Website Templates are complete, ready-made websites for different kinds of business. Browse them, preview every page, then import one to start from finished pages, menus, a blog, a footer, colours and fonts instead of a blank site.
Appearance → Website Templates. The sidebar filters by look and business type; every card has a preview, a short description and two actions.
A website template is a whole site, not a single page. When you import one, TruCMS creates the pages, navigation menus, blog posts, footer, logo, colour palette and typography that belong to it, so the site looks finished immediately and you only have to replace the sample wording and pictures with your own.
Templates are grouped by business type (for example Beauty & grooming, Healthcare, SaaS, Hospitality or Fashion & retail) and by look (Light or Dark). Several templates also include working demonstrations of the business modules they are designed for, such as an online booking flow or a shop.
Templates and the Template Library are different things
A website template is a full site that you import once. The Template Library holds single sections and full-page layouts that you insert into pages with the page builder at any time.
Open Appearance → Website Templates. The screen is available to accounts that hold the import website templates permission; the Super Admin role always has it. See Roles & Permissions to give the permission to another role.
The sidebar on the left narrows the grid. All filters work instantly, without reloading the page.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search templates… | Searches each template’s name, business type, description and highlight labels. Type a word such as booking, portfolio or dental. |
| Any look | Choose Dark or Light to show only templates with that overall appearance. A small badge in the top-left corner of every card shows its look. |
| Business type | Lists every business type with the number of templates in it. All types shows everything. Choosing a type combines with the search and look filters. |
| Template count | The badge at the top of the screen shows how many templates are currently available on your site. |
Filters combine: here the Beauty & grooming business type and the Light look leave a single matching template.
When nothing matches, the grid shows No website templates match your filters. Clear the search box or choose All types and Any look again.
| Element | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Preview image | A picture of the template’s homepage. Click it, or View pages, to see every page the template contains. |
| Light / Dark badge | The overall look of the template. |
| Current badge | This is the template that was imported most recently, so it is the one your site is built from. Hover the badge to see the version that was applied. |
| Imported badge | This template has been imported on your site at least once. |
| Update available badge | The template has been improved since you last imported it. Importing it again brings in the newer version (see Importing). |
| Business type | The small capitalised label above the name, for example Beauty & grooming. |
| Highlights | Grey chips naming what the template is designed for, such as Online booking, Portfolio or Quote requests. |
| Module chips | Blue chips (with a plug icon) name the TruCMS modules the template uses, for example Booking or TruCommerce. A chip turns yellow when that module is not enabled on your site. |
| Export icon | The round icon in the top-right corner downloads the template as a .trucms.zip package. See Template Packages. |
| View pages | Opens a window listing every page of the template. |
| Import | Starts the import. The button is locked, with the message Install … to import, when a required module is missing. |
Choose View pages before you import. The window titled <Template> — all pages shows a thumbnail of each page together with its title and how many sections it contains. Pages that play a special part in the site carry a role label: Homepage, Blog, Contact, Privacy or Terms.
The preview window shows every page of the template as a thumbnail, so you can judge whether its pages fit your business before importing.
Use Import in the window footer to import straight from the preview, or Close to keep browsing.
The import window explains what will be added and lets you choose between keeping and replacing your existing pages.
The new website is imported next to what you already have. Nothing is deleted. If one of your pages has the same address (slug) as a page in the template, that page is updated with the template’s version, so check for matching addresses such as /about or /contact if you have pages you want to keep unchanged.
Every current page, including trashed pages, and all of their menu entries are deleted first, then only the template is imported. The window states how many pages will be removed. Blog posts, users and media are not touched. Because this cannot be undone, you must tick I understand that all existing pages will be permanently deleted before the button works.
Replacing the site shows a red warning and requires an explicit confirmation.
Back up before replacing
Create a backup of the database first if you may want your current pages again. Replace mode permanently deletes pages and cannot be reversed from the admin panel.
The import runs as one operation. If anything fails, TruCMS reports that nothing was changed and your site stays exactly as it was; details are written to the application log.
| Area | What happens |
|---|---|
| Pages | The template’s pages are created (or updated when the address matches). Their content is built with the same page builder you use for your own pages, so every page can be edited afterwards. |
| Menus | Menus named Demo · <Site name> · primary (and secondary, footer or utility when the template has them) are created, replacing the items of a menu with the same name. They are assigned to the header, secondary navigation, footer and top bar in Theme Options. |
| Special pages | The homepage, blog page, contact page, privacy page and terms page are assigned automatically, which is why the template’s home page becomes your homepage. |
| Blog | Sample categories, authors and posts are added for templates that include a blog. Existing posts are left alone. |
| Site identity | The site name and logo are replaced with the template’s. The header cart is switched on only when the template is a shop. |
| Look (Theme Options) | The colour palette, fonts, header layout, header button, top bar and footer layout and styling are set from scratch to the template’s values, so importing a light template after a dark one leaves no dark colours behind. Theme options that are not part of a site’s look stay as you configured them. |
| Footer | The footer widgets for the template’s footer design are created, and the generated theme stylesheet is rebuilt so the new colours appear immediately. |
| Business modules | Templates that use Booking or TruCommerce also add sample services, staff, products or categories so their booking and shop pages are not empty. The module must be enabled first. |
| Caches | Site caches are cleared at the end so visitors see the new site straight away. |
Unchanged by an import
Users, roles and permissions, existing blog posts, orders, bookings, payment settings, mail settings and uploaded media are never modified or removed by importing a template.
When a template shows Update available, a newer version of its pages and styling exists. Importing it again applies the newer version using the mode you choose. Pages you edited by hand that share an address with a template page are overwritten in Keep mode, so duplicate or export anything you want to preserve first.
import website templates.| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| The Import button is locked | The template needs a module that is not enabled. Install or activate the module named on the yellow chip, then reload the screen. |
| The template could not be imported. Nothing was changed. | The import was rolled back. Check the application log for the reason (storage permissions and low disk space are the usual causes) and try again. |
| Colours look unchanged after importing | Open Theme Options → Advanced Settings and choose Regenerate Theme CSS, then hard-refresh the browser. |
| A page I wanted to keep was changed | In Keep mode a page with the same address as a template page is updated. Restore it from a backup, or rename the address before importing next time. |
| The homepage did not change | Check Settings → Page Setup: the template sets the Homepage there automatically, so a later manual change may have replaced it. |
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