Be sure to monitor the SharePoint Best Practices Blog (http://bestpracticesconference.blogspot.com) for all podcast, videos and blogs....
Earlier, I was reading Phil blog titled, "Consolidating Master Pages Customized By SP Designer". The main point of Phil's blog was to promote his opinion referencing the use of SharePoint Designer 2007. His point..... "Designer means inconsistency and costliness in the long run". Phil provides guidance on building a more centralized solution for the overall branding of an enterprise SharePoint solution. Overall, Phil's posting provides excellent guidance.
For all whom have had the pleasure of attending any of my SharePoint Designer presentation, understand and know how passionate I am in using SharePoint Designer 2007 as a branding tool. Yes. I said it. I am proud to use SharePoint Designer as a branding tool.
What drives that passion, Corro'll? That is a great question. I am honestly driven by the business requirements of an organization. Many organizations are mandated to provide a SharePoint based solution with a minimal amount of planning. Let us all face it, obtaining the skills to build site definitions requires time and training, That... my folks doesn't exist in many cases.
I would have to agree with Phil that SharePoint Designer is more of a decentralize tool that is scoped on a site by site basis. SharePoint Designer, somewhat, overcome the scoped limitations when the publishing infrastructure and publishing features are activated. All in all, the decentralized use of SharePoint Designer is not as attractive as the centralized deployment of solutions developed and packaged by Visual Studio. But, it serves its purpose as long as the business requirements demands it.
I would recommend that all read SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007 Customization Policy, by Sean Livingston. All in all, Seans whitepaper provides guidance for managing custimizaton in the enterprise. I wouldn't want anyone to share Phil's thought.
Thanks Phil for encouraging me to post.