Can I have Custom Layout Pages in WSS3?

Question

I know that the Publishing feature for SharePoint is only available when you're using MOSS. I gather that this feature allows you to define different page layouts/templates, so that when a user creates a new page they can choose what type of template to use. So you could have a home page template, a landing page template, and a content page template for example.

My question is, does this kind of functionality exist for WSS3 at all? When a user creates a new page is there a way I can allow them to choose a custom page layout/template?

Thanks, Robert

Answer 1

There is no page layout option in WSS3 - this is a part of the WCM publishing functionilty in MOSS, which includes special behaviour in the Pages library to associate the page layout with the page and merge the page content, page layout and master page in rendering the page.

In WSS3 there is the ability to create a page but it is built around web parts and web part zones. You can choose from a number of web part page designs with different web part zones in a tabular layout. These are sometimes called "text layouts". It is not really equivalent to page layouts and not very well suited to web publishing, but in some cases might be sufficient. This capability is also greatly improved in SharePoint Foundation 2010 through the Wiki Page feature, but still lacks the performance and design control provided with the publishing model included with the full product.