Today’s website visitors are a savvy bunch. A poorly formatted block or element that seems out of step with the rest of the site can make them suspicious of your brand and less likely to engage with you. For this reason, templates are incredibly important when it comes to making changes to your website or adding new pages.
But first, let’s talk about some quick ways to make minor changes.
How to make minor changes to your website
If you want to make a small change to one of the pages of your website, it’s easy to make sure that the formatting and styling match the rest of your site. Here are a few ways to do that quickly.
Duplicating elements and containers
If you just want to add a section to an existing webpage or add another element that already appears on the page, the easiest way to do so is to use the duplicate function. When hovering over a container or element, there will be a duplicate icon at the top that looks like a dark square in front of the outline of a square. This will make an identical copy of the element or container, and you can edit the contents accordingly.
You can also duplicate from the right-click menu by right-clicking on an element and selecting duplicate from the menu that appears.
Using copy + paste
Another way to make sure additions match the styling of your site is to use copy + paste to make duplicates. This can be done either by selecting the element and pressing Ctrl (Cmd) + C and then Ctrl (Cmd) + V (or by selecting copy via the right-click menu). One of the perks of this method is that, while duplicate will make a copy right under the existing item, you can copy something and then paste it wherever you want on the page. This allows you to place the item at its proper destination instead of having to move it.
☝️ Pro tip: You can even use copy + paste between pages. In Elementor, copy an existing element on any page, and then paste it on a different page! If it doesn’t work right away, try a couple more times; this can be a little buggy at times, especially with containers.
How to use paste style to match formatting
If you’ve changed the formatting of something, like a header, and you want to reflect that change elsewhere on other headers, simply copy the changed element, and then right-click on the element you’d like to match it. Select Paste style from the menu. This will keep the content but change its formatting to match.
Leveraging the Template Library
When it comes to bigger changes like creating new pages, you’ll want to use the Template Library instead of copying or duplicating items. This tool will save you time and make the creation of new pages simple. By using templates you created from your existing site, you’ll save yourself the hassle of having to format new pages and elements to keep everything consistent throughout.
While we’ll have used the Template Library when we built your site, we won’t usually leave a lot of items in it because we want you to be able to choose what’s important and useful to you.
Saving pages to the Template Library
You can save entire pages to the Template Library, allowing you to create a new page that looks just like one that already exists on your site. Editing this page to contain your new content can make building out your website easy.
Next to Publish at the top right of the screen, you’ll see a little arrow that gives you the Save options drop-down menu. On this menu, you can select Save as template. This will open a window that allows you to save a template of the entire page.
✅ We recommend:
When you begin using your Template Library, figure out a naming structure to make navigating your library easier in the future. As you add more items, it may be difficult to find what you’re looking for. We suggest being as descriptive as possible.
Saving containers and elements to the Template Library
You can also save individual containers and elements to the Template Library. If you like how a container is laid out or the format of a particular element and know you will be able to use it elsewhere, you can save it and insert it on other pages as needed.
On any container or element you’d like to save, right-click and select Save as template from the drop-down menu. Choose a name that aptly describes the element you’re saving, and click Save.
Inserting elements from the Template Library
To use these saved elements, you can simply click on the plus icon at the location you wish to add to, and select the library icon (this looks like a file folder). Your Template Library will appear and you can select the saved template you want to utilize and click on Insert to add it to the page.
The Template Library in the WordPress admin area
You can also view your Template Library from within the WordPress admin area by clicking on Templates on the left-hand side. This is a quick way to review what you have saved and make changes as needed, such as renaming templates or deleting unwanted items.
If you’ve made changes to a version of one of your saved templates and want it to appear that way in the future, you can always save that edited item as a template, or you can go into your Template Library in the admin area, find the template in question, and select Edit with Elementor for that item. By making changes, you’ll update the appearance of the template itself, and the next time you use it, it’ll appear as you want. This won’t change anything on your existing pages that used the old template.
Note: You can import templates from other places such as another website, but we don’t recommend this, as it can make style matching harder. By sticking to templates based on items we’ve designed for you, you can retain design fidelity.
💁 Need help?
If you ever find yourself in need of a page, container, or element that doesn’t already exist on your site, we’re happy to help! Reach out and let us know what you’re looking for, and we can design a new layout or template for your site.