Professional Microsoft® SharePoint® Designer 2007

Introduction

"Can you make it look less like SharePoint?"

Such a simple question, and yet, like someone opening the lid to Pandora's Box, the customer asking it can release a whole range of troubles into the life of a web designer. The latest release of Microsoft SharePoint products has taken the world by storm. Faster than anyone could have foreseen, businesses large and small have discovered that SharePoint addresses a range of needs, and have rushed to jump on the bandwagon.

SharePoint is not merely a web server. It is a large and complex application, with many moving parts. Some of them are easy to customize; others require a bit more finesse. Tools and guidance for that customization are few and far between. Fortunately for you, SharePoint Designer is such a tool, and this book provides the guidance. Together, they enable you to look your customer in the eye and answer with a resounding: "Yes!"

Yet SharePoint Designer can do far more than customize SharePoint sites. It is a fully-featured web design tool in its own right, with excellent support for many industry standards, as well as backward compatibility with a few nonstandard capabilities.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone who has been asked the opening question. You may be an experienced web designer or a web application developer who has never used SharePoint. You may be a system administrator who needs to tweak a few things to match an existing standard. Perhaps you are a business analyst looking for ways ...