Prerequisite skills to learn SharePoint Designer 2010

Question

If any ASP.NET novice developer (or any other programmer) needs to learn and explore SharePoint Designer, what prerequisite skills are required to learn and to be an expert in SharePoint Designer?

Answer 1

It very much depends on what you want to use SPD for. As it can be used for as different things as:

• Workflows
• Business Connectivity Services
• Content types
• Lists
• List views
• Ribbon buttons
• Pages
• Advanced web parts
• Page Layouts
• Master Pages

If you want to be an expert on all then you need to learn (in somewhat prioritised order):

• SharePoint from an enduser point of view
• HTML/CSS
• JavaScript
• XML/XSLT
• SharePoint client side development
• SharePoint server side development
• SharePoint administration
• InfoPath

Answer 2

Install the SharePoint

From the Central Administration create a site and play with the sites. Cover content, search, sites, communities, themes, master pages, page layouts etc.

The basic point here is, you will get a broader picture of What SharePoint and how it works. This will be a very good starting point since you're novice in ASP.NET/SharePoint

After couple of days, download SharePoint Designer 2010 and start practising most of things (as mentioned by Per) Workflows, Business Connectivity Services, Content types, Lists, List views, Ribbon buttons Pages, Advanced web parts, Page Layouts, Master Pages.