How to Create Custom Page Templates in SharePoint

To create a page template in SharePoint, build a page with the sections, columns and web parts you want, then select the down arrow next to Save and exit and choose Save as template. From then on, anyone who selects New, then Page on that site sees your template under Saved on this site and can start a page with the layout already in place.

The video above was recorded in March 2024, and two things have moved since: Save as template is no longer in the Promote panel, and the title area at the top of a page is now a Banner web part. The steps below use the current names.

How is a SharePoint page put together?

Every modern page has the same anatomy, and a template is just a saved copy of it.

• The banner. The strip across the top holds the page title and, usually, an image. It used to be a fixed title area. Since mid-2024 it’s a Banner web part you can restyle, move or remove, and the first banner on the page still sets the page title. Its layouts are Image and title, Plain, Color block and Overlap, plus Author and Fade, which arrived with the change.
• Sections. The horizontal bands down the page. Add one with the circled + on a section border, then pick a column layout. Each section can have its own background, and you can make a section collapsible, which I cover in building an FAQ page with collapsible sections.
• Columns. A section holds up to three columns: one, two, three, or the one-third left and one-third right splits. A Vertical section runs down the right-hand side of the whole page, which suits quick links and contacts. Communication sites also offer a full-width section, and a Flexible section lets you place and resize web parts freely instead of in fixed columns.
• Web parts. The building blocks inside each column: text, images, quick links, news, people, and the rest. You add them from the Toolbox.

Section templates sit at the bottom of the Toolbox as well. They’re ready-made section layouts, such as three columns of image and text, and they’re a quick way to fill a template with structure before you’ve written any content.

Watch the video

Before you start

• You need edit permission on the site to add pages and templates. If even a site owner can’t add a page, an admin may have turned page creation off for the site.
• Templates are site-scoped. A template saved on your HR site isn’t available on your Finance site. If several sites need the same layout, keep one reference page and rebuild the template on each site from it.
• You can’t make a template from the home page. Start from a new page or an existing content page instead.

How do you create a page template?

1. On the site, select New, then Page. The template gallery opens.
2. Select Create blank (or start from one of the From Microsoft templates) and build the layout: the banner style, the sections, the columns and the web parts.
3. Put guidance where you want authors to type. In my demo template I added a grey vertical section with a Quick links web part, and a text web part that said “Enter page description” so the author knows what goes there.
4. Add anything every page should carry. I added a People web part as the page contact, with a placeholder person the author swaps for the right one before publishing.
5. Select the down arrow next to Save and exit and choose Save as template. Give the template a clear name, such as “Default content page”, and save it.

Web parts you leave empty don’t show on a published page, so a template can include a Quick links or Image web part that only appears once the author fills it in.

You can also turn a finished page into a template. Open the page, edit it to strip out the one-off content, and use the same Save and exit menu. In the video I made a landing page template with a Quick links grid on top this way, from the Promote panel that no longer has the option.

How do people use the template?

Authors select New, then Page or News post, and pick the template under Saved on this site. The gallery shows a preview, and Create page opens a new page in edit mode with the layout, images and web parts already there. You can also start from the + Create button on the SharePoint app bar, or + Add on a News web part, and get the same gallery.

The gallery has two other sections next to yours. From Microsoft holds Microsoft’s ready-made templates (when I recorded this in 2024 there were three: Blank, Visual and Basic text), and Full-page apps holds apps that take over the whole page.

How do you edit, delete or set a default template?

Select More options (the three dots) on a template in the gallery:

• Go to template opens it for editing. Save your changes and the next new page uses them. Existing pages don’t change.
• Delete from site removes it permanently.
• Set default selection changes which template SharePoint preselects for everyone on the site. Out of the box that’s Blank.

Templates are stored as draft pages in a Templates folder in the site’s Pages library. View templates folder at the bottom of the gallery takes you there, which is handy when you want to tidy up several at once.

Build templates for the pages your site makes every week

I’d only make a template for a page people create over and over: a project update, a policy page, an event, a department news post. I’d keep each site to a handful, each named for the job it does, so authors aren’t scrolling past layouts nobody uses.

The layout is the obvious part. These are the details I’d build into every template, because they’re the first things to go missing when someone starts from a blank page:

A page contact. A People web part with a placeholder reminds the author that the page needs an owner. They swap in the right person before publishing, so every page goes live with a name readers can ask when it’s out of date.

A thumbnail and description convention. In edit mode, Page details lets you set a thumbnail that differs from the banner image, and a description. Those are what show up when the page appears in search, in news, and in the Highlighted content web part. In the video I suggest giving each type of page its own default image or colour, so a policy page always looks like a policy page wherever it surfaces. The description field is empty until someone fills it in, so I’d set the convention in the template and mention it in the placeholder text.

Metadata on the Pages library. Templates set the layout, but they can’t make anyone fill in a column. If your pages carry a Topic or Department column, the template is a good moment to remind authors with a line of placeholder text, because that column is what lets the Highlighted content web part build topic pages and what gives Copilot something to filter on. Why your SharePoint needs an information architecture before AI covers why I’d sort the columns before the layout.

I’d also give each template a single owner, usually the site owner. Edits never flow back to existing pages, so when several people adjust a template over time, the site fills up with pages built from different versions of it.

What to watch for

• The preview hides empty web parts. In the gallery preview, web parts nobody has filled in don’t show, so a template can look emptier than the page you’ll get.
• Your gallery may look different. Microsoft rolls page features out to Targeted Release tenants first, so the gallery sections and labels can vary for a while.

The SharePoint fundamentals hub has the rest of the series, including team sites vs communication sites if you’re still deciding where the pages should live.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a SharePoint page template on another site? No. A page template is saved to the Templates folder of one site’s Pages library and only appears under Saved on this site there. To use the same layout elsewhere, recreate the template on each site. Updating existing pages after a template change is a manual job too.

Does editing a page template update pages made from it? No. Pages copy the template when they’re created and don’t stay linked to it. Edit the template with Go to template and only the pages created afterwards pick up the change.

Where is Save as template in SharePoint now? It’s in the menu next to Save and exit, while the page is in edit mode. It used to be in the Promote panel on a published page, and Microsoft has moved it. You can’t save the site’s home page as a template.

Can I make a news post template? Yes. Build or open a news post, then use Save as template from the Save and exit menu the same way. Authors find it under Saved on this site when they start a news post from New, the app bar’s + Create, or a News web part’s + Add.

Can I make people start from my template instead of a blank page? You can make it the default. A site owner selects More options on the template in the gallery and chooses Set default selection, and the gallery then preselects it for everyone on the site instead of Blank. Authors can still pick another template.