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Page design roadmap

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Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

  • Before you begin

  • Customize master pages

  • Configure navigation

  • Customize layout pages

  • Incorporate Web Parts

  • Customize the styles used on page elements

  • Customize tools used by authors

Pages on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites can be designed and customized in the following ways:

  • Within the browser on an Office SharePoint Server 2007 site.

    For example, a site designer of a company's intranet portal could change the master page associated with the site, configure its navigation, and associate page layouts with the content types used in the site. Authors can also apply styles to content on the page or content displayed in Web Parts.

  • By using Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

    Every SharePoint site starts with the same visual characteristics, so Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides the tools you need to customize and create visually distinct SharePoint sites. You can use the master page capabilities of ASP.NET 2.0 to build and change SharePoint sites quickly and easily. You can tailor the presentation and look and feel of a SharePoint site to meet your needs and brand requirements by using established Web standards such as XHTML and cascading style sheets. Designers can also control what pages in their site will look like by using Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to add and edit page layouts.

  • By using the Microsoft Visual Studio development system.

    A developer can highly customize Web pages, layout pages, and style sheets, extend the functionality of controls used to edit pages, customize page navigation, create Web Parts and custom controls, and do other customizations related to Web pages and Web content management.

This roadmap article lists resources in the following order, which is the sequence in which you should design your site's pages:

  1. Customize master pages.

  2. Customize navigation.

  3. Design layout pages.

  4. Incorporate Web Parts.

  5. Customize the styles used on page elements.

  6. Customize tools used by authors.

Before you begin

Before you begin developing the custom pages for your SharePoint site, review the resources in the following overview sections, which describe Office SharePoint Server 2007 page designing capabilities and customization options available to site architects, designers, creators, and developers.

General overviews

About master pages

About navigation

About layout pages

About Web Parts and field controls

Customize master pages

A master page defines the outer frame of the Web page. It contains the elements that you want all pages in your site to share, and it provides a single place to control all of those elements. Typically, a site uses a single site master page, although large Internet sites might use more. For example, a corporate Web site that is used to publicize more than one product could use separate master pages so that the content for each product is properly branded. For information about techniques for customizing master pages, see the following resources:

Configure navigation

Site navigation provides the primary interface for site users to move about the sites, subsites, and pages that compose your Internet or intranet portal site. Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes a set of customizable and extensible navigation features that help orient users of your site and enable them to move among its sites and pages. For information about techniques for customizing master pages, see the following resources:

Customize layout pages

A layout page defines a layout for a content page by providing field controls into which the contents of the content page are displayed. Each layout page is associated with a particular content type, and multiple layout pages are often available for a single content type (for example, to provide alternate layouts for localized versions of content or to add or remove the display of certain fields and features from a page layout. By using Office SharePoint Designer 2007 or Visual Studio, you can create or customize a layout page, including adding new controls to display page content along with additional controls such as Web Parts and server controls. For information about techniques for customizing layout pages, see the following resources:

Incorporate Web Parts

A Web Part is a server control that authors can insert into Web Part zones on pages. Web Parts display information based on their functionality, such as presenting site navigation links, SharePoint list contents, or database analytical information. For information about techniques for customizing Web Parts and adding them to your pages, see the following resources:

Use the Content Query Web Part

The Content Query Web Part displays a dynamic set of items based on a query that you build. You use the query to specify which items are displayed, and you can set presentation options to determine how those items are displayed on the finished page. Because it is highly configurable, the Content Query Web Part is a key Web Part to use when you customize your Web pages. For information about techniques for using Content Query Web parts, see the following resources:

Customize the styles used on page elements

You can customize the look and feel of a SharePoint site by making changes to the default styles that are applied to the pages in that site. For information about techniques for customizing Web Parts and adding them to your pages, see the following resources:

Customize tools used by authors

Web page authoring is the process by which writers add content to a publishing site such as a corporate Internet site or intranet portal site. Web page authoring is available in a site when the Office SharePoint Server 2007 publishing features are activated in the site. For information about techniques for customizing the Office SharePoint Server 2007 authoring experience, see the following resources:

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

See the full list of available books at Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007.

See Also

Other Resources

Customize the search box
Customize themes
Change the Welcome page
Reset a customized page to the site definition
Customize the logos for SharePoint sites
Creating and editing pages
Format text in a text field
Format text in an enhanced text field
How to Optimize a SharePoint Server 2007 Web Content Management Site for Performance