designer

Copying and Saving a Master Page 377
Copying and Saving a Master Page
In SharePoint Designer, master pages can be located by using the Master Page option
on the Navigation pane. Their actual location in a site is in the _catalogs folder in the
masterpage (Master Page Gallery) library, which you can navigate to by using the All Files
gallery or the mini-gallery. This master page library is hidden from the browser’s All Site
Content page, but you can display it by using the Master Page link on the site settings
page.
On publishing sites, two master page content types, Master Page and Publishing Master
Page, are added to the Master Page Gallery library so that it can contain both default
master pages and custom master pages. On nonpublishing sites, such as a team site, only
the Master Page content type is included.
On SharePoint Foundation, versioning is enabled on the Master Page Gallery library, and
all visitors to the site have read access to allow the combined master page and content
page to be displayed in the browser. On SharePoint Server sites, the master page library
has major and minor versioning enabled, content approval is enabled, and check out is
required. These settings mean that you can modify master pages and restore a previous
version if you find errors in your modifications. On a SharePoint Server site, you can
make modifications to your master page and publish the master page as a major version
only when those modifications are correct.
Changes to the master page that is set as the default master page cascade down to all
pages that are associated with the site’s default master page. If you do not have your
own site and are working on a team site that other members of your team have access
to, making modifications to a site’s default master page might not be acceptable, especially
if your modifications contain so many errors that no content page will render in the
browser.
The preferred method for modifying a default master page is to create a customized
master page and set it as the master page for one content page. When you have tested
your modifications by displaying that content page, you can then set your customized
master page as the site’s default page.
A customized master page can be created in several ways. You can create a new master
page by using the Blank Master Page or From Content Type command on the Master
Page tab, or you can copy a master page and customize it to meet your needs. If modifying
the existing default master page seems overwhelming, you can use a starter master
page. Starting with the site’s default master page (v4.master) or using a starter master
page is the best option because these pages will already meet most of your needs.