In WordPress, you can create templates for post layouts that you commonly use. Doing so can make posting particular styles of pages faster and easier.
For creating templates, I use the Post Template Plugin. See setting up new plugins in WordPress if you need help getting it installed.
Creating a Post Template
Unfortunately, WordPress 2.8 broke this plugin slightly…and you can no longer save changes to templates…which means that to create templates you must first create a post that contains exactly what you want the template to contain.
Once it is fixed, I will add the directions for creating templates from scratch and also for editing them.
Creating a new post template in WordPress 2.8
- Log into WordPress
- Create a new post that contains exactly what you want your template to have
- Select "Posts" → "Add New" from the admin menu.
- Enter the default body for the template.
- Set any default tags for the template.
- Set any default categories for the template.
- Specify whether or not to allow comments and pingbacks.
- Set a password if you want such posts password protected.
- Enter any default exerpt.
- Set any custom trackback entry.
- Save your new post as a draft
- Select "Save Draft"
- View your new draft in list view.
- Select "Posts" → "Edit"
- Select "Templatize" next to your draft
- This will create a post template from the draft and display your existing templates.
Don’t forget to delete your draft post once you are finished.
Creating a new page template in WordPress 2.8
- Log into WordPress
- Create a new page that contains exactly what you want your template to have
- Select "Pages" → "Add New" from the admin menu.
- Enter the default body for the template.
- Specify whether or not to allow comments and pingbacks.
- Set a password if you want such posts password protected.
- Save your new page as a draft
- Select "Save Draft"
- View your new draft in list view.
- Select "Pages" → "Edit"
- Select "Templatize" next to your draft
- This will create a page template from the draft and display your existing templates.
Don’t forget to delete your draft page once you are finished.
Using your new template
Once you have your template created, you can use it to create new posts or pages as follows:
- View your current templates
- Select "Templates" from the admin menu
- For post templates
- Select "New Post From Template" next to the template you want to use
- For page templates
- select "New Page From Template" next to the template you want to use
- Add your content to the template and publish it.