Getting Sharepoint Designer Training
Another one of the tasks required in our Sharepoint migration was to create a customized template or branding for our organization’s site. At this point in the game, although I had an intro Sharepoint Training Course under my belt, I still had no clue on how to create master pages for our new Sharepoint site. I also needed Sharepoint Designer Course and this was scheduled later on in my Sharepoint development program so we also outsourced this to a Sharepoint consultant. So from our graphic designer, I made static XHTML code for the Sharepoint designer to incorporate. The expectations were that the side menu would give the illusion of expanding and collapsing (pretty standard if you ask me) and it would be color coded according to each section.
This is where the wheels started to come off in our project. Our requirements were not met as the code was still buggy regarding the side navigation. Also, the breadcrumbs, another requirement was not incorporated. But the consultant filled her hours and was gone. So, the organization was left to pick up the pieces as no one had been properly trained to fix the issue. I had not been trained nor had I received any Sharepoint Designer classes and neither had the production software support guys - as this was still in the development environment.
All I can say is, once again, get your Sharepoint Training Courses so you are ahead of the game. It is vital to hold Sharepoint consultants accountable and be the advocate for your organization’s needs.