More things for the Frugal Admin to talk about-- SharePoint Designer is now free

Howdy everybody.

As of today, SharePoint Designer is available as a download for anyone to install-- for free. That's right, free. Download it here (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx).

And because it's free, I can add it to my Frugal Admin series.

So far the series currently consists of sessions that focus on getting the most out of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for free. Some of the sessions build, such as how to get the most out of the built-in web parts, then how to make dashboards out of those web parts, and then how to create a site template out of the site you just set up with all those nifty web parts and dashboards.

I also had standalone sessions, like how to exploit the internet for great, free WSS related stuff, how to setup Active Directory Account Creation Mode, and tips and tricks concerning setting up external access, portals, etc.

Now I can also add the icing to the cake to get more out of WSS-- using SharePoint Designer 2007. I hope to have sessions up for the last two quarters of 2009 concerning using SPD to customize WSS (branding, master pages, etc), increase the usefulness of lists, web parts, workflows, and more. Stay tuned for more info on these sessions and were to see them later in the year.