Customizing and Personalizing Web Parts

Personalized Web Parts and Web pages filter or display information based upon the logged-in user's profile properties.

Security Alert 

There is a new way to view a page as a particular person in the organization, but it means that you have to log in to a page under that user's credentials. It is typically considered a security risk when users give their passwords to other users or even administrators. Click Welcome Username at the top of the page, and choose Sign In As A Different User.

When a Web Part page is modified, it is done so in one of two ways: through shared or personal versions. In SharePoint Server 2003, these were referred to as the shared and personal views. The shared version of the page is for all users of the site to see, and when changes are made in a shared version, they are intended for public consumption. When the personal version of a Web Part page is edited, any changes that are made are intended just for the logged-in user to see. To edit the personal version of a page, click the Welcome menu at the top of the screen, Welcome Username. Then choose Personalize This Page. Once a Web Part is modified in the personal version of the page, it becomes a personalized Web Part.

Web Part settings that can be modified on the personal version of a page include the following:

• Layout and appearance These common Web Part properties can be viewed and modified, but the Advanced ones cannot be.

• Custom Web Part properties The developer of the Web Part might have decided not to make some of these properties available for modification, or the permission level of the user could be a factor that determines what can be modified.

• Deletion Permissions of the Web Part determine whether it can be deleted.

As the owner or the administrator, you have several ways to customize your Web Part page. Customization applies when the modifications are to the shared version of the page or Web Part. Some examples of customization are editing the Web Part page title, changing the properties of individual Web Parts, and changing the layout of the page.