Full control user can add Page Layout to top level site but not the sublevel site

Question

Has anyone seen the problem that we can add page layout to the top level site but not the sublevel site?

I've got the following behaviors:

• In the "Site Settings" the "Master pages and page layouts" points automatically to the top level master pages and page layouts gallery.
• In the gallery of the sublevel site, the "New Document" button grays out.
• I tried adding the page layout in Sharepoint Designer, the page layout is automatically added to top level site gallery. It can only the content type of top level.

I've checked the site feature, the publishing feature is activated. If I create the layout on top level, I cannot use the layout for sub level page publishing.

Besides, even on the top level site I activated publishing, in the pages library I cannot find the page layout that I create. These things together completely disabled my work...

I am new to Sharepoint and I need your help!

Answer 1

After lots of blind trials and search, I had following finding:

The behavior that clicking "master pages and page layout" gallery in subset setting and being directed to the top level site "master pages and page layout" gallery is because, like the ressource here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointcustomizationlegacy/thread/4df5cc37-0b78-442d-8759-be2dec5cb1ec "Page Layouts are all stored in top-level site" as well as content types.

But the page layout is accessible in subsite level.