Customizing the Search Center site

The Search Center site is the primary location from which users run search queries and view search results. Site designers or administrators can add a number of search-related Web Parts to the Search Center site to enhance the user experience. Each Web Part can be customized by using parameters that are specific to your organization. By default, the Search Center site displays the Search Box Web Part with the Advanced Search link. The search results page contains Web Parts that display results, such as the Search Core Results Web Part, possibly the Search Action Links Web Part, and the Federated Results Web Part.

This article describes the basic process of adding and editing Web Parts and tells you how to find more information about customizing the search-related Web Parts.

What do you want to do?

Edit the Search Center site

Add a Web Part to the Search Center site

Edit a Web Part by using its tool pane

Edit the Search Center site

To edit the Search Center site, you must have Designer permissions or higher. You can edit either the home page where queries are entered or the results page where query results are displayed. When a page is in edit mode, only you can see the changes you make. When you save the changes and check in the page, it can be seen by users.

• From either the Search Center site home page or the results page, on the Site Actions menu, click Edit Page. You can now start adding and editing Web Parts.

Until you check your changes in, users of the site will access the most recent version of the Search Center site.

Top of Page

Add a Web Part to the Search Center site

Web Parts are pieces of code that can be added to Web Part pages and modified for your needs. There are more than 10 search Web Parts provided with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, including the Search Box Web Part, where users enter queries; and several kinds of search results Web Parts that enable you to configure how search results appear to users. Use the following procedure to place a Web Part on a page.

1. From either the Search Center site home page or the results page, click the Site Actions menu, and then click Edit Page.

2. In the Web Part zone to which you want to add the Web Part, click Add a Web Part.

3. In the Add Web Parts dialog box, select the check box for the Web Part that you want to add to the page.

4. You can add more Web Parts by selecting the check boxes for the Web Parts that you want to add.

5. Click Add to add the Web Parts to the page.

Top of Page

Edit a Web Part by using its tool pane

Web Parts are highly configurable, which means they are flexible and can serve a variety of needs. You configure a Web Part after it is added to the page by clicking the edit menu and choosing Modify Shared Web Part. To configure the Web Part after the page is in use, be sure to put the page in edit mode.

All Web Parts have at least one group of unique properties and several groups of properties that are common to all Web Parts. Common properties include settings such as appearance and layout.

For information about configuring common Web Part properties, see the Windows SharePoint Services Help.

Top of Page