Just the Facts

• A master page is a distinct file referenced at the application or page level that contains the static layout of the page.

• A master page contains regions that each derived page can customize.

• A derived page, known as a content page, is a collection of markup blocks that the runtime will use to fill the regions in the master page.

• Content pages can't contain information other than contents for the master's placeholders.

• Regions in the master page can have default content that can be used if the content page doesn't provide any.

• You can define various masters for a page and have the system automatically pick up a particular one based on the browser's user agent string.

• Master pages can be nested and expose a strong-typed object model.

• Themes are a collection of settings spread over various files that the ASP.NET runtime uses to give the whole site (or page) a consistent user interface.

• Themes become a kind of attribute, and they can be exported from one application to the next and applied to pages on the fly.

• Themes differ from CSS files because they let you style ASP.NET control properties and not just HTML elements.

• A theme contains skin files, CSS files, and images, plus any other auxiliary file you might find useful.

• A skin file is a collection of ASP.NET control declarations. The system ensures that after instantiation each control of that type in the page will have exactly the same set of attributes.

• The wizard control manages multiple views inside a single control and provides an auto-generated user interface for you to move back and forth between views as you do in a desktop wizard.