Branding 101
Customize SharePoint with Kanwal Khipple

Company Information
• New York based SharePoint Consulting Firm
• Services:
– SharePoint Consulting
– SharePoint Training
– SharePoint Hosting
– Business Intelligence
– Infrastructure

Speakers
Kanwal Khipple
SharePoint Architect
SharePoint Delivery
kanwal@sharepointdelivery.com
416.873.7799
SharePointBuzz.com
twitter.com/sharepointbuzz

Agenda
• What is SharePoint Branding?
• Why Brand SharePoint?
• Real World Examples
• OOB Customization
• Tools for Branding
• SharePoint Branding Options
• Customization with JQuery
• Resources / Links

What is SharePoint Branding?
SharePoint Branding is how you
successfully apply a Company’s identity to
a SharePoint site.

What is SharePoint Branding?
• Images
• Colors
• Fonts
• Logos
• Styles

What is SharePoint Branding?
• Banner
• Navigation
• Page Layout

Why Brand SharePoint?
• Users don’t want it to look like a
Microsoft product
• Common look and feel
• Ease of use

“Real World” Examples
Hawaiian Air Website http://www.hawaiianair.com
Case Study: How we did it http://is.gd/gvbo

“Real World” Examples
Energizer http://www.energizer.com

“Real World” Examples
Orange Country Public Schools http://ocps.net

“Real World” Examples
Paul Mitchell Website http://www.paulmitchell.com

More “Real World” Examples
SharePoint Buzz Showcase http://is.gd/h1Ez
Ian Morris’ SharePoint Listing http://is.gd/9v1

Do Not Brand Administrative Pages
1. Tuned and tested to ensure reliability and performance
2. Microsoft Updates can remove customizations
3. No support from Microsoft Support Services

Out of Box Customization
Site Settings -> Look and Feel
1. Master Page
2. Title, Description, and icon
3. Navigation
4. Page layouts and site templates
5. Welcome Page
6. Tree view
7. Site theme

Demo

Master Pages / Page Layouts
http://is.gd/gLzc

Branding Tools
1. SharePoint Designer 2007
2. Visual Studio
3. Photoshop
4. Balsamiq Mockups
5. Notepad

Demo

Themes

Demo

Master Pages
Three ways to build the custom master pages:
1. From scratch
1. Not recommended as SharePoint 2007 needs a few placeholders to be
present in the master page or else the pages will not work.
2. From minimal.master
1. Not recommended for a collaboration intranet
2. You want to use OOB features and controls
3. From default.master
1. Recommended as it provides most of the collaborative controls already
present on the master page
2. Master page does have a learning curve though

Demo

Branding for Scale
Small to Medium implementations
• Use SPD
•There's no integrated source control support
•Changes result in unghosting
Medium to Large Implementations
• Use VS
•Feature Stapling
•Combine OOB site definitions with custom Features

SharePoint / JQuery
JQuery – javascript library that simplifies client side
customization
Limitations
1. Data Manipulation
2. Security
3. Client Environment
4. Browser Differences
5. Web Standards
6. Limitations

Demo

Advanced Topics
• Page layout does not reference core.js http://is.gd/gve1
• Tips for Enhancing the Accessibility http://is.gd/h116
• Customizing and Branding http://is.gd/h11N
• Book: Design and build sites http://is.gd/h1cO
Community Projects
• Accessibility Kit for SharePoint http://is.gd/3m7m
• Community Kit For SharePoint http://is.gd/7Qq
• SharePoint learning kit http://is.gd/h0ZP
• SharePoint Features http://is.gd/h106
• Podcasting kit for SharePoint http://is.gd/tG7
• SharePoint AJAX toolkit http://is.gd/h10y

Questions?
Kanwal Khipple
SharePoint Architect
SharePoint Delivery
kanwal@sharepointdelivery.com
416.873.7799
SharePointBuzz.com
twitter.com/sharepointbuzz

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