SharePoint Designer: Customised NewForm.aspx 'Magically' set as default for list

Question

The situation.

• I inherited a SharePoint Portal with an 'Issues' list which was being used to add new work items using the IT Bug Content Type.
• Users asked for some additional fields for the NewForm.aspx.
• I added additional fields to the IT Bug Content Type (List Content Type).
• I opened the NewForm.aspx page using SharePoint designer.
• I saved the NewForm.aspx as NewForm_mod01.aspx
• I made my changes to NewForm_mod01.aspx (adding new fields)

At this stage I thought I was being pretty safe making changes to a copy of the live NewForm.aspx, so you can imagine my horror when I discovered that the live site was making use of my modified form 'NewForm_mod01.aspx' when 'New Item' button was clicked on the main list form.

I found that by deleting my modified form I could get the site to go back to using the default form 'NewForm.aspx'.

I disocovered the List -> properties -> supporting files menu but found that when I changed these values to the default forms 'NewForm.aspx' it continued to use the modified form 'NewForm_mod01.aspx'.

My modified pages are working with the new fields now, but I still am very worried in that I don't understand the mechanism by which these new pages 'went live' in the first place.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

When you open any of the forms (NewForm.aspx, EditFrom.aspx or DispForm.aspx) and you save it as you are keeping all the ids and there for associations on the page. The way I do it is.

• Make a copy and paste the file you want to modify, SharePoint Designer will automatically generate new id's for the copied page.
• Modified the new copy of the page
• Save your changes
• Rename the file
• Associate the new copy of the file with the appropriated action