Page Templates in SharePoint | Create Page Templates in SharePoint Online

Recently, we were working for a client to set up a document management portal for them using SharePoint Online. They aimed to create pages across various departments, all sharing the same branding and theme, and featuring an Employee directory on each page.

Instead of creating the SharePoint pages separately, we can achieve this by creating a custom page template and using that template while creating a page in a SharePoint Online site.

In this tutorial, I will explain how to create page templates in SharePoint. Next, I will show you the following points about the SharePoint site Page templates:

• What are Sharepoint page templates
• Default page templates in SharePoint Online
• Create a custom page template in the SharePoint site
• View SharePoint custom page templates
• Create a page from the custom page template
• Steps to edit a modern SharePoint page template
• Delete a custom page template from the SharePoint site
• Alternate methods to edit and delete the page template in SharePoint

What are SharePoint Online Page Templates?

SharePoint page templates are copies of pages stored in a draft mode that allow others to use them while creating new SharePoint pages.

Once the page template is created, others can choose it from under the SharePoint template gallery.

https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<SiteName>/SitePages/Templates

If you want to create multiple pages with the same design, you don’t need to recreate it. You can save a page as a template in SharePoint, and you can use the same template to create multiple pages in the same SharePoint Online site.

Note:

You should be a SharePoint site owner or have edit permissions to add pages or save page as a template.

Default Page Templates in SharePoint Online Site

Microsoft provides the following default templates in a Modern SharePoint site, with which you can create a new page with the content present in the default templates.

• Blank: It is a blank page, where you can design it according to your preference.
• Starter: Displays a video, and you can add other web parts and share the story.
• Training: This is a Team Onboarding template that has training-related content like videos, Training leads, and a Role guide, etc.
• Recap: This team-building activity template showcases the event through videos and a training team.
• Message: Template to broadcast the message and related content.
• Visual: Include images, text, and tabular formats.
• Basic text: It will have text and links in tabular formats.

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Create a Page Template in SharePoint Online Site

Let me show you how to create a page template in a SharePoint Online site from scratch in a step-by-step process.

1. Open your SharePoint Online site.
2. On the Home page, click on the + New, select Page from the drop-down menu.

Then, it will navigate to another window, where the default page templates are present.

3. Under the Page templates section, choose the template that you want to apply and click on the Create page button.

4. It will open the Edit page of site templates, where you can provide the Title and Background Image to the title section.
5. On the page, you can add or remove different web parts and content according to the requirements.

6. Once you’re done with the page creation, click Save and close, and then select Save as template from the drop-down menu. This will save the current page with all the sections and web parts as a template.

7. Next, select Publish at the top right corner of the screen. It will make the page visible to everyone who can access the SharePoint site.

9. Now, navigate to your Site pages library in your SharePoint site. You’ll see that page templates are stored under the site pages.

This is how to create and save the page templates in SharePoint Online.

See Change SharePoint Site Logo and Thumbnail

View Custom Page Template in SharePoint Online

In this section, I will show you how to go to the custom template that has been created, where you can view or edit it.

There are two ways to view the page template on the SharePoint site.

1. From Template Pane
2. From the Template Folder on the site pages library

Method 1:- View Custom SharePoint Page Template from Template Pane

Follow the steps mentioned below to view the custom page template present in the SharePoint site.

1. Go to the Home page of your SharePoint Online site, click on the +New, and select page.
2. Then, the Page Templates window opens up. Click on the “Saved on this site” tab.

3. Then, select the template that you have created, and click on the vertical ellipses. Choose the ” Go to template” option.

4. This will open the template page where you can view, make edits, and resave the page template.

Method 2:- View Custom SharePoint Page Template from Template Folder

Check out the following steps to view the custom template in your SharePoint site.

1. Go to the SharePoint site Home page, select “Pages” from the left navigation.
2. Under the Site pages library, you can see the “Templates” folder. Once you’ve saved your page template, it will appear under the Templates folder.

3. Open the Templates folder, which contains all the custom page templates.

Create a Page from the Custom Page Template in SharePoint Online

From the above sections, you might already know how to create and save the SharePoint page as a template. Here, let’s see how to apply the custom template to create a new SharePoint page.

See the steps mentioned:

1. Open the SharePoint Online site.
2. Next, select the +New button -> Choose Pages.
3. Then, click on the “Saved on this site” tab and click on the ” Create page” button.

4. To that page, add your content by adding and removing web parts.
5. When you’re done, click on Save and close. Then, tap on Publish.

From the applied page template, I have removed the banner with the Title and Background image. Reference the image below.

This way, you can use the custom template to create a new page in a SharePoint Online site.

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Edit SharePoint Online Site Page Template

I will show you how to edit the custom page template in modern SharePoint sites.

Follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the SharePoint Site pages library and open the Templates folder.
2. Then, choose the page template that you want to edit.
3. Then, the page template will open, where you can make the necessary changes.

4. Select the section that you want to edit. To delete, click on the web part that you want to delete and click on the delete.

5. To add the web part, click on the circled +, select the web part that you want to add.

6. Once you edit your page, click on the ” Save as page template” option at the top right corner of the screen.

This is how to edit a custom page template in a Modern SharePoint site.

Delete Custom Page Template from SharePoint Site

When you delete the custom template, it will be permanently removed from the SharePoint site.

Steps to delete:

1. On the SharePoint site, select +New -> then click on Page.
2. Then, the Templates pane will display, where the default page templates will be available.
3. Select the template you want to delete, then click the vertical ellipses menu icon.
4. Select the Delete from site option.

5. Next, select OK in the Delete template dialogue box to confirm the deletion of the template.

Result:

From the screenshot below, you can see that there is only one custom page template present now.

This is how you can delete a custom page template in a SharePoint Online site.

Alternate Method: Find, Edit & Delete Custom Page Templates in SharePoint

You can also edit and delete the custom page templates from the Site pages library in SharePoint.

The steps to do:

1. Open the SharePoint site, click on Pages in the left navigation.
2. Then, click on the Templates folder.
3. It will open the templates folder, where you can edit and delete the custom page template.

4. To edit the template, click on the custom page template. Then it will open the template page, where you can edit and save the changes.

5. To delete a page template, select the template and click on the Delete option.

This is another way you can edit and delete the custom page templates in a SharePoint Online site.

Through this article, I have explained everything about page templates in the SharePoint Online site. You can use the default page templates or custom page templates to create a new page in your modern SharePoint site.

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Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.