Chapter 13. SharePoint Designer 2007

SharePoint is built to allow an ordinary user with the proper permissions to easily change the layout of sites without any extra tool besides the web browser. This feature is very important since it makes it possible for nondevelopers to quickly adjust a portal site or a team site to their own needs. No web designer or administrator is required for this task. The key to this functionality is the use of Web Parts and their Web Part zones in SharePoint web pages; just add any new Web Part needed to the preferred location on the page. In order to allow this, SharePoint has specially constructed Web Part pages, also known as Smart Pages, and every MOSS site and WSS site is built upon such Web Part pages.

However, sometimes it may be necessary to do more modifications than are possible using a web browser; this is where SharePoint Designer 2007 comes in. This program was especially designed with SharePoint 2007 in mind and has a lot of features for enhancing the look and feel of SharePoint sites. No other design tools for web sites have this functionality, so even if you today prefer other design tools, you will need to use SharePoint Designer when it comes to SharePoint.

When SharePoint 2003 was released, it requested FrontPage 2003 for this type of customization. SharePoint Designer 2007 is the next generation of FrontPage and now contains a lot more functionality that did not exist in FrontPage, such as Master Pages and page layout files. FrontPage simply does not understand how SharePoint 2007 works, so you should avoid customizing SharePoint 2007 with FrontPage 2003. If you are serious about getting the most out of SharePoint 2007, then you need to understand SharePoint Designer. This chapter will help you understand how to use this tool for customizing any type of MOSS 2007 or WSS 3.0 site.