Book excerpt: This book is a complete practical guide. It’s full of useful tips and exercises to get users started in no time! It has no fluff, just practical exercises that will provide users the knowledge and know-how to implement SharePoint solutions easily and professionally. SharePoint has a steep learning curve. Without a book like this, it will probably take users months to learn SharePoint. This book will save users great deal of time because it contains ready-to-use solutions and expert advice from someone who is a subject matter expert. This book has everything that users need to equip themselves to work professionally on SharePoint projects. The author is a 7 times awardee of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award. SharePoint is a huge product. Each component or feature deserves a separate book. Discussing all great features in detail in one book is not possible. Author has tried to include the necessary content that will help users get started straight away. For beginners, the main problem they face is to setup an environment for SharePoint deployment. This book shows how to prepare the environment and then install each piece of software one by one. The initial chapters of the book focus on SharePoint infrastructure and deployment and show how to install SharePoint 2013 on a clean machine. The intended audience of these chapters is people who are looking to become SharePoint 2013 administrators. Network administrators who want to learn SharePoint administration will gain lot of useful information from these chapters. Chapters in the later part of the book contain information on some of the popular features of SharePoint 2013. These chapters discuss creating web-enabled InfoPath forms, securing sites with SSL, setting up Extranets, etc. These chapters are for the power users and advanced users. The book guides users in a step-by-step format and explains everything needed to install the software. This includes preparing the machine for the installation. Each exercise in the book is accompanied by screenshots so that even if a user gets stuck during the exercise, he can refer to the screenshot to get a better understanding of the step he is stuck on. Clear and crisp screenshots make this book unique. Some of the topics discussed in the book are advanced but explained in a very simple way with the help of screenshots. This book is structured to build logically on the skills you learn as you progress through it. After the initial introduction and deployment chapters, the book moves into the more advanced part of the platform. Each chapter focuses on a new feature. If you are an advanced user, you can skip the initial chapters and go directly to the topic that you are interested in. Some of the topics discussed in the book are as following: SharePoint Deployments - Configure Active Directory, SQL Server, IIS Roles! SharePoint Cloud - Setup SharePoint in the cloud Office 365 Development – Create your first SharePoint app in the cloud SharePoint Modern Apps - Modern, state of the art applications using HTML5 and SharePoint 2013 Extranets Business Processes - Leverage Business Connectivity Services to build Line of Business applications Web Parts Development – Understand and learn to develop web parts Electronic Forms - Learn to program web-enabled electronic forms using InfoPath Public Websites - Design a branded public website using SharePoint Online/Office 365 SharePoint 2013 Search – Learn Search configuration, customization, Managed Metadata SharePoint 2013 Branding – Learn how to brand sites to look elegant, classy and professional