Help Training and How to on SharePoint?

I get asked by clients and co-workers about how to do various things with SharePoint when SharePoint has being deployed or planning is underway for a deployment.

I always recommend training for end users and support personnel is a key step in ensuring the successful adoption of SharePoint. In some cases the training should start parallel to the deployment so that  end users get familiar with concepts such as “Lists”, “Document Libraries”, “Slide Libraries”, “Content Types”, “Site Columns”. These concepts and terms if not effectively demonstrated in a business relevant contextual manner end users will mostly not understand how SharePoint can be used.

So if you are an organisation deploying SharePoint here are some options that you may want to consider for training your end users and technical personnel.

Resources for learning Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Online at Office Online. Has very useful links to many help and how to scenarios for out of the box features and functionality.

Introductions to concepts of SharePoint (Beginner Level and more end user focused)

If your organisation has a development and IT group ready to deploy and support SharePoint after the deployment then TechNet and MSDN has a wealth of information covering planning, development and support for a in-house SharePoint infrastructure.

Advanced Concepts and Planning

Office SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Portal on MSDN Information about planning, coding, building, deploying, and migrating solutions for Office SharePoint Server.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 Developer Map Downloadable poster that shows the architecture of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Developer Center on MSDN Technical articles, SDK information, screencasts, and community resources for SharePoint developers.

2007 Microsoft Office system Learning Portal Training, e-learning, books, and skills assessments for 2007 Microsoft Office system products, including Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Office SharePoint Server TechCenter on TechNet Technical articles, highlights, communities, and blogs about Office SharePoint Server.

Office SharePoint Server Technical Library on TechNet2 Additional technical resources for Office SharePoint Server.

Windows SharePoint Services TechCenter on TechNet Technical articles, highlights, communities, and blogs about Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Online Training Classes

These are self paced and you can rank them once they are done. Available from the SharePoint Server 2007 Course catalog.

SharePoint Community Portal

All the latest blog posts from the community of SharePoint experts.

Update: Via SharePoint Designer Team Blog

Video Tutorials for SharePoint Designer

Class Room based training in New Zealand

There are a few available courses but I have heard different views from various organisations of the effectiveness of such training. In most cases it may be appropriate to create an in house expertise of SharePoint trainers who understand the business context of how SharePoint is deployed. Another option is to customize a training program for your deployment in conjunction with your vendor who is doing the deployment. In any case the vendor should have support personnel and consultancy for providing these types of training programs to help the deployment and adoption.

I would love to hear some feedback about any SharePoint 2007 courses that you have been to or would like to see in the near future.