Publishing Page Questions and Queries

Question

I've still relatively new to SharePoint development.

I've heard this term "Publishing Page" used a lot in SharePoint but I don't understand how it's any different to say a standard page and a web-part page.

People also say "publishing features", what are these?

1. What defines a "Publishing Page"? (please elaborate if possible).
2. What is the difference between a publishing page, standard page and a web-part page?
3. What advantages and draw-backs does a publishing page have over a standard page?

If someone can clear it up that would be appreciated?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Here is a good article on the overview of Publishing Features: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff628963.aspx

1. As for the Publishing Page, it is a page with predefined characteristics that require things like approval before a page is visible to anyone other than you, and major/minor version editing all which are enabled by default for this.

2. Like i said above, the publishing page has a few predefined features that are not enabled on the standard and web-part pages by default. The publishing page is OOB (out of the box) ready for a business infrastructure where your portal is client facing and requires review and documentation for any changes made to the language (writing) of each page.

3. The advantage is strong control over who is able to do what, and the OOB ability to delegate the appropriate privileges to ensure your site tells clients what it is supposed to. The draw-back is the extra steps/time required for any changes to go through, and if you trust each and every person using it, ends up being annoying and slows down the process. Please note that a standard page can be configured to be the almost the same as a publishing page, it just requires a bunch of extra steps.