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Using WordPress Templates

WordPress Template Hierarchy

Page Templates

Specialized layouts for landing pages, full-width, sidebar, etc.

Custom Post Type Templates

single-{type}.php for portfolio items, products, events.

Block Templates (FSE)

Full Site Editing — design entire pages with blocks, no PHP.

Template Parts

Header, footer, sidebar — shared across multiple templates.

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Templates & Themes

When you have pages, one of the things your theme may allow you to do is to choose from different layouts. These are called templates, and they come as part of your theme.

You might be wondering, "How do I know what different choices I have?" Follow along in my video, and I'll show you.

So I’m on a page right now. I’m going to go to the gear icon in the top bar, and under Document I’m going to down to Page Attributes.

If you have no choices, templates won’t show up. But this theme has more than one different layout. If I click here, you’ll see I have two.

Most themes nowadays come with at least a full-width template. However, some will also come with sidebars as well. If I wanted this to be full-width—most of our sites are trending that way because most people are looking at it on their phones or tablets—I can actually choose a different template. This is going to give me a different layout for this page.

And I can update that. Let’s go back here. There’s my photo book. You’ll notice I’ve got a sidebar from that main default layout. However, if I go to my photo book page now, you’ll notice that there is no sidebar anymore.

If I go back home, there’s the sidebar again.

That’s how you change from one layout to another, by using templates inside of your theme.

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