About page layout and site template settings

Introduction to site templates

A site template is a file that dictates the overall look and feel of a site. It includes all of the design information about a site, such as:

The lists within a site.
Any Web Part Pages within a site.
Any custom pages within a site.
The theme or Master Pages applied to a site.
Any customizations to the Quick Launch.
Site content (list and document library contents — optional).

Site templates do not include the following items:

Security settings, such as a list of users or groups with permissions to the site from which the template was created.
Personalizations to Web Part Pages.
Web discussions from the original site.
Alerts from the original site.
Web part assemblies that were added to the original site.

Members of the site Owners group and users with Design permissions to the site template gallery can customize a site and save the customized site as a site template, so that other users in the site collection can create similar sites later. When a user creates a new subsite, he or she can choose from the combined list of site templates available on the server or on the site collection. Administrators of a site collection can also import a site template that another user or software vendor creates and can add the new template to the available site templates in the site collection.

Template files include personal information, such as server URLs and user account names. Only share template files with trusted users and groups.

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Introduction to page layouts

Page layouts help dictate the overall look and feel of a Web page. A page layout relies on a content type to determine the kind of content that can be stored on pages that use the page layout. Content for the page is stored in fields on the page. When you view or edit a page, the content is displayed in field controls. When you create a page layout, you add field controls using a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible Web authoring tool, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

The types of fields on a page are determined by the content type for the page. Each content type contains columns that correspond to the fields on the page. When you create a content type, you add column templates to the content type for each field. Column templates determine the default field control that is associated with the columns as well as the kind of content the field can contain, such as a single line of text, a hyperlink, or a picture.

Content types for page layouts are based on the Page content type and contain the columns for the fields that can be used on pages based on the page layout. The Page content type is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. The column templates from Page will be added to all Pages libraries created by the Publishing feature.

By default, the Page content type contains a number of columns that page layouts require. The following table describes a sample of these default columns.

Page layout columns	Description
Scheduling Start Date	This column contains the date and time when the page is visible on a site.
Scheduling End Date	This column contains the date and time in which the page is no longer visible on a site..
Contact	This column contains the name of the person or group who created the page.
Contact E-mail Address	This column contains the e-mail address of the person who created the page.
Contact Name	This column contains the name of the person who created the page.
Contact Picture	This column contains the picture of the person you can contact about the page.
Page Content	This column contains the name of the page layout associated with each instance of a page, such as statusposting1.aspx, statusposting2.aspx, and so on.

Page layouts are stored in the Master Page Gallery, which is a document library that is created when you install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 The Master Page Gallery is a catalog, which means that it does not appear in Office SharePoint Server 2007 lists.

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Set the preferred site templates and page layouts

To set the preferred site templates and page layouts that users will see when they create subsites and pages, do the following:

On the Site Actions menu , point to Site Settings, and then click Modify All Site Settings.
On the Site Settings page, in the Look and Feel section, click Page layouts and site templates, and then do one or all of the following:

Specify Preferred Site Templates

In the Subsite Templates section, do one of the following:
- To allow a subsite to use any template, select Subsites can use any site template.
- To select only preferred templates that subsites can use, select Subsites can only use the following templates. Additional options appear just below the Subsites can only use the following templates check box.
  
  In the first box, select the template that you want to add, and then click Add. The template appears in the second box. Repeat this procedure until you have selected all of the templates you want.
- If you want all subsites to inherit these template settings, select the Reset all subsites to inherit these preferred subsite template settings check box.
Specify Preferred Page Layouts

In the Page Layouts section, do one of the following:
- To enable a subsite to use any layout, select Pages in this site can use any layout.
- To select only preferred page layouts that subsites can use, select Pages in this site can only use the following layouts. Additional options appear just below the Pages in this site can only use the following layouts check box.
  
  In the first box, select the layout that you want to add, and then click Add. The page layout appears in the second box. Repeat this procedure until you have selected all of the layouts you want.
  
  If you have a source variations set up, in the Variations box, click the source variation in which you want to apply the page layouts.
- If you want all subsites to inherit these settings, select the Reset all subsites to inherit these preferred page layout settings check box.
Click OK.