WordPress Page Attribute Settings

The Page Attributes metabox contains options related to the page template and hierarchy.

Parent

The Parent dropdown option contains a list of all pages that currently exist in the site. It’s used to manage the hierarchy of the page, which determines the page web address (URL).

Changing this setting will modify the URL of the page, so it’s important to be mindful of changing the Parent of a page if it has been linked throughout your site. If the URL of a page is changed it can lead to broken links and an error page whenever a visitor clicks on link that contains a previous version of the URL. WordPress will “attempt” to find the page if a visitor clicks on an old link, but it shouldn’t be assumed this will always work.

Note: This does not impact the hierarchy of the navigation menu because they are created and managed manually. 

Template

The Template dropdown option contains a list of all templates that are available to use for your pages. Templates determine the layout of the page, and in specific cases (such as the homepage template) determine what options are available to you.

There are currently three templates available:

  • Default Template: A basic interior page template, containing the global header & footer, a left sidebar, an optional right sidebar, and the main content body.
  • Department Homepage: A template intended to be used as your department’s homepage, or important landing pages for important programs. It is intended to be used sparingly, in most cases only once (for the homepage), and not for interior pages of your site. This template contains the global header & footer, left sidebar, optional right sidebar, main content body, a video/playlist section, and two columns at the bottom of the page that are commonly used for news & event feeds.
  • Full Width Page: An interior page template containing only the global header & footer and the main content body. It does not contain any sidebars, and is typically used for embedding large elements such as external forms or maps. This template should be used sparingly since without the left sidebar, the page will not contain navigation.

Order

The Order input box is used to help organize the pages within your site. It does not have any impact on the front-end for the visitor and is not commonly used.