In this article, you’ll learn what templates are in Thrive Theme Builder, the different template types available, and how templates relate to layouts. Understanding these concepts is essential before creating or customizing templates for your website.
What Is a Template?
A template is a reusable design that controls how a specific type of content looks on your website. When a visitor views a page, post, or archive on your site, Thrive Theme Builder automatically selects the appropriate template and uses it to render the page.
Templates define everything around your content—the header, footer, sidebar, typography, colors, and overall page structure. Your actual content (text, images, videos) is inserted into the template’s content area.
Every Thrive Theme Builder theme comes with a set of Core Templates—the default templates that define the baseline look of your website. You can customize these core templates or create additional ones to handle different content types.
Template Types
Thrive Theme Builder organizes templates into several types based on what kind of content they display.
Single Content Templates
Single content templates control how individual pages and posts look.
- Page Templates — Define the design for standard WordPress pages. Every theme includes a default page template.
- Post Templates — Define the design for blog posts. Posts also support post format variants:
– Standard — The default format for regular blog posts. – Video — For posts that feature a video as the primary content. – Audio — For posts that feature an audio player as the primary content. – Image — For posts that feature an image as the primary content.
- Custom Post Type Templates — Define the design for custom post types created by other plugins (e.g., WooCommerce products, portfolio items).
List Templates
List templates control how pages that display collections of posts look.
- Blog Template — Controls the appearance of your main blog page (the post list).
- Archive Templates — Control how category, tag, author, and date archive pages look.
- Search Template — Controls how the search results page looks.
Special Templates
- Homepage Template — Controls the appearance of your site’s homepage. Homepage templates offer additional customization options compared to standard page templates.
- 404 Error Template — Controls what visitors see when they access a page that doesn’t exist.
Core Templates
When you install a Thrive Theme Builder theme, it comes with a set of core templates—one default template for each major content type. These are the templates used across your website unless you create and assign alternatives.
The core templates typically include:
- A default Page template
- A default Post template (Standard format)
- A default Blog template (post list)
- A default Archive template (All Archives)
- A Homepage template
- A 404 Error template
- A Search template
You can view the core templates by going to the Templates section in the Thrive Theme Builder dashboard. The Core Templates view is selected by default.
Template Groups
The Templates section in the Thrive Theme Builder dashboard organizes templates into groups for easier navigation. Click the dropdown at the top of the template list to switch between groups:
- Core Templates — Shows only the default templates for each content type.
- Homepage Templates — Shows all homepage template variations.
- Archives — Shows all list templates (blog, search, archive templates).
- Custom Post Templates — Shows templates organized by content type:
– All Custom Posts — Templates for custom post types. – Posts — All post templates (default and custom). – Pages — All page templates (default and custom).
- All Templates — Shows every template in the theme.
Note: The selected view persists until you change it. If you select All Templates, that view remains active the next time you visit the Templates section.
Templates vs. Layouts
Templates and layouts are related but serve different purposes.
Templates
A template is the complete design applied to a page. It includes:
- The header section
- The footer section
- The content area
- The sidebar (if any)
- Typography and color settings
- All structural elements
You assign templates to pages, posts, and other content types.
Layouts
A layout is the structural arrangement within a template. It determines:
- Whether a sidebar is displayed
- Whether the sidebar appears on the left or right
- The width of the content area
- The overall page structure (full-width, boxed, with sidebar, etc.)
When editing a template in the Thrive Theme Builder editor, you can access the layout settings through the breadcrumbs at the top. The breadcrumbs show the template’s structural hierarchy:
- [Template Name] Settings — The outermost wrapper for the entire template.
- Layout Container — The main structural container that controls content width (Boxed or Full Width).
- Content Wrapper — The container that holds the content area and sidebar, with controls for sidebar position and visibility.
Click on any of these in the breadcrumbs to select it and adjust its settings in the left sidebar.
Key distinction: A template is the whole reusable design. A layout is the structural framework within that template.
Previewing vs. Applying a Template
These are two different operations:
- Previewing — Lets you see how a template looks with sample content without making any changes. In the editor, use the Content dropdown to select different content for preview. This is non-destructive—your pages and posts remain unchanged.
- Applying — Assigns a template to a specific page or post, changing how that content appears on the live site. This commits your design choices.
Always preview a template before applying it to live content to make sure it looks the way you want.
How Template Selection Works
When a visitor loads a page on your site, Thrive Theme Builder automatically selects the appropriate template using this priority:
- Custom template assignment — If you’ve manually assigned a specific template to a page or post, that template is used.
- Post format match — For posts, if a template matching the post’s format (video, audio, image) exists, it’s used.
- Specific archive match — For archive pages, if a template exists for the specific category, tag, or taxonomy term, it’s used.
- General type match — If no specific match is found, the default template for that content type is used.
This priority system means you can create targeted templates for specific categories or tags while relying on default templates for everything else.
Related Resources
- Navigating the Templates Section: Learn how to browse, filter, and search templates.
- Creating Post Templates: Learn how to create and customize post templates.
- Creating Page Templates: Learn how to create and customize page templates.