Professional SharePoint 2007 Design [Paperback]

Jacob J. Sanford (Author), Randy Drisgill (Author), David Drinkwine (Author), Coskun Cavusoglu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2008 | ISBN-10: 047028580X | ISBN-13: 978-0470285800

From the planning details to the steps to the considerations, understand how to design the perfect SharePoint implementation by applying the information in Professional SharePoint 2007 Design. Begin with an overview of a installation and move through the technical aspects of creating usable, accessible, aesthetically pleasing SharePoint interfaces, with a primary focus on using SharePoint’s basic design tools to create a better looking and more effective installation. Understand how to use PhotoShop to design the graphics and template model for your site and learn how to integrate SharePoint themes.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Design

Take your SharePoint site design to the next level by exploiting the powerful set of tools that SharePoint 2007 offers. Focused purely on the topic of design as it relates to SharePoint 2007, this book arms you with the knowledge you will need to create unique and dynamic SharePoint sites with not only MOSS, but also Windows SharePoint Services version 3 (WSS). You'll walk through the key points and best practices for customizing the standard SharePoint user interface with your own branding and styles.

What you will learn from this book

• How to customize SharePoint master pages, page layouts, CSS, themes, and Web Parts to achieve a unique site design
• Ways to create Photoshop CS3 and HTML/CSS mockups that take into account the specific requirements that SharePoint requires in a user interface
• Proper planning that is required when starting a SharePoint communication or collaboration web site
• Methods for leveraging the power of SharePoint's built-in navigation and searching functionality
• How to use minimal master pages as an effective starting point for creating your own design masterpieces
• The complete lifecycle of a custom SharePoint user interface
• The benefits of utilizing Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 for working with SharePoint servers in an efficient and rich environment
• Tips and tricks for building accessible web sites in SharePoint

Who this book is for
This book is for the SharePoint professional or enthusiast who has an interest in making communication and collaboration web sites that look as great as they are powerful. A basic understanding of the .NET 2.0 Framework and SharePoint concepts is helpful but not necessary.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Jacob J. Sanford began his career in, of all things, accounting and auditing. He graduated from Florida State University in 1997 with BS degrees in Accounting and Finance, which made him eligible to sit for the CPA exam. Although he realized in college that his interests lie more in computers and technology, he decided he would give accounting a chance. It didn’t last. He had been dabbling in HTML and VBA when he took a job at a private software company and met co-author David Drinkwine, who introduced him to the wonders of classic ASP. From there, he began learning as much as he could about all kinds of Web application development. This took him down the paths of ColdFusion, PHP, PhotoShop, CSS, XML, and finally ASP.NET (starting with the 1.0 and 1.1 releases). He has been using ASP.NET (VB and C# — but mostly C#) for the last four or five years. He has worked at several State of Florida agencies and in that capacity found a fondness for pure CSS design and accessibility considerations. Most recently, he has started focusing on new technologies and tools such as Microsoft Silverlight and Visual Studio 2008.
Jacob is currently a senior consultant with Captar´e Consulting, LLC, and is the founding leader of the Tallahassee SharePoint Experts Exchange for Developers (SPEED). He is also a regular presenter at regional .NET Code Camps and at local .NET User Group meetings and is the author of Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Design (Wrox, 2007).
Jacob has received his Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) certification as a Web Developer (Visual Studio 2005). He plans to upgrade his credentials to Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET 3.6 Framework as the certification exams become available.

Randy Drisgill is an Internet technologist, focused on emerging Web trends such as MOSS 2007 and rich Internet applications. Currently working as a consultant for SharePoint branding and customization, Randy has been helping businesses create innovative Web applications since the late ’90s. Previously, Randy co-owned a Web development consulting company, and before that, he worked for Lockheed Martin on several enterprise-level initiatives. Along with his current interests in Microsoft technologies, Randy’s involvement in both the ColdFusion and ActionScript communities has led to his co-authoring several related books and publications.
Besides blogging about everything from Adobe to LoLCats at www.Drisgill.com, Randy also uses the pseudonym ‘‘The Mossman’’ to blog specifically about MOSS 2007 at theMossman.Blogspot.com. When not thinking about technology, Randy enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife, Jackie, and his dog, Frito.

David Drinkwine is currently a Senior Solutions Architect for Captar´e Consulting, LLC, a Chicago-based consulting firm specializing in advanced SharePoint implementation and custom .NET application development. He has designed and implemented WSS and MOSS based applications for a variety of clients, including global product manufacturers, state agencies, and telecommunications firms.
David has a decade and a half of software development experience and has been developing Internet-based solutions since the late ’90s. He has been highly focused on designing and implementing SharePoint solutions from the early days of SharePoint Team Services. He has experience in a wide variety of technologies, including MOSS, WSS, various incarnations of C and Visual Basic, MS Office programming and integration, and far more acronym-named technologies than can be good for any one person to know.
David frequently has spoken on design and the use of third-party tools with SharePoint at regional SharePoint user group meetings. He attended Florida State University, where he studied English and Philosophy.

Coskun Cavusoglu is the Director of Consulting Services and the Chief Solution Architect of Captar´e Consulting, LLC. Coskun has been architecting and implementing technology solutions for more than 10 years in both large enterprise organizations and fast-growth midmarket firms. He has extensive experience designing, implementing and supporting Internet solutions using Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, CRM, Project Server, Solomon, BizTalk Server, Windows Server, Active Directory, Exchange, IIS, and ASP .NET 2.0.
Coskun consults on a variety of business process practices. He has a broad range of expertise in areas such as knowledge management, business process analysis, collaboration, project management, office productivity, and application programming. Coskun is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist for SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Product Details

• Paperback: 648 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (September 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047028580X
• ISBN-13: 978-0470285800
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource for those wanting to rebrand SharePoint sites October 1, 2008

By Andrew Connell

Format:Paperback

One of the most common demands I see from customers is "I don't want my site to look like SharePoint." Unfortunately there aren't many books on this subject. This book does a great job of introducing the reader into what's involved in creating and applying a brand in a SharePoint site. It even includes intro chapters for those who haven't done this before or who are new to using tools like Photoshop. Finally there's a resource to point people to!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff! October 1, 2008

By Shane Young

Format:Paperback

I was given a copy of this book by one of the authors themselves. I have read through a few of the chapters so far and it has helped me tremendously with understanding how the design process works related to SharePoint projects. The book begins by describing some of the basics of web design theory and creation and then transitions into actually making these designs a reality in SharePoint. The author's dive into all of the important topics related to SharePoint design such as creating design comps that are tailored to SharePoint, converting them to master pages and themes with custom CSS, creating page layouts, working with navigation and working with web parts. I think the book would be good for designers trying to work with SharePoint as well as non-designers that need to understand the process and techniques behind creating a custom SharePoint UI.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for part-time designers working in SharePoint January 14, 2009

By Joshua Lewis

Format:Paperback

This book was great for me because I work as my companys only SharePoint designer, but I'm really a developer. The book style is conversational so if you are hoping to jump around alot in the book you may have a hard time. I chose instead to read straight through and following all of the examples it took me about three days. This book does a good job of walking through prototyping a site in PhotoShop especially for people who don't use it that often.

The book focuses on Internet facing sites and though it does refer to the differences in Intranet sites I often wanted more information than was provided.