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Start a page from a template

Start a new page from a ready-made layout instead of a blank canvas. At the end you have a full page of sections, rows and elements that you only need to fill with your own text and pictures. Use a page template for a whole page; for one reusable section, use a user template.

The video searches the layouts, starts a page from Story and replaces its first heading.

Before you start

  • The page's DXPR Builder field must be empty: templates are offered on an empty field only.
  • DXPR Builder ships fifteen layouts. Your site may add more or restrict which ones you can use.

Choose a layout

The ten workflow layouts cover common editorial tasks. They contain body content only; your content type and theme supply entity fields and site chrome.

Layout Use it for
Article, Commentary and News A photographic long read with article navigation and a pull quote
Standard Information Subpage A task-focused information hub with guidance, process and support
Product and Service Detail A product showcase with benefits, context and an enquiry route
Case Study and Portfolio Project A project story with a photo gallery, native number counters and outcomes
Academic Program A recruitment story with learning outcomes, curriculum and application guidance
Department and Research Center A photographic research introduction, themes and collaboration routes
Technical Reference and Criteria An editorial handbook with document navigation and a criteria matrix
Expert and Staff Profile A research biography, approach to teaching and collaboration story
Campaign Landing Page A focused promise with visual context, benefits, questions and a call to action
Event and Webinar Registration An event invitation with discussion topics, participation guidance and a registration action

The original five layouts are Text Columns, Split Content and Buttons, About Me, About Us and Homepage Basic.

Layouts use your theme's colors, typography and components. Each has a distinct composition, from an editorial long read to a recruitment page and an event poster. The sample photographs are generated, replaceable images of fictional subjects. The main content heading is a level-two heading, leaving the semantic page title to Drupal and your theme.

The large hero opening is intentional. For a standalone landing page, hide the visible page title in DXPR Theme's per-page settings to avoid a second large title above the hero. If your site requires the title to remain visible, reduce the opening heading with the editor's heading typography controls so it reads as a deck beneath that title. Keep the Drupal title in its field. If hiding the theme title removes its Heading 1 from the markup, make the opening content heading Heading 1, as Build SEO-friendly pages explains. The editorial, campaign and recruitment heroes use the largest display size; information and technical pages use quieter sizes suited to reference content.

Calls to action use Bootstrap's neutral dark and light variants deliberately: they keep clear contrast across primary, dark, white and photographic bands. Choose your theme's primary button variant for conversion actions after checking it against the surrounding section background.

Before publishing, replace all sample names, quotations, dates, claims and example.com email addresses. Event registration and enquiry buttons start as email links. Connect them to your real contact route, booking service or form. The layouts do not install forms, integrations, content types or Views. Keep authors, publication dates, reading time, roles, affiliations, program facts, event dates and venues, document versions and ownership, product specifications and similar structured data in Drupal fields. Render those fields through the entity view display or Layout Builder. Render related content and speaker lists through your site’s Views or referenced entities, rather than copying them into the body. They contain no breadcrumbs, site navigation or footer; Drupal and your theme supply those.

On an existing site, run the normal database updates to add the ten new layouts. Updates preserve templates with the same identifiers and your profile choices. An administrator may need to enable the layouts in your profile; see If you don't see the layouts below.

Start from a layout

  1. On an empty page, click Choose a template. The Layouts dialog opens.
  2. Type a word in Search to narrow the list, or scroll through the thumbnails.
  3. Click a layout to preview it in your site's theme. Switch between Desktop and Mobile to see how the content responds. Back to Layouts returns to the same search and position.
  4. Click Use Template.
  5. Replace the text and pictures with your own, and delete what you do not need.
  6. Click Save on the DXPR Builder toolbar.

What you see

The layout's sections, rows and elements appear on the page with placeholder text and images. You edit them like any other content: click text to type, open More > Settings to change an element.

Escape from the preview returns to the gallery with your search and position preserved. Close leaves the template picker. Escape from the gallery also closes it.

The template is copied onto your page. Later changes to the template do not touch pages already built from it.

Gallery thumbnails illustrate each layout. Their heights follow the image proportions; very long thumbnails show a View full template cue. Open the preview to explore the entire page.

The live preview shows the template body with your site's typography and colours. Drupal supplies page titles, breadcrumbs and other fields on the actual page. Content that needs a page-specific Drupal context shows a placeholder. Forms and links that leave the preview are disabled; tabs, accordions and internal links remain available.

Previewing does not change or save your page. Use Template inserts the original editable layout. If a live preview cannot load, choose Retry or View saved thumbnail. A saved thumbnail does not support Desktop/Mobile switching.

Add your own page templates

Only administrators can add page templates. They live under DXPR Studio > DXPR Builder > Page Templates (/admin/dxpr_studio/dxpr_builder/page_template).

To turn a page you built into a template:

  1. On the page, open More on the DXPR Builder toolbar and click Save as template. Name it and click Save.
  2. Go to DXPR Studio > DXPR Builder > User Templates (/admin/dxpr_studio/dxpr_builder/user_templates).
  3. Open the operations list next to your template and click Create page template.

The new page template gets the category DXPR and copies the saved template thumbnail when one is available. Edit its Image to add or replace the preview shown in the Layouts dialog.

To add one by hand, click Add page template and fill in the form:

Field What it does
Label The name editors see above the thumbnail
Enabled Untick to hide the layout from the Layouts dialog
Category A label for your own sorting; required
Image The gallery thumbnail and fallback picture
Template The DXPR Builder markup of the page
Weight Lower numbers come first in the Layouts dialog

To edit or delete one, see Page templates (admin).

If you don't see the layouts

  • There is no Choose a template button. The page already has content, and templates are offered on an empty field only. Start a new page, or delete the content and save.
  • The Layouts dialog is empty. No page template is enabled, or none matches your search. Clear Search, or ask an administrator to tick Enabled at /admin/dxpr_studio/dxpr_builder/page_template.
  • One layout is missing. Your user profile lists the page templates you may use. Unless its Check/Uncheck all Page templates box is ticked, new templates are not added to it automatically. An administrator ticks the template, or that box, under Page templates at /admin/dxpr_studio/dxpr_builder/profile.
  • A layout shows a placeholder picture. The template has no Image. Edit it at /admin/dxpr_studio/dxpr_builder/page_template and upload one.

What's next?

Something wrong or missing on this page? Report it or edit the page.