Renaming the "Web Part Page"

Don't you just hate it when you create a document library to hold a bunch of custom web part pages, but then they all show "Web Part Page" in the browser title? I was messing around with lookups (to create a web part page menu system) and noticed that the only lookup field that was available was a field called "Title". Hmm, this wasn't the filename and wasn't in any view that I saw or property when you edit the page.

Sure enough, there's a column in a document library called "Title" and when you base the template for the library on Web Part Pages, the default when creating new documents is, you guessed it, "Web Part Page".

Patrick blogged awhile ago about changing the title here but there was always a belief that you had to edit a WPP in FrontPage (thus unghosting it) to change the real title (and thus the browser window title). Just follow these steps to do it without invoking the great white ghost (Office 2003 client is required here, see update below about the ghosting part):

1. Create your document library and base it on the Web Part Page template (or use an existing one)
2. Go to the "All Documents" view of the library and click on "Modify settings and columns"
3. Select the "All Documents" view to modify it
4. Click on the "Title" column to include it in the display
5. Optionally change it's position from last to first (or second, or third, or...)
6. Go back to the "All Documents" view and you'll see the new "Title" column (which should show all documents with a title of "Web Part Page")
7. Click on "Edit in Datasheet" in the toolbar (this is what you need the Office 2003 client for, the Title property doesn't show up on the Edit form page for the library)
8. Now change those ugly "Web Part Page" titles to something useful and meaningful to you and your loved ones 
9. Launch one of the changed pages and bask in the glow of your accomplishments

Simple but effective.

Update: Thanks to comments from Daniel McPherson, I did some digging and testing. Turns out that the page does go unghosted when you edit the Title column. Check out Marice's posts here and Daniel's post here about it. Bummer. However at least this does provide an easier interface to change the title rather than cracking open the page in FrontPage to do it.