With the release of Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft has made some dramatic changes to its popular collaboration software. Our Clear Choice Test of the SharePoint collaboration and content-management server found the new version easier than its predecessor to install and use.

Installing SharePoint Server was very straightforward. The only prerequisites are a Windows 2003 server, Internet Information Server (IIS) and Version 3.0 of the .Net framework. It took only one mouse click to get the first server in our SharePoint "farm" up and running. A single server with plenty of disk space could be a large-enough environment for most small-to-midsize businesses.

For large SharePoint deployments, a customized installation might be preferable, so that portions of the software can be installed on different servers. The SharePoint installation program automatically installs and configures a version of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 and then configures IIS for use with SharePoint Server 2007. Once that's done, you're ready to go, as long as your IIS Web server can be seen on the network.

COLLABORATION SERVER OFFICE SHAREPOINT SERVER 2007 Microsoft Related Content

4.25

Price: Server licenses start at $4,300. Standard Edition client access licenses start at $93 and Enterprise Edition client access licenses start at $76 (both are required for the full array of business-intelligence functions.) Pros: Easy to install and use; compatible with many Web browsers; now is template-driven. Cons: Server runs only on Microsoft Windows; works better with Internet Explorer than with other browsers; many features rely on Microsoft Office 2007 file formats. The breakdown Installation 20% 4.5 Scoring Key: 5: Exceptional 4: Very good 3: Average 2: Below average 1: Subpar or not available Compatibility 20% 4 Management 30% 4 Ease of use 30% 4.5 TOTAL SCORE 4.25

Click to see: NetResults for SharePoint Server

SharePoint is managed through a Web browser. For the majority of our administrative work (see How we did it), we used versions 2.0 and 1.5 of Mozilla's Firefox. Internet Explorer's new Version 7.0, as well as its previous versions, is a little better at performing some of the drag-and-drop functions and selection boxes. However, all of SharePoint Server's features are available using a variety of browsers. You just have to work a little harder when using something other than Internet Explorer.