I am a big fan of the publishing site which is part of MOSS and figured I would post a few tips that come in handy when working with them:
· To modify publishing pages using SharePoint Designer in your environment you will have to complete a few additional steps. To do this you will have to detaching it from the page layout. To do so, right-click the page in the Folder List from SharePoint Designer, and then click Detach from Page Layout on the shortcut menu. Make the changes in Designer then do the same steps to detach the page layout but this time reattach it. Further information on this can be found at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101741331033.aspx
· When working with publishing sites if you give a user contributor rights at the site level they will then have access to the Site Action toolbar and will see the edit page option. This can be handled by granting them permissions at the list level instead of the site level.
· Creating a site template of a publishing site. Note this isn’t supported so do so at your own risk! See previous post at: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/SharePointBeacon/archive/2007/09/17/creating-a-site-template-from-a-publishing-site.aspx
· Adding workflow back into a publishing site template. There are two types of publishing site templates. Publishing Site and Publishing Site with Workflow. If you ever create a Publishing Site and decide at a later time you want it to have the same page editing toolbar with the approval options this can still be done. All you need to do is create the approval workflow on the pages library with the same configuration options as a publishing site with workflow and it will magically appear.
Enjoy! – Yvonne M. Harryman