Professional Microsoft® SharePoint® Designer 2007

2.1. A Default SharePoint Home Page

On the surface, SharePoint is a fully functional web application. Out-of-the-box, you get pages you can browse through, places you can put information, and lots of ways to get that information back out again. Figure 2-1 shows a basic SharePoint site.

Figure 2-1. Figure 2-1

Scratch that surface, and you find a whole lot more, including the capability to define new forms of information, to pick and choose what gets displayed on a page, and to create new pages. It can all be done without programming or even leaving the friendly confines of your web browser.

Many web designers new to SharePoint create a site the way they always have, and then try to graft on bits and pieces of SharePoint functionality. While that can create sites that are functional, it often presents challenges for maintainability, future expansion, and consistency.

SharePoint provides a number of functions for you (see Figure 2-1):

• Global navigation

• Site-level navigation

• Breadcrumbs

• Personalization

• Site and page titles

• Logos and other branding

• Administrative functions

• Search

• Site content

These are all features needed by virtually every web site in one form or another. The default cosmetic aspects of these features may not be to your liking, but that doesn't mean you have to scrap them. This book shows you how to change those cosmetics without discarding and rebuilding the features themselves. ...