To help present different types of information, pages use components. A component provides features and functionality to your site. Components are presented on the main page and divide your pages into different areas. They are one of the primary building blocks of an Extranet site. They look like this:
A component provides key business functionality and serves as the presentation vehicle for your content, also known as resources. Components present resources, such as documents, web page links, images, text, and calendar events. They are an entry point for feature-rich applications on your site. Each page on your site is customized to present information most relevant to its subject matter. So depending on which page you visit, different components might be available. For a detailed list of components available in Extranet, see the Component User's Guide.
To help segment information on your site, you can set security on components. Using standard site security features, you can restrict access to a component and all the resources within it. When security is set on a component, users can access the page, but they will not see that component or any of its resources. By default, components inherit security settings from the page where they're added. For more information about the Extranet security model, see Secure your site.
You can change the look of components using presentation styles. Presentation styles transform the appearance of a component, so you can customize the look of your page. For more information, see Change the look of a component.