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You cannot have unique views or columns in subfolders; it will filter to all other subfolders and to the parent folder on the Quick Launch.  It is also easy to delete the whole document library instead of just the sub-folder.  Custom columns contribute to better search. and allow for great filtering of content.

Check to see if the document wasn't saved as read only in Word before it was uploaded, it so you won't be able to edit it.  But if not and you get read only errors when trying to save a document from a SharePoint library, use the drop down when opening the document, and select “Edit with MS Word / Excel / PowerPoint instead.

Don't upload all your documents to Shared Documents.  It is a sample folder only which is created with a default team site.  Rather delete it / rename it, and create your own user defined document libraries.  PS : Changing the name of Shared Documents does not change the URL, it will still say Shared Documents. 

Documents will not upload if any of the following characters are in the name of the document, you will need to take them out before uploading or it will fail :
-  #  %  &  *  :  <  >  ?  /  \  {  |  } 

The very loose rule is that if there are 5 items or less in a Choice Field, then make them radio buttons, (less clicks for users).  More than 5 make them dropdown. 

Lookup fields only work with “single line of text”.  You can't lookup a mutliple lines of text, number, date, currency field, etc.

You can’t do grouping on a checkboxed fields.  They must be either radio buttons or dropdowns.

To create a view where the users only see items in a list where their name is mentioned, enter a value of [me] in the Filter section in the Modify List View.

Or go to Settings - List Settings - Advanced Settings and change read / edit settings to Only Their Own.

Column ordering for list items is disabled when Allow for Management of Content Types isn enabled.  You need to re-order columns in the Content Type section instead.  Otherwise deactive the content types, re-order, then re-activate.

You have 3 seconds to keep people on your website before they leave.  Ask yourself what would entice them to stay.

Deleted files stay in the Recycle Bin for 30 days, and thereafter in the server Recycle Bin for a further 30 days.  You will only see items you have deleted, no-one elses. 

Always use YYYY-MM-DD in your date formats when saving documents.  Microsoft technologies count numerically and alphabetically from the left.  If you use this date format, your documents will always be sorted newest to oldest, (or vice versa).  True for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc etc.

Make sure pictures are saved in Picture Libraries (or Site Assets for 2010) on the site they are needed on.  If you don't and the URL's change, or users don't have rights to the source site, they will see a red X where the picture is supposed to be.

Keep your AD details up to date.  Those details are pulled into SharePoint and populate your My Site with default information.

Whether you upload one doc, or multiple docs, the default upload limit is 50MB.  Check with your IT dept whether the defaults have been maintained.  It means that no single document can be greater than 50MB; nor any group of docs larger than 50MB.
When you upload a doc to SharePoint, the link is broken to the original document.  They are now 2 completely seperate documents.
See tip #9 about special characters whe uploading docs.

You can only create a view with MS Access if you have MS Access installed on your laptop.

Have an instruction page "How to Use This Site" for example.  Explain what to load where, and how you have set up the groups.

Start a monthly internal user group and invite all the  Site Collection Administrators and Site Owners.  Showcase cool team sites, demo a web part, host a Knowledge Cafe, etc.  Share how you solved certain challenges.
Get your users involved - ask their opinion, ask how they are doing.  Include them in governance issues.  SharePoint is designed to empower business users after all.

Don’t even use the word SharePoint if it's too scary for users.  As far as business users are concerned, it’s just IT throwing yet another technology at them.  Use words like Leave Management System, Contracts Management System, Competitor Analysis Tool instead.

Lead by example.  Don’t teach best practices then email documents around.  Email links to documents instead.

If you are a developer in charge of branding, make sure you package and deploy the custom look and feel properly or it will be erased with the next software upgrade.  Also make sure your branding is compatible with the out of box themes available.  Heather Solomon is the authority on this.  Branding should only be tackled by experience and specialised developers, a lot can go wrong.  DO NOT remove the default breadcrumbs when designing branding for team sites.  These breadcrumbs are crucial for navigating through the platform by the helpdesk teams.
Leave professional branding to the professionals.  You don’t need to go to those extremes on a ring-fenced team site.  If you are trying to make your site “look pretty”, use the CEWP and PowerPoint to do so.

Last research showed that hyperlinks are the most used features on sites, followed by buttons then back buttons.

Site layout is very important – too much white space may force too much scrolling and look as though your site does not have enough information; while too little white space can make your site look cluttered.

Text formatting is crucial.  You don’t want users squinting or zooming to read anything.  Size and colour of the text will impact the user’s decision to stay on the site, especially if it’s too large or colourful.  Don’t use fancy fonts unless you are sure all your users have them installed.  They will look like Times New Roman or Arial on their screens instead.

Have an option for users to comment on your site or provide feedback.  Do surveys to ask them what they'd like to see.

Take background and font colours into consideration.  Don’t make them the same or similar colours or they will be impossible to read.  Also take colour blind users into consideration, red text on blue backgrounds are a problem (and also terrible).  Hyperlinks don’t work on dark green backgrounds either, impossible to see.
Blind users need special settings on all items built into a site, ask your IT dept about these.

The power of wikis comes with properly built navigation.  When embedding pages, make sure you have links to the index page as well the landing page of the site.  New users may not understand how to navigate around SharePoint yet.  Put all the navigation links in the same place and make them look the same.
Use the same formatting / look and feel across all pages in the same wiki.  Different wiki’s can have different look and feels, but the pages inside them must all be the same.
The wiki-speak brackets only work in wikis, nowhere else.  [[ ]]

If you don’t have a Navigation option under Site Actions – Site Settings, it means the Publishing Features have not been activated, get your Administrator to activate them.  You will only see Quick Launch which gives limited editing options.  You will use Navigation just about every day as a Site Owner or Site Collection Administrator.  (Not available on WSS versions).

If while you're editing in Navigation and you click save you get a message that says "this site has been modified by another user" and the ID it displays is yours - it means your Quick Launch has become corrupted.  It needs to be fixed in SharePoint Designer, (carefully).

DO NOT edit the default.master page before making a copy of it.  Only edit the copy so you can revert back to the master if you mess it up.

Do not delete placeholders unless you understand implicitly  what they are linked to.  You will break 10 other things on your site.

Creation of content types should form part of the Governance planning and forum to keep control of it.
Make sure you choose the right Parent Content Type the first time.  You cannot change it afterwards.  You will need to delete the whole list and start again.
Make sure you create content types and site columns from the top level site or they will only be available from the subsite and sites below that.

When creating site columns, you could keep them in the Custom Columns group as a start.  That way you won’t confuse your users with many unique groups.  If they are not sure if a column is available, they can look straight in Custom Columns instead of navigating through dozens of groups.  However, the list of custom content types may grow substantially over time and it will become difficult to manage, think about the groups you need to create to manage content types in the long run.  It requires proper planning.

Change the regional settings on a server level to your country's specific date format and allow all sites to inherit the settings.

Don’t give end users access to SSP no matter how much they beg - they can destroy half the platform from there.

When task emails stop going out, check the Timer Job Status in Operations on Central Admin first.  Check when last they went out and if it was successful.  If that is where the problem is, stop and start the timer job to reactivate them.  If that is not the issue, check the SMTP server - if it failed at anytime, it would have affected the tasks from SharePoint.

If you are planning on using Excel Services, remember that you need to add the spreadsheets to the Trusted File Locations for each division that requests them.  You need to have a process in place to ensure that the source of these files can be trusted, check with the owners of those systems / locations if we can access their data, as well as a process for business to request a location to be added. (Part of Governance).

You need some kind of 3rd party administration / management tool on large implementations, like DocAve or ControlPoint.  Permissions management and restores become a nightmare.  Migrations, backups, storage, dormancy and web part usage need to be managed properly.

You can't import a project plan from MS Project.
You cant re-order items in Project Tasks so get it right the first time.
Can't indent tasks either.

Don't ever edit the default new, edit or disp aspx files - you will break your site collection, they are very interlinked.  Copy them and edit the copies.