Skip to content

Templates and layouts

Two separate choices decide how an entry looks. The template is what it shows, and the layout is the frame around it, so a page can have the Team Member template in any layout.

Chosen on Per site? Offered for
Template The entry’s field set Yes, with exceptions per site Pages
Layout The entry itself No, the same choice on every site Pages, posts

Both depend on what the site’s theme offers.

Most entries use their type’s standard template. The one named template today is Team Member, for pages: a person’s headshot (the overview image), name, role and social links, then the page’s blocks.

You don’t pick a template on the entry. You pick a field set, the kind of page it is, and the field set says which template that kind uses. So all team member pages stay alike, and a new field set’s fields and look come together. An entry with no field set uses the standard template.

To set it, edit the field set and find its Template section. It only appears for types that have a named template.

Field What it does
Template on all sites The template for entries using this field set. Default is the standard one.
Per-site exceptions Add site exception to use a different template on one Site.

If a site’s theme doesn’t have the chosen template, that site uses the standard one, and a warning under the fields names those sites. This also makes it safe to choose a template only one theme offers.

Pick Layout in the entry’s Status section. It appears only when the themes of the entry’s sites offer more than one.

Type Layout What it does
Page Sidebar (the default) Title and blocks beside the sidebar menus and widgets.
Page Full width Title and blocks across the page, no sidebar.
Page Canvas The blocks only, edge to edge: no title, breadcrumbs or sidebar.
Post Sidebar (the default) The article beside the blog categories and sidebar widgets.
Post Full width The article across the page, no sidebar.

Left empty, the entry uses the Theme default, which is the first in each list above. The exception is a site’s front page, which uses Canvas, if you leave it empty. Choose a layout and the page uses that even as a front page.

If a site’s theme lacks the chosen layout, that site uses its default, and a note under the field names those sites.

The sidebar menus and sidebar widgets only show in the Sidebar layout.

A developer can add a file to a theme that renders one particular entry on the sites using that theme. It beats any template you choose. The entry’s edit page then shows Theme template file, listing the sites and the file, so you can tell why the template has no effect there.

The themes and their templates, layouts and files are code, so adding one is a job for a developer.