I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how customers are interested in rebranding and res-kinning the Sharepoint Server 2007 user interface to either be “prettier” or simply align with their corporate policies around “look and feel”. This topic comes up enough that it’s probably worth posting something about.
First of all, I’ve got a Powerpoint which goes over most of the considerations of rebranding a site for personal taste or corporate policies. Click below to download this 4.0MB Acrobat file.
There are additionally a ton of resources to go to for more information on how to accomplish this task of “rebranding” a Sharepoint site. If this is a topic that’s interesting to you, I would highly recommend attending the Microsoft Sharepoint Conference that is usually a week long and usually takes place annually in Redmond, WA. Watch http://www.mssharepointconference.com/ for details on the next event.
Here are some of the resources out there around ‘branding’ in the meantime:
Tools
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx - Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en
Office Online
- Customize SharePoint sites with Office SharePoint Designer
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA102199841033.aspx?pid=CH102201271033 - Masters Page reference for SharePoint Designer
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/CH100667701033.aspx - Introduction to ASP.NET master pages (Fundamentals of Master Page technology)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101551701033.aspx
Samples
- Sample Master Pages Download
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7C05CA44-869A-463B-84D7-57B053711A96&displaylang=en
MSDN
- Master Pages (SharePoint Overview)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms443795.aspx - Customizing Master Pages in Windows SharePoint Services
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms476046.aspx - How to: Create a Minimal Master Page
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa660698.aspx - Building Simple Master Pages for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb684920.aspx - How to: Customize Themes
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa979310.aspx - Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites (3 Part Series)
- Understanding Web Content Management and the Default Features (Part 1 of 3)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa830818.aspx - Extending WCM (Part 2 of 3)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa830815.aspx - Creating and Configuring WCM-Enabled Sites (Part 3 of 3)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa830817.aspx
- Understanding Web Content Management and the Default Features (Part 1 of 3)
Videos
- Building Simple Master Pages for SharePoint
http://wm.microsoft.com/ms/msdn/office/2007OfficeVisualHowTos/WSS3.0BuildingSimpleMasterPages.wmv - Customize SharePoint sites with Office SharePoint Designer
http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=HX102200491033&width=0&height=0&startindex=1&CTT=11&Origin=HA102199841033
WebCasts
- MSDN Webcast: Customizing and Branding SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/webcasteventdetails.aspx?eventid=1032269755&eventcategory=5&culture=en-us&countrycode=us
Expert Resources:
Heather Solomon, Microsoft MVP, Expert in SharePoint branding & design techniques
- Heather SharePoint Branding Site & Blog
http://www.heathersolomon.com/ - Heather’s Presentations
- SharePoint Tools for Style: How to Start Branding SharePoint
http://www.heathersolomon.com/downloads/Solomon_StartBrandingSharePoint_Blogversion.zip - SharePoint Tools for Style: Advanced Techniques for Branding SharePoint
http://www.heathersolomon.com/downloads/Solomon_AdvancedTechniques.zip
Kurt Shintaku's Blog 