How to prevent SharePoint Designer 2007 users from changing a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or a SharePoint Server 2007 site

This article describes how to prevent Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 users from changing a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site.

To prevent users from changing a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or a SharePoint Server 2007 site, disable the authoring feature in SharePoint Designer 2007 by editing the Onet.xml file. By default, the Onet.xml file for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and for SharePoint Server 2007 is in the following folder: Note Replace the <Service> placeholder with the name of the Windows SharePoint Service that is installed on the server.

For example, if the English (United States) version of Windows SharePoint Services is installed on the server, the SharePoint Team Site site template is located in the following folder:To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or SharePoint Server 2007, locate the site template that you want to modify. Site templates are located in the following folders on the server:
   • SharePoint Team Site: Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extentsions\12\Template\SiteTemplates\XML.
   • Meeting Workspaces: Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extentsions\12\SiteTemplates\MPS\XML
   Note Replace the Drive placeholder with the drive where Windows is installed.
2. Right-click the Onet.xml file, click Open With, and then click Notepad.
3. Locate the Project Title tag, and then add the following line:
   DisableWebDesignFeatures=wdfopensite
   Then, click Save.
   
   The complete Project Title tag is as follows:
   <Project Title="Team Web Site" ListDir="Lists" xmlns:ows="Microsoft SharePoint" DisableWebDesignFeatures=wdfopensite>
4. Restart Internet Information Services (IIS). To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   2. At the command prompt, type iisreset computer_name /restart, and then press ENTER.
      
      Note Replace the computer_name placeholder with the name of the computer that is running IIS.

After you follow these steps, users who try to open a site that is based on the site template that has the DisableWebDesignFeatures=wdfopensite attribute will receive the following message: Warning Do not edit a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or a SharePoint Server 2007 site by using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. If you do this, you run a major risk of corrupting the site. Instead, always use SharePoint Designer 2007 to edit the site.