Executive Master Template Instructions

Required Components: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and an Administrator-level login.

Step 1: Download and extract the Executive Master Page
  1. From www.expertsharepointconsulting.com, click download and specify a place to save the file on your local machine.
  2. Right click the downloaded file named “Executive Master Page.zip” and select “Extract All”
  3. Upon successful extraction, the following content in should be in your Executive folder:
    • A “ExecutiveMaster” folder
    • A “ExecutiveImages” folder
    • Readme file
Step 2: Activate the Office SharePoint Server Publishing Feature
  1. Log in to your SharePoint site as the Site Administrator or a full control user.
  2. Click on Site Actions > Site Settings > Under the Site Collection Administration Section > Site Collection Features
  3. Activate the Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure if it is not already activated
Step 3: Copy Files to the Server
  1. Log into the server running SharePoint with an Administrative Account
  2. Copy the folder "ExecutiveMaster" to the SharePoint Features directory.  If SharePoint was installed on the C:\ then the file path will be:
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES directory. 
  3. Copy the folder "ExecutiveImages" to the SharePoint Layouts directory. If SharePoint was installed on the C:\ then the file path will be:
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUT.
Step 4: Install the Feature
  1. Log into the server running SharePoint with an Administrative Account
  2. Open up a command prompt
  3. Enter the following: cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN.
    Note: this assumes you installed SharePoint on your C drive. Please change the install path if otherwise.
  4. Enter the following: stsadm -o installfeature -name ExecutiveMaster -force
    Note: do not copy and paste. Sometimes copy and paste into command lines won’t work. Please retype in your command line
  5. Open up your SharePoint Site 
  6. Click on Site Actions > Site Settings > Under the Site Collection Administration Section > Site Collection Features
  7. Activate the Executive Master Page 
Step 5: Apply the New Master Page

The feature we just created placed the new master page in the master page gallery. However, it did not tell SharePoint to use this new master page on your SharePoint site. 

  1. Open up the SharePoint Site
  2. Click on Site Actions > Site Settings > Under the Look and Feel Section > Master Page
  3. Apply “Executive.master” in both Site Master Page and System Master Page Categories
  4. Check ”reset all subsite to inherit this site master page setting” check box
  5. In the Alternate CSS URL, select the radio button option for "Specify a CSS file to be used by this publishing site and all sites that inherit from it" 
  6. Enter /Style Library/Executive.css in the browse field
  7. Check ”reset all subsite to inherit this site master page setting” check box
  8. Click Ok
Step 6: Change the Site Title & Logo (Optional)
  1. Open up the SharePoint Site
  2. Click on Site Actions > Site Settings > Under the Look and Feel Section > Title, description and icon
  3. Change the Site Title & Logo
    1. Enter a new name for your site in “Title” text box
    2. Enter the URL for the logo as /_images/homepage.gif
    3. Click the OK button