This is a follow-on from my article called: How To Make WordPress Look Like a Website, where we walked through changing which page shows up as the home page for your WordPress website. The idea was to make it look more like a web site rather than a blog.
We changed the front page, but were left with the Page title and Sidebar still. So what if we want to completely customize our home page?
WordPress Page Templates are the answer
WordPress provides a clever way to do this called Custom Page Templates. To create a WordPress Page Template, you’ll need to use your text editor. Go to the directory on your server where you installed WordPress, and then navigate to the directory of your theme. Usually that looks something like this: “/wp-content/themes/default” where “default” is your theme name.
That’s where you will create your custom page template file. Create a file called “cover_page.php” and add the following code to it:
<?php /* Template Name: Cover Page */ ?> <?php get_header(); ?> Here's my cover page! <?php get_footer(); ?>
The Template Name: Cover Page tells WordPress that this will be a custom page template, where Cover Page is the name that will show up in the drop down selector when you create your page.
The other lines in this file simply include the header and footer of your blog. You can add any HTML that you want to display on your page in the middle.
That’s it – now you have a custom page template!
Creating a Page Based on Your Custom Page Template
Now all you need to do is create a new Page in WordPress:
and assign your new custom page template to it:
Now you will have a completely blank home page, with only the header and footer for your site. You can add ANY code you want to this page and customize it until your heart is content.
One caveat though – you’ll find that any content you put into the “page” you created in the WordPress editor will not show up here. Since you are overriding the page with a custom page template, you’ll need to add your content to the cover_page.php file that you created in order for it to show up.
Once you have the page looking the way you want it, go into Settings -> Reading in your WordPress Admin panel and set the “Front page displays” settings to look like this:
Now your custom page will be the first thing visitors see when they come to your website!
Here’s a video walkthrough: Creating WordPress Page Templates.
Update: watch this video to see how to create a custom page template that is editable from the visual WordPress editor!
See my WordPress Powered Websites series for more WordPress articles, tips and tricks for small business websites!
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For some reason his site takes a long time to respond, even on my cable speed. This guy created a child theme based on Twenty Ten, which I decided to use for my client’s site. It’s a nice theme with tons more customizations than that new default theme.
A WP.org forum moderator is helping me figure all this out. He was kind enough to implement all this on his test site and give me access so I could check it out. Now I’m just trying to figure out all the different parts so I can make it work on my client’s site.
What a guy
Thanks Don! I can’t believe I didn’t know the simple templates code in WP. I’m implementing this on my blog today. You rock!
–Corey
Don,
Command prompt isn’t recognizing the code. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Gina, this needs to be done on your host where you have WordPress installed. Is that where you are trying to make the changes?
I have checked all the thing and it’s not working..
Hi Mujahid,
What isn’t working for you? Can you give me some details on what you are seeing?
Everything is working. Thank you for the good tips.
Briliant man ! I was searching for post like this for 2 days. Finnaly I found the answer of me question. Thank you
Don – thank you!! I have hand crafted websites for year – just recently realized I needed a tool like WordPress…and your article was HUGE in getting me pointed in the right direction.
Hi Don, I followed your instructions, but I still end up with the comment box between the header and footer. Thank you for any help on this problem.
Thank You!
Nice tip and working great, WP 2.9.2
thank you for you help Don.
Your tips helped me to launch my own website
Good article! Thank you!
Hi, I really just want to get rid of the Home Label but keep the side bar menu as-is. Is there any simple way of doing this?
thanx Don
Nice article. Thanks for the help.
this is is a nice tutorial ,i got the idea of making custom template.
hello there! thanks for the tutorials, but i do have some questions. Is this still updated tutorials? because i follow all your instructions and it seems it doesnt work for me. even the template, it doesnt appear.
@cute – Yes this is still current. What kind of problem are you having? When you say the template doesn’t appear, do you mean in the Page when you select the page template? Did you name it properly in the PHP?
thanks for this tutorial. it is very useful.
This is exactly what I want to do–I want a Website, not a blog.
I was doing really good on your previous step to make the home page static, but when I got to this section I got lost.
“That’s where you will create your custom page template file”, I have no idea how to do that, I wish you would have showed us step-by-step. Thanks anyways.
I wish there was free website themes/templates that looked like a website not a blog.
Great post! I have a question – where can I get information on formatting the content of my new page? Right now the sidebar is still present, although empty. And the text I added is just plain text right now.
As you might be able to tell, I’m just dipping my toes in the waters of customizing a theme.
Thanks
Hi, Don:
I created cover.page and try to edit it, it give me eroor message like this
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/acuherb2/public_html/wp-content/themes/960_pixel/cover_page.php on line 2
how can I fix it thanks
Ken
Hi, Don I solved the problem, but I have one more how can I add new side-menu related to my new page. thanks
ken
Don,
I can’t for the life of me figure out this section, “Go to the directory on your server where you installed WordPress, and then navigate to the directory of your theme. Usually that looks something like this: “/wp-content/themes/default” where “default” is your theme name.”
I started using wordpress with Google Chrome and a Windows XP OS. Any ideas?
Hey Clayton,
What part of the instructions seem to be giving you trouble? Do you have access to the server where your Wordpress is loaded? Have you loaded any themes, or are you just using the default theme?
Chrome and Windows XP are just fine…are you trying to run Worpress on your XP computer?
Have a great day
pat
Pat,
Thanks for the reply, I would assume I don’t have access to the server that I installed WP on, or I simply don’t know how to get to it. I’m running the theme Twenty Ten. Thanks.
Okay – if you do not have access to the server where you performed the install it a bit more difficult to actually make use of Wordpress.
I am curious then…how did you get Wordpress installed if you have no access to the server? Most web hosting companies allow some sort of access via ftp or ssh. I am thinking that if you were able to install Wordpress then there is some form of access that you can get to it.
You say you are using Windows XP – did you install Wordpress on your Windows XP computer?
Cheers
pat
You should contact your web hosting company and ask about access to use Wordpress.
Pat,
I think the base of the confusion is that I never actually installed wordpress. I signed up for an account and make any changes after logging in via wordpress.com.
Ahhhh…that would explain the confusion….I guess I have never worked with an account on the wordpress.com website. You need to go to the wordpress.com website and login, from there you can get support about how to use their services. I am not sure if this tutorial applies the the wordpress.com site or not.
This is more for those who run wordpress on a server where they have more control that you do at wordpress.com (I think that is true).
Good luck,
pat
Yes you’re correct Pat – this will only work with self-hosted WordPress, not WordPress.com sites. Thanks for answering Clayton’s question!
Well…its the least I can do. I found your article when I was first digging into Wordpress and it was a HUGE help. There were many others who helped along the way – so just tryin to pay back for the blessings so many shared with me.
BTW: I concur – great article.
After contacting my theme “live support” 20 times and getting unrelated help posts from them, I realised…your tutorial was all I needed.
Thanks a lot, just created the custom landing page for one of my sites.
The only difficult part is just uploading the contact to the folder each time, but all happy with the outcome.
I have one question, can we also get rid of the default header and footer and put custom ones there? may be you have a PHP code fo this?
thanks again
Kursat
Hi kursat,
Yes, you can just leave out the get_header and get_footer functions in the code snippet above, then they won’t be included in your page template.
Don / Whomever –
Being fairly new at this, especially with this latest find. Could someone possibly guide me in the direction of adding an external stylesheet to (page-style.css, etc) to my newly created page template?
I’m sure it’s fairly obvious, but it seems my brain doesn’t have the capability to perform such a task.
Thanks!
Michael
Hey Michael,
In the WordPress Dashboard, select the Impact menu on the left side, then the Template Builder (if it doesn’t open when you select Impact).
You then select the template you desire to add the style sheet to using the Edit Template box in the upper left corner. Once you have selected a template then click the Show Template Options button. The very last option in the Template Options is the Template Custom CSS. Click on this and you can edit the css thats there….you can cut and paste anything you want.
When you are done click the Save Template button and you are good….
So – to actually answer your question – you can edit the existing Impact style sheet…but you don’t actually have an external sheet. I have always been able to do whatever I need in this style sheet.
Hope this helps…
Hi Don-the-life-saver,
I have found my way to the cPanel file manager, wp-content, themes, BUT, there is no ‘default’. There is both twenty ten AND twenty eleven as possible themes. I have set to Twenty eleven and it is coming up OK, but am unsure where to place the new file I made (as instructed above). If I put it in the twenty eleven folder it doesn’t change my refreshed opening page, ie there is still the box, ‘leave a reply’. I don’t actually need a blog function at all and want to remove this box. Can you help please ? many thanks,
Hey Angela,
Which files are you trying to find a place for? I am not sure how to answer this one…but only because I am unsure of which files you are refering to.
Have a great day
pat
Hi Pat,
I am referring to the “leave a reply” comment box at the bottom of each page. I want to remove it completely but am not sure how this would be filed or where to look in the file manager page on cPanel to remove it.
Many thanks,
Angela
Hi Angela,
Have you tried just turning off comments for the Page inside WordPress?
I have it sorted, thanks. Found my way to pages, quick edits, quick links, allow/disallow comments button. Really easy.
Thanks for the help
A
Great – thanks for letting us know Angela. I’m glad you’ve got it working!
Hi Mr. Don, I have a question here, I want to create my home page different from other page, I want my home page only show one single image at the center, and button call “enter site”, so when visitor click that button it redirect to my present home page. Thanks.
i too want to do this …..i just want a page with enter in the middle then it will enter the site the way it is right now ..i like my theme its cool just want a page that says enter then you get to the main site i have made the template and done a background pattern ,now i will put the hyperlink saying enter (BUT WERE DO I DIRECT THE TARGET , SO THAT IT SHOWS WORDPRESS NORMALY WITHOUT MY CUSTOM PAGE)) URGENT
I have a very stupid question – I started off with your first article and I got my Custom Page and the Blog page at the bottom. That worked.
Then I read your second article and created my own Custom Template and put my content in coverpage. php. That works too!
But where is the blog? I can’t get to the blog page with my Custom Template. Does the blog page even under a directory that I can refer to? How can I keep the blog at the bottom of my coverpage.php?
Lastly, does server-side includes still work inside coverpage.php. I can’t seem to be able to get it working.
@s1
Just cannot see how you struggle with so simple thing.
So.. you can hyper link your first cover page image to your blog like this
Copy the code to your new coverpage.php just make sure you did change the names to fit your domain and image.
Using the code above your image will be centered in the middle of your cover page with no showing blue border around clickable image. And visitors will have access to your entire blog from here on.
ups…
code is gone
Once again here :
‘[
]‘
Remove ‘[ at the beginning and at the end ]‘ in case it shows up here
Also! In the code you see that your image goes into /images/ folder, but your can place it on your domain root, then it will look like http://www.yourdomain.com/image
Don, thanks for showing this trick. I created a php file and moved it into the content folder I could see it in my template window. But when I changed the name of page I couldn’t find this php file in the window. Also, can any php files I move into the content folder be shown in the template window? Where is the impact menu Pat mentioned in the dashboard? Thanks.
Mornin Harry – Which page did you change the name on? If there are references to the page name in your php code, make sure that you change those to match to page name.
Re: the impact menu – make sure you have the Impact plugin installed and activated. It will appear in the list of plugins on the left side of the dashboard.
Hope that helps
pat
Pat, thank you. I’ve figured out my page issue
. Could you please tell me the full name of Impact plugin, because I didn’t see “impact” when I searched in plugin? Many thanks. harry
Harry – glad you got your problem solved.
The plugin is named – Impact Page Builder – http://www.impactpagebuilder.com – you can find more information there about how to download the plugin and get it installed.
Fell free to let me know if you need some additional assistance.
pat
Pat, awesome tool! Thank you~~ I am curious how we can make a webpage alive, just like a calendar or google Ad. I know we can get it from mysql/php, but it still requires labor work. I want something completely automated and fresh everyday. Any idea
? Best, harry
Harry – the best way to find stuff is to use Google – I use search terms like “Wordpress Calendars”, or “Wordpress Calendar Plugin”…..you can also find articles about the top 10 Wordpress plugins….you gotta just go looking for what you want and find the plugin that meets your needs. Read the reviews, try different ones…its a bit of work – but well worth the effort.
Good luck
pat
Thank you for sharing nice article..
Hi Don,
Maybe I have the wrong program, but all I want is a normal website. The blog feature is fine but what I want also are the menu items ie: Home, Blog, etc.
Under each item though, I would want to place pictures of my progress etc. with a description beneath each photo. Is this possible to do with wordpress or should I look for a different sort of program to accomplish this?
Thanks In Advance
Ed
Hi Don,
I was wondering if you could use this same process for creating a template in a post. Or would it only work for on a page in wordpress?
Hi Don, I try to create a Custom Page in WordPress using suggestions in your article. I created successfuly custom page template file, called “private_page.php”, and added the suggested code to it.
Now I want to create a usual (not Cover) Page Based on my new Custom Page Template. I created a new page called “Private Page”.
How can I connect the new “Private Page” with custom page template file
“private_page.php”, which code to use?
Second question: How can I bring this page to be unvisible in Title of other site pages?
Thanks in advance,
Shimon
Dear Don,
after some attempts I successed to create the Page Based Custom Page Template. Your explanation in article was Great, thanks.
Now remain the second question: How can I bring this page to be unvisible in Title of other site pages?
Thanks once more,
Shimon
Great Shimon – I’m glad you’ve got it working.
What do you mean “unvisible in the Tile of other site pages?”
If you want to remove any page from the menu, you can do that easily with the WordPress menu builder. Here’s a video that shows you how.
Thankyou for this your blog it is very information fufillingand this post is amazing
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