In this article series I will take you through the Branding essentials of SharePoint 2013.
SharePoint Branding
SharePoint Branding is the process of changing the look and feel of the SharePoint user interface using custom master pages, style sheets, images, JavaScript, jQuery and so on.
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A few of the branded sites are shown below.
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Advantages of Branding
A good branding leads to:
- Better content presentation
- Better navigation
- Better look and feel
- More browser support
- Enable responsive web design
- Increased user adoption
- Hide SharePoint look and feel
Skills needed for Branding
You need to know HTML, CSS and Basic Scripting skills. In addition 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 and so on.
- Design Manager expertize
- Composed looks
Graphics Designer Skills
Graphics Designer Skills are not needed. You can be a SharePoint Branding Expert that works with another Graphics/Web Designer for collecting the HTML, CSS, Image files & integrating to SharePoint.
New Features of SharePoint 2013 Supporting Branding
SharePoint 2013 introduced many good features that make branding much easier compared to the old versions, naming a few are:
- Design Manager that helps in converting an HTML file to SharePoint Master page
- Device Channels for enabling custom master pages based on user devices
- Composed Looks for putting together branding elements like master pages, color palettes and so on.
- Look and Feel to apply a composed look, change color, background image and so on.
You can access these pages from Site Actions > Site Settings menu.
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Note: the Publishing feature needs to be activated for getting the Design Manager feature.
Branding Elements in SharePoint 2013
The following are the branding elements in SharePoint 2013:
- Master Pages
- Preview Files
- CSS Files
- Color Palettes
- Font Palettes
- Images
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