How to edit Search Results Page

Question

After Searching in a team site I see the _layout\OSSSearchResults.aspx page with my search results - I dont see any option to edit this page i.e no 'Edit Page' option in site actions. I wanted to see what options there were for customising the web part that returns the results

Why is it missing and how do I edit this page

Is customising the web part on this page the correct way to customise search results

Thanks in advance

 

Answer 1

The page that you mentioned is an application page shipped with SharePoint installation and should not be customized. If you want to change anything about how the results are displayed, you should make a copy of the page and apply your changes to that copy. Then in the Search Settings of your Site Collection you can change the URL of the search results page to point to your page.

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w: http://blog.mastykarz.nl | t: @waldekm | c: http://imtech.codeplex.com | c: http://www.imtech.nl/is

Answer 2

Hi David,

Waldeck is correct.  In SharePoint 2010, we introduced the ability to specify a new, customized site search page through the Site Search Results property on the Search Settings in the Site Collection administration page.  You can either make a copy of the out of box version (_layouts/ossearchresults) as Waldek suggests or you can direct it to a Search Center results page or other web part page with the results web part present. 

If you don't want to change every search box in the site collection to go to this customized site search page, you can add the Search Box web part to a page content or your masterpage to direct one page or site to a custom site search page.  You'll just need to set the Target Results Page property on the Search Box web part.

Hope that helps,
Keller Smith
Program Manager on SharePoint Search - MSFT

Answer 3

Thanks to you both for your answers