Multiple master page utilization in site collection

Question

Hello Friends,

I know these questions might sound wierd but here goes. I had a question(s) from a client. The client has several custom master pages

1. He said that he wants to apply different master pages to individual sites in the site collection. Is that really possible? As far as my primitive understanding there's only 1 master page (v4.master) that is applicable to all the sites in the site collection. Am I right?

2. In a publishing portal multiple pages can be created, so can we apply different master pages to different pages?

Please suggest

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Thanks & Regards, Chandra Shekhar

Answer 1

To you answer I will not say that this is impossible but to this my first approch will be to do a POC which will be on the logic to render the master page based on the sitethats making the call...

next approach would be some javascript flagging.

This is really weird

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Happy Sharepointing... Regards SPTECH07

Answer 2

Hi,

This can be achived easily. SharePoint does have builtin support for this requirement. What you have to do is go and upload all your master pages to Master Pages and Page Layouts gallery. And then navigate to each sub site and go to settings page and then go to Mater page settings, and apply the required master page to each sub site. Each sub site can contain different master pages or they can share something in common. This includes also the root site collection.

Regards,

Kamil

Answer 3

Master page gallery hosts multiple master pages and you can apply different master pages for different sites.

You can set a different master page for different pages, but it would be slightly complicated as you would have to customize the pages.

 

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Varun Malhotra
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Please mark answer as answered if the answer is helpful. This allows other users to use the forums efficiently.

Answer 4

To your first question:
Every site in a site collection can have it's own unique master page. I'm guessing the confusion stems from the consistent naming convention. When a new 'team site' template is instantiated, for example, a set of default master pages are included. 'v4.master' is the default master page applied to team sites in SharePoint 2010. However, a user with sufficient permissins modify a site's master page or apply a new master page independently from any other site in a site collection.

To your second question:
Although things get 'mucky' when instantiating a new site collection using the Publishing Site Template, the answer to your question is different pages can use the 'default' master page, the 'custom' master page, or a page reference a master page not set as either 'default' or custom. Is can only be done using SharePoint Designer 2010 or Visual Studio 2010.

Answer 5

To Mr Andrew Hutson,

I am not a moderator but I know they will not like you proposing your own reply as answer. So on their behalf I request you not to click on "Proposed As Answer". Hope you didn't mind me telling you this I actually noticed it in a couple of threads you replied & then made it an answer & I couldn't stop myself from letting you know.

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Happy Sharepointing... Regards SPTECH07