Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

Other Customizations
Chapter 30: Default Tools to Customize Windows SharePoint Services 811
The default installation of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or any of the websites based
on Windows SharePoint Services have a distinctive look that might not fit in with
your organization’s standards or corporate identity. This section will introduce you
to some common customizations that you might want to complete on SharePoint
sites that you have created or on sites that are created for you when you install
SharePoint Products and Technologies.
Serverwide Configurations
There are a number of virtual directories that map to file directories for all virtual
servers on a front-end Web server. Table 30-4 details these mappings.
Table 30-4 Virtual Directories Mapping to File Directories
Virtual Directory Physical Directory in the File System
_layouts, C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
Extensions\60\template\layouts
_layouts/images. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
Extensions\60\template\images
_wpresources C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
Extensions\wpresources
_vti_bin, C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
Extensions\60\isapi
These virtual directories do contain files that you might want to customize, for
example:
■ The images virtual directory contains many .gif files that are used as logos on
many different Web Part Pages. See the following procedure. This directory
also contains thumbnail and preview image files for your custom themes.
■ The classes for cascading style sheets that determine the styles and formatting
applied to pages in Windows SharePoint Services are defined in OWS.CSS,
which is located in the virtual directory _layouts\LCID\STYLES. For example,
see Knowledge Base article 824495, “How to Change the Color of the Horizontal
Top Bar,” for more information.
■ Third-party developers can add a custom reportrich.aspx file to the
_layouts\LCID folder to provide rich charts for issues lists. The functionality of
a custom reportrich.aspx file will be called automatically when users select a
report type on the Report page.