Like all technology, SharePoint is constantly changing, via hotfixes, cumulative updates and service packs released by Microsoft. One of the most commonly asked questions I receive from IT pros is, “Where do I find the most current information about SharePoint 2013, specifically for IT pros?”
It's a great question because you can search the Internet with questions about SharePoint 2013 and get a wide range of results. But a lot of them are outdated, maybe inaccurate, or there have been updates to specific SharePoint 2013 components that aren’t reflected in returned articles.
So I'm going to give you information about a website (yes, one site) that contains up-to-date information about SharePoint 2013. Even better is the fact that this site is managed and updated by Microsoft, meaning you can be confident that the information is likely to be accurate and current. In fact, one of the first things you see at the top of the page is the date it was last updated, so you’ll know that it should contain the latest and greatest information. FYI: the format used to display the date on the page is yyyy-mm-dd, meaning 2015-03-09 indicates it that was last updated on March 9, 2015, not Sept. 3.
You can access this SharePoint 2013 one-stop resource site by clicking the following URL, or copying the URL and then pasting it into your browser: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc303422(v=office.15)
Now let’s break the page down so you can get the most out of it. At the top it lists what products the information Applies to (SharePoint Foundation 2013 and Server 2013), followed by the Topic Last Modified date, and then within the Summary section, it provides a description of what you can expect to find on this page.
Below these three sections, there are 10 categories of links that can be used to access additional SharePoint 2013 IT Pro information. These categories are:
- Recently Published Content
- Documentation
- TechNet TechCenter
- Getting Started
- Downloads & Scripts
- Blogs
- Forums & Newsgroups
- Videos
- Stay Connected
- Provide Feedback
Within these categories, you’ll find one or more links to other sites that provide additional details about your SharePoint topic of interest. It gets even better; most of the links that you click will direct you to another site page that has a similarly formatted page, meaning most of your destination pages will have an Applies to, Topic Last Modified, and Summary section followed by additional URLs or content on the information you are seeking. Sound familiar?
“But wait there’s more if you click in the next ten minutes…” You will see at the bottom of the page that there is another section that contains four more categories of SharePoint information:
- Download
- How To
- Sites
- Help
This area also contains more helpful URLs to resources within the four categories, but they aren’t all specific to IT pros. There are links in this area that allow you to access information on other SharePoint related content including:
- SharePoint 2010 content
- SharePoint Online (Office 365)
- Office ProPlus 365
- Building Apps for SharePoint
- SharePoint Developers
- Office 2013 Resource Kit
As you can see, this site provides you access to a seemingly unlimited amount of SharePoint information geared toward IT pros, and also provides links to independently maintained pages. I highly recommend that you bookmark this site and use it whenever you are looking for information on SharePoint 2013.