Custom page template to pre-set layout options and ensure consistency

  • Am I thinking about this in the right way?

    I want to create a template page for ‘standard content’ so my several authors can login, pick that template and start writing. The goal is that I’d design the page with it’s specific settings for ‘Qode Header, Footer, Title’ etc and those settings would carry over to all new pages under that template. This ensures consistency between all new pages created, saves time spent setting all of the options on each individual page, allows updates to be made on an template basis rather than editing and updating loads of pages.

    Is this possible?

    Thanks,
    Chad

    PS: I’m using WordPress 4.9.8 running Bridge Child theme 16.6 from Qode themes, but I assume the above would apply regardless of the theme you’re using. Of course, the template would need to be theme specific.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

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  • Not quite the way you describe it.
    I haven’t used the theme or child theme you have, but it is unlikely that the specific settings are coded into the page template. It is more likely that the “standard” settings would be set in the Customizer, and anything non-standard would be in a page template or an Advanced option or coded into your child theme.

    The content area, which is the meat of the post/page, is like a black box to the theme. The theme styles the HTML elements it contains, but should not affect the actual content in any way. That means the theme controls the layout of the page, but that is just the “boxes” of the header, title, content, sidebar, comments, footer, etc. So your authors already have a way to enter content and have them all alike. The content itself is different, but the pages look alike.

    There are plugins to provide content templates that you can define, such as indicating where images should go or all the pieces to a table or something that you want them all to do the same way. That is out of scope for a theme, but it is part of the new editor Gutenberg, which is still in plugin form right now.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
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