Chapter 5
Introduction to SharePoint Designer
Now that you are getting excited about working with a real Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) site, you may be asking yourself, “How do I actually edit code?” In the good old days of SharePoint 2003, you were pretty much limited to working with FrontPage to edit your sites, which often proved to be challenging as FrontPage hadn't evolved much over the years. Luckily, Microsoft has effectively ended FrontPage's lifecycle and in its place, two tools named Microsoft Expression Web and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 (SharePoint Designer) have been created. SharePoint Designer is equivalent to Expression Web plus special tools that work specifically with MOSS servers and code. While you can edit your MOSS design code in any text editor, you will find no better way of working rapidly with MOSS than with SharePoint Designer. This chapter will discuss why SharePoint Designer is the tool of choice, as well as covering the ins and outs of using it to work effectively with MOSS. You should note that SharePoint Designer can be used with Windows SharePoint Services V3 (WSS) as well as MOSS, but some chapters will focus on MOSS specifically in order to show the full extent of what can be achieved in the latest version of SharePoint. If you are using a WSS server, some of the screens and functionality may be different in your server.
Why Use SharePoint Designer?
As a designer, you are most likely accustomed to a particular design ...
