In this mini-course, you will learn how to design master pages using HTML, CSS, and Visual Studio IDE. By learning how to design and work with master pages, you’ll be able to reuse some elements (header, menus, logos, etc.) without having to continually code them, saving you tons of time.

You will learn how to deal with nested master pages, pages for different browsers, as well as how to design pages using CSS and themes. By the end of this course, you will have a new skill that will drastically cut down your development time.

Introduction to Master Pages in ASP.NET

## Structure of a master page
A master page may specify default markup for ContentPlaceHolder controls. A content page can then optionally specify its markup or use default markup. A master page may contain multiple content placeholders. Many website designs contain several areas on the screen that are customized on a page-by-page basis.
 
As explored in the previous lesson, the master page enables you to specify content areas that the content page can use. Master pages can have multiple content areas. The nice thing is that you can specify default content for the content area. This default content can be overridden by choice. 

To place the default content within any one of the content areas, it is simply put into the Content PlaceHolder server control on the master page itself. Any content page that inherits this master page also inherits the default content.

 This second content creates a page with one content area coming from the master page itself in addition to other content that comes from the content page. A smart tag in VS 2012 enables you to work easily with the default content.
## Create custom content
Click the control's smart tag and select the "Create custom content" option from the menu. This makes it possible to insert your own defined content.

   

<html>
 <head>
 </head>
 <body>
   <asp:content ID="Content3" ContentPlaceholderId="ContentPlaceHolder2" runat="server">
     Here is some new content</asp:content>
   <div id="content"/>
 </body>
</html>

codemirror

<html>
 <head>
   <title>My Company</title>
   <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="head" runat="server"></asp:ContentPlaceHolder> 
 </head>
 <body>
   <form id="form1" runat="server">
      <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
        Here is some deafult content
        </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> 
        <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="ContentPlaceHolder2" runat="server">
        Here is some deafult more content
        </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> 
   <div id="content"/>
 </body>
</html>

# Structure of a master page
A master page may specify default markup for ContentPlaceHolder controls. A content page can then optionally specify its markup or use default markup. A master page may contain multiple content placeholders. Many website designs contain several areas on the screen that are customized on a page-by-page basis.
 
As explored in the previous lesson, the master page enables you to specify content areas that the content page can use. Master pages can have multiple content areas. The nice thing is that you can specify default content for the content area. This default content can be overridden by choice. 

To place the default content within any one of the content areas, it is simply put into the Content PlaceHolder server control on the master page itself. Any content page that inherits this master page also inherits the default content.

 This second content creates a page with one content area coming from the master page itself in addition to other content that comes from the content page. A smart tag in VS 2012 enables you to work easily with the default content.
# Create custom content
Click the control's smart tag and select the "Create custom content" option from the menu. This makes it possible to insert your own defined content.

   

In this lesson, you will learn about default content in master pages. You will also learn how to use multiple content controls in a master page and how to define default markup in the content placeholder controls. 

__default

Using Master Pages to Specify Default Content

Structure of a master page

Create custom content