We could just bash ahead and build our first page using the formatting techniques that we have just learned. This is the way that sites were traditionally built. One page was created and once all involved were happy that it looked OK, it was copied many times to create the basis for all the other pages in the site.

We could do it that way too, but let's wait a moment. What happens when six months down the line we would like to add a new navigation button to the menu that appears on every page? Do we need to change all the pages on our site individually? The clever developers (and I humbly place myself in that category) used Server Side Includes to create the page elements (e.g. the menu bar) in one place, which then propagated throughout their site. They could place some additional code into the include and "hey presto" the new button appeared on every page of their site.

By introducing Master Pages, Microsoft allows us to achieve the same results without the need to learn...