One page needs to look different from the rest. Maybe your landing page for an ad campaign should stretch edge to edge with no sidebar, or your contact page should drop the big title your theme puts at the top. You go looking for a “layout” setting and find a small dropdown called Template, with options you have never noticed.
That dropdown is where WordPress page templates live. A template decides the frame around your content: whether there is a sidebar, how wide the content runs, whether the title shows, and sometimes whether the header and footer appear at all. What follows covers changing it, getting a full width page, and why the options differ so much from one theme to the next.
What WordPress page templates control, and what they do not
Think of a page as two layers. Your content, the text, images and blocks you add in the editor, is the inner layer. The template is the outer layer: the header, the footer, any sidebar, and the width and spacing of the area your content sits in.
Changing a page’s template changes that outer layer for that page only. Your content stays exactly as it is. Switching from “Default” to “Full Width” and back again does not lose anything you wrote, which makes this a safe setting to experiment with.
What a template does not do is restyle your blocks. If the text is too small or the buttons are the wrong colour, that is a styling question for the theme, not a template one.
Find out which kind of theme you have
Templates work differently in block themes and classic themes, so check this first.
- If Appearance → Editor exists in your dashboard, and there is no Appearance → Customize by default, you are using a block theme. The recent default themes, Twenty Twenty-Four and Twenty Twenty-Five, are both of this kind.
- If you see Appearance → Customize, Widgets and Menus, you have a classic theme. Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence and many premium themes fall here, though several of them now come in block versions too.
If you are not sure what your theme is called, our explanation of WordPress themes shows how to identify it and what it is responsible for. Themes have a whole section of their own in our complete WordPress guide.
Changing the template on a single page
The setting lives in the same place for both theme types:
- Open the page in the editor (the WordPress block editor guide covers its layout).
- Open the settings sidebar and choose the Page tab.
- Find Template. It shows the current one, usually “Default template” or simply “Pages”.
- Click it and choose another from the list.
- Save or update the page, then view it on the front end.
If there is no Template option at all, your theme offers only one page layout. That is common with simpler themes. In that case, look for a theme layout panel instead, described below.
Posts can have templates too, but far fewer themes provide alternatives for them, so the option is often missing on posts even when pages have it.
How to make a full width page in WordPress
“Full width” means slightly different things in different themes, which is part of the confusion. It can mean the sidebar is removed, so content fills the space where the sidebar was. Or it can mean the content area itself stretches to the edges of the browser window. Here is how to get each.
In a classic theme
Many classic themes include a template with a name like Full Width, No Sidebar or Blank. Choose it from the Template list. Some also have a “canvas” or blank template that hides the header and footer, which is meant for landing pages where you build everything yourself.
Popular themes such as Astra, GeneratePress and Kadence also add their own layout controls for each page, separate from the Template list. Depending on the theme, these appear as a panel in the editor sidebar or a box below the content, and offer choices like sidebar position, content width, and whether to show the title. Check there before assuming your theme cannot do it. If your aim is specifically to remove or add a sidebar, our post on removing the sidebar in WordPress goes through it in more detail.
In a block theme
Block themes rarely have sidebars, so the question is usually about width. The template sets a content width, but individual blocks can break out of it:
- Select a Group, Cover or Image block.
- In the block toolbar, open the alignment control.
- Choose Wide width or Full width.
A full width Cover block with a centred heading inside gives you the edge-to-edge banner most people are after. Default block themes such as Twenty Twenty-Four usually include extra templates in the Template list, such as one without the page title, which helps when you want the page to open with your own banner instead.
With a page builder
Elementor adds two templates to the list: Elementor Full Width, which keeps your theme’s header and footer but removes the theme’s content box, and Elementor Canvas, which removes the header and footer entirely. Canvas is handy for a campaign landing page and confusing everywhere else, because visitors lose your menu.
Editing or creating templates in a block theme
In a block theme, templates are not fixed. You can open and change them in the Site Editor, under Appearance → Editor → Templates. Changing the Pages template there changes every page that uses it, so treat it like editing your header: carefully, and with the knowledge that it affects the whole site.
To make a layout for just a few pages, create a new template instead. From the Template setting on a page, recent versions let you create a custom template, give it a name, and design it. It then appears in the Template list for every page, and you can apply it where you need it. If you change a theme template and regret it, the Site Editor lets you reset it to the theme’s original. Our guide to the Site Editor and template parts explains that screen and how to edit it without surprises.
In a classic theme, templates are PHP files in the theme folder. Creating one is developer work and belongs in a child theme, so that a theme update does not wipe it out.
When the template change does not show
- The page looks the same after you switch. Clear your caching plugin and your browser cache, then reload. Caching is the most common reason a template change seems to do nothing.
- The page is your homepage or blog page. Themes often use a separate template for the front page or the posts page that overrides the per-page choice. In a block theme, look for a Front Page, Home or Blog Home template in the Site Editor.
- The theme layout panel overrides the template. In some classic themes, the per-page layout options win over the Template dropdown. Set both to match.
- You switched theme recently. Templates belong to the theme. If you change theme, pages that used a template the new theme does not have fall back to its default. Check your important pages after any theme change.
Template choices that backfire
- Using a blank or canvas template on a normal page, then wondering why visitors cannot find the menu.
- Editing the main Pages template in the Site Editor when you only meant to change one page.
- Copying a custom template file into a parent theme folder by hand. The next theme update will remove it.
- Adding empty blocks or spacers to fake a wider layout instead of using alignment or the right template.
Frequently asked questions
Will changing a page template affect my SEO?
Not directly. The address, title and content stay the same, so search engines see the same page in a different frame. Indirect effects are possible: a template that removes your menu or footer also removes links to other pages, and a layout that hides the main heading may change how the page reads. Check both.
Why does my theme offer only one template?
Some themes are designed with one page layout and handle variation through their own settings panel or through blocks instead. That is a design choice, not a fault. If you need a layout the theme cannot provide, a page builder, a different theme, or a small custom template in a child theme are the usual routes.
Can I set a default template for all new pages?
WordPress uses the theme’s default page template for every new page, and core has no setting to change which one that is. In a block theme you can edit the default Pages template itself. Some classic themes have a global layout option in their settings that sets the sidebar and width for all pages at once.
Is the Elementor Canvas template bad for visitors?
It is fine for a single-purpose landing page, where you deliberately want no distractions and you have built your own navigation or call to action. On ordinary pages it is a poor choice, because visitors lose the header, menu and footer they use to move around your site and find your contact details.
A service page design that needs its own structure across the whole site is more than a template dropdown or a theme panel can give you. Our WordPress theme customisation service deals with changes at that level.
Next in this series: WordPress Categories vs Tags: How to Use Each
