This post is an introduction to a series of posts about branding sites in SharePoint 2010, and about why I prefer prefer custom master pages over custom themes in SP 2010.
SharePoint 2010 has several more branding options than SP 2007 (link to History post) but the SP 2010 options can be broken into two groups:
- Working with out-of-the-box (OOB) and custom themes (Power Users or IT Professionals)
- Working with CSS and Master Pages (IT Professionals)
Themes: Depending on your organizational policy regarding branding, power users can be given access to use the browser to select an existing out-of-the-box (OOB) theme, customize one of these themes, or create and import a custom theme from PowerPoint 2010 (or Word, PowerPoint, or Excel 2007 or higher) as Drisgill et al. thoroughly detail in Chapter 5: Simple Branding.
- Select an existing OOB theme
- Customize OOB theme in browser, or in PowerPoint
- Create and import custom theme from a Microsoft Office client
Master Pages and CSS: Many organizational policies however, including mine, require that all SharePoint sites have a consistent look and feel to reflect the branding campaign of the organization. In this case all sites are required to use one or more custom themes and/or master pages created by the IT Professional. I will focus on these options in this series of blog posts:
- Attach alternate CSS style sheet to master page
- Using the browser (part 1 of series)
- Using SharePoint Designer 2010 (part 2 of series)
- Create custom master page (customize layout and code) using SPD 2010 (part 3 of series)
Throughout SharePoint, CSS is probably the most prevalent method of applying branding. Thus, when creating a heavily branded SharePoint site, you will often need to apply your own custom CSS….
There a few ways to apply custom CSS in SharePoint. One common mistake is to just log in to the server and find and edit the core SharePoint CSS file (corev4.css) in the SharePoint root. This should be avoided because it is problematic in terms of supportability. — Drisgill et al., SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design
Featured Series of Posts on Branding Options in SharePoint 2010:
0. SP 2010 Branding Options: Master Pages vs. Themes: Overview
Why I prefer custom master pages over custom themes in SP 2010
1. SP 2010 Branding Options: Master Pages vs. Themes: Part 1
Attaching an alternate style sheet to the master page using the browser’s UI
2. SP 2010 Branding Options: Master Pages vs. Themes: Part 2
Attaching an alternate style sheet to the master page using SPD 2010
2.1 SP 2010 Branding Options: Master Pages vs. Themes: Part 2.1
How to edit the master page to add a custom logo and a favicon with SharePoint Designer 2010
3. SP 2010 Branding Options: Master Pages vs. Themes: Part 3
Adding a footer to your custom master page using SharePoint Designer 2010
4. History of SharePoint Branding: 2007 to 2010
A tribute to Heather Solomon’s legendary blog posts on MOSS 2007 themes and master pages