SharePoint 2007 – Using Firefox and Firebug to Debug CSS

Debugging the CSS that comes with the style sheets (CSS) in SharePoint 2007 can be challeging at times.  The best tool I’ve found is a plug-in for Firefox called Firebug.  This demo shows how to use Firebug to “test out” how certain CSS changes will look and to determine which CSS file is being used – remember the ‘C’ in CSS stands for cascading.

Also, modifying the OOTB SharePoint style sheets (e.g. ‘Core.css’, etc) is NOT recommended and goes against best practices.  For more information on CSS, see this CSS Tutorial from w3schools. The best online source for information on branding SharePoint is contained in Heather Solomon’s blog.

SharePoint 2007 – How to Change a Site’s Theme

Although there is some debate and essentially 2 camps on the use of themes within SharePoint 2007, there is no question they are much easier and safer for actual end users. I use master pages when I need to change structural elements of a site and themes for the look and feel.

Even though an AJAX version with live preview would be even better, the OOTB method is easy and does provide a quick preview of each theme’s colorscheme.