Site pages and the page builder
A site page is a page you design from blocks called widgets. You pick a template that provides the sections, drop widgets into them, drag them into place, and publish. Use site pages for Home, About, landing pages and anything else that is one-of-a-kind.
What you need
- The Manage Site Pages permission.
- An active theme. The built-in theme provides everything used here.
Create a page
- Click Site pages in the sidebar. The list is titled Site Pages and shows Title, Path, Status and Updated.
- Click New page.
- Enter a Title, for example
Contact. The page's web address comes from it, herecontact. - Choose a Template (see below).
- Tick Save as draft if you do not want the page to be public yet.
- Click Create.
Warning If you leave Save as draft unticked, the page is published immediately, with no widgets on it. Tick the box and publish when the page is ready.
Which template?
The Template list offers the web templates of the active theme. For a page you design, choose one of the page templates. They decide which sections the page has:
| Template | Sections | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Page - Full Width | main | Simple pages and landing pages |
| Page - With Sidebar | main, sidebar | About pages with side content |
| Page - Multi Section | hero, features, content, cta | Marketing pages |
| Home | hero, features, content, cta | A home page with the same four sections |
You can change the template later on the page's Settings tab. Do not choose layouts, login pages or error pages for a site page. Those are for other jobs; see Overview of the built-in templates.
Open the page builder
Click Layout on the page's row in the list, or open the page and switch to the Layout tab. The other tab, Settings, holds the title, path, template and revisions.
The layout shows one card per section, labelled with the section name and its widget count. Sections come from the template. You cannot add or rename them here; a developer adds a section by editing the template (see Site pages and widgets).
Add a widget
- On the section card, click Add widget.
- Under Placement, check the Section and pick a Widget type from the cards. Built-in types are Hero, WYSIWYG, Image + Text, Card, FAQ, Call to Action, Embed and Content List. A Custom badge marks widget types your theme added.
- Fill in the widget's settings. Each type has its own form; see the widgets reference.
- Open Advanced if you need it (below).
- Click Add widget.
You return to the layout with the new widget in its section.
Arrange widgets
Each section is a 12-column grid. A widget tile shows its type and the number of columns it spans, for example 12 cols.
- Move a tile by dragging it. You can drag it into another section.
- Resize it by dragging its left or right edge. A widget can span 1 to 12 columns.
- Put two widgets side by side by giving each a narrower width, for example 6 and 6.
- Click the pencil (Edit widget) to change its settings, or the trash icon (Remove widget) to delete it.
The Advanced settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| CSS class | Adds your own class to the widget's outer element, for styling. |
| HTML id | Sets the element's id, so a link such as #pricing can jump to it. |
| Custom attributes | Extra HTML attributes, for example data-theme="dark". |
| Row, Column, Column span | The widget's position on the grid: row 0 or higher, column 0 to 11, span 1 to 12. Dragging in the layout sets these for you. |
Drafts, preview and publishing
Changes to the layout and to widgets are saved automatically as a draft, about a second after you make them. An indicator shows Unsaved changes, then Saving draft…, then Draft saved. Visitors keep seeing the last published version until you publish.
- Click Preview to see the page with your draft applied.
- When you are happy, click Publish. The previous published version is kept as a revision.
- Click View live to check the public page.
To throw away unpublished layout changes, click Clear draft on the layout, or Discard draft on the page header. To take a page off the site, click Unpublish.
The status in the list is Draft, Published, or Published · unpublished changes, which means visitors see the published version while you have a newer draft.
Important The Title, Path and Template on the Settings tab are not drafted. They take effect as soon as you click Save settings. See Revisions and publishing for rolling back with revisions.
Make it the home page
Publish the page, then click Set as home page in the page header and confirm. Details and rules are in Set the home page.
Delete a page
On the Settings tab, use the Delete page danger zone. A deleted site page is gone; it does not go to a trash. The home page cannot be deleted.
Gotchas
- Orphaned sections. If you switch a page to a template that does not render a section the page already has widgets in, that section shows as orphaned. Move the widgets, or click Remove section.
- A widget type missing from the theme. If a widget's type no longer exists in the active theme, its settings show as raw JSON so you can still read them.
- The page template must call the section. A section only appears on the page if the template renders it; otherwise widgets in it are invisible to visitors.
- Switching themes does not move site pages. After activating another theme, open each site page's Settings tab and choose a template from the new theme. See Themes and web templates.