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

# Need for nesting the master page

The master pages designed so far have a single layout used across the entire website. However, many large websites have a layout that is customized across various sections.

For example, a health care application may need three types of web pages: a Staff Member Specific page, a Patient Specific Page, and a Billing Specific Page. All these pages share a common layout, such as header and footer, but each page might require some customization on top of the generic layout.

Example of nested pages in design view:

![](/api/collection/5887079406895104/6664661324791808/page/6373557903818752/image/4704984517050368) 

# Designing nested master pages

It is possible to customize pages using nested master pages. For our example in the previous section, three nested pages, one for each type of web page, would be needed.

By using nested master pages, the site-wide layout information is maintained in one file (the top-level master page) while content specific to particular regions is separated out into different files. There are three entities involved here: _Main Master Page_, _Nested Master Page_ and "_Default.apsx_". These three entities are shown in the image below:



In this lesson, you will learn the pros and cons of using nested master pages.

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Nested Master Pages

Need for nesting the master page