A core feature in Thrive Architect is that you can save any element or group of elements as you own custom content template. Creating and re-using your very own custom designs has never been easier!
And in the latest version of Thrive Architect, content templates have been made even better! Watch this video to discover how to save, load and manage content templates (plus a few handy bonus tips).
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As mentioned in the video, it's important to distinguish between content templates and Symbols. To learn more about the Symbols feature, check out his post.
Do you have any questions about these features? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
One of my favorite aspects of TCB is how slick and fast the interface is. With this new content template feature it just turbo charged page development.
Great Job!
Thank you, Robert! Speed is a very important consideration in our products. Since I use the products myself and I am constantly creating sales pages, landing pages etc., it’s something I pay very close attention to myself.
Awesome content once again Shane.
This really is the plugin that keeps on giving.
Thank you 🙂
Thanks, Kevin! It will keep on giving for a long time to come.
Great stuff! Your updates and support should be the standard for all businesses.
Thank you very much, Sarge. We do our best!
It gets mind-bogglingly better and better! 🙂
Thanks for all this great work. Kudos to the entire team.
Trevor
Thank you, Trevor! It won’t stop getting better anytime soon. 🙂
Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. Love ways to help people be “legally lazee” BizOwners and you’re really doing that. Keep this up and I’ll be able to get rid of another of my plugins (that one lets you save the content and update it in multiple places at the same time).
Awesome!
Haha, I like the expression “legally lazee”. But in all seriousness: automation is one of the main points about technology, so we try to automate and “shortcut-ize” as much as we can, in our products.
you guys continue to exceed expectations…I don’t use ANYTHING else now! Thank you for making my online life SO easy!
That’s great to hear, Noelene! You’ll love some of the upcoming features and templates as well, I’m sure. 🙂
Wow fantastic. This has been missing from WordPress for a long time.
It makes WP much more powerful and easier to work with.
Yes, it’s another “convenience” addition. I’m really fond of this kind of thing myself, I have to admit. 🙂
Shane,
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post on one of your past updates, I will always do my utmost to ensure your product is as exposed to others as much as possible within my capabilities at every turn.
You truly deserve nothing but good fortune and continued success with such a tremendously stellar and heads-above-the-rest product AND customer service! Simply outstanding in all you do.
Mark
Thank you very much, Mark! I appreciate your support very much and it’s great to read encouraging comments such as this one.
Can this be used to insert Adsense ads in posts?
I was thinking if it’s possible to use this to insert Adsense or similar ads in locations where it is not possible to do with a regular plugin!
Yes, you can insert the AdSense code as a custom HTML element and save it as a content template.
Yet another awesome time saving feature.
Shane, you and the ThriveThemes team are the masters at over delivering.
What next?
Thank you, John.
We snuck a few more features into the latest version of TCB and I’ll be demoing them in a new video shortly.
Hello Shane,
Quick questions:
1. Can I use your content builder to build a website with separate pages and different tabs in the Navigation menu? Or is it made only for one page sites?
2. The agency license for $ 199 will allow me to use TCB on all my clients sites with lifetime unlimited updates without being charged any yearly recurring fees?
3. Are you currently running any promotional offers or discounts on the agency license?
Thanks
Ziad
Hello Ziad, in answer to your questions:-
1- Not sure what you mean by this. You can use the content builder to create blog posts or pages using your theme or you can use the landing pages to create pages that are completely separate from your theme.
2- Yes. Support access lasts for a year – one year from the date of purchase.
3- No, the only prices currently available are on our site
Shane, just wanted to say TCB rocks! I spend more time on actual wording of content than worrying about how to build a page, which is the way it should be. Just a couple of questions, if I may:
– when I post a link on Facebook to a WordPress post built with TCB that contains a YouTube video, there is no “preview” image of that YouTube video. Is this an issue of something to change in the WordPress post or TCB?
– I’m using the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast and it doesn’t see any of the TCB content. Any way around that?
– I use my iPad when out and about. I noticed that TCB works great even on an iPad. However, drag & drop of elements does not. Any fix for that?
Thanks! Love your explainer videos 🙂
Steve
Hello Steve,
Thanks for your comment!
I don’t know about the Facebook thing. Do you normally get the video embedded in the Facebook stream just by having it embedded in the post? If so, I don’t see why the same wouldn’t be true for TCB content, unless the video was embedded with some plugin.
We’ve made sure that TCB content is compatible with Yoast’s SEO plugin. If this isn’t working for you, please post about it in the support forum.
We haven’t designed TCB to be compatible with touchscreen devices. We may update that at some point in the future, but since 99%+ of users edit their pages on desktop devices it’s a very low priority task for us.
Hi Shane…
You and the Team just keep raising the bar! Once again, my hat is off to you.
Whats missing now is a place that all the creative people you’ve inspired and now using TCB can upload their templates in a member forum to vote on and share. *hint, hint 🙂
Great work.
JM
Thank you, John! We do have a showcase forum, although there’s no specific voting for the submissions there, yet.
Hi Shane,
I’m aware of the showcase. It would be nice to have a place that your more creative clients could share their layouts. Many people have difficulty getting the right base for their page idea (landing page. Membership pages for audio, video, downloads. Testimonial pages. etc.) A place that your clients could share templates that others could download and use. Voting would make it easy to find the popular and useful ones. This would create value for you and your clients, save time and spread the usefulness for many people.
Ah, I see. Yes, that’s a cool idea. I’d like to have something like that in the member’s area. Unfortunately, it will be quite a long time before we get around to doing this. I’ll add it to my ideas list, though.
John, great idea. I’ve been thinking the same thing. If interested, contact me at http://www.SteveAtwal.com/Contact as I may have a solution. Cheers
I’ve just discovered Thrive Content Builder and these short videos have convinced me that it’s a must-have tool.
Question – can these content elements be exported or somehow used between websites?
Hello Fred,
No, we currently don’t have an import/export feature yet. It’s something we intend to add, though.
Great question. Was wondering the same thing. And looking forward to the export/import features. That will definitely save us some time creating similar pages/posts on multiple sites. Liking TCB more and more every day I use it 🙂
Thank you, Steve! I’m sure the team can make a good import/export feature happen at some point.
Another vote for the export function. 🙂
1.5+ years later, is import/export available?
We introduced it last year, yes: import/export feature.
Purchasing your themes and plugin has been one of my best investments this year. And it keeps getting better. Top notch product and service.
Thank you, Claude! We aim to keep adding to the value of that purchase. 🙂
Any idea when an Export/Import feature will be added? Right now we just backup a whole site and upload it to another domain – like a standard WP transfer – but an Export/Import function would sure make it easier! 🙂
Hello Carmela,
Unfortunately, I can’t give a date for this feature yet. We haven’t started development on it and it’s still in an uncertain position in our development queue.
I was just about to ask about this feature. I build a lot of sites for clients and it would be great if I could just import a “review page” template each time.
….another vote for the export/import feature…..
Oh yes! I’m definitly voting for export/import content templates !
Thank you for the suggestion, Jean! We’ll see what we can do. 🙂
Looking for this feature too so I can create a bunch of content elements and build prototypes faster.
Hi Shane, Pre sales question
I am v. Interested in Thrive Builder, we currently use as our main Theme base Gensis by stuiopress and one of their child themes.
***Can static home pages and their main content be built and found by google ok etc? (and your background code used is fine – not bloated) if we use your Thrive builder combined with say Yoast SEO plugin ….
Or do you advise not really for home pages (but use your builder for a all other types sales pages landing pages etc)
Thanks
Jenny
Hello Jenny,
From the perspective of a search engine, there’s no difference between content created with the Content Builder and content created with the WordPress editor. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of SEO, when you use this plugin.
Not sure of you reply in term of Yoast seo can you use that or not with combining Thrive to build a page?
To Clarify my last post above:
Can you use the yoast seo plugin to set the meta description tiles etc for the actual page you have built with thrive is my key question?
(So obviously you access this via regular wp editor and I thin you can go back and fro between thrive to do this etc if I am correct?
many thanks
Jenny
re: content templates import/export feature.
I understand it’s not there. but is it possible to do it manually and find a certain content templates from a file on the server and copy to another wordpress installation? ín other words, where is the content template file
btw, thanks for a very fine plugin
regards Hans Ronne
The content is in the database, so copying and pasting it is a bit more complicated than copying a file. The easier way to copy a template between sites is to open the HTML source code view, copy all of it and paste it into the HTML source code view on the other site.
OMG! This is AWESOME Shane! I didn’t realise I could do all of this with TCB. The more I see, the more I love your product suite! Great job to you & your team.
It’s a very powerful feature indeed. 🙂
Is the template export feature on the roadmap yet?
Yes I’ve been working on the mockups for this feature so it’s on its way
It’s on the roadmap, yes. 🙂
I really look forward to the export template feature as well.
Awesome, Paul! Any kind of eta, i.e. by the end of this year? 1st quarter next year? Thanks for the info!
Honestly Shane, this is genius. I keep discovering new and exciting ways to use Thrive Content Builder. Nothing else comes close. Your practical, time saving, (without compromise) ideas never cease to amaze me.
Thank you very much, Joan!
If I save a content template from one page that I am using Thrive themes to work with content, can I expect to see the same content template in the drop down menu to select from on another page in the same website? Just a bit confused.
Yes, the content templates you save are available across your entire site.
I’ve tried to make a Review-type content box to save as a Content Template, but can’t make one that looks like yours which works well in mobile; I get all the left-hand text in the table, followed by the right-hand text, which looks meaningless.
Do you have an example of how to create a mobile-friendly table?
P.S. I love the idea of the Content Templates
Hi Rachel,
You can find all of the elements in the video (including the review box), inside the landing page templates themselves.
Create a Test page, and change its template to a Landing Page. Then, that review box Shane shows in the video is found in the REVIEW landing page Template, inside the “Review Page” (the first one).
Then, simply save it as content template or a symbol… or simply use the entire review page, as it is very nicely designed.
I am so glad that I rewatched this with my full attention. Thanks so much! I now understand what content template is. I do wish you had a few content templates already installed because for me it is easier to copy ideas vs. making them up on my own. But it’s ok I’ll get’er done! Thank you again for a great product!
There is a huge problem with this feature (sorry Shane!):
1. I choose a landing page, do some customization and then save it as a Content Template.
2. I switch to a normal site (with header and footer) and then load the saved Content Template.
3. Ouch, now the design looks completely different.
Why I do such an evil thing?
Just because I try to have a landing page with a footer and a header (which is quite important to build trust, I guess).
And as I can see in the forum, I am not the only one. Unfortunately there is no useful response from the support. BTW: To tell me that Landing Pages should have no header is NOT a useful answer … There are enough spoofy guys out there with their cheap looking sales page without header etc., leaving the visitor alone, not knowing where he has landed right now.
Is there a time saving workaround for this problem? I know, I can manually recreate the content of a landing page on a “normal” page template, but this is a little tedious. Any suggestions?
It’s actually fairly easy, I had this problem myself.
1. Create a normal page with the site header and footer
2. Insert a background section that stretches the whole width of the page, and give it a white background
3. Add however much padding you need on the top and bottom to fill any gaps
(4. Add whatever elements you would like inside the background section)
5. Save as content template
Now you can just drop that template into any “normal” page with the theme header and footer, and customize the look as you want, just like you would with any TA “landing” page.
If you plan to have several background sections (different colors, content widths etc) you can make two templates: top section, bottom section, where you adjust the padding so they neatly join the theme elements at the header and footer. Then, you simply insert any new sections in between on any individual page.
So it’s doable.
I agree that it’s a bit cumbersome however, and it would be great to have the option to have the theme header and footer on any TA page simply by flipping a switch in the sidebar.
Each landing page loads it’s own styles and when you take the content out of the landing page and add it to a theme page, the theme styles interfere with it.
The better approach is to save your site’s header and footer as a Symbol and add that to your landing page.
That was my first approach as well, but I always ended up with something that did not resemble the theme header at all. Specifically, I wasn’t able to replicate the look of the menu. That creates a big problem with the user experience.
So I had to fall back on the above solution and deal with the interference from the theme. If you could publish a tutorial to simulate the theme headers, that would be great.
We’re going to release a new menu element soon, which should help with this.
Actually that would help a lot. I really struggle with Headers – maybe I just don’t understand WordPress enough
Has the new menu element been released yet?
Yes. 🙂
How do I update a content template? I am using content template to have a consistent header for some of my pages. And I would want to update the content template so that all the pages gets updated.
Shane, I read a comment of yours saying that I would have to copy the HTML if I wanted to transfer content template to a different website (using regular pages, not landing pages). If I copy the HTML to another website with content builder installed would it still be editable with the content builder on the new side? Or is it “hardcoded” on the new page as if I had build it using the regular WordPress builder?
I created a content template and used it 37 times on my site. Now I need to make a change to the template. Do I have to make 37 changes, or is there a way to edit the base template I originally created?
The styles and content are not shared among the templates. If you need to make a style change only, you can do it using custom CSS. Otherwise, the only way to go is to make the change 37 times, I’m afraid…
Hi Shane, do you have instructions on how to make this change through CSS?
Content Templates are awesome but would be even better if you could have a mixture of components that were common (like style) and components (like text) that could be edited per instance.
Where do I manage my saved templates? I want to delete a couple. 🙂 Love Thrive Architect!
Hi Robert,
In your Thrive Dashboard, hover on the “more” icon (3 dots) in the top left corner of the Thrive Architect card. Then click on “Content Templates”. Here, you’ll see all your templates and you can delete the ones you no longer want to use.
Hi Shane, I can’t find a way to delete the saved templates. Does this work on the latest version of Thrive Architect? Thanks!
Simply one of the most useful and time-saving features in the whole software.
If I could make a suggestion, a welcome improvement would be the chance to add an image (screenshot, whatever) as the token image for the template, as the ones that are displayed automatically do a rather poor job at representing the template in question.
But other than that, it’s awesome.
Thank you for your suggestion, Lorenzo! I’ll take this up with the developers. We’re getting better at auto-generating those previews, but it’s true that for templates, they sometimes miss the mark by a wide margin. 🙂
Thanks for this new feature. First up all, I have to accustom with this feature. Your guidance is clear, let me try it out. Thanks for your guidance.
Thanks for your comment, Saleem!
Great feature, as always, Thrive continues to lead the market. Keep it steady guys, excellent work!!!!
Thank you very much, Leo!
Great job, thanks Shane & Thrivethemes team. We are still so limited on customization of posts, please think and work about it, or if I am missing something please point me in correct direction…
We’re working on that. We don’t have anything released yet, but it’s coming…
Hi Shane, i’ve become quite a power user of your products, building many different sites. I seem to remember somewhere that you would be developing a “blank’ theme. One where you dont have to use any elements of an existing theme. The main problem i encounter is the editng/styling of the menu in your themes. Doing this seems to make the mobile versions of the menu not work correctly. Being able to style a header, even to make it transparent and fixed would be a very cool improvement, and would complete FULL design capabilities with your product.
Yes, that is exactly the trajectory we are headed towards. Make you own headers, page templates, archives etc. all with the power of Thrive Architect editing.
How near are you to completing this? At the moment i’m using your Minus theme to build all my sites on as it’s the cleanest. It’s just the menu system that let’s me down. I’m very eager to remove this problem from my web designs.
I like your Content Pattern template. Now, instead of having to locate an entire blog template I use—which gets pushed down in the WordPress “Posts” area every time I create a new blog post—I can create these little snippets to use whenever I need them.
Another alternative is to just place everything from the template within a content container box and save the entire box as its own template. Yet another great reason why Thrive is the best!
Another awesome and super useful update Shane, great work Thrive team!
Just wondering… is there a way to use the Icon template as a shortcode that could be inserted in the posts that haven’t been built with TA? If not could it be a useful feature to add? 🙂
Love your work! Yes this update to Templates is seriously cool and I picked up a few tips watching the video even though I’ve been using the new feature since it was released.
Question: Is it possible to export/transfer Templates and Symbols between websites?
I love this feature Shane.
Why not use landing pages all the time? I saw some comments on this post talking about switching from landing page to normal page.
It seems to me that if you set up templates and symbols, you can use the landing pages for all of your content to keep the same look. (IMO)
I am now going to be using the landing page option to create my “blog posts” instead of regular posts since posts do not have the same customizability.
Will there be an update coming soon for blog posts to offer such awesome styling?
Voting yes on import/export as well 🙂
If only these worked for me on creating blog posts. I have tried to create a blog post layout using thrive and I get one little content box to add things into with no way to select any pre-made templates or a way to drag and drop multiple elements any where on the page like when I build a page. FRUSTRATING!
Hi Channing,
I’m sorry to hear you’re frustrated with this, without seeing your flow it’s hard to know what’s going wrong.
But if you’re writing a blog post in Thrive Architect, may I suggest checking out this video? You might see what you’re doing differently compared to the tutorial: https://thrivethemes.com/blog-post-thrive-architect/
When you change something in one elements, will the changes be copied over to other pages with that saved element? If so, this will be a killer feature!
Can I export my saved template to use for another website?