SharePoint 2010 is the first version of SharePoint technologies in which Microsoft supports administration through PowerShell scripts. In SharePoint 2007, farm administrators use a command-line utility named STSADM.EXE to run interactive commands from the console window and to write DOS-style batch file scripts to automate common administrative tasks such as creating, backing up or restoring a new site collection.

Microsoft now recommends using the new PowerShell support for writing, testing and executing scripts that automate the same types of administrative tasks that you can accomplish using STSADM.EXE.

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Article 1:

http://aspalliance.com/759_Working_with_SharePoint_Templates.all

With the help of this article, you will learn how to
1. Create a new template.
2. Add Web Part Zones to a template in default.aspx page.
3. Add Web Parts by default while create Sub Area Pages using Onet.xml.
4. Create default Content Lists using Onet.xml.
5. Create multiple lists of the same list type in Onet.xml.
6. Change the view using Schema.xml.

Article 2:

http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/articles/sp2007.aspx

In this article on Heather Solomon’s website, you will get to understand more on Master Pages and themes in SharePoint.
There are a lot of SharePoint Design tips, working with CSS and the master page. You might need some good time set aside to go through these articles.

Article 3:
http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2008/06/21/customizing-your-sharepoint-site-read-these-10-conceptsgotchas-first/
In this article, you will read 10 Concepts/Gotchas when customising SharePoint.
1. A good SharePoint site is one that doesn’t look like a SharePoint site.
2. Without SharePoint Designer, you can do nothing. With SharePoint Designer, you can do nothing.
3. Like the Borg, all content pages render through Default.master or another master file.
4. When you edit the master, the core.css file unghosts.
5. You can’t see the image directory that the core.css stylesheet refers to.
6. If you edit the Summary View and change the item limit, it breaks the code and you have to generate a new site to figure out the code to fix it.
7. If you modify a theme, switch back to the default, and then return to your modified theme, all modifications are gone.
8. To configure the search to see just blog posts, you have to enter a code that does not exist anywhere on the Internet or help file.
9. You can’t control the look and feel of the admin side of things.
10. Site metrics don’t tell you what post anyone has viewed.

Arcticle 4:
http://branding-sharepoint.com/2010/01/winter-in-minnesota/
A blog in the life of a SharePoint graphic designer. Some inspiring articles to see where SharePoint design can lead to!

May I suggest you bookmark this article so you can refer back when you need. I will add more links as I come across them. You may be able to share your favourites with me and I will edit this article to include your valuable suggestions! Thanks!

2. Run the newly downloaded file and go through the install wizard with your preferences.

3. Enable the pdf extension in SharePoint. Central Administration > SharedServices > Search Settings > File Types >New File Type
4. Enter ‘pdf’ as a file extension and Click OK.

5. Right click and save the pdf icon from http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html

6. Add the Acrobat pdf icon to the SharePoint templates directory. Copy the Acrobat PDF picture called pdficon_small.gif in the 12 Hive\TEMPLATE\IMAGES folder, e.g. %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES.

7. Open the 12 Hive\TEMPLATE\XML\DOCICON.XML file.
Find the <DocIcons.ByExtension> part
Add the following: <mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”pdficon_small.gif” OpenControl=”" />
Save

8. Run
net stop osearch
net start osearch

9. Perform a full crawl to reindex your pdf files.

The directory C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80 is already being used by another IIS Web Site.  Choose a different root directory for your new Web application.

Solution:
1. Ensure you have a proper dns name / entry in the hosts file of your server for the new url you are wanting to create.
2. Ensure you have typed in the ‘host header’ typed in when creating the new web application.
3. If this doesnt work, open IIS Manager – Start>run> inetmgr> and verify the home directory – it could be located on a different drive.

“Content type ‘0×01010007FF3E057FA8AB4AA42FCB67B453FFC100E214EEE741181F4E9F7ACC43278EE811′ not found in web ‘http://yoururl’

Two step solution:

1. Go to Central Admin, Application Management, User Permissions for Web Application.
Ensure “Use Client Integration Features” and “Use Remote Interfaces” are enabled.

2. Go to Central Admin, Application Management, Policy for Web Application.
Add your user account with Full Control and Finish!

You may have to do an IISRESET and you should be able to create new pages.

Here are some useful links for you on SharePoint Designer 2010 I hope you find useful. You can bookmark this page and refer to it later as I will be updating more links as time goes by.

MSDN blogs on SharePoint Designer 2010: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2009/11/02/sharepoint-designer-2010-new-shell-tour.aspx

SharePoint videos: http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/free-sharepoint-sharepoint-designer-and-infopath-2010-videos/

Official SharePoint Designer 2010 page on Microsoft: http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/product/related-technologies/Pages/SharePoint-Designer-2010.aspx

Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2010: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/2009/11/12/introduction-to-sharepoint-designer-2010/

Download Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta (64-bit): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=eeda9ab1-ac53-4870-9e1c-38940343d677&displaylang=en

Download Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta (32-bit): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82df15bd-16a5-460e-a7c4-22599c669bb1&displaylang=en

Changes in SharePoint Designer 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179083%28office.14%29.aspx

SharePoint Designer 2010 books: http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0672331055

SharePoint Designer 2010 training: http://www.kalliance.com/microsoft-office/microsoft-sharepoint-designer-2010-training.htm

Possible Cause: The SSP database has been deleted in SQL and SharePoint is unable to delete the SSP.
Some objects may still be dependent on the configuration database, hence you are unable to delete the SSP.

Solution: Manually delete the SSP by the following stsadm command:
stsadm -o deletessp -title “ssp_name”

You may also want to check if your SSP is providing services to other farms.
1. Go to Central admin > Application Management > Manage Shared Services between Farms
2. Disable “This farm will provide shared services to other farms”
3. Enable “This farm does not participate in shared services between farms”

Try to delete the SSP again.

You may also receive this error:

“An object in the SharePoint administrative framework, “SharedResourceProvider Name=SSP Parent=SPFarm Name=MOSS”, could not be deleted because other objects depend on it. Update all of these dependants to point to null or different objects and retry this operation.

Solution: Identify the GUID of the SSP in SQL and then delete the configuration object by the GUID.

Perform the following steps to get the GUID of the unprovisioning SSP and then delete it:
1. Log into the SQL Management studio and go to the configuration database.

2. Expand the tables and open dbo.object

3. Update the following queryto your database name and run it to receive the GUID

SELECT * FROM [Name of your configuration database].[dbo].[Objects]where name like ‘Name of the Shared Services’

4. Run the following stsadm command

stsadm -o deleteconfigurationobject -id “GUID retrieved from object table in SQL database”

Solution:
Check the Windows SharePoint Services Timer if its running and try restarting it. You may have to update the services logon credentials.

This link can help you further: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934838

Solution: Install the SQL Native client and then re-run the preparation tool. You need to run sqlncli.msi file which can be found in your Microsoft SQL Server 2008 install media.
In Microsoft SQL 2008 R2, it is located here: 1033_ENU_LP\x64\Setup\x64\sqlncli.msi

You can also download it directly from here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123718&clcid=0×409