Maybe you are an experienced web designer who has been asked to brand a SharePoint site. Perhaps you're a business analyst who needs a workflow to manage a QA process, or a power user of SharePoint who wants to mash-up data from a line of business systems (or several) into an online map. Or, maybe you're new to both SharePoint and web design, and just want to see what it's all about.

Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010 offers something for all of you. Although it is not an HTML primer, it does contain some valuable pointers that someone new to web design can use. Yet, because SharePoint Designer is about far more than page editing, even if you never have (and probably never will) gaze upon raw HTML code, this book has plenty to offer you.

This book provides a broad overview of Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010. It covers everything from basic page editing to workflow design. You'll be taken from master pages to Silverlight and points beyond. Even the companion technologies of Microsoft InfoPath and Visio find their way between these covers.

This book does far more than scratch the surface in many areas. You will find detailed information on integrating data from other sources into SharePoint, and some of the most comprehensive documentation on the internals of SharePoint's master pages and CSS anywhere.

Since you're reading a Wrox book, you would expect to find programming examples, and those are here as well. There are two chapters dedicated to using the SharePoint client-side object model to take your applications above and beyond. Beyond what? Well, that's going to depend on your own imagination!

This book starts at the beginning, with an overview of the SharePoint Designer 2010 user interface elements that are common to most of its functions. Since many readers are going to be creating visual elements for SharePoint, the next several chapters deal with editing and styling pages (aka branding).

Following the chapters relating to "form" are chapters that deal with using SharePoint designer to introduce "function" into your sites. This function ranges from designing lists and libraries for storing data, to putting that data into action with workflows, custom forms, and Web Part connections.

Finally, there are two chapters dedicated to expanding the capabilities of SharePoint itself through programming.

You will also find three appendixes designed to give you the SharePoint background and reference material you need to understand and implement many of the concepts introduced throughout the rest of this book.

With such an array of material to cover, this book has to make some assumptions about both you as a reader, and the environment in which you work.

First, a bit about you. This book assumes you have a solid understanding of Windows and using Windows-based applications. That means you already know how to move your mouse around, click on items, drag to select text, and drag-and-drop to move things. Copying, cutting, and pasting should be second nature, and you should know the difference between a menu and a font — just to name a few.

Although you can use much of the book without any programming experience, Chapters 12 and 13 assume you know how to program in (or at least read) the JavaScript programming language. Chapter 2 assumes you know something about HTML markup. Although several of the chapters deal with XSLT-based web parts, most of these cover the use of visual design tools, and therefore, a deep understanding of XSL is not required.

Now, on to your environment. The biggest assumption made is that you have access to both a copy of Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, and at least some access to a site based on either: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, or Microsoft Search Server 2010. SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010, and the Express edition of Search Server 2010 are available for download without charge.

Some exercises may require SharePoint Server 2010, as it has many features that are not built into SharePoint Foundation or Search Server. Others will also require Microsoft InfoPath 2010 or Microsoft Visio 2010. To use these products in production requires paid licenses; however, they are all available for free download in time-limited trial form.

Finally, Chapter 13 requires certain development tools:

All of these tools are also available for download either free, as part of an MSDN subscription, or as trial copies.

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what's happening, we've used a number of conventions throughout the book.

As for styles in the text:

We use a monofont type with no highlighting for most code examples.

We use bold to emphasize code that is particularly important in the present context
or to show changes from a previous code snippet.

As you work through the examples in this book, you may choose either to type in all the code manually, or to use the source code files that accompany the book. All the source code used in this book is available for download at www.wrox.com. When at the site, simply locate the book's title (use the Search box or one of the title lists) and click the Download Code link on the book's detail page to obtain all the source code for the book. Code that is included on the Web site is highlighted by the following icon:

Listings include the filename in the title. If it is just a code snippet, you'll find the filename in a code note such as this:

Once you download the code, just decompress it with your favorite compression tool. Alternately, you can go to the main Wrox code download page at www.wrox.com/dynamic/books/download.aspx to see the code available for this book and all other Wrox books.

We make every effort to ensure that there are no errors in the text or in the code. However, no one is perfect, and mistakes do occur. If you find an error in one of our books, like a spelling mistake or faulty piece of code, we would be very grateful for your feedback. By sending in errata, you may save another reader hours of frustration, and at the same time, you will be helping us provide even higher-quality information.

To find the errata page for this book, go to www.wrox.com and locate the title using the Search box or one of the title lists. Then, on the book details page, click the Book Errata link. On this page, you can view all errata that have been submitted for this book and posted by Wrox editors. A complete book list, including links to each book's errata, is also available at www.wrox.com/misc-pages/booklist.shtml.

If you don't spot "your" error on the Book Errata page, go to www.wrox.com/contact/techsupport.shtml and complete the form there to send us the error you have found. We'll check the information and, if appropriate, post a message to the book's errata page and fix the problem in subsequent editions of the book.

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At http://p2p.wrox.com, you will find a number of different forums that will help you, not only as you read this book, but also as you develop your own applications. To join the forums, just follow these steps:

Once you join, you can post new messages and respond to messages other users post. You can read messages at any time on the Web. If you would like to have new messages from a particular forum e-mailed to you, click the Subscribe to this Forum icon by the forum name in the forum listing.

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