Making a WSS site template appear in SPS Template Selection

One of the features of Windows SharePoint Services is the ability to create a team site and customise it with custom views, meta data, web part pages etc and then to be able to save it as a template for re use. To save a WSS Site as a template,
1. In WSS, click “Site Settings”, “Go to Site Administration” and then “Save Site as Template”
2. Enter the following

• Filename: Any name you choose – eg “MyCustomSite” – WSS will automatically add a .stp extension.
• Template Title: A title to make it easy for your users to identify – eg “Custom Site Template”
• Template Description (optional): Further info as required – “Use this template to create a new team site.”
• Choose whether you wish to include content or not.
• Note that Content Editor Webparts always get saved with their content irrespective of your choice.
• Click OK

3. Click through to “Site Template Gallery” on the next page and your template now appears in the listing.

This template however can only be used to create WSS sites below the current WSS Sites. The template does not appear in SharePoint Portal Server in the “Create a Site” section. To make your template appear in SharePoint Portal Server
1. Right click on the Name and save the .stp file to your local file system.
2. You need to now connect to the SharePoint Portal Server machine and via Command Prompt navigate to \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\BIN
3. Run the following command
Stsadm –o addtemplate –filename MyCustomSite.stp –title “Custom Site Template” –description “Use this template to create a new team site"
Note: Description is optional
4. This command needs to be followed by iisreset and your “Custom Site Template” should appear in the SharePoint Portal Sites Directory area when you create a new site.

Related CommandsStsadm –o enumtemplates
This lists all the templates that have currently been installed on the server
Stsadm –o deletetemplate –title “Custom Site Template”
This removes any previously installed template. Please note that if you delete a template then any sites that have been created based on it will fail.