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Create sites and subsites (Windows SharePoint Services)

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Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

 

To create a site from Central Administration, you first create a site collection. Subsites are created within top-level sites and subsites; subsites cannot be created within Central Administration.

Web sites on SharePoint Web applications are organized into site collections. Each site collection has a top-level Web site. This top-level Web site can have multiple subsites, and each subsite can have multiple subsites, for as many levels as required. When you create a site collection, a top-level site is automatically created. Each site collection can have only a single top-level site.

The hierarchy of top-level sites and subsites enables, for example, users to have a main working site for a team or division, plus individual working sites or shared sites for projects. Top-level Web sites and subsites allow different levels of control over the features and settings for sites. The administrator of a site collection can control settings and features for both the top-level Web site and any subsites beneath it. For example, in addition to the standard administration tasks for any site, an administrator of a site collection can:

  • Add, delete, or change site collection administrators.

  • Manage other sites in the site collection hierarchy.

  • View usage statistics and storage space allocation.

  • Manage the site collection Recycle Bin.

  • Manage Web Part, template, and workflow galleries.

  • Manage the features that are available in the site collection.

  • Configure settings, such as regional settings, for the top-level Web site and all subsites.

The administrator of a subsite can control settings and features for only that subsite, and the administrator of the next subsite below can control settings and features for only that subsite. For example, an administrator of a subsite can:

  • Add, delete, or change user permissions, if unique permissions have been set.

  • View usage analysis data.

  • Change regional settings.

  • Manage the master page, site content type, and site columns galleries.

  • Manage Web discussions and alerts.

  • Change the site name and description, theme, and home page organization.

    Note

    You can also enable users to create their own top-level sites. For more information, see Configure self-service site creation (Windows SharePoint Services Central Administration Help).

Create a site collection

  1. On the top navigation bar, click Application Management.

  2. On the Application Management page, in the SharePoint Site Management section, click Create site collection.

  3. On the Create Site Collection page, in the Web Application section, if the Web application in which you want to create the site collection is not selected, click Change Web Application on the Web Application menu.

    • On the Select Web Application page, click the Web application in which you want to create the site collection.

  4. In the Title and Description section, type the title and description for the site collection.

  5. In the Web Site Address section, under URL, select the path to use for your URL (such as an included path like /sites/ or the root directory, /).

    If you select a wildcard inclusion path, such as /sites/, you must also type the site name to use in your site's URL.

    Note

    The paths available for the URL option are taken from the list of managed paths that have been defined as wildcard inclusions. For more information about managed paths, see Define managed paths (Windows SharePoint Services Central Administration Help).

  6. In the Template Selection section, in the Select a template list, click a template for the top-level site.

    When you select a template, a description for that template appears in the Template Selection section.

  7. In the Primary Site Collection Administrator section, enter the user name (in the form DOMAIN\username) for the user who will be the site collection administrator.

  8. If you want to identify a user as the secondary owner of the new top-level Web site (recommended), in the Secondary Site Collection Administrator section, enter the user name for the secondary administrator of the site collection.

  9. If you are using quotas to limit resource use for site collections, in the Quota Template section, click a template in the Select a quota template list.

  10. Click OK.