Here are the major improvements of WSS that I think will encourage people to move to the new office platform.
- Item-Level permissions - This vital missing feature of Sharepoint 2003 is implemented in MOSS. You can set permissions on a document or list item like you would do on folders.
- Recycle bin with multiple levels of permission - Deleted documents can be recovered more easily. Better handling of deleted and permanently deleted documents based on roles. e.g. site admins can recover documents that were permanently deleted from a site user's recycle bin.
- Improved Navigation - Tree View navigation built into WSS sites allows easier navigation to specific document libraries and lists. Breadcrumb trails are also built-in.
- Better Outlook Integration - Sharepoint Tasks/Outlook Tasks combined, Calendar Items can be modified and synchronized directly in Outlook.
- Mobile enabled Sharepoint sites - Browse WSS sites using a mobile device, Sharepoint pages are optimized and formatted differently when accessed via a mobile browser.
- Infopath integrated into Office documents - e.g. Infopath used to capture metadata in Microsoft Word document.
- Security Trimming of UI - Display only contents that a user have access to, e.g. site settings show links based on the user's permission.
Update : 25 June 06
Thought I would update my views on moving to the new Office platform as I have now had a few weeks use of the Office server through mainly performing administrative and deployment tasks, although not yet doing any solid templates and web parts development on MOSS.
Major improvements of the new version:
- increased compatibility with ASP .NET 2 - SharePoint no longer relies on its own ISAPI filter, it now uses the ASP .NET HTTP Handlers and modules to serve aspx page requests. This means SharePoint can now take advantage of the ASP.NET Master Pages, Themes and Navigation Controls. This will save developers a lot of time when branding and improving navigation of a SharePoint site.
- More granular site definitions - Portal site/area is now just another template like a WSS site template so you have more control on how Portal sections should link to WSS team sections. This is a known sticking point with the current SharePoint Portal 2003 where Portal Areas seem so different to WSS 2.0 sites and a lot of work was required to link the two together.
Another benefit of Portal sections being made into an on-demand template is that you can now develop a more consistent look and feel across the whole site structure.
- CMS now integrated into SharePoint - Enabling SharePoint to publish content and developing public facing company site is now much easier as CMS have been merged in and is now a service in SharePoint Server (Hence the term Content Management Service rather than Content Management Server).
CMS feature of SharePoint takes advantage of the ASP.NET Master Pages, Themes and Navigation Controls with the added benefit of all the SharePoint functionalities such as alerts, document/list/image libraries and web part modules.
The 2007 Microsoft Office System is so vast and I could go on mentioning the new features that are available. I will continue to update this posting again in the future when I clock up more hours on the new Office platform and develop solutions for it.