It’s been a pleasure working with the beta of SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2010 over the last several months.  Among the most notable new features and enhancements that I’m especially glad to see are: 

• Greatly improved UI, which is very helpful
• You can now use the Ribbon, Quick Launch Navigator, and Site Content Structure for Site information
• Using Site Content Structure, you can create a: Web Part page, MasterPage, list, and workflow 
• Permissions can be set for individual users
• Saving and deleting site templates is now possible
• The ability to use XSLT List View Web Parts to show dynamic views of your data
• Support for attaching workflows to content types
• Support for workflow templates
• Create Content Types and attach them to lists

For your convenience, I’ve created a chart comparing the features between SharePoint Designer 2007 and SharePoint Designer 2010:

 

Issues		SP Designer 2007	SP Designer 2010
UI in Sharepoint Designer	– See structure site information such as Pages, list, Master page – Use Ribbon – Use Quick Launch Navigator – Show structure site information	– Yes – No – No – No	– Yes – Yes. See Pic 1 – Yes – Yes
Lists	– Can Add New/Rename/Delete list – See all structure of list – Add/Edit/Delete columns – New/Modify/Delete views – New/Modify/Delete workflows on current list – New/Modify/Delete Content Type – Modify Setting list – Add/Edit/Delete Custom Action (very useful!)	– Yes – No – No – No – No – No – No	– Yes – Yes – Yes – See Pic 2 – Yes – Yes – Yes – Yes – See Pic 3
Site Content Struture	– Can Create/Delete subsite – Create pages, master page, lists for site – Add/modify Group – Edit Title/Description of the site and content of the site – Manage site settings, save and delete site template – View all/manage content type – All pages stored in SitePages document=> easy to control.	– Yes – No – No – No – No – No – No	– Yes – Yes – See Pic 4 – Yes – Yes – See Pic 5 – Yes – See Pic 6 – Yes – Yes – See Pic 7
Use XSLT List View Web Parts	– Show dynamic views of your data via XSLT List View Web Parts	– No	– Yes
Workflows	– Workflows: more actions than SP Designer 2007 – See Pic 9 (Workflow Actions In SP Designer 2007 – See Pic 8) – Import workflows from Visio – Export workflows to Visio – List Workflow, Reusable, and site Workflow	– Yes – No – No – No	– Yes – Yes – Yes – Yes
Content Types	– Create/Edit/Delete Content type – Setting for Content Type – Apply Content Type to list	– No – No – No	– Yes – See Pic 10 – Yes – See Pic 11 – Yes – See Pic 12

Pic 1 – Improved UI in SharePoint Designer 2010

 

Pic 2 – Change/Add/Modify/Delete List information functionality in SPD 2010: Change title, description for list, create new view, edit, delete and config for a view, set permission for list, create workflow, and add content type for list.

Pic 3 – Add/Edit/Delete Custom Action

 

 

Pic 4 – Site Content Structure

Pic 5 – Edit site Title/Description functionality in SPD 2010:

Pic 6 – Content of site:

 

Pic 7 – All pages stored in SitePages document – easy to control

 

Pic 8 – Workflow actions in SPD 2007:

NOTE: Again, the actions pictured in the image above are the workflow actions in SharePoint Designer 2007.  In Pic 7 below, we show the workflow actions in SPD 2010.

Pic 9 – Workflow actions in SPD 2010 (considerably more actions than SharePoint Designer 2007):

 Pic 10 – Create Content Type:

  

 Pic 11 – Setting for Content Type

  

Pic 12 – Apply Content Type to list

SharePoint Designer 2010 is very useful and easy to use. We can create layouts across a site collection or Web application by controlling the customization of pages, master pages, and page layouts. With SharePoint Designer 2010, advanced users and developers can respond more rapidly to business needs with its redesigned user interface, easy connectivity to external systems, improved views and forms, and enhanced workflow design capabilities without having to author any code.

Related posts:

• Branding in SharePoint 2010: Initial Observations on CSS and Master Pages