How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template

Posted by Jeff

on August 28, 2012

Neglecting the site for some time and running out of ambition to post new content, here is another more popular post from the past. Originally posted on July 9, 2007, this post is getting the most views on the site and should still be relevant today. Sorry but I will probably not answer your theme-specific questions so I suggest you read the comments section.

There may be times when you want to create a blog page or that looks different than a normal page. Or Perhaps you want to use WordPress to run your entire website but want the main page of your domain to look completely different than a typical blog. This is an easy way to customize WordPress that can be very easily accomplished by creating a custom WordPress page Template.

The first step is to create your desired page in HTML, I use an HTML editor since I am somewhat geek impaired and can’t actually write any code. In this case we are not going to add content to this page from within the dashboard so add all your meta tags for SEO. It will need a title, description, keywords, basically everything a regular static HTML page would need. After you create your new page you need to create a new WordPress page template. This can be done either in a text editor and FTP uploaded to your site or, since it is a small simple file you can create it directly in your hosting account’s control panel.

To create the new page template paste your HTML code into a text editor like Notepad, then paste the following PHP code directly above it like this:

<?php /* Template Name: New Template Name
*/ ?>

<html>
Your HTML Code Here

Copy just the 2 lines of code above the <html> tag and paste it into your new template and change New Template Name to a name of your choosing. Save the new page template as a .php file. Something like front.php, and upload it to your hosting account in the template folder of your current WordPress theme. Don’t call your new template page.php! There is already one called that. In fact look in the themes directory to see what files exist to not create a duplicate.

You can look at your current page.php template to get clues as to what you may want to include in your custom page template like the header and footer or possibly the sidebar. But if you include everything in the custom page template as the regular page template why bother?

The directory to place the new page template in is blog/wp-content/themes/default. Where default is the currently active theme.

Since you are placing this new WordPress page template into a specific themes folder it will only be available when that specific theme is active. If you change themes you will need to place a copy of it into the currently active theme.

To create a new page template within your hosting accounts control panel. Browse to your blogs main directory, wp-content, themes, then click on your currently active theme. Create a new PHP file, call it whatever you wish, like above front.php, paste your HTML code and then the PHP code directly above it and save.

Creating Your New Custom Page

Login to your WordPress Dashboard, click Write then Write Page. Since we didn’t specify in the custom page template to get the content, or any other information for that matter, all we need to do here is create a new page and specify the page template to use.

Type a title in the title box, then look over to the right and click the Page Template drop down box, choose your new WordPress page template and click publish.

Using A Custom Static Front Page

If you want to use a your new custom page for a static front page you will first need to create another regular page as a URL as your blogs Posts Page . Create a new page and give it the title blog, or anything you want. Again don’t bother writing any content, on the right side type the same name as the title in the Post Slug box and click publish.

To specify using a static front page, click Options then the Reading subpanel. Choose the Static Page option, specify your new custom page as the front page and the newly created blog page as the Posts Page and click Update Options.

Note! You do not need a custom page template for a static front page. You can create a page with all the content on it you want for the front page, and then a blank page for the post page. Then choose the static front page option as above.

Now your blog will show your new custom page as the front page. But what about your blog? Where did it go? If you followed my directions and used blog as the the Posts Page AND if you have the postname in your permalink structure the URL should be YourBlogsURL.com/blog , so if your blog is in a directory called blog then the URL will be YourBlogsURL.com/blog/blog. Having a blog/blog URL isn’t all that cool huh? Well this is intended for use on a website ran entirely on WordPress without a static HTML front page. But you can use a different name in the title and Post Slug when you create the new Posts Page.

Now that your have read the entire post here is a short video to explain it.

For more technical information about this subject.

WordPress Pages

Another post on my other blog about Using A Static Front Page For WordPress

If you are using a static front page and your theme has a navigation bar you may want to tweak the navigation bar from showing the Home link and then the static front page link. Here is another guide to Customize WordPress Header Navigation Bar.

If you liked this post, feel free to leave a comment that is relevant to the post or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Sorry but due to the spamming of a few all comments are moderated and will appear when approved and all drive-by comments will be deleted!

Comments

Trackback by PlugIM.com on July 9, 2007 @ 11:41 pm

How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template…

There may be times when you want to create a blog page or that looks different than a normal page. Or Perhaps you want to use wordpress to run your entire website but want the main page of your domain to look completely different than a typical blog. T…

Comment by Carl Hendricks on July 10, 2007 @ 12:23 am

Jeff demonstrates how to give your lead page options – display options, content options, format options, html options. Your web page or blog can stand apart from those of the masses.

Carl Hendricks,
http://www.cehmagic.com/blog

Comment by Gamy on July 10, 2007 @ 2:52 am

Hey Houdy,

Nice job!, You certainly are giving your visitors a lot of precious info. This blog will be a hit!

By the way, you got a nice voice

Gamy

Comment by Morris Clopton on July 10, 2007 @ 9:31 am

Jeff,

Your websites are a great inspriration. Thank you for all of the great ideas and tips you share with everyone.

It is a pleasure to be associated with such a knowledgable and generious person.

Morris

Comment by Wolney H Filho on July 10, 2007 @ 11:40 am

Hi Jeff,

You provide me what I was looking for. Good work.

Wolney

Comment by Mal Keenan on July 10, 2007 @ 6:12 pm

Nice work Jeff

I have done a few videos myself. I need some more practice though:-)

Mal

Comment by Suzanne Morrison on July 13, 2007 @ 7:40 am

Hi Jeff,

Great video and very useful.

I need to get some videos going myself!

Cheers
Suzanne

Comment by Elsa on July 18, 2007 @ 12:00 pm

Great Job Jeff, that is what i was looking for

Thanks, Elsa

Comment by alternapop.com on July 24, 2007 @ 12:39 pm

thanks, this was helpful

Pingback by Help with customizing WordPress Template - Bloggeries Blog Forum on August 9, 2007 @ 6:44 pm

[...] for the benefit of others reading this, I have instructions about this with video on my blog here: How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template __________________ Jeff Houdyschell WordPress [...]

Comment by macintorch on September 22, 2007 @ 2:00 am

thanks bro!

Pingback by How To Use A Static Front Page With WordPress on November 6, 2007 @ 10:51 pm

[...] you want to customize your static front page, a related post with a video can be found here: How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template WordPress Guide Share This Gregarious FeedFlare Sphere: Related ContentIf you’re new [...]

Comment by Jonathan on November 22, 2007 @ 10:03 am

Your tuts was very helpful and i really love it! I have a favor can you create a tuts that i can post my static page with a post of blog in single template?

Comment by Jeff on November 22, 2007 @ 10:58 am

“Your tuts was very helpful and i really love it! I have a favor can you create a tuts that i can post my static page with a post of blog in single template?

Jonathan, not sure what you mean please explain in more detail.

Jeff

Comment by Jonathan on November 22, 2007 @ 11:21 am

Check this out man click

i use your tuts in my front page the first part is a post page of welcome that was written in write page and the second layer i wanted to display a single recent blog post.

Comment by Jeff on November 22, 2007 @ 11:39 am

Jonathan, It looks as if you accomplished that already. Or I still don’t understand your question.

Do you want the static front page to have the top area of text that is always the same and the lower area one particular blog post or the most recent blog post, or all the recent blog posts?

Comment by Jonathan on November 22, 2007 @ 11:52 am

Oh man you are so nice! add me on your Im hehe thanks man for your help you have a BIG HEART, Continue your good stuff! have you visit my site? have you notice the 1st layer and the 2nd layer? its the same but i wanted to in the 2nd layer i want to display my single post of my blog. But on the first layer that was the post from write>page.

Comment by Jeff on November 22, 2007 @ 12:38 pm

Jonathan , you can do what you want the other way around. instead of having a static front page, use a plugin called sticky post that shows one post on the top of the main page and the rest under that.

Sorry but I don’t know how to code a WordPress blog to it the way you want but I bet it can be done. Head over to the WordPress.org forum and serach or ask there.

Jeff

Comment by Herb Davies on December 14, 2007 @ 2:13 pm

Hi Jeff,

Great tutorial. I am planning to use a static front page and you gave me th ehelp I needed.

One question though, is there a way I can get a part of the recent posts to appear on the static page? By using the optional exerptc.

Comment by Jeff on December 14, 2007 @ 2:45 pm

Herb, I have never done that but I am sure it is possible. I have this site setup to show the first post and then excerpts. But if you take just the excerpt code and place it in the page template it should work.

here is a post that may help a bit to get you started: http://www.wordpressmax.com/customize-wordpress/full-excerpts

Comment by JamesReilly on January 21, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

I like to think i’m learning, but when i learn one thing another comes along, 24hours in the day is just never enough, cheers for your insight

Pingback by No Sidebar On WordPress Pages | WordPress Max on January 21, 2008 @ 5:32 pm

[...] To start you need to create a custom page template and I have already posted instructions about that here: How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template. [...]

Comment by Meg Q on February 6, 2008 @ 7:46 pm

Great tutorial! Applying this to my theme right now – can finally finish and get it published. Thank you!!!

Comment by Sammy Vital on February 26, 2008 @ 7:05 pm

Great article!
Just used this to implement a custom page on one of my site. May I add that there is some plugins that would allow to easily put a page as a static homepage.

Now saying that, I still had a problem since my menu was showing all the pages. So I used the King Page widget that would allow you to choose which pages to include and which to exlude.

Thanks again,

http://www.workathomechannel.com/blog

Comment by Dan (future gadgets blog) on February 29, 2008 @ 11:42 am

I like your blog theme. I want to use it on my blog.
Can you please tell me from where I can download these theme?

Many thanks

——————————————————————————–
Dan owner of the future gadgets blog future gadgets and inventions

Comment by Jeff on February 29, 2008 @ 1:43 pm

Dan, most themes have a link to the designer in the footer and so does mine. The theme is called Networker but mine has been heavily modified. You can find it here:
http://antbag.com/themes/

Comment by Musaf Hamad on April 6, 2008 @ 4:06 pm

New to this blog and looking forward to posting some useful info. Also enjoyed what is posted so far. Thanks to everyone.

Comment by Raheem on April 23, 2008 @ 3:12 pm

Thanks, this was very useful – esp the video

Comment by Twitter on May 17, 2008 @ 3:44 pm

hello,

I was wondering, can I have a page with a blog structure? Well my homepage has a blog structure, but I want to have another page in the same site to have a blog structure too.

I tried to make a template like the ‘index.php’ file, but It didn’t work.

Can you help me?

Comment by Jeff on May 17, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

Twitter I am not sure what you mean. You can create another page in the WordPress dashboard that will look like your blog. But to create a static html page that matched your blog, if that is what you want, can be done, I guess, but that is well beyond what I can explain in a comment or probably in a post. There are just too many variables involved.

Comment by Twitter on May 18, 2008 @ 11:04 am

well let me see if I can explain what I mean in a better way.

I want to have a dynamic page where I can post several posts, something like your home page ‘http://www.wordpressmax.com/'.

Comment by Jeff on May 18, 2008 @ 11:56 am

Twitter, You can use a feed from your blog to supply content to a static html page if that is what you mean.

Comment by steven Buell on June 28, 2008 @ 2:13 pm

You a genious, thank you!!!!!

Comment by Edward on July 3, 2008 @ 9:28 am

Great post – very helpful. Thanks a lot!

Comment by Jakki on July 30, 2008 @ 6:31 am

Hey just wanted to let you know how helpful this post has been for me…been looking to see how to do this for AGES but your post was just so easy to follow and it had really clear instructions. Now I just need to update all my themes!

Comment by Luis Teixeira on August 4, 2008 @ 6:30 pm

I watched the video you made on “How to create a custom wordpress template” I loved it made a rather difficult task seem very very easy! I knew it was easy Just that everyone made it sound difficult. My question is I am using wordpress 2.6 I followed everything you said in the video but still my squeeze page does not show. What could I be doing wrong?

Comment by Jeff on August 4, 2008 @ 6:31 pm

Luis, not sure what “it doesn’t show” means. If you followed the steps you should have seen the new custom page template to choose from when creating a new, or editing an existing page (not post). You might have missed a step or something.

Nothing will show until you create a page with the custom template, even if everything you want to show is in the custom template, to show it create a blank page with at least a title.

Remember the video I made is old and references a very different version of WordPress. The steps should still be the same but some of the menu choices have changed or are renamed but are still there in the dashboard.

Pingback by Create A Custom WordPress Static Front Page | WordPress Max on September 14, 2008 @ 9:32 am

[...] site can be found online and I suggest starting at wordpress.org. One of the steps is covered here: How To Create A Custom WordPress Page Template WordPress WordPress Guide Share This Gregarious FeedFlareIf you’re new here, you may [...]

Comment by Rajeev Edmonds on September 15, 2008 @ 8:54 am

First comprehensive tutorial I have seen about building custom page in WordPress.

I searched some on Youtube, but none of them are as exhaustive as this one. You are really serving the WP community by giving such valuable content for bloggers and developers.

Comment by Mike on September 22, 2008 @ 2:01 pm

Thanks for this article and video. I have been looking under every darn rock on the internet for 3 days trying to find exactly what you shared.

FLY NAVY!

Cheers!
Mike

Comment by thankful on November 17, 2008 @ 1:44 pm

Brilliant. This simple tutorial has saved me hours of anguish!

Comment by Directory Submission Services on December 15, 2008 @ 2:22 pm

This is a very informative post. Thank you very much.

I have successfully created a static home page and custom templates for my site.

I, however, have a question. I wish to add a menu item to the top menu which links to a page which is not from my blog, but exisits on my domain. How can I achieve it? Thanks for your help.

Comment by Jeff on December 15, 2008 @ 9:22 pm

I already have a post to customize a navigation bar that includes how to hard-code a link in it.

Customize WordPress Header Navigation Bar

Comment by Free iPods on December 25, 2008 @ 7:24 pm

I have always wanted to do this but found it to hard. HTML isnt my thing.
Although your post was great and made it seem less complicated

Comment by George B on December 28, 2008 @ 10:20 am

First, you can’t imaging how much work this post saved me! I know zero about any of this and you walked me through it.

I created a new page, which has a frame in it for homes for sale. When I created the new page, I copied most of another page, but left out the get sidebar (the whole reason for this exercise was to have the search results without the sidebar)

Now there is no sidebar, but the navigation for the new page is gone now as well! Any help would be appreciated.

Here is a link to the page with the code…..

http://album.headforhome.fastmail.us/public/public/Homes for Sale Full Page.php

Comment by Jeff on December 28, 2008 @ 7:58 pm

George, you must have left out some critical code from the page template. I don’t “look at code” on themes unless compensated for it. I suggest trying again with all code in it and then deleting as little as possible in increments, checking as you go. I can do it for you for a fee; sorry I am a Capitalist pig.

Comment by Paul on January 7, 2009 @ 3:12 am

Great tutorial thank you
I really want the traditional, dynamic homepage to appear in on a Page (a formal wordpress page that is). I’ve created a static homepage but now I want that dynamic homepage to appear at http://www.site.com/news

Any insight on how to do this? All my attempts to futz with the page template are failing.

Comment by Jeff on January 7, 2009 @ 8:09 am

Paul read the last part of the post again it explains how to use a page called blog for the posts. In your case call the new page “News”.

Comment by Paul on January 7, 2009 @ 11:41 am

Thanks Jeff, unless I’m doing it wrong though, that adds /News/ to the URL string for every other page.

I get site.com/News/News as the home page
Yes I can change the slugs
But I also get:
site.com/News/post_1 (a post)
site.com/News/Contact_us (a page)
site.com/News/About_us (a page)

Am I missing something? That’s less than ideal

Comment by Jeff on January 7, 2009 @ 11:56 am

Paul, it sounds like you changed the Permalink structure. Did you?

Create 2 pages, one for the static home page with the content on it you want to show. The other page can be called Blog or in your case News, do not put any content on that page. Go to Settings, Reading and choose the pages for the static front page and the blog loop/post page.

Then yes the regular posts will be on the URL:
site.com/News/post_1 (a post)

But the pages should not have the /News directory in the URL just the posts.

Comment by Paul on January 7, 2009 @ 12:06 pm

I have:
/%category%/%postname%/

Is that the problem? I’ve so royally screwed things up that I’m hoping you can confirm before I change something again.

Comment by Jeff on January 7, 2009 @ 12:35 pm

No Paul that is a good permalink structure. The pages should not have the /news directory in them unless you are making posts instead of pages.

Also this is going beyond comments and it’s hard to fix what I can’t see.

Comment by Paul on January 7, 2009 @ 12:41 pm

Screwed it up
So now I have the home page, which is static, and which I’ve set at http://www.site.com, at
http://www.site.com/News (not site.com)

While http://www.site.com/News (which is set as the blog page) pulls up thethe home Page.

Comment by Steve on January 12, 2009 @ 12:02 am

Let me just say ‘Thank You’!

I’ve been trying to figure out how to go to an all wordpress format for my site and could not find one single resource for creating a page ‘template’ to move my static html pages to.

Everyone else seems to confuse template with theme.

This is a godsent and saved me a long day of heartache.

Thanks a ton,
-Steve

Comment by TR on February 1, 2009 @ 12:41 am

Any clues as to what I could be doing wrong if i follow all your advice – put it in the right folder – and it doesn’t show up in the appearance editor or in the template dropdown box? i’ve tried refreshing and clearing the cache and waiting – to no avail…

Jeff Replied:
February 1st, 2009 at 8:37 am

Sorry TR but all themes are coded differently, hard for me to tell what is causing your issues.

The code I provided may not work now because it isn’t in plain text now after I changed themes, try this site for more:
http://www.binarymoon.co.uk/2007/06/wordpress-tips-and-tricks-custom-templates/

Comment by Andrew@BloggingGuide on April 5, 2010 @ 4:01 am

This is a classic post. Applicable before and still applicable now!

I love the video! Videos have visuals helping readers understand better and follow instructions more precisely.

Comment by Web Design Chester on April 5, 2010 @ 10:12 am

I’m relatively new to using WordPress as CMS and have found the custom page aspect confusing to get my head around…it’s nice to see a clear post like this which talks you through it in plain English! Will be trying it out on a new design in the coming weeks.

Cheers!
J

Comment by Agilworld on April 6, 2010 @ 7:45 pm

Nice work, but if to make a static post on the frontpage, Why did you create a custom page? maybe with a sticky post that can be made easily.

Jeff Replied:
April 6th, 2010 at 8:04 pm

This post was made way back before sticky post was around.

Comment by Bryan on April 7, 2010 @ 9:06 pm

Thanks! I’ve been learning on how to add a custom page template but good thing I found this.

Comment by Daniel on April 10, 2010 @ 3:18 pm

Thanks a lot for this piece, Jeff. I’m working on a site for a client and have been researching how to do this very thing in WordPress. The video in particular was quite helpful.

When I get paid from this project I’ll see if I can throw a few bucks your way.

Comment by Pat on April 11, 2010 @ 3:00 pm

Thanks for re-posting this blog; I have been working with WordPress for awhile now and always seem to need a little extra help with customization.

Comment by Wellington | Dicas de Filmes on April 11, 2010 @ 5:48 pm

Thanks for the post, I was just with a question of how to add a custom page for my film blog tips, will help a lot, big hug. even more.

Comment by Guy on April 12, 2010 @ 11:46 pm

Love the Post, makes me feel to create my own WordPress page template… Thanks again..

Comment by London knight on April 13, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

What can be easier than creating a custom page template? To use an existing one. You will safe plenty of time and energy. Just find what you need and customize it for yourself.
I gave up this idea (didn’t have enough time) and just used an existing template for my website.

Comment by Andy FirstFound on April 14, 2010 @ 6:39 am

Thanks for this – I’ll pass it on to our web designer. He’s spent the last few days tied up in knots trying to work out how best to design a WP template.

If he still doesn’t get it, I’ll put him in touch!

Comment by Jacksonville Construction on April 14, 2010 @ 10:13 am

thanks for the info. i use php in the page (via a plugin) template and then call a remote text file to get it just right. keeps it simple and tight!

Comment by Tiffany @ Passive Income on April 14, 2010 @ 11:07 pm

Although I am definitely not at this level for web design and coding this post may come in handy in the future for what I want to do with some of my websites. Thanks!

Comment by Lisa on April 15, 2010 @ 9:25 am

I can’t tell you how nice it is was to read your post. I just started a blog for our company and with no background in WordPress, you’ve made it much easier to understand. Thank you for your efforts.

Comment by Money Making Ideas on April 15, 2010 @ 10:42 pm

Are there any downsides to doing a custom page like this though? In terms of load times etc?

Jeff Replied:
April 16th, 2010 at 8:27 am

Not unless you load it up with a bunch of images, scripts and other junk.

Comment by Steve Zussino on April 16, 2010 @ 6:06 pm

As someone that uses custom page templates often, I recommend using them.

They save time, and they are very slick.

Comment by Abraxas on April 17, 2010 @ 2:25 am

I stumbled on your site and had a quick read of some of your posts. While, I am a geek, I think you’ve done a marvelous job of writing things in a way that “normal” people can understand. Although, I do think it’s a good idea to be able to write basic HTML

Comment by earrings on April 19, 2010 @ 11:28 pm

I have created a blog by myself, but there are still many problems, I still need to learn, thank you for the tutorial.

Comment by cycling jerseys on April 20, 2010 @ 3:12 am

Comment by Domain search on April 20, 2010 @ 12:36 pm

Thanks a lot for this tutorial, sometimes i download some WordPress themes and there are problems with templates…

Comment by online connect on April 20, 2010 @ 11:07 pm

Thats great we set up a wordpress blog some time ago and been wondering how to customize it, this will be a great help thanks.

Comment by SEO on April 22, 2010 @ 2:05 am

This post of yours will never get outdated. Though the process of creating custom page template is so simple, we will get stuck without that small piece of code. Thank you for the timely help.

Comment by Amy on April 22, 2010 @ 2:26 pm

Some great advice here!!! but I have a question about it..is that possible to do a custom page with different CSS? (by example, If I want a different background or header in my custom page)

Could you please explain me how can I get this done?

Thanks in advance..

Amy

Jeff Replied:
April 24th, 2010 at 8:28 am

As the post says you can make the whole page in HTML including a header and footer. That is the whole point of the guide… To make the custom page look completely different than the rest of the blogs theme.

While there is a way to add different header and footer images and or styles to a theme in the stylesheet, it is not something easily explained. But basically you would have to add the new/different css code in the themes stylesheet and then call for it in the custom page template instead of the original.

Comment by Abhi on April 23, 2010 @ 10:31 am

This was the easiest and simple way I came across after almost giving up trying to create a squeeze page.
Thanks a lot.

Comment by Bellevue carpet cleaning on April 23, 2010 @ 11:16 pm

Thanks for the WordPress custom page tips. While it is a very user friendly blog, some of us are still pretty “geek impaired”.

Comment by Major Medical Health on April 26, 2010 @ 7:54 pm

Good information although I still get a lot of help with technical stuff like this.

Some of the basic customization upgrades etc… I can handle.

Comment by bahis.eu on April 27, 2010 @ 2:12 am

The wordpress custom template is very good to create a sales page. You can give a different look to this page from your other pages and the template is also very customizable.

Comment by Blog Literature on April 27, 2010 @ 4:57 pm

Its really a very informative post indeed. Specially the video tutorial is very helpful for me. Thanks for sharing such a valuable info bro.

Comment by Forex currency trading on April 28, 2010 @ 6:22 am

Thanks! I’ve been learning on how to add a custom page template but good thing I found this. You a genious, thank you!!!!!)))

Comment by Annette Koehler on April 28, 2010 @ 2:45 pm

Great idea. My web designer was having trouble with this. He’s in the process of creating a WP template for the business. Thanks

Comment by Denis on April 29, 2010 @ 3:05 am

Simple and great tutorials . Its just sort out my problem with in few minutes but i have another question can we do it through dreamweaver?

Jeff Replied:
April 29th, 2010 at 7:13 am

Copy the HTML code from Dreamweaver and paste it into the custom page template.

Comment by Raul Soltero on April 29, 2010 @ 6:28 am

Thank you very much for this. You cant imagine how much time you saved me!! I always thought it was possible to customize wordpress but Im not very good at computers. You made it very easy. Thanks again!

Comment by Lincolnwood sign company on April 29, 2010 @ 5:07 pm

This is awesome, I’ve been looking to customize wordpress for a while now. you post was very helpful

Comment by auto shipping on April 29, 2010 @ 6:16 pm

Awesome advice, Jeff. Thanks for sharing these tips on wordpress customization

Comment by info gadgets on May 5, 2010 @ 6:27 am

This is what I need, Thanks Jeff!!

Comment by du3l on May 5, 2010 @ 6:33 am

This is a good post from you Jeff. I did it before and I failed, so I hope your article could help me.

Thank You so much.

Comment by Jason Acidre on May 5, 2010 @ 8:10 am

Hey jeff, thanks for sharing this. I’m new to wp platform and I just want to ask if you can offer some tips in using adobe photoshop in making a custom template then converting it to css. Is this possible in any way? Thanks!

Jeff Replied:
May 5th, 2010 at 8:33 am

Sorry never tried it.

Comment by logo design software on May 6, 2010 @ 2:14 am

Brilliant post jeff i spend many year on blog and i find how create custom page for many month but can solve my problem.
again thanks.

Comment by Redfish Slayer on May 6, 2010 @ 9:01 pm

Ive always made both a HTML and a wordpress version of my templates. And that video was a nice add to the post !

Comment by Poems on May 7, 2010 @ 5:43 am

The article was indeed very helpful and useful for me because it gave me the possibility to learn on how to add a custom page template. So I’ deeply grateful for sharing this post.

Comment by HouseBulb on May 7, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

Jeff,

Great work! Awesome site and a real wealth of information that should come in handy. I read in your post that you don’t have the energy to post, C’mon dude, this stuff is great!

Comment by Low Cost Term Rates on May 8, 2010 @ 4:50 pm

If you can get away with an HTML editor (and I think you said I could), I should be able to figure it out. I have a few blogs, but normally just use one of WP’s standard themes.

Comment by Superstar web design on May 10, 2010 @ 2:01 am

I started creating custom graphic themes for word press and now I am kind of hooked. Its not the easiest thing to customize at times but I feel I am getting the hang of it. CSS really pulls it all together. There are some custom frameworks also that I have used that seem to speed things along.

Comment by better my relationship on May 11, 2010 @ 9:06 pm

hey jeff, nice work. always looking for some good advice to customize my wordpress blog.

Comment by best hair removal on May 13, 2010 @ 2:51 pm

My visitors tell me that they like the custom design on my wp blog, i really appreciate the help on this. It showed an easy way to make it.

Comment by Paul Coombes on May 14, 2010 @ 7:02 am

Very general query on wordpress blogs – does anyone know how google views links from these back to the parent company website? i.e. would it be better to have a separate wordpress blog linking back to main site or just have the blog on the main site for SEO purposes?

Comment by Tim Anderton on May 15, 2010 @ 8:01 am

Hey there.
Great tutorial – very clear and very useful, in theory – but I have one problem I hope you can clear up for me. I suspect it’s something really obvious, but in my dashboard, when I create a new page there’s no option to use a template for it. Is this something I need to enable or will it show up once I have a template file in the directory? Any ideas or tips would be extremely helpful.

Many thanks.

Jeff Replied:
May 15th, 2010 at 8:44 am

If you put it in the themes directory and name it correctly it should show up like the post explains.

Tim Anderton Replied:
May 16th, 2010 at 9:27 am

Ahhh – yes, of course. Sorry. Works like a charm. Thanks!

Comment by Usenetter on May 23, 2010 @ 12:01 pm

I have searched for over an hour after such a solution, it is now finally has an end. So thank you from too!

Comment by Phil on May 27, 2010 @ 4:33 am

Hi Jeff,

I really appreciate this article because it’s a great tutorial for me as a newbie. I always wanted to use a static front page, but never knew how to create it. This article, however, provided great help and tips for me – especially the ones I needed.

Thanks a lot,
Phil

Comment by Save TV on June 3, 2010 @ 9:18 am

Wow your Post is really great, now I can create a own LP for my SEM-Campaigns. If that works, I will Donate something!

Comment by Neus on June 7, 2010 @ 7:05 am

Really interesting, well presented! One of the most difficult things of putting up a WordPress blog is finding the right theme. You sure have made things easy for us. Thanks a lot for this video tutorial.

Comment by Keith Farren on June 13, 2010 @ 3:42 am

I appreciate this article, because it is a tutorial for the novice I am a great people. I always wanted to use a static front page, but never knew how to create it.

Gemma Replied:
June 22nd, 2010 at 2:13 pm

Thanks a lot Jeff, I did this with my squeeze page and privacy page last year, but had since totally forgotten how to do it. I also couldn’t understand my own instructions!

If you find it such a chore to update your blog, why not outsource the bulk of it for SEO and do the rest when you get the urge? If you hire someone fulltime, they can’t do a bad job and disappear. You’ll soon get your ambition back when your outsource workers are doing all the work and you just count the profits And we can just look for your posts!

Comment by Wicker Trunk on June 24, 2010 @ 1:41 am

Thank you, this is very helpful to me as a noob. I’m new to wordpress bloging & cetainly this blog is great.

Comment by Sydney Terrett on June 24, 2010 @ 5:37 am

Thanks for the walk through if i know that there was a video then i would have gone straight for that

Comment by Warzen on June 27, 2010 @ 2:04 am

Thank you Jeff, you spend me a lot of time whith this post!

Comment by Rowan on July 6, 2010 @ 10:40 pm

You wouldn’t believe it, but until a few weeks ago, I was unaware that you could create custom page templates for your template.

This is a thorough article, and has many great pointers that I will be taking advantage of!

Comment by Play Online Games Now on July 7, 2010 @ 2:44 pm

Thank you for this post, I am now underway with creating a simple wordpress blog from my own code i am extremely proud of myself, once you get the hang of it, it gets more simple however I am only at basic level. I can’t wait for another post like this to enhance my skills. Thank you!
Excellent blog

Comment by Maritime Law on July 15, 2010 @ 12:45 am

That’s a very good tutorial, thank you so much… Those ideas are being applied in my blog and their great… I can’t wait and very excited to the next post… Keep it up… Nice post…

Comment by A. H. Ansari on July 15, 2010 @ 4:57 am

Thanks for posting such a great tips. I have a wordpress theme and tried on that. working awesome. Cheers dude!

Comment by tej kohli on July 21, 2010 @ 6:24 am

Hey the video tutorial is highly informative. Well explained and easy to execute. You’re my muse, m going to try this on my own wordpress website. let’s see how it works!

Comment by bpjeps on July 21, 2010 @ 10:58 am

Some great advice. So, I have a question. That’s possible to do a custom page with different CSS?

Jeff Replied:
July 22nd, 2010 at 7:55 am

Yes it is possible but please don’t ask me to explain how.

Comment by SFIhomebizz on July 23, 2010 @ 12:40 am

Thanks Jeff for the useful information. Your blog has precious information for visitors.

Comment by Casket Store on July 23, 2010 @ 12:52 pm

I always wondered if it was possible to create a custom page with a completely different them than the original blog’s theme

Comment by sarms steroids on July 24, 2010 @ 1:35 pm

Nice post. Trying to make this work on some of my sites now, with custom CSS.
Very helpful video.

Comment by Malowanie on July 24, 2010 @ 2:57 pm

Thanks for this tut on custom wordpress not much but enogh for me to enlighten my mind to do the rest. Thanks again!

Comment by Paolo on July 28, 2010 @ 7:41 am

Great advice for a novice like me, but I must admit I’ve still had to read it a few times. I am definitely ‘geek impaired’ and anything code related terrifies me!

Comment by Tuna on July 28, 2010 @ 2:54 pm

Good work Jeff

I have done a few videos myself. I need some more practice though:-)

Comment by brembo rotors on July 29, 2010 @ 2:27 am

Thanks mate! Your blog is a great resource on wordpress info… Seems I would need a whole lot of time put into learning from here myself

Comment by Imran Khan on August 6, 2010 @ 1:23 pm

Jeff, you are awesome man, brilliant..
I am doing one site for my company (a corporate), this have helped me to overcome critical issue.

Comment by edge on August 11, 2010 @ 5:40 am

Thank you for a clear and easy-to-follow explanation!
Keep your good job.

Comment by will forsyth on August 11, 2010 @ 11:15 am

Thanks great post. Just found out about wordpress page templates. Goin to use it for my home page and maybe some other pages to.

Can you add all the main content to this PHP file without any other markup required?

Thanks again great post

Comment by Small Business Technology Solutions on August 16, 2010 @ 2:32 pm

We’re just getting a new wordpress blog started. We’re still learning the basics, but this tutorial has some great info and we’ll certainly be using it in the coming weeks. Thanks!

Comment by Edith on August 19, 2010 @ 2:41 am

Thank you very much, Jeff for presenting this helpful tutorial. Everybody knows that one of the most difficult things of putting up a WordPress Blog is finding a suitable design / theme. You have definitely made things very easy for me.

Thanks a lot.

Greets,
Edith

Comment by Karin on August 22, 2010 @ 5:51 pm

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for sharing this video tutorial, it was really helpful!

Kind regards,

Karin

Comment by New Cars on August 23, 2010 @ 2:14 am

Excellent video, It is complete resources on WordPress information..

Comment by WWE on August 23, 2010 @ 10:28 pm

Thanks mate! Your blog is a great resource on wordpress info… Seems I would need a whole lot of time put into learning from here myself

Comment by WWE on August 23, 2010 @ 10:28 pm

Good work Jeff

I have done a few videos myself. I need some more practice though:-)

Comment by Kiscope.com on August 23, 2010 @ 10:29 pm

Thank you for a clear and easy-to-follow explanation!
Keep your good job.

Comment by Anton @ Quicken Websites on August 26, 2010 @ 10:08 am

You know, even though the post is really old I happy to find one, it gives designer even ore power in making WP platform a full CMS. Love that WP thing more and more.

Comment by Randy Palmer on August 29, 2010 @ 5:35 pm

Jeff, I use wordpress for a work blog and this info has been tremendously useful.

Comment by Sinnlos on August 30, 2010 @ 8:58 am

Thanks for this work and your easy to follow explanation!

Comment by Maurice Jenkins on September 1, 2010 @ 4:26 pm

Great Work Jeff, I am new to word press and i found this to be very helpful, thanks a lot.

Comment by thanos on September 1, 2010 @ 6:15 pm

nice post man…very usefull especially for full time bloggers like myself..cheers mate

Comment by Adrian on September 1, 2010 @ 6:20 pm

Jeff,

first of all thanks for a great tut!
But it didnt work for me.. What am I doing wrong?

I pasted an html-file like you said. The file contains JAVA, link to an external CSS-fil and images. I can see the text, but no images and no CSS. (The JAVA works fine)

Why cant I make it work? I included the images and the css-file to the template-folder..

Jeff Replied:
September 1st, 2010 at 6:36 pm

All I can think of is how you coded it to reference the CSS file. Without looking at it, and I will not sorry, how could I tell.

Comment by Ali Akbar on September 8, 2010 @ 6:26 am

i also created a template by this method !

Comment by Reformas Zaragoza on September 9, 2010 @ 6:49 am

I’ve tried my hand at customizing WP themes by hand and now I’m trying out the most popular WP theme generator on the market who happens to be an advertiser on this site. So far so good.

Comment by Scary Games on September 9, 2010 @ 6:18 pm

Jeff, although me having a number of WP blogs I didn’t know how to make a template till reading your great instructions.

Comment by GSA Schedules on September 22, 2010 @ 2:20 am

Pretty astute post. Never thought that it was this easy after all. I have spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to clarify this subject clearly and you’re the only person that ever did that. I really appreciate it! I look forward to reading more from you!

Comment by James @ Heel Spur Treatment on September 23, 2010 @ 1:18 am

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for taking the time to create this Great post – very helpful.

Cheers,
James

Comment by Philip Den on September 28, 2010 @ 10:47 am

I can’t create HTML, How I use an HTML editor since I am somewhat geek impaired and can’t actually write any code.

Comment by SEO Kansas City on September 28, 2010 @ 4:13 pm

Just started learning the ropes of WordPress and loved your explanation from the video. Hopefully now I can start remembering each little nuance of code, php’s and so forth.

Comment by SLeRic on October 7, 2010 @ 6:26 am

Artisteer was a pretty cool way to instantly create website templates and blog themes. It was fast and easy.

Comment by Laura "Ole" Olesen on October 21, 2010 @ 12:19 pm

Learning WordPress can be a full time job. Thank you for the tips! The more help I get helps me spend more time on my clients.

Comment by Unlimited Reverse Phone Lookup on October 23, 2010 @ 1:35 am

Your blog is so very helpful for wordpress users like me.I simply love your blog.

Comment by Ellen Sagasamutse on November 1, 2010 @ 12:19 am

Even though you feel like you’re neglecting the site by reposting this information, the fact is that useful content is useful content. It’s good that people are still finding some use and relevance out of it. I think a lot of people try to concentrate on adding more and more without realizing that their information just duplicates everyone else. This page must have been popular for a reason.

Comment by Roberta on November 2, 2010 @ 10:33 pm

Jeff – Thanks so much for creating this page! I thought creating a custom page template was going to be mind boggling, but you saved the day! Many thanks!

Comment by chermelle on November 6, 2010 @ 6:59 pm

I have a question maybe someone can help. i have 5 pages that I’m going to be running for my customized blog – so thats 5 templates. once they are loaded into wordpress how do i access them to be able to change copy in the desired places?

Jeff Replied:
November 7th, 2010 at 7:27 am

If you create and upload them properly under Appearance, Editor. But you can also edit them before you add them to the theme’s folder.

Comment by Football News on November 23, 2010 @ 2:30 am

Very useful and worthy tutorial to create custom page in wordpress plus video makes its easier to understand.

Regards,

Sophie

Comment by ren on December 14, 2010 @ 7:36 am

i’ve been trying to figure this out for literally days. i knew it had to be simple and in fact it is! thank you so much!

Comment by Austin Texas Photographer on December 18, 2010 @ 3:37 am

Hey, making a wordpress themed page has always been “Greek” to me, but this is very helpful. I’m going to have to go over it more closely, but thanks. I really just need a few design changes for a clients site, but I’m not too familiar with wordpress customizing.

Thanks!

Comment by Affordable Website Design on December 19, 2010 @ 11:00 pm

Thanks Jeff! Creating a theme from scratch definitely beats modifying an existing theme.

Comment by lexcel accreditation on December 24, 2010 @ 10:07 am

From an SEO perspective is it better to have a blog on the same website to build up content or have it separate and benefit from the links back?

Jeff Replied:
December 29th, 2010 at 9:08 am

Why maintain two sites if they are about the same thing?

Comment by Nathan on December 25, 2010 @ 9:51 am

I was struggling to create a wordpress custom template for my blog. This tutorial helped to solve the problem. Thanks for the video.

Comment by SELinux Guy on December 26, 2010 @ 7:44 pm

Thank you for this great tutorial. Your posts are always very informative and will certainly make life easier for many WP users.

Keep up your great work.

Comment by Unlimited Reverse Phone Lookup on December 31, 2010 @ 3:35 am

I never knew that creating a custom WordPress Page template is possible and it is so easy in nature.That is a good step by step explanation.

Comment by gowri on December 31, 2010 @ 6:41 pm

wOW ! Great work …

i like to create custom splash page can you give me instructions or any other tutorial

Comment by Smuze on January 4, 2011 @ 6:21 pm

I agree with jeff instead of having a static front page, use the sticky post plugin

Comment by Afam on January 4, 2011 @ 8:03 pm

Why i’m i just seeing this for the first time. I’ve been looking for a tutorial on how to create a wordpress theme that will take the look and feel of my website. This helps. Thanks.

Comment by shipping car on January 7, 2011 @ 2:33 pm

My visitors tell me that they like the custom design on my wp blog, i really appreciate the help on this. It showed an easy way to make it.

Comment by shipping car on January 7, 2011 @ 2:36 pm

I was struggling to create a wordpress custom template for my blog. This tutorial helped to solve the problem. Thanks for the video.

Comment by transport car on January 7, 2011 @ 2:38 pm

Jeff demonstrates how to give your lead page options – display options, content options, format options, html options. Your web page or blog can stand apart from those of the masses.

Comment by Aer conditionat on January 16, 2011 @ 4:08 pm

Awesome post buddy ! Now i can create a custom WordPress page template

Comment by Miguel on January 20, 2011 @ 10:34 pm

After hours of searching I found the right answer here, well done. Thank you so much!

Comment by Manny on January 29, 2011 @ 2:27 am

I got my text for my custom page template from Twenty Ten and added it to my current template folder, following the instructions here. It worked! Thanks.

Comment by Joshua Rodriguez on January 30, 2011 @ 12:21 pm

Thank you so much! I have been in the process of starting a wordpress blog and hope to make money doing it someday. However, due to the complexity of creating your own template, I was a bit discouraged. Still a little baffled but I’ll get it eventually I’m sure! Thanks again for the information

Comment by Motorcycle Fairings on February 3, 2011 @ 11:16 am

I acquired the unique content for the wordpress custom page template and tried your method by adding it to the template folder, after following the instructions here. It worked perfectly. Thanks. I was searching for this for a long time.

Comment by 3 mobile uk on February 7, 2011 @ 11:28 am

Great tutorial. WordPress is a great blogging CMS, but sometimes options are limited when you want a customised HTML homepage so this is great!

Comment by Wellness Quotes on February 9, 2011 @ 11:44 am

After days of trying to figure this out a friend sent me a link to your article. It’s cool that something you wrote about so long ago is still 100% relevant and helpful.

As for my use, I created a form and used your technique to create a template and add the contact form. Now I’m using an iframe method to add the form to 100+ of my websites.

Thank you SO much for explaining the steps needed to create the template, etc.

Comment by Edinburgh Removals on February 12, 2011 @ 7:23 pm

Thank you so much for this. I’m trying to install WP in my site and use it as a content manager. This post along with other posts on the site has really helped me to get my own template setup.

Comment by non profit cpa on February 17, 2011 @ 4:46 am

I got my text for my custom page template from Twenty Ten and added it to my current template folder, following the instructions here. It worked! Thanks

Comment by business research on February 23, 2011 @ 7:18 am

I know a very useful tool for creating custom templates – Artisteer. It can create templates not only for WordPress, but for Joomla or Drupal. It’s very flexible and easy to understand. The main disadvantage – it costs about 30 dollars.

Comment by Mark on March 3, 2011 @ 2:37 pm

Hi Jeff,

You provide me what I was looking for. Good work.

Comment by Haris Hussain on March 4, 2011 @ 2:46 pm

This just goes to show how powerful and flexible WordPress is, as a blogging platform. One might even have an idea of modifying existing themes and giving them away…super post I say!

Comment by san francisco movers on March 5, 2011 @ 5:45 pm

Jeff demonstrates how to give your lead page options – display options, content options, format options, html options. Your web page or blog can stand apart from those of the masses.

Comment by Copertine on March 6, 2011 @ 1:15 pm

Thank you for the tutorial! I still think it’s hard to scratch a wordpress theme from the very beginning. Why not just modify an existing free one

Comment by Presentation Elevation on March 9, 2011 @ 5:33 am

Thanks for re-posting this article (never would have found the 2007 version). I am currently trying to catalog useful web resources for building sites through WordPress for a class I’m teaching on the subject. Will definitely add yours as a resource. Thanks again.

Comment by Bank exam on March 15, 2011 @ 11:11 am

currently I am blogging on the blogspot platform and planning to sift to wordpress very soon. I always wanted to customize my home page to make it look like a website rather than the series of posts arranged in one after another. WordPress always provide flexibility for webmasters to customize their blogs but the main problem is lack of knowledge and expertise needed to implement the techniques. Bloggers like you, who who are always eager to help others are assets for our blogging community.
Thank for your helpful guidance.

Comment by jacob @ seo services company on March 25, 2011 @ 7:49 am

awesome article, that i need.
thanks a lot jeff.

keep it up

cheers

Comment by jaluzele exterioare on March 25, 2011 @ 10:12 am

i still believe that customizing a wordpress theme is hard, at leas for me, tried it with no success, better leave it to pros

Comment by Jeff on March 26, 2011 @ 7:56 am

It needs to be uploaded. A new page can be created in the dashboard just like a post but the page.php file cannot.

Comment by Vishwajeet on April 5, 2011 @ 2:15 pm

This is amazing stuff…I just saved some heavy money to be spent on web-designers

Comment by grilaje ferestre on April 6, 2011 @ 8:22 am

it’s easier to design a blog from an already existing template than from scratch, unless u have lots of programming skills

Comment by Kathleen Calderon on April 6, 2011 @ 12:06 pm

Hi,

Thanks for another great tutorial. I have a question: if I want to display custom post types within a page, then what additional code do I need to add in the page template?

Comment by Table top displays on April 7, 2011 @ 5:41 am

Everything worked perfectly! I really have love the article very much!

Comment by mantolama izmir on April 20, 2011 @ 11:55 am

trying to create a custom wordpress template, this training has helped to solve the problem. Thank you for the video and article

Comment by Patrick on April 26, 2011 @ 7:22 am

I am using wordpress and need some help. Could you please tell me how to navigate away from within my website and open up info in another window/page. Basically, i want my visitors on my site to, for example, click here to continue reading. Once the person clicks on the link the additional information will open up in a diffent window or on a different page.

Comment by Top Ski Resorts on April 27, 2011 @ 1:30 am

Awesome work by you.i still believe that customizing a wordpress theme is hard, at leas for me, tried it with no success, better leave it to pros

Comment by Kyle on May 3, 2011 @ 3:57 am

Comment by Thomas on May 14, 2011 @ 9:35 pm

Now that I have gone through it, I have more questions: how do you attach CSS? Would you link to the main styles sheet through ?

Comment by helena on August 10, 2011 @ 6:52 am

hey jeff,

first of all, thx for this tutorial. helped a lot. I managed to create a static site the way you explained. only now I have the problem, that some jpegs, that I embedded with dreamweaver aren’t displayed, just these small blue squares with an interrogation mark. I already uploaded the required jpegs in the same folder as the new theme.php. or should I put them somewhere else?
any idea?
thx, helena.

Comment by Katy Perry Halloween Costume on August 17, 2011 @ 11:56 am

Information without a doubt fantastic for me that I have a WordPress blog and I have some trouble customizing it.. Thank´s a lot

Comment by Stock Market Blog on August 21, 2011 @ 2:38 pm

Is this different for the newer versions of WordPress?

Jeff Replied:
August 27th, 2011 at 6:21 pm

I haven’t done much with WP in over a year but this guide is probably still relevant. All you can do is try.

Comment by RD Web Design on August 25, 2011 @ 12:12 pm

Nice and clear tutorial, love the video too, thanks.

Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.