First step – WSS 3.0 Customization

Posted on 17 February 2008 Updated on 14 April 2008

First, I have to customize web pages which are displayed by WSS 3.0 engine.

I customize masterpage using SharePoint Designer 2007. I have tu disable the top navigation menu. To navigate throw the websites, a special WebPart was developed (a javascript dynamic menu). But you can’t delete this component, yo have to disable using the enable property of the ContentPlaceHolder (to hide it). I disable other ContentPlaceHolders that I don’t want to keep.

Now, the structure of web pages are modified and I have to change the appearance of those, using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). I copy the original CSS called “core.css” and rename it. I keep it on the original folder. To use it, in SharePoint Designer I defined it as “default masterpage”. With this change, all new websites are automatically using my new masterpage. Now I have to change colors, layout, fonts, background colors, … But be careful! Styles are used everywhere… To find the styles name you can use a web browser toolbar (for ie or firefox). It’s very useful!

Next you can export this site as a template to create a generic model of this site (*.stp == site template). So that you can replicate this website as many time as you want, using you CSS and your modifications.

I hope that this article can help you!