I like workflows, and I like using SharePoint Designer to design workflows. As a non-developer, I love the rules-based approach and thinking through problems and how they might be solved with workflows.

If you spend much time in the Workflow Designer in SPD, you’ll inevitably have the experience of coming tantalizingly close to a solving a problem, only to run into some unforeseen hurdle in the home stretch. You’re convinced there’s a way to make the workflow do what you want – perhaps someone else has already run into this particular problem and come up with a clever solution.

This is when it’s extraordinarily helpful to be able to reach out to an entire community of SharePoint experts and ask a question.

The SharePoint forums on Microsoft.com are an invaluable resource:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/sharepoint

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/sharepoint

There are 17 different forums related to SharePoint – whether you’re working with workflows or BI or the Business Data Catalog, there are SharePoint MVPs, community experts, developers and IT pros, and end users who are asking & answering questions about how to get things done with SharePoint.

You can sign in by using a Windows Live ID. Ask a question or reply to someone else, and you can choose to be automatically alerted via e-mail when someone responds to the thread.

As you can see from these numbers, the SharePoint forums are very active.

So the next time you’re facing what seems like an insoluble problem, remember, you're not alone -- reach out and ask the SharePoint community. And while you’re there, see if you can’t pay it forward by answering a question or two yourself.

Cheers~