Summary

SharePoint branding describes customizing the SharePoint UI through a combination of master pages, themes, page layouts, CSS, images, Web Parts, XSLT, and other means. This chapter highlighted the major components used to create the SharePoint UI and provided some examples that can be used to solve common branding-related scenarios faced by many companies. In summary:

• SharePoint branding helps to create a consistent look and feel, provide standardized content page templates, and create an interface to create editable content in Web pages.

• Because MOSS is built on top of ASP.NET 2.0, anything that can be done in ASP.NET 2.0 can be achieved with MOSS.

• Themes are used in SharePoint to change the look and feel of the site by applying a different “skin,” in other words, change the look of the site without moving the position of any of the objects.

• Master pages were introduced with ASP.NET 2.0. Essentially, a master page is the shell for a SharePoint site that defines the major elements of the page, such as the CSS, navigation, footer, and layouts of most areas of the site.

• Customizing the master page can change the behavior of functionality such as navigation in addition to modifying the look and feel.

• Page layouts can be thought of as the template for the Web page content similar to how you might have a Word template for another document library. A page layout is directly related to a specific content type.

• Creating custom page layouts allows content to be targeted to different areas of the site with Web Parts such as the CQWP.

• Customization is a big issue related to modifying the SharePoint UI with SPD. Use SPD to create SharePoint design elements but have a plan for moving those design elements into production.