SharePoint Designer

This 5-day course is designed to give students the tools and knowledge to customize SharePoint sites without writing code, by using SharePoint Designer 2007 and in-browser customizations. The course addresses aspects of design, such as applying alternate page layouts, creating and styling new pages and modifying site navigation, as well as external data integration and custom workflows. Students will understand the difference between using SharePoint Designer 2007 and in-browser tools-what is achievable with each tool, and how, and when, to use those tools to effect SharePoint site customization.
Student Pre-Requisites:
This course is designed for students who are using and working with Office SharePoint Server 2007, and want to customize SharePoint sites without the need to write code:

• Web designers will understand the extent of customizations available using in-browser tools and the advantages of using SharePoint Designer 2007 to further enhance SharePoint site customization, such as changing master pages and styles, and creating multiple step workflows;
• Administrators will learn how SharePoint Designer 2007 can help with administrative tasks, such as backing up and restoring sites to alternate locations, and setting design level permissions for end users who will work with SharePoint Designer 2007. Administrators will also understand the in-browser customization capabilities made available to end users, depending on the permission setting of those users.
• Developers will benefit by attending the course and understanding the alternatives to working with Visual Studio 2005-the customizations that are achievable via in-browser tools and by using SharePoint Designer 2007. Developers will learn how they can develop custom solutions using SharePoint Designer 2007, such as data integration using web services, using conditional formatting and XSLT to format data, adding ASP.NET and SharePoint controls and develop multiple step workflows.

Lessons Covered:
Module 0: Course Overview and Web Design Concepts
This module provides an overview of the course modules. It also includes Web site design and factors in Web site design best practices when planning SharePoint site design and customization.
Module 1: In-browser Customizations
In this module, you’ll learn about the types of customizations you can do using the in-browser tools, ahead of learning how to extend code-free customizations using SharePoint Designer 2007.

• Working with SharePoint publishing features
• Editing in place pages
• Adding and positioning web parts
• Approving and publishing pages
• Document conversions
• Working with document libraries and web parts
• Creating new pages and adding content
• Applying different master pages and CSS to sites
• Working with page layouts
• Working with SharePoint themes
• Changing the navigation
• Appearance
• Structure
• Management
• Office authoring customizations
• Creating Workflows via the browser
• Viewing Site collection workflow status
• Understanding the types of workflows you can create via the browser
• Approval
• Collect Feedback
• Collect Signatures
• Disposition Approval
• Three-state

Module 2: Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2007
In this module, you will be introduced to SharePoint Designer 2007 and understand ways in which you can use it to enhance your SharePoint sites. You will learn:

Module 3: Understanding the SharePoint Designer Environment
In this module, you will learn about the components that make up the SharePoint Designer environment and what they mean in terms of customizing your SharePoint sites. To realize the features available, you’ll open an existing SharePoint site in SharePoint Designer:

Module 4: Administrating SharePoint Sites with SharePoint Designer 2007
In this module, you will learn about how you can leverage administrative features in SharePoint Designer to remotely administrate your SharePoint sites, including establishing the security settings which will determine the degree by which users will be able to customize SharePoint sites.

Module 5: Creating SharePoint Sites with SharePoint Designer 2007
In this module, you’ll create a new SharePoint site from within SharePoint Designer 2007 and then publish the site to an existing site collection. You’ll understand how you can leverage the existing templates for the new site and then configure the new site using the SharePoint Designer 2007 tools, including adding web parts and SharePoint content.

Module 6: Creating and Configuring Data Sources in SharePoint Designer 2007
Using data sources, you can connect to SharePoint libraries and lists throughout your site collection, databases, XML files, server-side scripts, web services and Business Data Catalogs. You can import data into your SharePoint site from each of these connections using the Data Source properties in SharePoint Designer 2007. This module will show you how you can connect with and configure data sources.

Module 7: Working with Data Views and Conditional Formatting in SharePoint Designer 2007
You can use data views and data forms to present and configure data sources. In this module, you’ll work with data sources to add data to SharePoint pages and manipulate the data display using custom queries and conditional formatting. You’ll also learn how you can write data back to the data source using data form web parts.

Module 8: Working with ASP.NET Controls in SharePoint Sites in SharePoint Designer 2007
In this module, you’ll learn how you configure ASP.NET controls within SharePoint sites and then bind and populate those controls using data connections.

Module 9: Creating and Modifying Master Pages
In this module, you’ll learn about master pages. Master pages, based on the ASP.NET 2.0 framework, are an integral part of the SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services V3 platforms. Master pages determine the appearance of pages and content throughout SharePoint sites. You’ll learn how to do the following:

Module 10: Working with Content Pages
In this module, you’ll also learn about the relevance of content pages, known as page layouts in SharePoint Server 2007, and how page layouts and master pages work hand-in-hand to determine the final composition of SharePoint pages.

Module 11: Working with Cascading Style Sheets
In SharePoint, you can apply a custom style sheet to either a single site or an entire site collection. In this module, you’ll learn all about the SharePoint cascading style sheet (CSS) files, including understand how to modify the out-of-the-box CSS and create new CSS files along with best practices for working with and managing SharePoint CSS files.

Module 12: Saving Sites as Templates
This module will show you how you can save a customized site as a template, both using the in-browser and SharePoint Designer 2007 tools, which you can then use when creating new sites in SharePoint.

Module 13: Creating In-browser Workflows
In this module, you’ll learn how to effectively work with the default workflows via the browser and create workflows for document libraries and lists throughout your SharePoint sites.

Module 14: Creating Workflows with SharePoint Designer 2007
In this module, you’ll learn how you can take workflow within SharePoint sites to the next level using SharePoint Designer 2007. You’ll also work with a number of scenario-based workflow solutions, including multi-step workflows and multi-conditional workflows.