Template Management
Before You Start: Where Templates Live
Every site has one active theme, and all of its templates are edited in one place. In the left dashboard sidebar, open the Templates group and click Active. This loads the template editor for the theme your site is currently using.
The Templates › Active entry in the sidebar opens the editor for your live theme.
Once the editor loads, the templates are organised into tabs — one tab per template type. You will spend most of your time moving between these:
The tab row at the top of the template editor. Each tab is a different template type.
The Five Template Types at a Glance
- Page Layout — wraps your page content and is assigned to pages.
- Shared — reusable fragments (header, footer, meta tags) injected into every page.
- Structure — the full
<!DOCTYPE html>document shell with placeholders. - CSS — stylesheet files with loading and placement controls.
- JavaScript — script files with placement, async, and defer controls.
The procedure for creating any template is the same. We will build one start to finish below, then look at what makes each type different.
Create a Template, Step by Step
This is the core loop you will repeat for every template. The example creates a Shared template (a header), but the same steps apply to any tab — only the button label changes.
Open the right tab
Click the tab for the type you want to create. To make a reusable header, click Shared.
Click the Add button
Click Add Template. The label adapts to the tab — you will see Add Layout on the Page Layout tab and Add Structure on the Structure tab. A new, empty row appears at the top of the list.
Name it, then confirm with the check
A name field opens in the new row. Type a name and click the green check to create the template, or the to cancel. The Edit button stays dimmed until the template actually exists.
The inline creation row: active checkbox, name field, confirm / cancel, and a dimmed Edit button.
Open the editor
Once saved, the row becomes a normal template. Click its Edit button to open the content editor.
Add your content and save
The editor opens with a Save Template button and a Back to Templates link. Add your markup — even a single comment is enough to start — then click Save Template.
The editor toolbar. Page Layouts and Shared templates accept full PHP/HTML; CSS and JavaScript files get syntax highlighting.
Return to the list
Click Back to Templates. Your new template is now in the list, marked active, with its last-modified information shown. That is the entire loop — repeat it for every template you need.
Headercontainer can be dropped into a Structure or Page Layout using the placeholder {{SHARED_HEADERCONTAINER}} — the placeholder is simply SHARED_ plus the name in uppercase. Pick clear, deliberate names; you will reference them later.
Anatomy of a Template Row
Every saved template appears as a row with the same controls. Knowing what each part does makes the list easy to scan and manage.
- 1 Active toggle — controls whether the template is used when pages are built. Inactive templates are kept but ignored, which makes them perfect for staging and backups.
- 2 Template name — what you typed at creation; it also drives the shared-element placeholder name.
- 3 Modification info — when the template was last saved and by which user, giving you a lightweight change history.
- 4 Edit — opens the content editor for this template.
- 5 Delete — removes the template. Default templates are protected and cannot be deleted.
Placeholders: How Templates Connect
Templates are wired together with placeholders — double-brace tokens that are replaced with real values when a page is built. They are why one template can serve every page on your site.
Shared element placeholders
Insert a Shared template anywhere by referencing its name. Drop your header and footer into a layout like this:
{{SHARED_HEADERCONTAINER}} <!-- your "Headercontainer" shared template -->
{{SHARED_FOOTERCONTAINER}} <!-- your "Footercontainer" shared template -->Page data placeholders
Pull dynamic, per-page values into a template:
{{page_meta_title}} <!-- the page's title -->
{{page_meta_desc}} <!-- the page's meta description -->
{{content}} <!-- the main page content -->
{{page_class}} <!-- a body class derived from the page -->Resource placeholders
Let the platform emit your managed CSS and JavaScript files with the correct attributes and load order:
{{FILES_STYLESHEETS}} <!-- all active CSS files -->
{{FILES_SCRIPTS}} <!-- all active JavaScript files -->Why Placeholders Are Worth Learning
- Edit once, change everywhere — update a shared header and every page that references it updates.
- Same template, different content — page data placeholders make one layout work for all pages.
- Automatic resource handling — file placeholders respect your loading and placement settings.
There are many more placeholders, and the Structure type uses a dedicated visual editor for placing them. The Advanced Template Reference includes a full placeholder list and complete examples for each type.
Activating, Defaults & Associations
Three settings determine how the system actually uses your templates.
Active vs. inactive
The checkbox on each row controls whether a template is live. Build and test in the inactive state, then activate when you are ready — and keep previous versions inactive as instant rollbacks.
Defaults
One Page Layout and one Structure can be marked as the system default. The default layout is applied to new pages automatically, and the default structure is associated with new layouts. Default templates are protected from deletion, and only one of each type can hold the role.
Structure association
On the Page Layout tab, each layout has a dropdown for choosing which Structure template wraps it. This is what lets you run different document shells — for example a standard page versus a print or AMP variant — from the same content.
A Page Layout row showing its Structure association dropdown and the Default selector.
A Safe Working Rhythm
Recommended Workflow
- Build inactive — create new templates with the active toggle off so the live site is untouched while you work.
- Test deliberately — activate temporarily to verify, then deactivate until you are ready for production.
- Stage your switch — when the new version is ready, activate it and leave the previous version inactive as a backup.
- Name with intent — descriptive, versioned names ("Header v2", "Mobile Nav 2025") keep the list readable and rollbacks obvious.
- Clean up later — only delete old templates once the replacement is confirmed working.
Where to Next
You now know the full create-edit-save loop and how the pieces relate. Each template type has its own methods and the kind of content that belongs in it — that is covered separately so this page stays easy to follow.
Advanced Template Reference
Each template type in depth — Shared, Structure (with the visual line editor), Page Layouts, CSS and JavaScript files — with real content examples for each.