Topics in this chapter   Introducing Microsoft's SharePoint Team Services     Introducing Office XP Workgroup Strategies     Microsoft Web Solutions

Microsoft Web Solutions

Microsoft has several products that help you work in a Web environment — from simple solutions for creating single Web pages, to prebuilt Web sites with integrated team tools, all the way to large, dynamic sites that take advantage of the latest Web technologies.

Web solutions in Office

Microsoft Office XP includes several tools that help you work with HTML pages, and create and manage Web sites. If you are looking to create single Web pages or individual Web sites, the following, easy-to-use Office XP products can help you:

• Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft Access 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002

  Allow authoring of individual Web pages. Available as stand-alone products or with Office XP.

• Microsoft Publisher 2002

  Helps users author simple, small Web sites. Available as a stand-alone product or with the Small Business edition of Office XP.

• Microsoft FrontPage 2002

  Powerful tool that enables users to author simple or full-featured Web sites. Available as a stand-alone product or with the Professional with FrontPage edition of Office XP.

• FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions

  Web server application used to host FrontPage 2002 Web sites. Available with FrontPage 2002 and Office XP.

Web solutions outside of Office

Outside of Office, there are several other Web-application solutions available from Microsoft. These solutions allow professional Web site developers to create powerful, dynamic, and comprehensive Web site solutions for their customers, or to create large-scale intranet solutions for their organizations. Among these products are:

• Microsoft's SharePoint Team Services

  New Web technology used to host SharePoint Team Web sites.

• Microsoft Visual Interdev® 6.0

  Helps developers create dynamic Web sites. Includes support for Active Server Pages and Dynamic HTML, and includes integrated database design and programming tools.

• Microsoft Site Server 3.0

  Designed for the corporate intranet, Site Server 3.0 empowers users to publish, find, and share information quickly and easily.

• Microsoft Site Server 3.0

  Commerce Edition is a comprehensive Internet commerce server that enables you to engage customers, transact business, and analyze commerce Web sites.

Microsoft Web platforms

To support these Web solutions and to provide Web site hosting, Microsoft offers several products that make up the Web platform. The first part of the platform is the operating system. Newer Microsoft Web solutions are built to take advantage of the following Microsoft operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows NT®

  The Workstation edition for hosting a single Web site, and Server edition for hosting multiple sites

• Microsoft Windows 2000

  Professional edition for hosting a single Web site, and Server edition for hosting multiple sites.

Some Web solutions (such as for single Web pages or Web sites hosted by an ISP) require only support from the operating system. Most Web solutions, however, require additional software support. For example, to use Microsoft's SharePoint Team Services or FrontPage Server Extensions 2002, you need one or more of the following:

• Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)

  IIS provides background Web site processes for Microsoft's SharePoint Team Services. IIS is part of the operating system for Microsoft Windows 2000. You must have IIS to use SharePoint Team Services.

• Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE)

  SQL Server™ and MSDE provide the database server support for Web sites based upon SharePoint Team Services. SQL Server is the preferred solution for larger sites or multiple sites on one server, while MSDE supports small, individual sites. You must have either SQL Server or MSDE to use many features of SharePoint Team Services.