SharePoint Community Road Trip – Day 19

So we pulled into Heather’s place some time ago but in the mist of getting the KnowledgeLake Image Viewer finalized I have not had much time to take a look around. But things have slowed down a bit and since I am waiting in the hotel lobby for Tech Ed to start up I think I will catch up.

Like I said pulling into Heather’s place expect to find lots of design and template information. Just a week or two ago I was asked how to customize the look and feel of a Windows SharePoint Site I just happen to have just finished reading Heather’s article “An Intro and Overview of Options for SharePoint User Interface Customization” This article in a high-level discusses some of the ways that a designer or administrator can modify the user interface and which method might be appropriate. If you are wondering what is the best way to start customizing SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 this is good, basic explanation. Don’t get you hopes up Heather does not point you to the “one” way but explains the various means and ways and you get to choose. I have to say that Heather’s article is one of the first article that I have stumbled across that has practically all the customization techniques in one location.

Following up on the heels of “An Intro and Overview of Options for SharePoint User Interface Customization” I headed over to “SharePoint and Cascading Style Sheets: How to update, change and reference“. Cascading Style Sheets can be considered a main point of modification and a savvy SharePoint developer can quickly modify the look and feel of site with a few changes or additions to a style sheet. Heather’s article will give you a quick run down of CSS and then heads into SharePoint-related CSS topics. Look to this article when you need determine the best way to start modifying your portal’s style.

Heather’s place has a plethora of tips and tricks related to the look and feel. Many of the tips and tricks revolve around custom styles to modify the user interface. Take a look at just a off the many tips I ran across while hanging around Heather’s Place:

SharePoint Usability Tip: Hide the Site Settings Link in Portal

Add a CSS button to a SharePoint site

Change the look of the Web Part Title Bars

Hide the My Site Link in Portal

Shift the top tool navigation to the left

These are just a few tips that you can find at Heather’s place.That’s enough touring of Heather’s place today. Tomorrow we can come back and visit again.