MICROSOFT OFFICE INTEGRATION

Being a Microsoft product itself, SharePoint is highly integrated with Microsoft Office. Although you can use Office 98 and newer, Microsoft office 2003 has some great integration features.
 

Outlook Integration   Excel Integration   Word Integration   Access Integration

Microsoft Outlook The first thumbnail to the left (Outlook Integration) shows an example of Microsoft Outlook's email, task list and calendar all within a SharePoint site. You can synchronize your data in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with data from Windows SharePoint Services, so you can keep a local copy of the team calendars and contact lists from your team's SharePoint site. Windows SharePoint Services automatically updates the synchronized data in Outlook 2003 when you connect to the SharePoint site, so your calendar data stays current. This feature can help you be more productive, especially if you are a mobile user. You can quickly create a contact list in Windows SharePoint Services by importing contacts from the global address list in Outlook. Microsoft Excel The second thumbnail to the left (Excel Integration) shows and example of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet within a SharePoint site that has all the Excel functionality right within an internet browser. You can use Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Microsoft Office Access 2003 to view and edit data stored in lists on SharePoint sites. This is an excellent way to share information with other users, make use of information that is already published, and provide standardized lists of information (for example, product names or company departments) that can be used throughout the company. Microsoft Word The third thumbnail to the left (Word Integration) shows the task pane that accompanies a Microsoft Word document stored in a Document Library of a SharePoint site. Within the task pane each user has the ability to see other members of the site, send on or all of them an email, view any tasks associated with the document, view other documents related to this one as well as any associated links.   Microsoft Access The fourth thumbnail to the left (Access Integration) shows a data sheet view of a Document Library and an example of the built in functionality between Microsoft Access and SharePoint. Additionally, you can export data from Access 2003 to create a list on a SharePoint site, and you can use Access 2003 to create a database table that is linked to list data on a SharePoint site. To create or import a list, you must be a member of a site group with the Manage Lists right for that SharePoint site. List grid views can also be brought into an Access table, either as static data or dynamically linked to the original Windows SharePoint Services list.