In this article series I will take you through the Branding essentials of SharePoint 2013.
What is SharePoint Branding?
SharePoint Branding is the process of changing look and feel of SharePoint user interface using custom master pages, style sheets, images, JavaScript, JQuery etc.
Few of the branded sites are shown below.
What are the advantages of Branding?
A good branding leads to:
1. Better content presentation
2. Better navigation
3. Better look and feel
4. More browser support
5. Enable responsive web design
6. Increased user adoption
7. Hide SharePoint look and feel
What are the Skills needed for Branding?
You need to know HTML, CSS & Basic Scripting skills. Additional to that, SharePoint Branding knowledge is an essential skill to integrate the custom branding artifacts.
SharePoint Branding knowledge includes:
· Master Page location
· Master Page elements like Site Settings, Quick Launch etc.
· Design Manager expertize
· Composed looks
Do I need to be a Graphics Designer?
Not Needed. You can be a SharePoint Branding Expert who will work with another Graphics/Web Designer for collecting the HTML, CSS, Image files & integrating to SharePoint.
What are the new features of SharePoint 2013 supporting Branding?
SharePoint 2013 introduced lot of good features which makes branding a lot easier compared with the old versions, naming a few are:
1. Design Manager which helps in converting an HTML file to SharePoint Master page
2. Device Channels for enabling custom master pages based on user devices
3. Composed Looks for putting together branding elements like master pages, color palettes etc.
4. Look and Feel to apply a composed look, change color, background image etc.
You can access these pages from Site Actions > Site Settings menu.
Publishing feature needs to be activated for getting the Design Manager feature.
What are the Branding Elements in SharePoint 2013?
Following are the branding elements in SharePoint 2013:
1. Master Pages
2. Preview Files
3. CSS Files
4. Color Palettes
5. Font Palettes
6. Images
What is Theme in SharePoint 2013?
The term Theme is defined to group the color & font palettes.
You can access the same from Site Actions > Site Settings > Theme page as shown below.
References
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj733518(v=office.15).aspx
Summary
In this article we have explored an overview about SharePoint 2013 branding.