New Security Features

Information Rights Management - With this feature, document authors can put the digital equivalent of an envelope around email or Office documents, and set an expiration date for that document. After the expiration date, users are limited in what they can do with the document. SharePoint 2007 will enable you to set up rights management policies in the Document Libraries on the SharePoint server that will be enforced even after the document has left the site.

New Interface - In SharePoint 2003, users were not shown search results to information they did not have the right to access. In SharePoint 2007, this will also apply to actions, links, content, etc. The entire SharePoint interface will be trimmed according to access rights. This makes the system more secure, and it also adds to the convenience level by doing away with that pesky access denied message. The new interface also has a login/logout link.

Permissions - SharePoint 2007 will continue to allow document permissions to be inherited from the parent directory, but it will also add the ability to assign permissions to an individual document.

New Records Management Features

Archiving - SharePoint 2007 has a repository archive site. The archive features a specialized repository template and the ability to submit records manually or automatically. The archive also has information management policies built in that enforce labeling and expiration of records.

Managed Mail - SharePoint 2007 features managed mail folders that help records managers do their jobs more effectively. A manager creates a set of standard folders, each with a specific purpose, and then deploys them to individual employees. Each managed mail folder has a set of rules and policies. In Outlook 2007, the policy statements show up at the top of each folder view, ensuring that everyone knows what they are.

New Document management Features

Integration - The integration with Office applications has been enhanced. For example, your SharePoint user profile and your Outlook profile can be synchronized, so you can create or delete entries in one profile, and the changes are automatically made to the other. This makes it easier to manage task lists and calendars and keep the same information in both.

Document Action Bar - This nifty SharePoint 2007 feature tells users what business and use policies apply to a document. It can also inform a user if they have a task that needs completed in that document.

Check Out - SharePoint 2007 now gives you the ability to force users to check out a document before they can edit it. In addition, you can check the document out and open it in an editor on your computer.

New Feature Highlights

SharePoint 2007 has enhancements or new features in every functional category, only a few of which have been mentioned. In the other functional categories, some of the new feature highlights are:

A great feature of SharePoint 2007 for those who have global companies is the new language capabilities. If you install SharePoint 2007 in English, for example, you can add multiple sites in other languages.

Domain administrators no longer have full administrative rights by default. They can add that capability if they feel it is needed, though.

Colleagues and Memberships Web Parts - These SharePoint 2007 Web Parts are lists of people you know, who have interests in common with you, and/or who belong to the same distribution lists and groups.

Social Networking - Going hand-in-hand with the colleagues Web Parts, the social networking Web Parts are designed for use on your personal site to enhance social networking capabilities. The features are used for finding other SharePoint users who have similar interests and memberships.

Portal Templates - SharePoint 2007 has added Enterprise, Application, Roll-up and Corporate Internet Presence site portal templates.

• Enterprise - Designed for sharing content related to operations of a business or division.
  
  
• Application - Brings together tools and information for a particular application area of business, i.e. human resources or customer service
  
  
• Roll-up - Designed to give one easily-understood, central location for data and content from several other areas
  
  
• Corporate Internet Presence - A high-quality, corporate presence website.