Chapter 1. Custom Templates

Custom templates enable a user to define a default layout, functionality, and default content for a newly created site. A parallel can be drawn between a Microsoft Word stationery template and a SharePoint template. For instance, you might have a stationary template for Microsoft Word with your company logo, company colors, office address, and a myriad of other customizations. You can construct a SharePoint template with the same company logo, company colors, and many other customizations. The parallels continue in the application of SharePoint templates as well. Just as you can apply your Microsoft Word template to a new document, you can apply your SharePoint template to a new site.

Two types of custom templates exist: custom list templates and custom site templates. Custom list templates contain schema and content data for all types of lists. Thus, custom list templates apply to SharePoint lists. They therefore apply to document libraries, picture libraries, links, announcements, custom lists, and many others. Custom site templates apply to SharePoint sites, which could be top-level sites or subsites. Custom site templates contain schema and content data for everything that can be defined on a site, including lists, themes, web part content and layout, as well as many other customizations.

One of the most attractive features of custom templates is the existence of a graphical interface to construct them. This interface exists in the form of the SharePoint web interface as well as Microsoft Front-Page. The simplicity of this interface empowers you to quickly create a default look for your sites and lists that can be applied even more quickly to new sites. This feature avoids the tedious chore of manually performing each customization upon creating a new site. Instead, you click and drag your way to all these customizations.