Sharepoint Themes and Master Pages

Excuse me creating the following imaginary and temporary jargonyms.

In the context of the “look and feel” of a Sharepoint Site (SPS), there’s Master Pages (and two types of MPs), Content Pages, and Themes that control the appearances and layouts. Master Pages control the layout (the placements of stuff) of the SPS. The Content Pages (CP) control the actual data ⁄ content, etc., that is inserted onto the published pages. Themes control the colors, fonts, images, etc., the appearance of the content (unless that content is a field control).

MPs come in two varieties: System Master Pages (SyMP) and Site Master Pages (SiMP). SyMPs control the behaviours associated with views, webparts, forms, etc. Branding tasks, etc., probably shouldn’t need to modify or make new SyMPs. SiMPs are the MP type that controls look and feel of published pages and subsites within SPSs. SiMPs are inherited across all levels of a SPS unless a subsite is associated with a different SiMP or even a different CSS file. Thus, branding tasks, etc., would then edit or create a new SiMP(s) for something like the Citizens SPSs.

CPs are the part of the SPS hierarchy within which the actual content is presented, be it from a database, or what have you. The positionings of all the stuff on a CP is controlled by the SiMP with which that CP is associated.

Now, the appearance of all that stuff that is inserted onto the CP is controlled by a Theme. Themes dictate the colors, fonts, etc., of all the stuff that the MP lays out on the CP. Themes must be programmatically applied to all levels in a SPS even though MPs (SyMP or SiMP) are automatically inherited across all levels by default.