Turn Off Master Page Approval

By default, SharePoint requires administrator approval of all changes to master pages. While this is an admirable requirement in a production environment, it just gets in the way when first setting up a site. Every time I want to check in a change, I have to click out of a warning dialog, then go to a separate web page, where I have to go through a multi-step process to approve the changes.

If you have administrative access, you can turn off the approval requirement with these steps:

In the “Site Actions” menu, choose “Manage Content and Structure”.
Right-click on “Master Page Gallery” in the left menu.
Select “Edit Properties”

Select “Versioning Settings”


In the first section, you can choose whether content approval applies to that library.

In the second section, you can choose whether SharePoint should bother with minor versions or simply save major versions every time you save. Choosing “major versions only” will cut out a step whenever you save the master page.
When you’re done setting up the site, be sure to turn approval back on if multiple people will have access to the master page.