Note: This article covers the previous version of Catalog Machine (V1). For help with the latest version (V2), see this article.
A template allows you to allocate all elements of one product (prices, pictures, descriptions, specs, etc.) within a product space on the page. Space depends on how many products you are presenting on one page.
You can also create a specific design for the product presentation (background, icon, text, etc.). As products on the picture above have different fonts, it means they are having different templates. After the creation of the template, you can use it to present large product sets with one button.
Additional reading: How can templates and layouts help in making my catalog? and learn how to add products to the catalog using templates.
Now we will tell you what the template is in 3 simple statements.
The template displays product fields. Product fields are attributes like image, price, description.
Product fields are defined by the product category. When you create a product category you are listing all the possible fields that category might have.
Therefore, the template is the way any product from the product category will be presented in the catalog.
Find out more about the templates, categories, and products here.
How to create a template when I am creating a catalog?
Once you are creating a catalog, you will be offered to select one of the predefined templates or create a new one.
If you want to change the design of the predefined template place the cursor on the desired template icon and select the appearing pencil icon.
Here you can easily change the design of the template. We will show you the basic options.
⦿ To add an existing field to the template: Press + near the field
⦿ To add a new field to the template: Press ‘Add new fields to the template’; scroll down to ‘Add new field’ and enter a name and a field type to create a new filed. Click Apply and Update Product Category.
⦿ To add another element (background color, image, text, icon): Select an element, drag it to the working area and adjust the size to the needed. You can also switch layers, moving the background back and forward.
⦿ To change background color enter the needed HEX number into the field or click and select from the offered options.
⦿ To delete the element: Click on the element and select the red bin sign on top.
⦿ To customize text design: Select a text you want to change, in the appeared window you can manage text style, font, size and a lot more.
Don’t forget to click Save after customizing your template. If you created a new template, name it in a remarkable way, to make it easier to find after.
After saving the created template allocates into all catalog products.
How to change product templates in an existing catalog?
If you want to change a template for a single product: Select Template on the right part of the screen, choose the desired template or create a new one, and drag it to the left part of the screen, where the product is shown.
To change the template of all the products in the catalog: Go to Grids on the top left part of the screen and move the cursor into the existing grid, select pencil icon. Press Preview grid and you will see the same window as the one you saw when you created a catalog. Use all previous recommendations to set up your template.
To change the template in a specific section, you should create a new grid.
Benefits of using templates
link to the product – once product information changes, the template will be automatically updated,
changes to template design will be automatically applied in every place it is used in your catalogs.
a template can take a fraction of a page and several of them can be used on one page creating multi-product pages,
same templates can be used in Showroom (a dynamic and searchable catalog of your products).
However, a template can display one product only and look the same way for all products without the ability to tweak it. There is another alternative for building product pages – Layouts.
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