Using templates

Your online store consists of different types of pages, including: the home page, product pages, collection pages, blogs, and other pages.

Pages are designed using templates. In the theme editor, you change the look and layout of your pages by editing their assigned templates.

  • There are default templates for each type of page. Editing a default template will apply the same layout to all pages that use that template.

  • To use different layouts for specific pages, create new templates, then assign those templates to your pages in the Shopify admin.

Open templates

Use the Templates selector in the theme editor to find the templates available for each page type. By default, the theme editor opens the Home page template.

See the Theme templates guide for a full overview of all available templates.

Preview changes

When you open a template, the theme editor selects a page (e.g. one product or collection) to preview the changes made to that template.

  • Click Change in the "PREVIEW" section to view a different page with that template.

  • To view a full preview of the live site, click more … > Preview. The preview will open in a new window, and you can click Share preview to copy the preview link to share with others.

Assign templates to pages

If a warning symbol (!) appears next to the page name, this means that the template you are editing is not applied to that page. Go to the page in the Shopify admin and use the Theme template menu to assign a template.

By default, templates from trial or unpublished themes will not show in the page's template menu. As a workaround, learn how to assign templates from an unpublished theme.

Create and assign multiple templates

At first, there is one Default template for every type of page. This means that changes made to a default template will apply to all pages that use that template.

To change the content or style of specific pages, you will need to create a new template and then assign that template to those pages in the Shopify Admin.

Alternatively, you can use Metafields and dynamic sources to automatically display the correct content or settings for pages that use the same template.

STEPS

In your theme editor (Customize):

  1. Use the Templates selector to open the Products, Collections, Pages, Blogs, or Blog posts templates.

  2. Click Create template.

  3. Enter a Name for your new template and click Create template.

    The new template will duplicate the settings of the original template.

  4. Under Preview, click Change to preview different pages with this template.

    If a warning icon (!) appears, you need to assign the template in your Shopify admin.

  5. To assign a template, go to the page in the Shopify admin and use the Theme template menu to select a specific template.

    Templates cannot be assigned on unpublished or trial themes. All changes to your templates will be saved but can only be assigned when purchased and published.

  6. Click Save.

Assign templates from unpublished theme

Shopify only allows you to assign templates from your published theme. Shopify will not show templates from unpublished themes, unless they have the same name as the published theme’s templates.

As a workaround, you can create a duplicate template in the published theme and give it the same name as the template from the unpublished theme.

This new template will show in the Shopify admin and assigning it will apply the template to both themes.

STEPS

  1. Open the theme editor for your published theme (Customize).

  2. Use the template selector to find your currently assigned template.

  3. Click (+) Create template.

    Template selector in published theme

  4. Enter the exact same Name as the template in your unpublished theme.

    New template name that matches the unpublished theme
    Template in the unpublished theme

  5. Select the current template that the new template should be based on.

    This will duplicate everything in the current template and will ensure nothing changes in your current theme when you assign the new template.

  6. Click Create template.

In your Shopify admin:

  1. Go to the page you want to assign the template to.

  2. Click the template dropdown and select your template.

    For products and collections, you can use the bulk editor to assign templates ↗ to more than one at a time.

  3. Click Save

Related links

Theme templates

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