Using Aurora Page Templates
The Page Templates area of the Designer empowers you to create customized experiences for your community visitors across several different page types. With page templates, you can add or remove sections and widgets, customize individual page components, and build out a unique experience for each type of page featured on your site—all from a simple, intuitive user interface.
- Page Templates vs. Themes
- Access the Page Templates tool
- Access a template's edit page
- Basic functionality
For a list and description of available page templates, see About Page Templates.
Page Templates vs. Themes
The Page Templates tool gives you control over page templates as well as the sections and widgets included within. The Theme, controlled through the Theme editor, applies across all of your page templates.
Access the Page Templates tool
Authenticated members with roles that grant them permission to use page templates can access the tool by opening the Account menu and clicking Designer.
On the Designer page, you can choose between the Theme and Page Templates options.
The Theme editor is where you can modify the look and feel of the community. This includes the color scheme, fonts, and other visual elements.
The Page Templates editor is where you can select from available page templates to customize the layout and configuration of your community pages.
Access a template's edit page
Hovering your cursor over one of the items in the Page Templates list reveals Edit and Settings buttons. Opening the Settings menu gives you the option to reset the template's layout to its default settings.
Click Edit to go to the template's edit page where you can change its layout, add and remove widgets, preview changes for multiple device types, and publish them to your community.
Access another page template within the editor
While using the page template editor, you can switch to another page template by selecting it from the page template picker.
You can also return to the full page template list by clicking View All Page Templates in the drop-down menu.
Basic functionality
The page templates feature has tools that make it easy to create, organize, and customize the user experience across your community. Everything you need to create and arrange sections, add and customize widgets, and preview changes for various device types are readily accessible from the main Page Templates interface.
Preview and Zoom
Prior to publishing any changes to your live site, you can not only zoom in on page content, but you can also preview your page templates as they would appear on several common device types. Click the Desktop, Tablet, or Phone icons to see how the page template appears to visitors on the target device type.
After you have finished previewing your changes, click the active icon again to return to the editable page templates view.
Page Overview
The Page Overview presents a list of current sections as they appear on the page template. You can rearrange sections by clicking the dotted lines to the left of each section title and dragging them into a new position.
You can add new sections by clicking Add Section. To edit and configure sections, click a section name to go to the Edit Section panel.
Section and Widget controls
Controls for sections and widgets are located across the page templates tool.
1 – Add section
2 – Section controls
3 – Widget controls
For sections, you have many of the same options found on the Page Overview, including section creation, arrangement, and removal.
Using the editor, you can arrange, configure, and remove widgets using the widget controls. Clicking the Settings icon opens the widget's options panel, enabling you to configure the widget's settings.
With some sections and widgets, you may be prevented from adding, editing, removing, and/or moving content to prevent issues with the page template. For more information, see Create and arrange sections in a Page Template.
Publish changes
After you have made all of your desired changes, click Publish to make them live in your community, or click Cancel to revert to the original state.
When you click Save and Publish, the changes you make are published immediately on any pages using the page template you edited.
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