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I have always did the backend type work (most dev and admin). Never done branding. The branding person quit so I am having to take this task. Attached is the mock up of what the homepage should look like.

  1. What type page do I need to have (wiki? web part page? etc.)?
  2. How do I do layout?
  3. Is SP designer the best tool (as it is known for breaking the links)?

If someone already have similar and able to share then I would love to get a copy and learn from it.

Thanks in advanced Bill

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  • What version of SharePoint is this for? Also, is this a Publishing site or a collaboration site?
    – Dave Wise
    Jun 15, 2012 at 16:47
  • SharePoint 2010. Ran this PS and it tells me Enterprise Wiki? $site.RootWeb.WebTemplate "ENTERWIKI". Not sure if this the best template for homepage branding.
    – Bill Baer
    Jun 15, 2012 at 17:22

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Branding is as easy or as hard as your company wants to make it and can range from simple recoloring of common UI elements via Themes to a total overhaul of all master pages and page layouts with completely custom CSS and Javascript. Given this virtual canyon that is possible, it is hard to offer one kind of advice.

However, there is an excellent book out there on Branding SharePoint 2010 and tons of helpful web sites that can get you through customizing what you need to. Some are here, here, and here.

As a general rule, I prefer to do all of my branding as a SharePoint feature in Visual Studio 2010 as that allows it to be easily deployed across multiple environments and minimizes the number of places where human error can be introduced. This works out well for me as most of my clients prefer very complicated and specific branding but that is certainly not the only way.

For what it is worth, if your branding initiative does require you to start with a new Master Page, I highly recommend using the starter master page on codeplex. It will save you hours of troubleshooting.

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  • Dave I know you would like to help and provide good links. I did a google and I was overwhelemed by the search results. As I am under the time crunch I was really hoping solid directions (like, wheter to use publishing or other web template, page layout, etc.). More like narrower version and right to the point to suit my requirements. I got hundreds of other things going on and love to get some directions from you all (not down to coding) but little more than high level. Hope you understand.
    – Bill Baer
    Jun 15, 2012 at 17:29
  • This is potentially a very complicated area of SharePoint. If you are looking for a quick hit, then look into Themes, Logo image and custom CSS. For anything beyond that, "Branding" really needs to a whole business project unto itself as there are many decisions that need to be made by non-technical business users regarding look and feel. The book I linked to is dedicated to only the topic of Branding so I would strongly recommend that you pick that up and read at least the first few chapters.
    – Dave Wise
    Jun 15, 2012 at 19:01
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    Here are some of the questions I face on pretty much every branding project : What is the color code for a visited link? Do we want links even changing color? How much whitespace does corporate standards require around the logo? Can we even use the logo? We use WebPartXyz all the time so can we have special colors\spacing for that? The Search box has too many/too few options, can we change that? Can we move search? Can we tell search to only include the current site? Can we have a different landing page on Site Y? Can site Z have a different background? Can we have rounded corners? etc. ...
    – Dave Wise
    Jun 15, 2012 at 19:06

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