Branding and Customizing Sites with SharePoint^® Designer 2007: Hands-On

What is this course about?

This course provides extensive hands-on experience creating, customizing and branding SharePoint applications with SharePoint Designer 2007. You acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate ASP.NET and SharePoint design and layout controls. You also learn how to customize sites to improve accessibility compliance, apply Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) within SharePoint site structure, implement Themes and Master Pages for overall consistency, and leverage content management features in a SharePoint Server publishing site.

Who will benefit from this course?

This course is valuable for those working in a SharePoint environment that need to provide customization to their SharePoint sites to meet internal corporate identity standards, including color schemes, layout and overall graphical look and feel.

What background do I need?

Familiarity with HTML and Web layout design is assumed. You should have a basic knowledge of SharePoint Services. Additional experience with Web layout tools such as FrontPage, Expression Web or Dreamweaver is helpful, but not necessary.

What is SharePoint?

Microsoft SharePoint is a technology that enables people to collaborate effectively using a Web browser. The SharePoint platform currently consists of three components: Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (previously SharePoint Portal Server 2003) and SharePoint Designer 2007 (previously FrontPage 2003).

What is SharePoint Designer 2007?

SharePoint Designer 2007 is a visual design tool that allows for customization of SharePoint 2007 sites and applications without having to write code.

What is Windows SharePoint Services?

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), a component of Windows Server 2003, provides team services to Office System and other applications. Windows SharePoint Services allows teams to build Web sites where they can share information and collaborate on documents in real time, whether team members are in the next office or in another country. SharePoint sites are custom built using Web Parts and ASP.NET components and act as centralized hubs where team members can work together on documents and other business-critical tasks in a seamless manner. The open access available via SharePoint has the potential to create greater and more productive team communication while producing vital documentation faster than traditional collaborative methods such as e-mail.

What is MOSS 2007?

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, or MOSS 2007, extends the capabilities of WSS. It allows for enhanced user management capabilities, network-wide searching, personalized portals and includes a Content Management System (CMS).

What is the difference between MOSS 2007 and WSS?

Windows SharePoint Services is ideal for a small to mid-size organization, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is appropriate for large, complex organizations. However, MOSS 2007 is built on WSS. WSS is the foundation for a series of Microsoft products such as Project Server, Team Foundation Server, Portfolio Server and MOSS 2007.

What should I expect to be able to do after completing this course?

• Migrate from other WYSIWYG editors

• Apply Cascading Style Sheets, Themes and Master Pages to create pages tailored to your organization's brand to fully customize a SharePoint site

• Extend SharePoint Designer capabilities

How is Course 955 different from this course?

In Course 955, "Integrating Data Solutions with SharePoint Designer: Hands-On," you learn how to incorporate business data with SharePoint Designer 2007 to enhance site functionality. Course 955 focuses on the data consolidation from multiple sources to automate business processes. The objective of this course is to leverage SharePoint Designer to create a consistent look and feel for your organization's SharePoint sites.

I have taken Course 538, should I still take this course?

Yes. Course 538, "SharePoint Technologies: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction" provides you with the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to plan, design, deploy and utilize a SharePoint solution for your organization in order to support remote team collaboration and real-time document management. There will be a minimal level of overlap. This course extends SharePoint and allows you to create "out-of-the box" solutions to enhance your organization's SharePoint sites.

Which version of Windows SharePoint Services is used in this course?

In this course, you use Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

How much time is spent on each topic?

What kind of exercises does this course offer?

Exercises account for approximately 40% of course time allowing you to develop your skills with SharePoint Designer. Exercises include:

• Building HTML content with SharePoint Designer

• Integrating ASP.NET and SharePoint controls

• Creating and implementing Custom Style Sheets

• Addressing accessibility in SharePoint

• Branding with Themes and Master Pages

• Managing the CSS and Master Page lifecycle

• Deploying Minimal Master Pages to control layout

• Customizing page layouts in a MOSS publishing site

How does this course differ from other Learning Tree SharePoint courses?

This course targets those with a background in graphic arts or Web design who are interested in learning how to customize the appearance of their SharePoint sites. Course 538: SharePoint^® 2007 Technologies: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, lays the foundation for Learning Tree's SharePoint curriculum and provides participants with the end user skills to effectively create, manage and use SharePoint sites. Course 955: Building Data-Driven SharePoint^® Applications with SharePoint^® Designer 2007: Hands-On, uses SharePoint Designer but focuses more on controlling the functionality of SharePoint sites by working with data, navigation and workflow. Course 955 is not a programming or graphic design course, but shows what a developer can accomplish with the drag and drop designers and wizards in SharePoint Designer. Course 515: Programming SharePoint^® 2007 Applications with .NET: Hands-On, offers .NET developers the skills to programmatically customize any aspect of SharePoint's functionality using the SharePoint object model.

If you customize your SharePoint site through the browser, then you may be interested in Course 538. If you use SharePoint Designer, you should consider taking Course 953 or 955. Course 515 is for those who use code to program their SharePoint site.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses?

• 522: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for Web Page Development: Hands-On 
• 512: ASP.NET WebForms: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 515: Programming SharePoint® 2007 Applications with .NET: Hands-On 
• 538: SharePoint® 2007 Technologies: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 955: Building Data-Driven SharePoint® Applications with SharePoint® Designer 2007: Hands-On 
• 340: Project Management for Software Development 
• 312: Software Quality Assurance: Delivering Consistent Quality 

US Dates