3.7. Windows SharePoint Services Pages
WSS 3.0 has two types of pages, called administrative pages and user pages. Both are ASP.NET 2.0 pages, but they were designed to use different master pages. Every page can contain a master page file using the MasterPageFile attribute of the @Page directive.
Administrative pages—These pages are used to provide management features such as list settings and web pages under Site Settings. This would include the administration pages, as well as the page that uses the application.master page. These pages can be shared across many sites.
User pages—These pages are the pages generated by the end user and the basic pages required to display information to the user.
3.7.1. Administrative Pages
Administrative pages provide end users with management ability through the user interface. These pages do not contain dynamic content such as Web Parts, and they use a different master page than the content pages. These pages use the master page ~/_layouts/application.master. These pages are also known as application pages because they inherit their functionality from the administration context.
3.7.2. User Pages
User pages are created by the end user or are used to display information to the user. Each page has the value of ~masterurl/default.master as the default master page, which allows the site designer to make a modification to a single page for the entire site. Keep in mind that this only affects the pages that have the value of ~masterurl/default.master ...
