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Where page templates appear depends on your active WordPress theme. With a classic theme, open a page and look for Attributes > Template. With a block theme, open Appearance > Editor and use its Templates interface. If you cannot find a template to select, the theme may not provide a globally selectable one.
First, identify your theme type
Classic themes generally use PHP template files and provide a page-level template selector in the page editor. Block themes use block-markup templates, which you access and edit through the Site Editor. The dashboard route therefore depends on whether your active theme is classic or block-based.
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WordPress defines a block theme as a theme with an index.html template in its /templates or /block-templates directory. The Theme Handbook recommends /templates. See the WordPress Theme Handbook’s template overview.
Show or select a template with a classic theme
- In the dashboard, go to Pages and open an existing page, or choose Add New.
- In the page editor, find Attributes and open the Template setting.
- Choose one of the templates listed there, then save or update the page.
The available choices come from the active theme. WordPress documents the classic-theme location as Pages > Add New > Attributes > Template. A template with a name in its file header can be offered as a selectable option. The Theme Handbook’s page-template documentation explains the distinction between selectable and page-specific templates.
Why a template may not appear in the dropdown
A theme can include a template that WordPress applies automatically to a particular page without listing it as a general choice. For example, a page-{slug}.php or page-{ID}.php file targets the page matching that slug or ID. It is different from a named template intended to be selected for pages generally.
For theme authors, a selectable classic page template needs a name in its header, such as Template Name: Example Template. The conventional page-templates/ directory is optional: the handbook supports the theme root and first-level subdirectories, but not nested subdirectories for page templates. Making a template globally selectable also lets users apply it to pages beyond the page it was originally designed for.
Find templates with a block theme
- In the dashboard, go to Appearance > Editor.
- Open the Templates interface to view and work with the templates available in the Site Editor.
- Select a template to edit it, or use the available creation controls if you need a new template.
The exact controls can vary by theme and editor context. The Block Editor Handbook describes a PageTemplate component that can provide a dropdown for selecting and managing post templates, including creating and editing them; that does not mean every theme exposes an identical page-level dropdown. For the general route, see the WordPress block-theme documentation and its PageTemplate component reference.
Classic and block theme routes at a glance
| Theme type | Where to look | Template format and behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Classic | Open a page; find Attributes > Template. | PHP template files. Named templates can be selectable; slug- or ID-specific files target particular pages. |
| Block | Appearance > Editor > Templates. | Block-markup templates managed through the Site Editor; available page-level controls depend on the theme and context. |
If the Template setting or expected choice is missing
- Check the active theme. The theme determines which templates are available, so a choice from another theme may not appear.
- Check for a named template. In a classic theme, a page-specific template may work automatically without appearing in the global selector.
- Use the Site Editor for a block theme. Look under Appearance > Editor > Templates rather than expecting the classic Attributes control.
- Distinguish the terminology. WordPress documentation sometimes uses “page template” broadly, but classic PHP page templates and block templates have different formats and editing surfaces.
When a classic page template is assigned, it takes precedence in the documented template hierarchy, followed by slug-specific, ID-specific, default page, singular, and index templates. The hierarchy is relevant when figuring out which file controls a page’s front-end rendering; see the Theme Handbook.
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