Template Manager

Overview

The Template Manager is the control center of your theme which you can use to save parts of the assets which you created using Cornerstone and use them again on a different section of the current website or even the other projects. There are 5 types of templates available:

• Presets – (X and Pro) The settings of an individual element can be saved, allowing you to recall them on elements of the same type.
• Content – (X and Pro) The content that you add in the page using the builder elements. The Content Template consists of all the sections or selected sections of the content you built.
• Header – (Pro Only) The header content that you add in the Header Builder. The header Template consists of all the bars, containers and elements or selected ones of the header you built.
• Footer – (Pro Only) The footer content that you add in the Footer Builder. The footer Template consists of all the bars, containers and elements or selected ones of the footer you built.
• Layous – (Pro Only) The template structure surrounding the_content or archival loops for various post types.

Getting to the Template Manager

If you are using X, go to the WordPress Admin → X → Templates:

If you are using Pro, go to the WordPress Admin → Pro → Templates:

Using the Template Manager

If you are on a brand new installation or have not yet saved any personal templates, you will see the following interface:

This “Templates” tab is where a list of all saved templates will show up as you work on your designs and save out various pieces to reuse later. If you are starting completely from scratch, you may wish to switch over to the “Design Cloud” tab to access our ever-growing library of ready-made assets for a quick starting, design inspiration, or complete site designs:

Here you will see a collection of assets built upon the types mentioned previously in addition to a “Sites” option, which are fully designed websites that can be installed with one click. This includes Theme Options settings, Page content, and demo Posts. If you are a Pro user, Headers, Footers, and Layouts will also be included if applicable.

Saving Content Templates

Depending on the type of asset you are working with on your site, there are a couple ways to save content to your Template Manager. First, if you are working in the Page Builder and wish to save a Section or group of Sections as a Template, go to the Outline pane and click on the Save Template button at the very top:

Clicking this button will reveal a modal with an input where you can name your asset, in addition to automatically selecting all Sections on your page to be included in your asset (as denoted by the blue checkmarks next to each Section in the outline). If you wish to exclude a Section from being included in your Template, deselect it in the outline so that it becomes grayed out. Conversely, select it to highlight the item and include it in the template. Once you have selected the appropriate Sections for your template, give it a name in the input and click Save to add it to your library of assets:

Now, if you go back to the Template Manager, you will find your newly saved asset in your personal library:

Saving Presets

To save an individual Element as a Preset for later use, inspect your desired Element and locate the “Apply Preset / Save Preset” toggle at the top of the inspector. Select “Save Preset,” give your preset a name, and then select “Save” to add it to your library:

Again, if we go back to the Template Manager, we'll now see that we have a preset Template saved. Presets will always be saved as “Preset: {Element},” where {Element} is replaced with the type of Element saved. In this case, since we were saving a Text Element, it's type is set as “Preset: Text” in the library:

Saving Headers, Footers, & Layouts

For Headers, Footers, and Layouts you will save your assets to the Template Manager from the main Navigation menu after creating your asset. This works the same across all of these assets, but we will focus on Headers for a moment. Let's say you have just completed designing your site's global Header and you want to save it to your library. Go to the main Navigation menu and select “Headers” to see your index of all available Headers on your site. Hover over the item you wish to save and click the last button that appears, which will display a tooltip of “Save as Template” when you mouse over it:

Clicking on this button will reveal a mini-popup where you can name and save your asset as we have done in our previous examples.

Filtering

The Template Manager features numerous ways to narrow down your results and find a particular asset you're looking for. To being with, let's discuss filtering. Clicking on “Filter” will open a dropdown, providing you with selections for all asset types available:

For instance, if you only wanted to see available full site designs, you could select “Sites” to narrow down these results:

Sorting

Now that we've filtered, let's say you'd prefer to see these assets listed alphabetically rather than by their publication date. To do this, click the “Sort” button and select “A-Z” to display your results in this order:

Searching

If you know the name of an asset you're looking for, or you simply want to search by various content types directly, you can do so by using the global search in the upper right corner of the Template Manager:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of the Template Manager?
The purpose of the Template Manager is to store all of your available template files. In Pro, this includes Header Templates, Content Templates, Footer Templates, and Preset Templates and in X this includes Content Templates and Preset Templates. Standardizing the templating process across many different types of assets allows for a streamlined experience and portable data.

How can I organize my templates?
There are several ways you can organize your template files. For starters, each template can be named/renamed on the Template Manager home screen just by clicking into the text. Any change you make here is automatically updated across your builders. You can use names such as MyTemplate1 / MyTemplate2 or Label1 / Label2 to group various assets together or come up with your own naming convention. You can sort by name or type, and you can even view just one particular type of template by using the navigation at the top.

Why does an export include everything in one .zip as opposed to individual template files?
One of the primary goals of the Template Manager was to make it easy to move your assets around. With this in mind, when you export a group of Templates we group those into one file. We do this for several reasons. One, let's say you are referencing the same image in multiple templates. You wouldnʼt want that image exported multiple times and subsequently imported multiple times into your new site. Two, by doing it this way we can include all colors and fonts in a more intelligent way. If you only want individual template files, you can do that as well! Simply export one file at a time and the zip will only include that asset.

What happens when I hide a template?
When you hide a template in the Template Manager it will not show up in your builders. It will still be in your site since the Template Manager functions as a library of sorts for your assets.

Do Design Cloud templates include any sort of specialized functionality (e.g. forms)?
The purpose of the templates provided by Design Cloud is to give a baseline to start from in which users can build out other elements of their website. With forms, Design Cloud templates may present a stylistic idea but will not include these functional pieces of content. For instance, our Mail Footer Template presents the idea of a subscriber opt-in form on top of a more traditional footer section. We cannot provide a working form in an example like this because not only is this type of functionality not native to WordPress (it would require some form of a plugin), often users will have different third-party services that they prefer to use for these situations. That does not preclude us from being able to demonstrate a layout concept in which users can easily update with their own markup or services as they need on top of the starting point provided by the Design Cloud template.

Summary

Hopefully you have a good working knowledge of the Template Manager. First, we've explained how to access the Template Manager. Next, we've introduced the different kinds of the Templates and how to use them including saving and loading Templates throughout Cornerstone. Finally, we've delved into Design Cloud and a few frequently asked questions with respect to Templates in Cornerstone.