Save Site as Template Option Disable from “sharePoint designer” and “Site Actions” section.

 Saving a site or sub-site as template allows you to save an existing site with or without the content and use it as a template for new SharePoint sites or sub-sites. This option is available in the “site settings page” under “Site Actions” section.

Alternatively, you can open a site in SharePoint Designer and click on “Save as Template” icon in the ribbon.

This action will open the page at http://yoursite/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx which will allow you to save your site as template. If you want to include content in the template, you can select the “Include Content” checkbox.

Now comes the question of why this option is missing in the “Site Actions” section of the Site Settings page or why it is disabled in the SharePoint Designer ribbon. When “SharePoint Publishing Infrastructure” feature is activated in Site Collection features, this options gets hidden. 

     
  

So why we cannot save a file from the interface in this case? Well, as the publishing infrastructure consists of publishing pages and several other content types that CANNOT BE COPIED using OOB options. One way of accessing the save a site as template page is to append the URL /_layouts/savetmpl.aspx at the end of site or sub-site URL.

Example:

èSiteURL/   +  _layouts/savetmpl.aspx

èhttp://sqlsharep:41163/AccountDept/   +  _layouts/savetmpl.aspx

 èhttp://sqlsharep:41163/AccountDept/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx

 Note: Do remember that this option may not save the publishing pages in the site template.