In this exercise, you will complete work inside the top-level site of the site collection you created in the previous exercise at https://intranet.contoso.com/sites/Lab01A. You will begin by adding and viewing items inside of some of the lists that are automatically created as part of a new Team site so you can experience the new paradigm for in-place editing. After that, you will work with a Web Part Page so you can experience how the SharePoint 2010 user interface has changed the way users manage Web Parts.
- At this point you should be at the home page of the site created in the previous exercise at the URL https://intranet.contoso.com/sites/Lab01A/SitePages/Home.aspx. Note that the home page is not default.aspx but rather a wiki page named Home.aspx located inside a wiki page library named SitePages.
Observe that the page Home.aspx already contains some generic content including large text block at the top of the page which reads "Welcome!". Go into edit mode for the wiki page by clicking the Edit Page menu within the Site Actions menu (Located near the top left side of the screen).
Figure 1
Site Actions menu
Alternatively, you could use the small edit button just before the Browse tab.
Figure 2
Click the Edit button just before the Browse tab
- Once in edit mode, change the entire section of text that begins with "Welcome…" to "Contoso Sales Site". Use the font toolbar buttons in the ribbon to give your new text a font with a size and a color to your liking.
While still in edit mode, delete the graphic of the generic stock photo that has been placed on the right-hand side of the page. Now it’s time to add a different photo. Place you cursor on the page at the position where the old photo used to be. Inside the ribbon, select the Insert tab from the Edit Tools contextual ribbon tab.
Figure 3
The Insert tab on the ribbon
Click on the Picture button to add a new picture to the page. This brings up the Select Picture dialog shown below.
Figure 4
Select a picture
- Note that the Add Picture dialog will allow you to select a graphic image which will be automatically uploaded and stored in a special document library named Site Assets. Click the Browse button of the Add Picture dialog and navigate to and select the image at the following URL.
C:\Student\Labs\01_Roadmap\StarterFiles\JayHenningsen.jpg
- After selecting JayHenningsen.jpg, click Open.
- Back on the Select Picture dialog box, click OK
- Click the Save button in the next dialog.
- Place the cursor after the picture and press the Enter key.
- Add the following text right below the picture: Jay Henningsen – Director of Sales.
Now that you have made some cosmetic changes to the home page, save your changes by selecting the Format Text tab in the Editing Tools tab group in the ribbon and select Save & Close.
Figure 5
Click the Save button on the Format Text tab
Alternatively, you could use the small Save & Close button next to the Browse tab.
Your changes should look as follows:
Figure 6
The new look of the Home page
- Now it's time to explore some other parts of the new site. Drop down the Site Actions menu and see what menu items are available. Click on the menu item titled Site Settings to navigate to Site Settings page. Inspect all the various links to the various administration pages that have been designed for site collections owners and site administrators.
Click on the link on the Site Settings page in the Look and Feel section titled Title, description and icon. This hyperlink takes you to a page where you can see the title and description you entered for the site in the previous exercise. Enter a new value for the Logo URL to assign the site a different site icon. You can use one of the following URLs which point to images that are part of the standard installation for SharePoint 2010.
/_layouts/images/search.png /_layouts/images/unknownperson.png /_layouts/images/gears_an.gif
Figure 7
The Site Settings page
- Now it is time to add a new item to a list so you can experience working with the new server-side ribbon and in-place editing. Click on the Tasks link in the Lists section of the Quick Launch bar to navigate to the Tasks list which was created as part of every new Team site. You should observe that there are no existing task items in this list. You should also observe the Task list has an associated server-side ribbon with a set of tabs including Browse, Items and List. Click on each of these tabs to see how the ribbon changes to display a contextual set of controls for a given set of tasks.
Click on the Items tab of the Task list and then drop down the New Item menu and select Task. This action will display an input form for you to enter the data for a new task item and to click OK to save the new task item back to the content database. The next step will provide you with the data for the new task. At this point it is important for you to observe that the new SharePoint 2010 user interface experience is allowing you to add and edit task items without making the user endure HTTP post backs as was required in the previous version of SharePoint.
Figure 8
Click the New Item button to create a new task
- Create a new task using the following data.
- Title: Learn how to develop on SharePoint 2010
- Predecessors: none
- Priority: (1) High
- Status: In Progress
- Complete: 2%
- Assigned To: Contoso\Administrator
- Description: Find out how to develop useful solutions
- Start Date: 11/1/2009
- Due Date: 11/4/2009
- Create a second new task using the following data.
- Title: Develop Solutions on SharePoint 2010
- Predecessors: Learn how to develop on SharePoint 2010
- Priority: (1) High
- Status: Not Started
- Complete: 0%
- Assigned To: Contoso\Administrator
- Description: Begin developing solutions on SharePoint 2010
- Start Date: 11/5/2009
- Due Date: leave blank
Once you have entered the two tasks from the previous steps, experiment with the list view items in the task list by hovering over individual items. Note that each item highlights as you hover over it and the UI gives you the ability to select it. Use the ECB (Edit Control Box) menu (the standard SharePoint item-hover menu) to go into edit mode for one of the tasks you have created as shown below. Make a simple edit to the task and save it to observe the in-place editing behavior.
Figure 9
The ECB menu of an individual item
Now it is time to add a Web Part to a Web Part Page using the new UI experience for managing Web Parts. Navigate to the home page of the site by clicking the Browse Ribbon bar item and the Home button located on the top navigation bar.
Figure 10
Navigate to the home page
Alternatively, you could use the Navigate Up button
Figure 11
The Navigate Up button
A treeview appears containing the site hierarchy. Select Contoso Sales Site from the treeview.
Figure 12
The Navigate Up button expanded
- Note that the ribbon on this page has two tabs titled Browse and Page. Click on these tabs and see how the contextual controls on the ribbon change for each of these tabs.
Click on the Site Actions menu and select Edit Page to enable the Editing Tools.
Figure 13
The tabs on the ribbon of the Home page in Edit Page mode
- Click on the Insert tab that takes you into the mode for adding, modifying and deleting Web Parts from the page.
Delete the Shared Documents Web Part in the Left Web Part Zone by clicking on the Delete command inside the Web Part menu. Click OK when prompted to confirm this deletion.
Figure 14
The Web Part dropdown menu
Now add a new Web Part to display the tasks inside the Tasks list. Place your cursor below the welcome message and click the Insert tab on the Editing Tools ribbon. Click on the Web Part button which is shown below.
Figure 15
The Insert tab on the ribbon
At this point you should see the new SharePoint 2010 UI for adding new Web Parts to a page. Select Lists and Libraries in the left-hand section and then select Tasks in the right-hand section. Once you have select the Tasks list, make sure the drop-down box on the far right bottom (shown below) has the Rich Content selected, then click the Add button to add the Web Part instance to the page.
Figure 16
Insert a Web Part
Save your changes by selecting the Save button on the ribbon. Now that you have completed this exercise, you should have a page that looks like the one shown below.
Figure 17
The Task web part
In this exercise you got some hands-on experience in working with improvements to the SharePoint user interface such as the new ribbon and adding Web Parts to a page.