No setting on sub-sites to inherit master page from parent of the site

Question

I am using SharePoint 2010...........

When I create a sub-site and I go to "Site Settings" there is no option that will allow me to inherit site master page from parent of the site.

I have to manually go and type this URL in:

http://SiteName/SubsiteName/_layouts/ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx

This then will take me to a page where I can set this setting.

Questions

1. Why cant I get to this from the Site Settings?
2. Is it possible to change a setting somewhere so that when ever I do create sub-sites to ALWAYS inherit the parent master page and parent theme?

Answer 1

1. In order for this link to show up I think you need to have the Publishing Site and Web features activated.

2. If my memory serves me I think activating the Publishing Web feature inherit at least the master page. Perhaps the Theme as well.

Answer 2

As Neil mentions, 1 is due to the publishing features - you need them to see that page.

Regarding 2, there is no way out of the box to do this.

If your branding is applied by a feature, you could use feature stapling to automatically turn on that branding when a new site is provisioned. This is the normal way of achieving that.

If not, well, you might want to create a feature so that you can do this!

Finally, you really don't want to always apply the same master page to child sites - certain sites, like meeting workspaces, use a different master page to 'normal' sites, and changing their master page to a typical 'team site' type one will break their functionality.