Users can customize the appearance of their personal sites and the individual pages on them by using themes, styles, and templates. Each list or page on a personal site uses cascading style sheets to define its appearance and layout.

From the Site Settings page of the personal site, individual users can apply a theme to the private view of their sites, or save an existing list or site as a template to use when creating new lists or sites on their personal sites. These actions update the appropriate cascading style sheet (.css) files so that changes in styles are applied automatically.

To make changes to the public view of a personal site, or to make changes to the look of pages that are more significant than what is allowed by the existing themes and templates, users with local administrator rights to the portal site server can update the Web Part Pages (.aspx files) and .css files directly using a Web page editor such as FrontPage.

Applying Themes to Personal Sites

Themes allow users to easily customize the look of their personal sites from the Site Settings page for each site. Themes are applied automatically to the entire personal site, except for the public view. Applying the theme to the public view requires additional steps by the portal site administrator.

You can also apply themes to other SharePoint sites created from your personal site.

1. Open the Site Settings page for the personal site:

• To view your own personal site, use the Site Settings link on the home page of the personal site.
• As a portal site user with the Manage User Profiles right, you can edit the site settings for the personal site of any user in the portal site from the View User Profiles page of the portal site:
  1. On the home page of the portal site, click Site Settings.
  2. On the Site Settings page of the portal site, in the User Profile, Audiences, and Personal Sites section, click Manage profile database.
  3. On the Manage Profile Database page, in the Profile and Import Settings section, click the user’s account name, and then click Manage Personal Site.

1. On the Site Settings page of the personal site, in the Customization section, click Apply theme to site.
2. On the Apply Theme to Web Site page, click the theme you want to apply, and verify that the previewed theme is acceptable.
3. Click Apply.

For information about customizing the style sheets for themes, see "Customizing Style Sheets for Personal Sites," later in this paper.

Applying Themes to the Public View of Personal Sites

By default, the public view of a personal site cannot be customized through the Site Settings pages for the personal site. When you apply themes to the personal site by using the Apply Theme to Web Site page, a reference to a .css page for the theme is added to the HTML that is generated by the Web Part Page for the private view of the personal site. The file for that page is Default.aspx, located in the \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\Template\1033\SPSMSITE directory.

That reference is not added to the HTML page generated by the Web Part Page for the public view of the personal site, and so the theme does not extend to the public view.

To apply the same theme to the public view, you must have local administrator rights on the server for the portal site.

1. Open the file Public.aspx in the \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\Template\1033\SPSMSITE directory of the computer that hosts the personal sites.
2. Search the .css file for the public view for the following comment tags:

   <!--begmstheme-->
   <!--endmstheme-->
   

3. Between those comment tags is the following tag:

   <SPSWC: MySiteTheme visible="false" runat="server"/>
   

4. Change the "false" value to "true" and save Public.aspx to the original location.
5. Open the public view of the personal site and verify that the theme was properly applied.

Customizing Style Sheets for Personal Sites

Each page or list on a personal site uses a cascading style sheet (.css) file to format its style and appearance. Those .css files are references in the .aspx files for personal sites: Default.aspx for the private view and Public.aspx for the public view.

As a portal site administrator, if you want to change the style of the personal site more than is allowed on the Site Settings page for the site, you can edit the .css files directly and then save the files to their original location.

The .css files for personal sites are located at \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES. The main .css file used by the portal site is Owspers.css. Other .css files include the default portal site style sheet (Sps.css), which does not affect the look of personal sites, and special styles for users with uncommon browsers and menus found on personal sites. In most scenarios, you will edit only Owspers.css.

The personal site may also use themes that are referenced in the .aspx files for personal sites. The .css files for these themes are located in thematic subfolders at \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\. You can customize an existing theme by modifying these .css files. By default, each theme has five different .css files. For personal sites, the important files for each theme are Theme.css, the main style sheet for the theme, and the two style sheets for the theme’s color scheme: Color0.css and Color1.css. You can also develop new themes for your organization and put them in a new subfolder at this location, using the style sheets of the existing themes as an example.

Customizing Templates for Personal Sites

You may want to use existing lists, document libraries, discussion boards, surveys, and sites as examples when creating new lists or sites. You can do this by creating list or site templates that include the customizations and modifications that you’ve made to a list or site. Then when you create a list or site, you can choose the custom template that you have created.

 Note   The simple layouts available when creating simple Web Part Pages are called layout templates, but unlike site and list templates, they cannot be customized. If you want a custom Web site template, use the steps for creating a customized site template.

List templates and site templates also appear respectively in the list template gallery and site template gallery, available from the Top-Level Site Administration page for your personal site. As a site administrator for the personal site, you can manage all of your customized list and site templates from these pages.

For more information about creating templates, read the following sections, and see the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Help.

Create and Use List Templates

You can create a list template from an existing list, document library, discussion board, or survey. This template contains the modified columns and views for the list; it can also include content from the existing list, so that every new list made using the template contains that content by default. The list template does not include security settings. The template is saved on the personal site as a file with an .stp extension.

After a template is created, it can be found in the appropriate section of the Create Page page. When creating new lists, you can select the template just as you would select any of the pre-defined template types on the page.

List templates that you create appear in the list template gallery, available from the Top-Level Site Administration page for the site. From the list template gallery, you can save the template files for your custom list templates to share with other users, upload template files provided by other users, and edit or delete existing list templates.

 Note   The template files that you create can include personal information such as server URLs and user account names. You should share template files only with trusted users and groups.

To create a custom list template

1. Go to the list that you want to save as a template. Links to some lists appear on the Quick Launch bar of the personal site.
2. In the Actions list, click Modify settings and columns.
3. On the Customize List_Name page, in the General Settings section, click Save list as template.

    Note   The exact wording of the command varies depending upon the type of list. For example, on the page for a discussion board, the command is Save discussion board as template.

4. In the File Name section, type the file name to use for the template file.
5. In the Title and Description section, type a title and description to use for the template in the list template gallery.
6. In the Include Content section, select the Include content check box to include the content in the current list in the new lists created from the template.
7. Click OK.

After you create a list template, you can use that template at any time to create other lists of a similar type, just as you would use any of the pre-existing list templates.

To create a new list using a custom list template

1. On the home page of the personal site, click Documents and Lists.
2. On the Documents and Lists page, click Create.
3. On the Create Page page, click the link for the list template that you want to use, and then follow the usual additional steps for creating a list.

As a site administrator of your personal site, you can manage your custom list templates in the list template gallery. The list template gallery is a list of all of your custom list templates.

To manage your list templates

1. On the home page of your personal site, click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, in the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration.
3. On the Top-level Site Administration page, in the Site Collection Galleries section, click Manage list template gallery.
4. From the list template gallery, you can manage the list templates in several ways:
   • To save an existing custom list template to another location, click the name of the list template, and then click Save in the File Download dialog box.
   • To upload a list template from another location, click Upload Template.
   • To change the file name, title, or description of the list template, check in and check out the list template, or view the version history of the list template and click Edit.

For more information about working with list templates, see "Working with Templates" in the Customization section of the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Administrator’s Guide.

Create and Use Site Templates

Site templates, similar to list templates, are created from existing sites. However, the details of how they are created and used are somewhat different. They’re also managed separately in the site template gallery.

A site template includes the lists and pages for the site, any themes applied to the site, customizations to the Quick Launch bar, and the documents and other content on the site. It does not include security settings, personalizations to Web Part Pages, Web discussions, alerts, or the files for custom Web Parts. The site template is saved on the personal site as a file with an .stp extension.

After a site template is created, you can create new sites or workspaces that use the template by clicking Sites and Workspaces on the Create Page page. The site template is displayed as an option on the Template Selection page that appears after you enter the settings on the New SharePoint Site page.

Site templates that you create appear in the site template gallery, available from the Top-Level Site Administration page for the site. From the site template gallery, you can save the template files for your custom site templates to share with other users, upload template files provided by other users, and edit or delete existing site templates.

To create a custom site template

1. On the home page of your personal site, click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, in the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration.
3. On the Top-level Site Administration page, in the Management and Statistics section, click Save site as template.
4. Type a file name, title, and description for the site template.
5. In the Include Content section, select the Include content check box to include the content in the current list in the new lists created from the template.
6. Click OK.

   After you create a site template, you can use that template at any time to create other similar sites or workspaces, just as you would use any of the pre-existing site templates.

To create a new site or workspace using a custom site template

1. On the home page of the personal site, click Documents and Lists.
2. On the Documents and Lists page, click Create.
3. On the Create Page page, in the Web Pages section, click Sites and Workspaces.
4. On the New SharePoint Site page, type a title, description, and address for the site, and select a permissions option appropriate for the site.
5. Click Create.
6. On the Template Selection page, in the Template box, click the custom site template that you want to use when creating the site or workspace.

As a site administrator of your personal site, you can manage your custom list templates in the list template gallery. The list template gallery is a list of all of your custom list templates.

To manage your site templates

1. On the home page of your personal site, click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, in the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration.
3. On the Top-level Site Administration page, in the Site Collection Galleries section, click Manage site template gallery.
4. From the site template gallery, you can manage the site templates in several ways:
   • To save an existing custom site template to another location, click the name of the site template, and then click Save in the File Download dialog box.
   • To upload a site template from another location, click Upload Template.
   • To change the file name, title, or description of the site template, check in and check out the site template, or view the version history of the site template and click Edit.

For more information about working with site templates, see "Working with Templates" in the Customization section of the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Administrator’s Guide.

This topic is part of a six part series.

• Introduction
• Using Web Parts to Customize Personal Sites
• Customizing Content on Personal Sites
• Customizing Themes, Styles, and Templates
• Configuring Personal Sites as Personal Pages
• Managing Personal Sites