Hi
in sharepoint 2013 Design manager concept introduced that will save you from messing up. but not in 2010 here are the good blogs to create master page.once you created you can use sharepoint designer or in site setting >> masterpage to set master page.
http://sharepointpromag.com/sharepoint-development/sharepoint-branding-101-branding-master-pages
Hi, you will need to have sharepoint designer.
In SharePoint Designer, Click on Master Pages.
In the masterpage, if you want to edit your new masterpage from the same template as the default one, just copy and paste it.
After editing, you can always press "Set as Default Master Page" to make it the default master page. You can toggle between them.
If you happen to mess up the original master page by mistake, you can always press version history to recover it back to the old copy.
Hope this helps!
Hi,
- Open the site in SharePoint Designer
- Download a copy of the masterpage that you want to use.
- Make the changes in the downloaded copy and upload it in the masterpage gallery.
- Right the the file and click "Set as a Default Master Page".
- Follw the blog http://ssbinfo.com/7-steps-to-creating-a-master-page-with-sharepoint-designer-2/