SharePoint is a powerful tool that the Microsoft officially endorses as a customization tool for your brand’s presence. For the most part, this is true, and businesses all over are keen to leverage its vast array of features for a more visual appeal.
Background
Some gurus in the field have a different view concerning how customize-able the platform truly is. They claim that there are limitations when it comes to making deep changes. Also, when you go through all the hard work, making the changes you need, updates to the Sharepoint platform often result in your branding being destroyed - the alignment of images and text is skewed, stretched and split. While, this may be the case, users still enjoy the vast options Sharepoint offers for branding. Some of the major options for branding purposes will be addressed in this write-up.
It’s a good idea to avoid obsolete items based on flash or silver-light. The focus should be on leveraging HTML 5 and above, Javascript, Bootstrap, etc. These will help you with your designs, and they are free resources available online. You can download a template and open it in Visual Studio or some other standard editor.
You can remove all the unnecessary items from this template, such as scripts, images, pages, etc. The quickest way to go about this is to use a single page with scripts and and CSS. You would want to remove any and everything that makes calls to external sites. This will prevent your users from getting annoying messages every time the page is refreshed.
Also, the use of images is majorly important. Your master page can and probably should have a slider for some attractive images. You can utilize the image library and have the link to it placed in the HTML code. In some cases when you do this, image loading is slow.
Master Page
Here’s when you can start actually talking about SharePoint. You will leverage the Publishing Infrastructure, which you can arrive at through the following path:
- Site settings
- – > Site Collection Administration
- – > Site collection features - this is where you can switch on SharePoint’s Server Publishing Infrastructure. After this takes a few minutes to load, you move to the Site Settings, and inside that there is Site Features, where you can switch on SharePoint Server Publishing process.
Design Manager
Design Manager is a relatively new option in Sharepoint. It allows you to convert HTML projects into a master page. Having said that, move on to the Design Manager page, where you will see the following items/options:
1. Manage Device Channels – lets you configure your display options
2. Upload Design Files – lets you upload files to the server
3. Edit Master Pages
a) you can convert your project into a master page with this option
b) You can also create SharePoint snippets with this
5. Edit Display Templates – you can view display templates with this feature
6. Edit Page Layouts – this allows you to create new page layouts
7. Publish and Apply Design – this lets you publish our master page
8. Create Design Package – you can replicate packages for future projects
Given that the functions listed in the above menu are pretty user-friendly, you can get started right away by sending your data to the Office 365 server. You can do this by selecting the option to upload your files via the design manager (through Upload Design Files). You will be able to view a link to the Master Page Gallery. When you click it, the library should appear mapped as a local network disk, and that’s where you should load your data.
If the above procedure didn’t work, copy the link, open a new card in IE. When the content is displayed on master page gallery, activate this option: Open with Explorer.
Master Page Gallery
After a while, content from the master page folder should be view-able as a mapped as network drive. If this is not the case, you will need to troubleshoot the problem.
Next, create a folder for your master page. You will then load the content for your project all together and not as single file uploads. After this, you can publish all the items that you dispatched to the server. Use the Site Content and Structure option to select all the files at once.
Site Content And Structure
Once you publish all the files, you can head over to the design manager. Select the following: Edit master pages. Next, Convert an HTML file to a SharePoint master page.
For this, you will select your HTML page, which will now become your Master Page. Following this, you will see your brand new master page load. When you see the message, Conversion Successful, you can breathe easy.
Converting to a Master Page
If you experience error, it’s best to remove the code, which is the often the problem. When you do that, then head over to the master page gallery, and once again select your html file, and hit Publish. And, you’re done!
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