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Page Templates

Page templates let you design a SharePoint page once and reuse that design every time someone creates a new page on the site. A template captures the full layout, including sections, web parts, placeholder text, and images, and appears in the template picker alongside the defaults Microsoft provides. Authors start from the template and customize freely without affecting the original. For intranets where many people publish pages and news, templates are the simplest way to keep every page on brand and consistently structured.
Related Features
News Post, Page, Page Sections, Site Pages Library, Site Templates

Common Use Cases

  • News post templates: a ready-made announcement layout with the hero image, byline area, and section structure already in place
  • Event pages: a repeatable design for town halls and webinars with date, registration link, and agenda placeholders
  • Policy and procedure pages: a consistent structure for HR and compliance content so every policy reads the same way
  • Project pages: a standard layout for project summaries with status, team, and document web parts pre-positioned
  • Department landing pages: a shared design that every department fills in with its own content
  • Recurring communications: branded layouts for newsletters, leadership updates, and campaign pages published on a schedule

Benefits

  • Consistency at scale: every author starts from the same approved layout instead of a blank page
  • Faster publishing: sections, web parts, and formatting are already built, so authors only swap in content
  • Lower training burden: occasional contributors follow the structure instead of learning page design from scratch
  • Brand control: the look and feel ships with the template, so design decisions are made once
  • Safe to customize: changes an author makes to a new page never touch the template it started from
  • Built-in starting points: Microsoft includes default templates, so every site has useful options on day one

How It Works

  • Saved from a real page: any page or news post can be saved as a template once it looks the way you want
  • Stored in the Templates folder: templates live as draft pages in a Templates folder inside the Site Pages library
  • Shown in the template picker: everyone creating a page on the site sees saved templates next to the Microsoft defaults
  • Copies, not links: a new page is an independent copy, so editing the template later does not change pages already created from it
  • Editable and removable: templates can be updated or deleted from the Templates folder at any time
  • Blank by default: if an author does not pick a template, the new page starts from the Blank template

Limits and Nuances

  • Site by site: templates are scoped to the site where they were saved and do not appear on other sites automatically
  • Edit permissions required: creating a template requires the ability to create and edit pages on the site
  • Templates stay in draft: a template is stored as a page in a draft state, so it never publishes or shows up as news itself
  • Layout, not data: a template captures web parts and their configuration, but dynamic web parts still render live content on each new page
  • Defaults remain visible: Microsoft’s built-in templates stay in the picker alongside custom ones, so naming yours clearly helps authors choose
  • Cross-site reuse takes planning: distributing one template to many sites is a provisioning exercise rather than a built-in toggle

Common Questions About Page Templates

What is a page template in SharePoint?

A page template is a saved copy of a modern SharePoint page that others can use as the starting point for new pages on the same site. It preserves the entire design, including sections, web parts, placeholder text, and images. Authors pick it from the template gallery when creating a page, then customize their copy freely without affecting the template itself.

Where are page templates stored?

Templates are stored as pages in a draft state inside a dedicated Templates folder in the Site Pages library. Because they are ordinary pages underneath, they can be edited, renamed, or deleted later, and every change to a template applies only to pages created from that point forward. The template gallery reads directly from this folder.

If I update a template, do existing pages change?

No. Every page created from a template is an independent copy, so updating the template affects only pages created after the change. That cuts both ways: it protects published content from accidental redesigns, but it also means a rebrand requires touching existing pages individually or through automation, since there is no link back from page to template.

Can I use one page template across multiple sites?

Not automatically. Page templates are scoped to the site where they were saved, so each site maintains its own template gallery. Organizations that want identical layouts everywhere typically recreate the template on each publishing site or use provisioning tooling to deploy it at scale. For many intranets, keeping news publishing on a few dedicated sites makes this a non-issue.

Do page templates work for news posts?

Yes, and that is one of their best uses. A news post saved as a template appears when authors create news on the site, giving announcements, people news, and recurring updates a consistent, professional structure. The author replaces the placeholder content, publishes, and the post distributes through news web parts and feeds like any other news post.

Are the built-in templates enough, or should I create my own?

Microsoft’s defaults are solid starting points, but they know nothing about your brand, your content types, or your authors. A small set of purpose-built templates is one of the highest-leverage moves an intranet team can make. The LookBook 365 designs Greg Zelfond builds rely on custom page templates so client publishing stays consistent long after the initial rollout.