The Index and All Archives templates are used to display blog posts on pages of your site. This guide will show you how to customize these templates.
In this guide
If your site uses a theme that supports the site editor, you can access and edit the templates. A quick way to determine if your site uses the site editor is to check for Appearance → Editor in your site’s dashboard.
The Index template will display all your latest posts by default. It is used for your default blog page that comes with the theme. It also may be used as a fallback template for all pages if a more specific template is not defined.
The All Archives template displays smaller groupings of posts organized by categories, tags, and archives (which are typically posts by month, year, and other time-based groupings.) It also controls the appearance of the default portfolio and testimonial pages.
The layout of the Index and All Archives templates is determined by your site’s theme. You can customize this layout by following the steps in this guide. The changes you make to these templates will apply to all pages that use them.
To find and edit the Index or All Archives templates, follow these steps:
- From your site’s dashboard, click on Appearance → Editor.
- In the left side panel, click Templates and select the Index or All Archives template, depending on which one you’d like to edit.
- Click the pencil icon to start editing the selected template. The left sidebar will close so you can focus on editing.
First, it’s helpful to understand the overall layout of the template you’re working on. To see this, open List View by clicking the icon at the top left of the screen that looks like three horizontal lines above each other:
Here, you’ll see all of the elements (known in the WordPress editor as blocks) of your template. A typical Index or All Archives template will have the following elements:
- Header: The header contains elements like a site title, logo, and menu. The header is a template part that appears across the entire site. Any edits you make to this header will apply to all pages on your site where the header template part is inserted.
- Content: The main content comes from the Query Loop block, which is the block that will display your posts in any configuration you wish. If you remove the Query Loop block, the Index or Archive pages will have no posts.
- Footer: The footer contains elements like a site title, contact information, and a WordPress footer credit. The footer is a template part that appears on every page. Any edits you make to this footer will apply everywhere on your site where the footer template part is inserted.
While every WordPress theme is different, these are the standard elements of an Index or All Archives template that you can expect to see on most themes. You may see other elements included in your Index or Archive template, which you can edit as you wish.
Your theme’s templates provide you with a professional, well-designed layout to start from. To personalize the default design, you can swap out the text and images for your own content and add or remove any elements on the page.
Here, we’ll explain a few common adjustments you may wish to make to your Index or All Archives templates.
If you want to add an element that should appear on your blog page along with your latest posts, you can add it to the Index template. For the elements that you’d like to show on specific tags or category pages, you can add them to the All Archives template.
Some examples of blocks that might be relevant for the Index and All Archives templates are a subscription box, a contact form, or a sidebar.
Click the + block inserter to add a new block in your desired position (it can be helpful to use List View to select the position). All pages that use this template will now show the new block you added.
The All Archives template will usually have a title that specifies which tag or category is currently being viewed by the readers. It can contain a title like Category: Category Name, or Tag: Tag Name as shown below:
If you want to edit this title or remove it completely, you can do that in the All Archives template.
- Open the All Archives template for editing.
- Using List View, click on the Group block below the header to expand it.
- Click on the Archive Title block to either update the title, or remove the block altogether. The options for editing the Archive Title block are accessible in the right sidebar. You can edit the font, colors, and background. You can choose whether to show the archive type in the title.
- In the previous example,
Category: Recipes, the archive type is category. So if you toggle the option to show the archive type off, it will change to only showing the archive title itself, which isRecipes.
- In the previous example,
You may want to change the order in which elements on your template are displayed, for example, to move the featured image above or below the post title.
- Open up the Index or All Archives template for editing.
- Using List View, locate the Query Loop block and click to expand the list of blocks within it.
- Locate the element you’d like to rearrange, such as the Title.
- Click, drag, and drop it into position as needed. For more information, refer to our guide on moving blocks.
- Click Save in the top right corner.
If elements are showing in your Index and All Archives Templates that you would like to remove, you can follow the instructions below:
- Open the Index or All Archives template for editing.
- Using List View, locate the Query Loop block and click to expand the list of blocks within it.
- Select the block you’d like to remove, such as the post categories.
- Click on the three dots that show up to the right of the block.
- Click on Delete to remove the block. For more information, refer to our guide on removing blocks.
- Click Save in the top right corner.
The Query Loop block supports the option to display your posts in a grid or columns. Here’s how:
- Open the Index or All Archives template for editing.
- Using List View, click on the Query Loop block.
- Click on the Grid view icon in the toolbar that appears alongside the Query Loop block. For more information on all the settings available, refer to our detailed guide on the Query Loop block.
- Click Save in the top right corner.
The Query Loop block can display a featured image for your individual posts. If there is no Featured Image block within the Query Loop block, you can add it.
The Featured Image block contains many settings you can adjust, such as size, position, spacing, and overlay color. See the Featured Image block guide for more.
If you wish to remove the featured image, select the block, click the three dots icon in the toolbar above it, and select Remove. See Remove a Block for more.
The “read more” text is found at the bottom of the Excerpt block, which displays a summary for each published piece of content. If you’d like to customize the text of “Read more”, you can follow these steps:
- Open up the Index or All Archives template for editing.
- Click where it says Add “read more” link text.
- Type your preferred text.
- Click Save in the top right corner.
If you want the content of your Index or All Archives templates to appear wider or narrower, you can control this in the specific template.
When viewing the contents of the template, the width is typically controlled by the blocks named Group. To change the width, follow these steps:
- Using List View, select the Group block that contains the content.
- In the right sidebar, click on the cog settings icon to view the settings for the Group block. If you don’t see the right sidebar, click on the sidebar settings icon next to the Save button in the top right corner. This icon looks like a square with two uneven columns.
- In the Layout section, if the setting for Inner blocks use content width is turned off, toggle it on, and you’ll see the options to customize the width for your Group block.
- Enter a custom width value for your Group block.
- Under Justification, you can choose whether you’d like to align the content of the Group block left, right, or center.
