The Theme Builder is the part of Elementor Pro that replaces your theme's layout with templates you design yourself. You create a template for a part of the site, such as the header, footer, single post or archive, then set display conditions that say where it appears. Templates live under Templates › Theme Builder in WordPress, and the first match by condition wins.
Template types you can create
- Header and footer, shown on every page or only some.
- Single post and single page, the layout around the content of each post or page.
- Archive and search results, for category, tag, author and search pages.
- 404 page, for links that point nowhere.
- Loop item, a card design repeated by the Loop Grid.
- Single product and product archive, when WooCommerce is active.
Display conditions in plain words
When you publish a template, Elementor asks where it should appear. You add one or more include rules (for example "Entire site" or "All posts in category News") and optional exclude rules (for example "but not the home page"). If two templates match the same page, the more specific rule wins, so a header set for "Front page" beats one set for "Entire site". You can change conditions later from the template list without editing the design.
The order to build in
- Set global colours and fonts first, so every template inherits them. See global colours and fonts.
- Header, then footer, both on "Entire site".
- Single post, using dynamic widgets such as Post Title, Featured Image and Post Content.
- Archive, with the Archive Posts or Loop Grid widget.
- 404 and search results last.
A light theme such as Hello keeps the theme's own styles from fighting your templates.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the Post Content widget in a single template, which makes every post look empty.
- Two headers both set to "Entire site", so the wrong one shows.
- Building a header inside a normal page instead of in the Theme Builder, then copying it to every page by hand.
Sources
- Elementor Help Center
- Hello Elementor theme on WordPress.org
- Elementor on the WordPress plugin directory
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