Building Content Type Solutions in SharePoint 2007

When I picked up Building Content Type Solutions in SharePoint 2007 I was hoping that it would be the powerhouse book that helped the SharePoint community realize the power of content types. You see, I’ve decided that they’re one of the most powerful — if not the most powerful — feature in SharePoint. I’m fascinated by the idea that you would create a solution that includes the document template as well as the process (i.e. workflow) around that document when it has been created.

Unfortunately, I can’t say that the book lived up to my expectations. (One could easily say that they weren’t fair.) The book has a ton of great content in it. If you’re an end user, power user, or site administrator — you’ll learn something from the book. My issue is that the book never really develops an audience. It feels like a semi-random collection of stuff about content types. The stuff in the back of the book about development just doesn’t feel like it was intentional. (Not that it’s not valuable.)

So while the book is useful if you’re trying to see some of the power of content types, I’m concerned that it’s not the content type book that the market needs to really realize the power of this particular feature of SharePoint.