Change member pages to single column template

Each member’s “page” is actually a “post” as they are all saved as a custom post type. The member post will use the same template that your current theme uses for standard posts. There is no option, even with regular post types, to select a template in the post editor. You are stuck with whatever your theme has set for the post template, UNLESS you create a new template for the custom post type.

I follow the guidelines that plugins should focus on functionality, while themes focus on appearance. If I included a template for the member custom post type, it would either need to be copied to your theme’s template directory, or I would have to intercept the template lookup and force my own template in there. Either way, it would then screw up the appearance of your site since my template would be different than what your theme is using for the rest of the site.

What you need to do to make a full width template for the member post type is to either create a new template for your theme, or copy and rename the template you want to use. Note that a full width PAGE template may or may not work very well as a full width POST template, but that might be the first thing to try… copy the full width page template to a new file in your theme’s template directory and name it:

single-member.php

See these links for more info about templates and template hierarchy:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Post_Type_Templates
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Template_Hierarchy

Thanks for getting back to me so soon. I reviewed the links provided and was concerned as to the post type. You stated it’s custom so would I then use single-{custom}.php and then go from there? Sorry still getting to know WP.

Wait think I’ve found it… “member” ?

Yes… the post type is member. Replace {custom} with member … So, as I showed above, the template file you need to create would need to be named exactly this way:

single-member.php

However, depending on what theme you are using, you may want to look at your theme options, as many themes allow you to choose a template for posts (but you don’t select it on the edit post screen, it will be somewhere in the theme options). IF your theme has a setting to determine what type of template to use for posts, that will affect all post types that don’t have their own custom template… so, in that case, there would be no need to create the single-member.php file. Or, even if you do choose that for regular posts, you can still override it for members by creating that single-member.php template file (as detailed in the WordPress page on Template Hierarchy).