Applying v4.MasterPage as a Search Center MasterPage

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Last week when I was working on a client project I had a requirement of applying v4.masterpage into Search Center as the search center was disconnected from rest of the site collection for its global navigation. So during my search for a solution I came across this useful link “Converting a Custom SharePoint 2010 Master Page into a Search Center Master Page” posted by Randi Drisgill. This blog was simply listing the steps required to achieve what I wanted. So I went ahead and applied the steps mentioned in there. Everything went well and thanks to Randi.

Once after completing the steps mentioned in there, I started performing some basic tests and oops, I came across two bickering issues:

1. The search box was found to be left aligned which was different to the alignment set in OOB.
2. When page loads an additional ribbon row gets displayed momentarily and disappeared.

Let’s Fix

So I had to work on finding a solution for both the issues before releasing the solution.

1. Fixing Issues# 1: I had to remove the style attribute (in the masterpage) margin:inherit as shown below:.srch-sb-results4 {
   margin: inherit;
   padding-left: 20px;
   }
2. Fixing Issue# 2: A <div> tag should be introduced with style set to display:none surrounding the “notificationArea” div.

<div style="display:none">
<div id="notificationArea">
</div>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="SPNavigation" runat="server">
<SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="PublishingConsole" Id="PublishingConsoleDelegate">
</SharePoint:DelegateControl>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</div>

That’s all you need in addition to what Randi Drisgill already provided.

Finally