Here Quick Launch Bar, Quick Launch Bar. Here Quick Launch Bar. Now where could it have gone????

Where did that trusty Quick Launch Bar disappear to?  Last time I remember, left it right here -

Has this happened to you?  Have you searched high and low looking for some mystery setting in the Web Part Pages to display it?  I know I have.  Well let me tell you how to get it back, then how you can fix it so it appears for all newly created Web Part Pages in the future. 

How to fix existing Web Part Pages to display the Quick Launch Bar

1. Open SharePoint Designer 2007 and open your SharePoint site.
2. Locate and open the existing Web Part Page and switch to Code view.
   
3. Search for, and delete the following lines of code -
   
   <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server"></asp:Content>
   <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"></asp:Content>
   <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server"></asp:Content>
   
   Notice that they are all next to each other, so if you find one, you can find the other 2 easily.
4. Save the file.  Now you will see the Quick Launch Bar on that particular Web Part Page.
   
   
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each existing Web Part Page you want to display the quick launch bar on.

How to update the base Web Part Pages' template for all future created pages

NOTE:  The following steps describe how you can modify a default system file in the 12 hive.  This change can be potentially overwritten by any patches or upgrades to SharePoint.  In a future blog I will discuss how you can create a custom site definition to remove the chance of this occurring.  Also note changes made below is a global change and will affect all sites in that give site definition.

1. On your SharePoint server, go to the 12 hive (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\). 
2. Navigate to the document templates of the site definition for the sites currently deployed in your SharePoint environment.  In this article, we are referencing the English Team Site definition (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\STS\DOCTEMP\).
3. Open the folder SMARTPGS.  Here there are 8 aspx pages and one htm page.  Notice that the order of the aspx pages, matches the order found in New Web Part Page form in SharePoint.  For example spstd1.aspx maps to the page layout Full Page, Vertical and spstd2.aspx maps to the page layout Header, Left Column, Body and so on.
4. Open the aspx page you want to always display the Quck Lauch Bar on, in Notepad.exe.
Search for, and delete the following lines of code -

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server"></asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"></asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server"></asp:Content>

Notice that they are all next to each other, so if you find one, you can find the other 2 easily.
5. Save the file.  Repeat step 4 for each Web Part Page layout you want to display the Quick Launch Bar on.
6. All future created Web Part Pages will now show the Quick Launch Bar.

 In future blogs, I will discuss how you can

• Create a custom site definition so patches and upgrades do not overwrite your changes.
• Create your own custom Web Part Page layouts.
• Control which Web Part Page layouts are availaible to the end user when they create a new Web Part Page.