Site Templates in SharePoint 2010

Hello Guys-Hope all are doing well J

Today’s article is not based on troubleshooting but specifically on informative purpose. We all know what the importance of site template is and how we can use it while creating any site collection or a subsite.

Just a brief about site template in SharePoint 2007:

If you guys wanna know about the number of templates available in SP2007 then please refer the following link as Microsoft has already done a fabulous job by publishing this incredible article: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/default-site-templates-HA010174491.aspx

Let’s view some details about templates which are available in SharePoint 2010:

Really hats off to Microsoft product team as they have done tremendous job by making a drastic enhancement in this new version i.e. SP2010, if you wanna take a preview of the number of available site templates in SharePoint 2010 then please refer the following article: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/a-preview-of-the-sharepoint-server-2010-site-templates-HA101907564.aspx

How can we forget fabulous 40/Fab40/fantastic40 templates?

If you wanna download the 40 application templates for SharePoint 2007 then please use the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=12088

Can we get same set of templates in SharePoint 2010?

Important note about the application templates and SharePoint 2010 Products

Microsoft is not releasing new versions of these templates for SharePoint 2010 Products. Also, .stp files are deprecated and can't be used to create new sites when you upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010.

SharePoint 2010 Products: Upgrade and the Fabulous 40 Application Templates.

But some templates are still available for download and you can use the following links for downloading:

http://sp2010teamplates.codeplex.com/

http://www.techsolutions.net/SharePointSolutions.aspx

Before concluding this article, I would like to say thanks to Sharee’s Blog for sharing this valuable article: SharePoint 2010 Template Codes

Please let me know in case of any queries/questions so that we can discuss the same and point out the correct resolution. Thank you.

sites and site collection in SharePoint 2010

Sites, Site collections and sub-sites: Very commonly used terms in SharePoint right from the first version i.e. SharePoint 2001 till new version i.e. SharePoint 2010. Every SharePoint version has some new features, new functionalities, different GUI interface and many more.

Today we are going to concentrate on site collection features, How exactly the GUI change, where exactly we need to check, what options are available, which features are important from day to day perspective.

For site designers: a site collection's galleries and libraries provide a means for creating a unified, branded user experience across all sites in the site collection.

For site collection administrators: a site collection provides a unified mechanism and scope for administration. For example, security, policies, and features can be managed for a whole site collection; Site Collection Web Analytics Reports, audit log reports, and other data can help administrators track site collection security and performance.

For farm administrators: site collections provide scalability for growth based on how much content is stored. Because each site collection can use a unique content database, administrators can easily move them to separate servers.

For site authors: a site collection's shared site columns, content types, Web Parts, authoring resources, workflows, and other features provide a consistent authoring environment.

For site users: a site collection's unified navigation, branding, and search tools provide a unified Web site experience.

The following list includes site features that you can configure uniquely:

Templates: You can make each site have a unique template. For more information, see Site templates included in SharePoint Foundation 2010.

Language: If language packs have been installed on the Web server, you can select a language-specific site template when you create a new site. Text that appears on the site is displayed in the site template’s language. For more information, see Deploy language packs (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Security: You can define unique user groups and permissions for each site. For more information, see SharePoint 2010 Governance Planning (white paper).

Navigation: You can fine-tune your site's navigation experience by configuring unique navigation links in each part of your site's hierarchy. Site navigation reflects the relationships among the sites in a site collection. Therefore, planning navigation and planning sites structures are closely related activities. For more information, see Site navigation overview (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Web pages: You can make each site have a unique welcome page and other pages.

Site layouts: You can make unique layouts or master pages available in a site.

Themes: You can change colors and fonts on a site. For more information, see Plan for using themes (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Regional settings: You can change the regional settings, such as locale, time zone, sort order, time format, and calendar type. For more information, see Regional settings (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Search: You can make each site have unique search settings. For example, you can specify that a particular site never appears in search results.

Content types: You can make each site have unique content types and site columns. For more information, see Content type and workflow planning (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Workflows: You can make each site have unique workflows.

I hope the above mentioned information will be helpful to you and provide some insight that you are looking for. In case of any queries/questions then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues J J

SharePoint 2010 Templates

SharePoint 2010 provides a great variety templates for creating new sites. Most companies will decide for you which SharePoint templates you're going to use; it’s usually either a Team Site template or a Publishing Site template.

Please refer the below mentioned brief description regarding some site templates that belongs to SP2010.

SharePoint 2010 Site Templates

Site templates are a great feature in SharePoint that allow us to build a Web Site, customise it then save it as a template so that you can use the same template for other Sites. It is continued in this new feature also i.e. SP2010 but little bit in different manner !!

There are still Site Template in SharePoint 2010, but they're no longer .STP files. Instead, they're bundeled in the form of .WSP files just like web parts and features.

To create a Site Template, browse to the Site you want to create from.
->Go to Site Actions
–>Site Settings
–>Save site as template (under the Site Actions heading).
->Give your template a name, and don't forget to check the "Include Content" box if you want to include library and list content in the template.

This will create a new site template in your Solutions Gallery, which you can then use when creating new sites. You can also download directly from the Solutions Gallery to a .WSP file.

To upload a Site Template to the Solutions Gallery,
->go to Site Actions
–>Site Settings
–>Solutions Gallery (under the Galleries heading).
->On the Solutions tab of the ribbon, click "Upload Solution".
Before you close that dialog, you'll need to click "Activate" to activate it if you want your Site Template to appear in the "New Site" dialog later.

To use the Site Template, go to Site Actions –> New Site. You'll find your Site Template in the list of Installed Items, in the All Categories or Blank & Custom filters.

I hope the above the information will helps you to clear your doubts between the templates present in SP2007 & SP2010.
Please let me know in case of any queries,Thanks !!