SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 5. Designing SharePoint Sites

Introduction

As with previous versions of SharePoint, MOSS 2007 organizes information as web sites. These sites can be accessed either through your company's intranet or from the Internet. After installing and configuring MOSS 2007, a default top-level site will automatically be created. Your next job is to modify the top-level site and begin constructing your site collection. A site in SharePoint is the same as any web site you have ever accessed: a collection of web pages interrelated to allow a group or organization to share information, organize data, and conduct collaborative meetings and discussions.

A top-level site is the main web interface into your organization. Think of it as http://www.microsoft.com or http://intranet.microsoft.com. This site is the access point that allows your company and any partners entry into your information and communication channels in MOSS 2007.

Subsites are subsidiary web sites or child sites that are referenced through the top-level site. Often, subsites are created for specific teams or projects within your company. If your company designs and supports various software suites, a subsite could be created for a specialized group to develop a new application within a suite. Any subsite can have numerous subsites underneath it. A top-level site with an underlying tree structure of subsites is called a site collection. The top-level site and subsites are all organized under portal hierarchy, meaning that there ...