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Blog | Dec 4, 2011

SharePoint Designer 2010

SharePoint Designer 2010 is a powerful web content managing software for developers. It keeps data well structured in a folder-like sequence.

I highly encourage reading up on SharePoint's web site to get a good start. Here is a basic scheme on how to get your HTML code into the platform. Develop a preliminary template within a local web developing environment like Dreamweaver CS3. Then copy it over to SharePoint Designer and incorporate it into a master template. From there you can continue tweaking your code in either "Design mode" or "Advance mode". The editing environment is beneficial because it cuts down on going back and forth between Dreamweaver and SharePoint. SharePoint Designer comes with a built-in validator, spell-checker and Short-cut key functionality to make your job easier.

Microsoft has published an excellent guide for short-cuts here. Also, here are some extra tips to keep in mind...

Publish SharePoint documents correctly
Checkout your files before editing them
Check your media files during testing phases to confirm they are not corrupted (across multiple browsers)
Learn how to create custom page layouts and associate them to your master templates