Content Templates

Both pages and paragraphs may be saved as content templates – copies of pages/paragraphs with preconfigured content. When a user then creates a new page or paragraph they will be able to select these preconfigured pages & paragraphs in addition to default & item-based paragraphs & pages.

For paragraphs, the content templates are listed above the default options under a category label (Figure 1.1). For pages, the content templates are simply available alongside other page types.

Figure 1.1 Paragraph content templates

Content templates are always based on an existing page or paragraph – one which is presumably preconfigured in a way which makes sense to reuse elsewhere on the website:

  • For page content templates:
    1. Open the page
    2. Switch to the Tools tab
    3. Click Save as template
  • For paragraph content templates
    1. Open the page containing the paragraph
    2. Open the paragraph
    3. Switch to the Advanced tab
    4. Click Save as template

In both cases you should see the dialog in Figure 1.2 which is used to configure the content template.

Figure 1.2 Creating a content template

You can:

  • Name the content template – the default name is the name of the saved page/paragraph
  • Enter a description
  • Select/upload an image – this is the image which shows up when selecting the content template

You can also create or select a template category – it determines where in the paragraph or page selector the content template shows up when creating new content.

When you create your first content template, a folder called Paragraph templates/Page templates is generated in the content tree. Paragraph templates are located under a “page”, with each page corresponding to the content template category. Page content templates are simply created as pages.

To edit a content template, follow the same procedure as when you created them – open the Tools or Advanced tabs and click Template settings.

To make sure the thumbnail shown for a content template - e.g. in the visual editor - is always up to speed you can toggle automatic thumbnail generation for content templates:

  • Go to Settings > Control Panel > Template Thumbnails and activate the feature
  • Select a folder and an image format
  • Specify a width and height in pixels
  • Save

Once this feature has been activated, every time a content template is accessed a thumbnail is generated and saved in the specified folder.