Chapter 1. Becoming Familiar with SharePoint Designer

IN THIS CHAPTER

Introducing SharePoint Designer

Understanding SharePoint Designer basics

Exploring hidden metadata and raw Webs

Maintaining Web sites

The Internet has long been one of the favorite mechanisms of expression because of the wide reach, connection, and exposure it offers. It's one of the basic means of communication in the 21st century and has drawn people closer in unique ways. Having a presence on the Internet is a pivotal requirement for any organization, irrespective of its size, nature, or range of operations. Web sites on the Internet provide the canvas that organizations can use to explain their missions and goals, advertise their products, perform business transactions, and communicate with their customers and partners.

It's apparent that the Internet as a medium offers tremendous prospects and opportunities. To exploit this medium, Web site designers have a range of Internet technologies to choose from. From simple markup languages (such as HTML) to complex application development technologies (such as ASP.NET), there are a variety of platforms on which you can base your Web site application. To achieve the most from these technologies without having to re-create a lot of work, many Web site development tools and products are available to you. Microsoft's key offerings for these tools and products have been FrontPage and Visual Studio. While Visual Studio is targeted to Web developers and complex Web application development, FrontPage is designed to provide a simpler no-code-based software development tool that helps Web site designers focus on designing Web sites rather than have to deal with the complex code that goes behind Web site development and still be able to create complex Web sites.

FrontPage offers Web site designers a number of components and What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) features that help in building important sections of Web sites. It provides wizard-based interfaces that aid in developing Web pages without having to write a lot of code behind the Web pages and creating key Web site features, such as site navigation, data collection forms, dynamic effects, and graphics and animation. Along with that, it offers a number of Web site management features that provide for ease in managing Web sites as well as importing, exporting, and publishing content to Web servers.

With the advent of SharePoint technologies, FrontPage has been replaced primarily because of the need to address the requirements of Web site designers in the SharePoint and non-SharePoint environments. FrontPage 2003 is the last version of FrontPage, and FrontPage is now available as two separate products: Expression Web (for non-SharePoint development) and SharePoint Designer (for SharePoint development). While SharePoint Designer falls into the Microsoft Office suite (although it's not part of any Office 2007 suite and is sold separately), Expression Web is part of the new Expression Studio suite of products, which includes Expression Blend, a program once called Interactive Designer.

In this chapter, I introduce you to SharePoint Designer and help familiarize you with some basics for developing Web pages and Web sites using SharePoint Designer. Although I try to keep this chapter simple, if you run across a term, feature, or component that sounds confusing, don't be concerned because I cover these elements in more depth throughout this book.