SharePoint 2010 Master Page

When it come to styling and changing the UI for SharePoint, you can't run away from Master Page, now, in 2010, you will still be changing and working with Master Page, from your SharePoint Designer 2010.

Few things to be aware of when working with SharePoint 2010 master page,

1. When you have a team site, please turn on your Publishing feature so you can then pick and choose the master page to apply to your site.

2. Simplest to start off with is really to start off with the Starter Master Page by Randy Drisgill, this master page really give you a quick and clean starts by removing all unnecessary html elements, which is quite irritating if you were to reposition the SharePoint controls.

3. In the Starter Master Page, change the CSS registration control to map to your CSS file (Of course, store it in your Style Library).

4. Start your IE8, use the Developer Tool to start picking up elements and change the CSS classes to your preference! You may refer the following URL for the list of CSS classes used in SharePoint,

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms438349.aspx - From MSDN, specifically on SharePoint Foundation.
• http://erikswenson.blogspot.com/2010/01/sharepoint-2010-base-css-classes.html - This is cool, it even give you a picture visualization on each of the class, well explained.

Have Fun with your Master Page, i will post one of my "test drive" in the later post!