SharePoint Designer 2007: Introduction for Beginners (5 day) UK Classes & Lessons (Microsoft)

About this class

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.

Prior to taking this course, students should have a general knowledge of Web site design and methodologies. They should also be familiar with SharePoint from an end user or administrative point of view. An understanding of ASP.NET 2.0 master pages and cascading style sheets is helpful, but not required.

Who will the lesson benefit?

The primary audiences for this course are Web designers, administrators, and developers that use and work with Office SharePoint Server 2007, and want to learn how to customize SharePoint sites without writing code. Individuals in these job categories will benefit from this course as follows:

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 understand the alternatives to working with Visual Studio 2005. They will also learn which customizations are achievable using in-browser tools and SharePoint Designer 2007. In addition, developers will learn how to create custom solutions using SharePoint Designer 2007. For example, the course explores:

Data integration using Web services
Using conditional formatting and XSLT to format data
Adding ASP.NET and SharePoint controls
Developing multiple-step workflows

What prerequisites are required

Delegates attending this course would need to know about lists, libraries, site columns, content types, Web Parts and how to administer a team site using the browser, if delegates do not have this understanding then it is strongly recommended that they attend our SharePoint 2007 End User course prior to attending.

Contents of this class

Note: Throughout this course we refer to code-free customizations. By code-free, we mean no complex programming languages, such as .NET languages, or code compilation. But, to help demonstrate the extensibility of functions within SharePoint Designer 2007, we don't exclude use of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) scripting/class, Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSLT), Extensible Markup Language (XML), XML Path Language (XPath) or existing page code. For example, in discussing master pages, we'll show you in the SharePoint Designer 2007 code view how master pages are associated with existing SharePoint site pages.

Module 0: Course Overview and Web Design Concepts

This module provides an overview of the course modules. It also includes Web site design and Web site design best practices to use when planning SharePoint site design and customization.

Module 1: In-Browser Customizations

Before learning how to extend code-free customizations using SharePoint Designer 2007, this module covers the types of customizations you can do using the in-browser tools. Module 1 covers the following topics:

SharePoint publishing features
Document libraries and Web Parts
Create new pages and add content
Apply different master pages and CSS to sites
SharePoint themes
Change the navigation
Office authoring customizations
Create workflows via the browser

Module 2: Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2007

This module introduces SharePoint Designer 2007 and covers ways it can be used to enhance your SharePoint sites. Module 2 covers the following topics:

Overview of SharePoint Designer
How SharePoint Designer can enhance your SharePoint sites
Create workflows using SharePoint Designer 2007

Module 3: SharePoint Designer 2007 Environment

This module discusses the components that makeup the SharePoint Designer environment and what they mean in terms of customizing your SharePoint sites. To realize the available features, you will open an existing SharePoint site in SharePoint Designer. Module 3 covers the following topics:

Connect to an existing SharePoint site
Navigate within SharePoint Designer
Working with views
SharePoint site folders
Create new pages and content
Editing features
Differentiation between editing publishing and non-publishing sites

Module 4: Administrate SharePoint Sites with SharePoint Designer 2007

In this module you learn how to leverage administrative features in SharePoint Designer to remotely administrate your SharePoint sites. Coverage includes establishing security settings that determine the degree by which users will be able to customize SharePoint sites. Module 4 covers the following topics:

Configure contributor settings
Check site's status with reports including usage analysis
Migrate SharePoint sites including back up and restore

Module 5: Create SharePoint Sites with SharePoint Designer 2007

In this module you create a new SharePoint site from within SharePoint Designer 2007 and then publish the site to an existing site collection. This module also explains how to leverage 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 5 covers the following topics:

Create a new site and publish the site to the existing site collection
Add new SharePoint content to the site including Web Parts, forms, and tables
Custom behaviors
Web components
Index the new site in SharePoint and add it to the SharePoint site directory

Module 6: Create and Configure Data Sources

This module explains how to use data sources to SharePoint libraries and lists throughout your site collection, databases, XML files, server-side scripts, Web services, and Business Data Catalogs. You will learn how to import data into your SharePoint site from each of these connections using the Data Source properties in SharePoint Designer 2007. This module also shows how to connect with and configure data sources. Module 6 covers the following topics:

Overview of each data source
Connect with external databases
Connect to another SharePoint library within your site collection
Link data sources

Module 7: Data Views and Conditional Formatting

This module explains how to use data views and data forms to present and configure data sources. You will work with data sources to add data to SharePoint pages and manipulate the data display using custom queries and conditional formatting. This module also explains how to write data back to the data source using Data Form Web Parts. Module 7 covers the following topics:

Create a data view
Import fields
Conditional formatting
Edit XPath expressions
Apply filtering and style
Edit, delete, and insert commands

Module 8: ASP.NET Controls

In this module you learn how to configure ASP.NET controls within SharePoint sites. You also bind and populate those controls using data connections. Module 8 covers the following topics:

Understand the overall role of controls in SharePoint Server 2007
Review types of controls available
Populate and format data using ASP.NET controls
SharePoint controls

Module 9: Create and Modify Master Pages

This module covers master pages that are based on the ASP.NET 2.0 framework. These master pages 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. Module 9 covers the following topics:

Working with the out-of-the-box master pages
Create new master pages using SharePoint Designer 2007
Add and configure menu controls on master pages
Manage master pages
Apply CSS to master pages

Module 10: Content Pages

In this module you learn about the relevance of content pages, which are known as page layouts in SharePoint Server 2007. This module covers how page layouts and master pages work hand-in-hand to determine the final composition of SharePoint pages. Module 10 covers the following topics:

Understand the role of page layouts in SharePoint Server 2007
Work with out-of-the-box page layouts
Learn all about the inner workings of page layouts
Build new page layouts using SharePoint Designer 2007

Module 11: Cascading Style Sheets

This module explains how you can apply a custom style sheet to either a single site or an entire SharePoint site collection. You also learn about the SharePoint cascading style sheet (CSS) files including how to modify the out-of-the-box CSS, create new CSS files, and the best practices for managing SharePoint CSS files. Module 11 covers the following topics:

Review the out-of-the-box CSS files and classes
Modify out-of-the-box CSS files
Create new CSS files and manage the CSS lifecycle

Module 12: Save Sites as Templates

This module shows you how to save a customized site as a template, both using the in-browser and SharePoint Designer 2007 tools, and then explains how to use the template to create new sites in SharePoint. Module 12 covers the following topics:

Differences between templates and site definitions in SharePoint
Export or save customized site as a SharePoint site template
Create a new site in SharePoint based on a custom template

Module 13: In-Browser Workflows

In this module you learn how to effectively work with the default workflows using the browser. It also explains how to create workflows for document libraries and lists throughout your SharePoint sites. Module e13 covers the following topics:

How workflows can benefit your existing business processes
Review the SharePoint default workflows
Create an Approval workflow
Create and deploy content type workflows
Administrate workflows

Module 14: Create Workflows with SharePoint Designer 2007

This module explains how to take workflows within SharePoint sites to the next level using SharePoint Designer 2007. In this module you work with a number of scenario-based workflow solutions including multi-step workflows and multi-conditional workflows. Module 14 covers the following topics:

Relationship between SharePoint Designer 2007 workflows and Windows Workflow Foundation
Use the SharePoint Designer 2007 Workflow Designer Wizard to create custom workflows
Location and composition of workflow files
Deploy workflows created in SharePoint Designer 2007 to SharePoint document libraries and listsSave and execute your workflow
Run the workflow and review workflow status in your SharePoint site
Review workflow logs on the SharePoint server.
Work through a series of workflow scenario-based labs that include detailed instructions.