Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

Chapter 31: Working with Web Parts 821
tion depends on whether the page is in Personal view or Shared view. Changes
made in Personal View apply only to the current user and take precedence over
changes made in Shared View. A member of the Administrator site group can use
Shared View to set default values for all users of that page.
Even if a Web Part is displayed on a Personal View, it does not follow that you
can personalize the properties of that Web Part. When a Web Part is created, the
properties of the Web Part are defined by the developer and are stored, based on the
setting of the WebPartStorage attribute in the property definition, as follows:
■ Shared. This setting means that the property is stored with the same value
for all users. An example of this is a Web Part that displays weather information
and has a URL to a weather site as one of its properties.
■ Personal. This setting means that the property is stored per user. In a Web
Part that displays weather information, for example, if you want to allow a user
to choose the geographic area for which to find the weather, you could define
a property that contains a ZIP code, which would be stored on a per-user
basis.
■ None. This setting means that the property is not stored in the database, and
the value is assigned programmatically by the developer. The value stored in
the .aspx file is ignored. Static Web Parts can have only this type of property.
Using a browser to change a shared or personal property for a Web Part, click
the downward arrow on the right side of the Web Part title bar, and then click Modify
My Web Part (in Personal View) or Modify Shared Web Part (in Shared View). On
a Windows SharePoint Service Web Site, the page automatically changes to Design
View with an outline around each Web Part Page Zone and a tool pane (also known
as a task pane) for setting properties appears; for a Web Part Page that forms part of
a portal site, you will need to click Edit Page in the Actions list for the downward
arrow to appear, as illustrated in Figure 31-1.
Note For the downward arrow to appear on the News Web Part on a portal
site home page, you will have to switch the page into design mode.
Once you are in design mode on a portal site, an extra link will be added to the
horizontal navigation bar from which you can add subareas.