Understanding Toastmost Templates (and Avoiding Confusion)

One of the greatest sources of confusion for new Toastmost users (and sometimes experienced users) is the role of templates in WordPress, as well as in the event and agenda management system.

Specifically, website editors and administrators sometimes place content in templates that doesn’t belong there. Or they edit an individual page or event template and don’t understand why that change doesn’t show up other places (for example, they change the number of meeting speakers for one meeting and don’t understand why that change is not reflected in future agendas.

By definition, a template is an abstract pattern or model that is used to create many instances of that pattern. I often use the analogy of the cookie cutter (the template) and the cookie (created using the template). You don’t want to eat the cookie cutter. And the cookie cutter only defines the basic shape, not where each sprinkle is placed.

In software, a template is an abstract model used as a starting point for creating a document or a web page, like a resume cover letter template in Microsoft Word.

The two main Toastmost templates I want to focus on are:

• RSVPMaker event templates, particularly as they are used to define the standard agenda organization for a club’s meetings.
• WordPress block theme templates that control the layout and formatting of website pages, blog posts, and events.

Event Template Confusion

When you want to make a permanent change to the organization of your meetings going forward, the proper use of event templates is explained in Updating Your Meeting Event Template and Future Meetings.

What you don’t want to do with your event templates is add details that only apply to a single event, like an Agenda Note that reads “Our Area Director will be visiting on Friday, so be on your best behavior.” That information should be added to a single event, not the template.

Conversely, don’t make a change to the content of a single event and expect it to be applied automatically to all future meetings. However, if you have been experimenting with changes to your agenda, you can copy the content of a specific meeting and make it your new template.

Theme/Design Template Confusion

Ever since WordPress introduced the “block themes,” it’s become much easier to customize the design of a website using the same block editing techniques you use in pages, posts, and events. However, I see two common causes of confusion:

• People click on Edit Site rather than Edit Page on the black administrator’s menu at the top of the screen and wonder what happened to their page content. In this mode, you are editing the template WordPress uses to determine the placement of the website header, footer, navigation menu, and page content.
• Website administrators often do not understand what content belongs in a template versus an individual page or post document. Essentially, the distinction is that the template contains generic content, while pages, blog posts, and event posts include specific content.

Templates often include elaborate hierarchies of layout blocks like columns or the group block (with stylings like background color or margins). Most of the other blocks in a template are placeholders, like a gray box for the featured image and the word Title where the title should be displayed.

You can add standard blocks like paragraphs and images to a template, but you should only do so if you want that content to appear everywhere the template is applied. For example, you might want to temporarily display a message in the header of your website stating that your meeting location has changed.

However, I’ve seen website administrators who are confused by what they’re seeing in the editor delete the Content block and replace it with a series of headings or images. As a result, every page of their website will now display exactly the same content rather than the intended content for that page.

The Keep it Simple Method

If you are basically happy with the design of your website, the only reason to go into Edit Site mode is to update the navigation menu of your site to or change pages. See Add and Edit Navigation Menu Links.

Even if you want to get more ambitious about customizing the design of your site, you should probably work toward getting a stable design that you’re happy with and only going into Edit Site mode occasionally thereafter.

Video: Block Theme Template Basics

WordPress expert and educator Jaime Marsland created this explainer video that may help you understand conceptually how WordPress uses design templates to let you customize the appearance of your website.