SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 19. Creating in SharePoint Designer 2007

Introduction

Those of you who have worked with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services v2 will definitely be familiar with Microsoft FrontPage 2003. FrontPage was Microsoft’s recommended application for all SharePoint customizations. Well, Microsoft has changed the rules again. Say hello to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, a part of the Microsoft Office 2007 release.

With the new release, Microsoft has come up with a new set of tools for web site design:

• Microsoft Expressions Web Designer

• SharePoint Designer 2007

• Visual Studio 2005

The choice of which tool is best for you depends on your needs. Ideally:

• Use Expressions Web Designer if you are a professional web designer building dynamic standards-based web sites.

• Use SharePoint Designer 2007 if you are a solution creator, web designer, or content author using SharePoint Technologies.

• Use Visual Studio 2005 if you are professional web application developer.

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is specifically designed to help you create and customize SharePoint web sites and workflows (for both Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services v3 and Office SharePoint Server 2007). Office SharePoint Designer 2007 allows you to:

• Customize SharePoint sites to meet your needs

• Build SharePoint applications quickly, without writing any server code

• Automate business processes with workflows

• Easily manage SharePoint sites

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 has a very intuitive ...