Adding and Customizing a Homepage Template in Thrive Theme Builder

Just as their name says, Homepage Templates are the types of templates that specifically suit the homepage of your website.

They are a little different from other template types because you have more ways of setting them up and customizing them. These are directly related to what option you choose when you set up your homepage at the fifth step of the Site Wizard.

There are three options you can choose from when completing this step:

• you can select one of the Ready-made Landing Page Templates for homepages (this will generate a homepage with the selected template),

• you can choose one of your existing pages like your homepage,

• or you can set your blog page to be your homepage.

After completing the Site Wizard, you can come back to this step anytime, if you want to use a different option for your homepage. All you will need to do is to click on the field with the current option, from the upper left part of the page:

Then, choose the option you want from the drop-down that opens, and select/set the homepage up accordingly:

Each of these three options comes with its own way of adding/setting up and customizing the homepage and its templates. Therefore, we will walk you through each three, so you can decide which one is the most suitable for you.

After selecting an option, you can check out what this means in terms of homepage templates in the “Templates” section of your Thrive Theme Builder dashboard. There you will also be able to add and/or customize the homepage templates accordingly.

Therefore, after completing the Site Wizard or changing the option in its homepage step, you should access the “Templates” section. To do that, click on it, from the left side of your Thrive Theme Builder dashboard:

Then, look for the “Active Homepage Template” and customize it (and/or add new ones), depending on the option you have chosen from the Site Wizard:

1. Ready-made Landing Page Templates

If you have chosen a Ready-made Landing Pages Template for your homepage, then a page will be generated automatically as your homepage, and you will be able to edit/customize it along with its template in the “Templates” section.

When you access the “Templates” section, you will find the Active Homepage under the “Single Content Templates” types:

Note: There are a few things to keep in mind if you have chosen a Ready-made Landing Pages Template for your homepage:

• In this case, you will not have the option of adding a specific homepage template (the option of choosing the “Homepage” Content Type, in the pop-up when adding a new template). This is because Landing Page Templates have their own design, so you will not need a separate template for them.

• Furthermore, the Homepage Template, in this case, will not have any managing options, as other regular templates do. This is also due to the fact that in this case, this is not a simple template, but a Landing Page Template.

Customize the Landing Page Template

In order to customize your Active Homepage and its template, hover over it and click on the “Edit Landing Page” option that appears:

Since this is a Landing Page Template for homepages, after you click on the edit option you will be taken directly to the Thrive Architect editor, instead of the Thrive Theme Builder editor.

This is so that you can customize your homepage directly from here. If you are unfamiliar with how Thrive Architect works, here is a quick start guide that can come in handy.

Here are some of the things you can do, in order to customize the homepage:

Select another template

If you wish you can change the Landing Page Template used on your homepage. To do that, click on the “Change Template” option (third option) from the right sidebar:

This will open a pop-up window with the available Landing Page Templates you can choose from, including the ones for homepages:

Click on the “Pre-build Landing Page” option to access the Landing Page templates:

And then go ahead and choose the desired one from the available templates.

We recommend finding and applying the suitable Landing Page Template before you customize any other aspect of this homepage. This is important because whenever you change the template, all the prior customization that you have made on the page will be lost.

Customize the content

You will see that the current Landing Page Template has default texts, images, buttons, etc. You should change each of the elements on this page to make them unique for your business.

Therefore, replace the texts with your own texts, change the images, add target links to buttons, etc. Whenever you click on one of the elements, you will see its options appear in the left sidebar.

You can use those options to customize the element. Do this for every element necessary, until you will have unique content on your homepage.

If you require detailed info on how to use various elements found on the page, please look for the tutorials about them in our knowledge base.

Add new elements and/or new Page Blocks

To customize your homepage even further, you can also add different elements to it. Click on the plus sign from the right sidebar:

This will open the list of available elements:

Look for the element you want to add (scroll down, if needed) and when you have found it, drag & drop it to the desired place on the page. Then, use its options from the left sidebar to customize it.

Moreover, if you wish, you can also use Page Blocks for an even faster customization process, as presented in this article.

Once you finish customizing the homepage, click on the “Save Work” button from the bottom-left part of the editor:

This way, your changes will be saved and your homepage will be set up.

2. An existing page set as the homepage

If in the Site Wizard, you have chosen and set up one of your existing pages like your homepage, then a default Theme Template will be applied to the respective page.

When you access the “Templates” section, you will find it under the “Single Content Templates” types, with the “Active Homepage” label:

Customize the Homepage Template

In order to be able to customize the default Homepage Template, you will need to edit it. To do that, hover over the template and click on the “Edit” option that appears:

Then, the Thrive Theme Builder editor will open and you can customize the template just like you would customize any other “Page Template”. If you need details on how to do this, take a look at this article.

3. The blog page set as the homepage

If in the Site Wizard, you have selected your blog page as your homepage, then the blog page will be designated as the homepage. Furthermore, a default “List Template” for blog pages, will be applied to the respective page.

When you access the “Templates” section, you will find it under the “List Templates” types, with the “Active Homepage” label:

Note: Please keep in mind that if you choose to set your blog page as your homepage:

• Similar to the first case described above, you will not have the option of adding a specific homepage template in this case either.

• Nevertheless, in this case, the “Managing Options” are available. So, if you do not want to work directly on the “Active Homepage Template”, you can simply duplicate it. Then, if you will like the customization you make on the duplicate of the template, you can set the respective template as the default, and that template will be applied to your blog page, which is your homepage now.

Customize the List Homepage Template

In order to be able to customize the “Active Homepage Template”, which in this case is a List Template (or its duplicate, if you have made one), you will need to edit it.

To do that, hover over the respective template and click on the “Edit” option that appears:

Then, the Thrive Theme Builder editor will open, and you will be able to customize the template the same way as you would customize any other List Templates. If you need detailed information on how to do this, check out the separate article we have on the subject here.

These were the ways in which you can add/customize the Homepage Template, based on which option you choose at the “Homepage” step of your Site Wizard.

If you want to get even more familiar with Thrive Theme Builder features and elements, check out the tutorials from this knowledge base section.

Hopefully, this article was useful for you. If so, please reward it with a smile below 🙂