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I have very little knowledge of SharePoint, and want to learn about SharePoint 2013. Most of the resources that I've found are either about what's new in 2013, or they have a bunch of links to SharePoint 2010.

I also don't have the time to read a thousand page book. A hundred or so would be fine.

Can anyone recommend a resource (site / book / video / tutorial) for a beginner to learn the basics of SharePoint 2013 in a few days?

I've downloaded a Kindle book, "Getting Started With SharePoint 2013." It's perfect for absolute beginners, who just want to know how to upload & download documents, but I'm looking for more than that.

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    To be honest, don't expect to became efficient in only few days. SharePoint is a complete but complex product. There are a lot of traps where you will fall. You may became efficient in few month if you works within a skilled team, but not as autodidact. If your boss throw you on a mission alone, as a beginner, you will have a hard time.
    – Steve B
    Commented Jan 10, 2013 at 14:30
  • I have started a series Learn Sharepoint in 8 hours. It goes step by step , you can check the article from codeproject.com/Articles/1091804/…
    – Shivprasad Koirala
    Commented Apr 19, 2016 at 19:59
  • I will start with getting familiar with lists and libraries, than use SPService (spservices.codeplex.com) to get more hands on experience. By get some data back, you would learn more about all the settings and configuration.
    – YogaPanda
    Commented Nov 10, 2016 at 21:58

7 Answers 7

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You can start from

Also as SharePoint 2013 is very similar to SharePoint 2010 you could periodically stumble into some articles related to SP2010. I could suggest some things to keep in mind about their differences:

  • InfoPath seems to be deprecated in SP2013. So take a look at ASP.Net forms instead.
  • New SP2013 Workflow manager doesn't support code workflows, so don't waste your time to understand how Visual Studio (code) WFs work in SP2010 (it is very difficult part of the development which is not actual anymore).
  • Pay some attention to Client Side Object Model. It is becoming very common (especially in new SP2013 apps) to use it.
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  • InfoPath deprecated in SP2013! Is that true? Any official news on this?
    – kamleshrao
    Commented Nov 6, 2013 at 3:30
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    There is no official word on InfoPath's demise, but it's pretty obvious to everyone who follows closely. The product basically has not changed since InfoPath 2007. MS is going for HTML5.
    – Louis
    Commented Nov 19, 2013 at 4:06
  • SP2010 workflows will work pretty much as-is in SP2013, you don't have to use the new style (Azure Workflows)
    – Louis
    Commented Nov 19, 2013 at 4:15
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this is a good link to microsoft with video tutorials that show 14 modules

programming is not a big deal as that is same as most, its learning the product that is the issue, once you know the product youll be a master ;) but as everything it takes time and to do it in 2 days is impossible! youll find these vids very very helpful and esy to watch

for developers

Learn about apps for Office and SharePoint with this interactive course offering developer-focused how to training and walkthrough videos.

Important: These videos are based on an earlier preview version of Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, and Visual Studio so you might notice a few discrepancies.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/apps/fp123626.aspx

Get a quick overview of the different kinds of SharePoint development projects

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163085.aspx

Get started developing apps for SharePoint

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163980.aspx

for IT pros

Find IT pro-focused how-to training and walkthrough videos with this interactive course about SharePoint 2013 including changes and new features for search, social, plus deployment and performance/scalability.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/sharepoint/fp123606

hope it helps :)

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    Thanks. I did start looking at this before I wrote the question. It seemed to be aimed more at people with previous SharePoint experience.
    – Stephen Oberauer
    Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 16:41
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    iv updated my answer to contain the developemet stuff, going into sharepoint is very difficult! the dev vids should be easier to understnd!when you go into sharepoint it starts off in the deep end, but once you start and keep at it, it becomes much simpler!
    – Ali Jafer
    Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 16:46
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I have to echo what aliSharepoint wrote that the challenge isn't necessarily the programming, it's learning Sharepoint. Almost everything you will do in SP will be more difficult than any other development platform. This is primarily because, unlike other platforms - you need to know server maintenance, administration, and development to be a Sharepoint Developer.

This is my suggestion for how to approach from a project perspective

  1. Start with an overview. Get familiar with the various SP architectures: take a look at the Microsoft Technical Diagrams
  2. Compare and Contrast Sharepoint with other types of development platforms
  3. Get very familiar with SP terminology. A lot of words Microsoft uses are used very differently in industry
  4. Decide on the features you will need for your project and spend 1-2 days understanding how each feature works and how it relates with other SP features/services
  5. Configuring Search, How to install and use Apps?, Work Flows, Permissions and Authentication

  6. Read and follow best practices for each of these. Best practices for Document Management

  7. Setup your development environment

  8. Get familiar with how templates and site design work in SP

  9. SP CSS Selectors are so convoluted that people created entire libraries just to figure out what each one does. but thank goodness for resources like this: https://sp2013stylesheet.codeplex.com/

  10. Beware you can spend years working on xml errors when you upload an html masterpage template not made specifically for SP. You cannot use Bootstrap with SP without modification https://responsivesharepoint.codeplex.com/

How to anything SP

At the outset none of these things seem really difficult but it's the idiosyncrasies of SP that make everything a lot harder than they normally would be. That's all for now. my list will probably change as I learn more.

Good Luck!

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  • most comprehensive post for Developers looking to get started, good job
    – Cameron Verhelst
    Commented Jul 24, 2014 at 7:16
  • Extra tip: Once you get the basics down, start looking at best practices (why should you do something this way and not the other?). For me, it's defining for a SP'ers quality.
    – Cameron Verhelst
    Commented Jul 24, 2014 at 7:18
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    Yes - I forgot that one - best practices are key and probably should be added after # 3 ! Thanks Cameron!
    – Mia
    Commented Jul 24, 2014 at 18:00
  • Apparently I'm stuck with having to learn what I consider one of Microsoft's greatest "Mißgeburts" [ that's a not very nice german word ]. Your post seems to be the most comprehensive intro I could find yet. Thank you for easing my descent into this hell.
    – user1628658
    Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 17:29
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pluralsight is a great training resource, well worth the subscription price.

As others have mentioned, don't expect too much in a short amount of time. SharePoint is a large platform, and touches many different technologies. It has a large number of nuances that you can experience. Your best bet would be read or watch as much as possible, start slow, and ask lot's of questions. If at all possible setup a test environment to use while learning. If a test environment is not possible, make sure you have good backups in case something goes wrong.

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I found SharePoint training presentations on the Microsoft site, which is very much helpful in understanding sharepoint 2013.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30361

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This is not a subject matter to take on as if your going to become an intermediate developer in 21 days or so. A couple of years ago I went from some experience developing ASP.Net to full-blown 2007 SharePoint developer by taking a 6-month intensive training Masters boot camp (I also had to spend $$$$$ to take that. That course taught me what to do and what not to do... Very hands on and worth every penny. Do I think I could learn 2013 in a couple of days? With this background not a problem with no experience? Doubtful, but some people here have given you some good resources to start with and when working in the app world of 2013 SP google is your best friend so have at it. And have fun too, experiment. You just might be the next MVP at a SharePoint conference.

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This is a tough question and something I get asked all the time on SharePoint-Community.Net. it really depends how you prefer to learn (books, video, hands-on) and also how much budget you have. I wrote up some options on "How to learn SharePoint for beginners". Hope it's of some help to you.

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