Error message when you click "Create Site" on the tab that is located in the upper-right corner of the Site Directory page of a site collection: "Page cannot be displayed"

Consider the following scenario. You use SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration to create a new Web application. Then, you create a new site collection in the root folder of the Web application. The site collection that you create is based on the Site Directory area template. You connect to the site collection. Then, on the tab that is located in the upper-right corner of the Site Directory page, you click Create Site to create a site. However, the New SharePoint Site page does not appear. Instead, you receive the following error message:

This problem occurs because the URL on the tab for Create Site is incorrect. The URL incorrectly contains an additional forward slash (/) character.

To work around this problem, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Use the Create Site command on the Site Actions menu

Click the arrow next to Site Actions, and then click Create Site to create a site.

Method 2: Create and modify the TabViewPageLayout.aspx page

Use Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to create a copy of the TabViewPageLayout.aspx page in the Master Page Gallery. Then, modify the page to include the Create Site button. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start SharePoint Designer 2007.
2. On the File menu, click Open Site, type the URL of the root of the site in the Site name box, and then click Open. If you are prompted, type your user name and password.
3. Under Folder List, expand _catalogs, and then expand masterpage (Master Page Gallery).
4. Under masterpage (Master Page Gallery), create a copy of the TabViewPageLayout.aspx page.
5. Double-click the copy of the TabViewPageLayout.aspx page that you created. When you are prompted to confirm whether you want to check out the page, click Yes.
6. Locate the following section.

   <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMiniConsole" runat="server">
   
                   <SPSWC:MiniConsole runat="server"> <SPSWC:SPSRepeatedControls id="RptControls" runat="server" HeaderHtml="" BeforeControlHtml="&lt;td class='ms-toolbar' nowrap='true' ID='_spFocusHere'&gt;"
   
                   AfterControlHtml="&lt;/td&gt;" SeparatorHtml="&lt;td class=ms-separator&gt;|&lt;/td&gt;">
   
                                   <Template_Controls>
   
                                                   <SPSWC:CreateSite runat="server" class="ms-toolbar" id="TBBNewSTSSite" PermissionsString="ManageSubwebs, ManageLists" ShowImageAndText="false"/>
   
                                                   <SPSWC:AddLinkToSiteButton runat="server" id="TBBNewListing" class="ms-toolbar" PermissionsString="AddListItems" ShowImageAndText="false"/>
   
                                   </Template_Controls>
   
                   </SPSWC:SPSRepeatedControls>
   
     </SPSWC:MiniConsole>
   
   </asp:Content>
   
   

7. In the section that you located in step 6, locate the following line.

   <SPSWC:CreateSite runat="server" class="ms-toolbar" id="TBBNewSTSSite" PermissionsString="ManageSubwebs, ManageLists" ShowImageAndText="false"/>
   

   
   Then, replace it with the following line.

   <asp:LinkButton runat="server" class="ms-toolbar" id="TBBNewSTSSite" PermissionsString="ManageSubwebs, ManageLists" ShowImageAndText="false" PostBackUrl="/_layouts/newsbweb.aspx">Create Site</asp:LinkButton>

8. On the File menu, click Save.
9. Under masterpage (Master Page Gallery), right-click the copy of the TabViewPageLayout.aspx page, click Check In, and then click OK.
10. Modify the references in the master page to use the copy of the TabViewPageLayout.aspx page that you created.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.