Beginning SharePoint® 2007 Administration: Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 and Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007

12.2. Changing the Look and Feel of the Portal Site

It is easy to create a new portal site, but most organizations want to customize its look and feel; this is sometimes referred to as branding. Some of this customization is very easy to do, whereas other modifications require extensive knowledge of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and general web design expertise. This chapter gives you the basic information needed to change the design of the portal. Chapter 13 teaches you more about how to use MS SharePoint Designer 2007 for customizing both portal and team sites. Look at Figure 12-1 to see how the default portal intranet site looks when based on the Collaboration Portal site template.

Figure 12-1. Figure 12-1

Before you can modify any part of SharePoint, you must have the proper permissions, which means being a SharePoint Administrator or a member of the Web Designer site group. In Chapter 3, you learned how to add users to SharePoint groups in WSS. In MOSS you use the same technique, which is described in the "Managing Access to the Portal Site" section in Chapter 5.

12.2.1. Modifying the Portal Site

The easiest parts to customize in a portal are things like the logotype, the portal name, and the description. You can do this with a web browser on any computer, as long as you have the proper permission. You need to be a SharePoint administrator or a member of the Web Designer ...