SharePoint's popularity as a collaboration tool has exploded. So the time was right to look at add-on products for expanding its usability, management and customization. I was surprised, but happy, to find that many add-on tools for SharePoint is free. So, as I was combing through the options of which to test for this list, I decided to concentrate solely on the free tools.
My search took me to Microsoft's SharePoint site, some blogs run by SharePoint MVP's, third-party developers and Microsoft's open source site Codeplex. (Not surprisingly, most of these free tools are hosted on Codeplex, by the way.) All told, I examined more than 120 SharePoint tools to bring you this list of 12 that represented a good blend of customization and easy management. In order to make the cut, all the tools on this list are easy to roll out. I used myself as the test case – as in, if it was easy for me, it would be easy for most folks. Although I have worked with SharePoint for a while, I am not a SharePoint developer. (So, no, you will not find any projects on these sites with Ron Barrett's name attached to them.) But thanks to these great projects and third-party tools, no one has to be a SharePoint developer to be able to deploy great looking sites that will make a SharePoint deployment rock. Let's start with the AJAX Control Toolkit.
AJAX Control Toolkit | Silverlight Control Toolkit | Podcasting Kit | Community Kit for |
30 Features | Learning Kit | Tool Basket | Smart Tools | Role-Based Templates for My Sites | Branding Tool | Imtech Mobile | Colligo Reader
Ron Barrett, Director of e-Strategy for ClipTraining , is an independent trainer, author and consultant. He has been a technology professional for over 12 years, working for several major financial services firms and dotcoms. Ron is a specialist in network infrastructure, security, and IT management. He is the author of Office Communications Server 2007 R2: How-To , as well as co-author of Windows Server 2008: How-To and The Administrator’s Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers. Ron has been a co-author or technical editor for several other books on Windows administration. Along with book writing, Ron has contributed to several industry magazines such as Redmond, Datamation and Windows IT Pro. Beyond writing, Ron has spoken at several technology conferences for CPAmerica, AICPA and MCP’s TECHMENTOR. Recently Ron has joined ClipTraining as the Director of e-Strategy in an effort to further the company’s presence via the Internet and social networking channels.
Ron's latest book, Windows Server 2008 How-To has been selected as the September 2009 book giveaway on Microsoft Subnet. To enter the monthly book giveaway, visit the Microsoft Subnet home page.
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Forgot one great tool - SharePoint Explorer IE Navigation plugin
You forgot one great tool I use all of the time. It is called SharePoint Explorer and is free from The Dot Net Factory (http://www.adselfservicesuite.com/SharePointExplorerClient.aspx). It is an Internet Explorer add-in that shows all of the sites, lists, and doc libraries you can access. It has right-click menus that are security trimmed to show all of the actions you could do if you were on the site without all of the page loads so it makes it much faster.
Tim
SharePoint Explorer IE is buggy
I downloaded and tried to use this application but it is buggy to say the least. The urls were all messed up. I could view the first page of the site but none of the lists or other parts. Pity; it looked really good. Perhaps it only works for SharePoint sites on port 80? I wasn't able to try that option.
Worked for me
I use it alot but cannot verify if there is an issue with other ports as we use port 80.
Works great for me!
I've been using it for quite a bit and I connect to several servers. We have a copy of the production server that uses port 81 and works there too. I love using it, and it's free!
Many more listed on SharePointReviews.com
Great review of the free tools, thanks! There is also a list posted on SharePoint Reviews: http://www.sharepointreviews.com/component/jreviews/tag/tags/Freeware/criteria:1/
Many with some user feedback as well. Share yours.
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