protocol to communicate with SharePoint using Apps. The app is an isolated safe container so you are free to make client site calls using JavaScript. A great advantage of the app model is that custom code runs on a separate server ,it guarantees the farm to be unbothered by any performance problems created by custom apps.

Document Management :-

In SharePoint 2013, document management has got a rich outlook including drag and drop to upload documents and the ability to edit managed metadata in a datasheet view. The primary differences are in the social experiences, especially with discussion boards. The 2013 discussion board (with Community features enabled) creates and engage “Facebook-like” activity stream, which is far more user-friendly than the same feature in SharePoint 2010.

Social Computing:-

In 2010 version we have very limited capabilities where users can post a single status that is not retained and not searchable. The new status wipes out the old status so statuses feel very static but here in 2013 version each user has a Newsfeed that is similar to a Facebook activity stream. You can see stream of the entire organization or filter based on topics and people you are following. Here you can post or reply in the stream using @mentions and #hashtags in a similar way as in our social sites. Here activity posts are saved for as long as you decide to retain them and most importantly they are searchable. Users can follow #Hashtags to get notified when new content relevant to your area of interest is added. As similar to Facebook @mention someone to direct an activity post to their attention.

Collaborating with others outside the workgroup on individual documents:-

Collaboration in SharePoint 2010 is difficult to do if the person on the team does not have access to edit the document on the team site so in this case only the site owner can grant permissions. And mostly in 2010 author can create a “document workspace” and invite the guest to edit, but then has to publish the final document back to the main site but here in SharePoint 2013 “Share” button is easily visible for any site and document where any user can invite someone to edit an individual document “in place,” but all invitations are approved by the site owner. (easier to collaborate, but still controlled) .This new feature makes it easier to collaborate with people.

Community Portal Template

A new feature in SharePoint Server 2013 which expands on the discussion list concept by introducing a new site template named Community Site which is completely focused on conversations. What makes this site unique is that users can access the site and observe conversations then “join” a community when they want to post. Other notable items of interest regarding this new site template is that by becoming a member means you are automatically “following” the community site.

Then users who are Members their photos show up next to all posts. Then we have “Gameification” options to encourage participation in terms of points, badges, and a “top contributors” leaderboard.

Designated users can be “gifted” a badge to identify someone as an “Expert” or “Thought Leader” so that discussion participants can easily distinguish contributions.

It provides an ability to categorize conversations by topic with an image to create a welcoming environment and encourage interaction among them.

Mobile Access:-

In SharePoint 2010 Teams can create mobile views for sites but not necessarily for different types of mobile devices but here in 2013 version we have Optimized mobile browser experience which provides a lightweight, contemporary view browsing experience for users to navigate and access document libraries, lists, wikis, and Web Parts. Using Device channels users can render a single published SharePoint site in multiple designs to accommodate different device types. Business intelligence in SharePoint Server 2013 enables a user to view certain kinds of dashboard content. This includes Performance Point reports and scorecards, and Excel Services reports in iOS 5.0 Safari browsers on iPad devices; even Office Web Apps allows users to view Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents in mobile browsers.

Big data support:-

Support for big data has been added. SharePoint 2013 allows for much larger data sets thanks to updated integrated Power Pivot technology compared to 2010 version. Built on the Vertipaq engine, large data sets can be compressed and filter while in memory on the server, allowing operations on the data occur very fast.

The Power View data modeling and visualization engine for Excel has also been updated. User can leverage Power View with large data sets to create visualizations with charts, graphs, runtime data filtering, and slicers.

Conclusion:-

So here we have all these new added features of SharePoint 2013 so on a higher note it is the product you must move to use newer technology making our work user friendly and simple.

It is very easy to learn too.

We have lot of training portals providing learning, Kindly go through the links and you would find lot of ways to learn SharePoint 2013

Links:-

1. http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint-help/training-courses-for-sharepoint-2013-HA104030990.aspx

2. http://sharepoint-videos.com/video-categories/sharepoint-2013-training-courses/

3. http://www.lynda.com/Office-tutorials/SharePoint-Server-2013-Essential-Training/121679-2.html

4. http://www.quickstart.com/courses/sharepoint-2013-training.aspx

5. http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/understanding-sharepoint2013-basics