Using the On-Board Designer

After you have placed a Web Part on a page, you can quickly and easily configure it using the On-Board Designer (OBD). The OBD makes it simple to link your Web Part to your data source and design its display in a few clicks. No programming is required. To access the OBD, simply right-click within your Web Part, and choose Design from the menu. The OBD will open.

To open the On-Board Designer in a new window (great for smaller-sized Web Parts), choose Design in New Window from the right-click menu. Please note that you cannot create connections between Web Parts when you open the OBD in a new window.

There is a slight difference between the OK and Save Web Part buttons.

• Clicking OK updates the web part, but does not save the changes. It allows you to preview your changes before saving them.

• Clicking Save Web Part saves the web part's properties to the SharePoint server.

To close the OBD without saving any changes, click the Cancel button.

Please note: The Save Web Part button in the OBD will not be visible to those without the proper permissions.

Changing the Appearance of a Web Part

Although you configure the majority of your Web Part's properties using the On-Board Designer, there are several important Web Part properties that are set using SharePoint's Properties List. The most important ones are:

• Allow Access to the On-Board Designer (Set it to Never to hide it from end users; set it to Always to allow any user to open the OBD and configure the Web Part; set it to Authorized to allow only those with proper rights to use the OBD.)
• Title (the name that appears above the Web Part)
• Height
• Width
• In the Advanced section, you can add a URL that links to a Help file (Help URL).

To open the Properties List: In Edit mode, click the drop-down in the upper-right corner of the Web Part and choose Edit Web Part from the menu. The SharePoint Properties List for that Web Part will open. Make your changes and click OK.