Create Custom Page Layout In SharePoint Online

Page Layout takes a major part in SharePoint architecture. Each page has a specific layout as per the requirement. SharePoint itself comes with many page layouts. Out Of Box (OOB) page layouts does not fulfil customer requirements all the time. In publishing site, there is a provision to create custom page layouts, to address customer’s requirements. In this post I am going to share, how to customize and implement customized “Page layout”. Find the following steps to create and apply custom page layouts.

Step 1: Navigate to home page of root site and click on “Site setting” from “Action Menu” as in the following figure.

Step 2: Here on the Site Settings page, in the Web Designer Galleries group, click on “Master pages and page layouts”.

Step 3: In “Master pages and page layouts”, multiple OOB page layouts exist. To make out work simpler, let’s download one of the existing page layouts and modify it as per our requirement. We can check if the item is page layout by checking its property as in the following figure,

Now download “BlankWebPartPage.aspx” page Layout (Look for red box marked in image below).

Now right click on “BlankWebPartPage.aspx” and download as in the following figure,

In current downloaded page layout has 8 web part zones as in the following figure,

Step 4: We will create our custom page layout with 4 web part zones as in the following figure,

Step 5: Upload the custom page layout and publish it in the same location (Master pages and page layouts) and make sure its content type is set to “Page Layout” as in the following figure,

Step 6: Make available new custom page layout to the site so that user can create new pages using this page layout. Click on “site setting” from “Action Menu”. From site setting page, click on the “Page layouts and Site templates” from Look and Feel group. In page layout add custom page and click OK.

Step 7: Test custom page layout by creating a new page. Go to page library and create a new page. Provide all required information and select custom page layout and create.

Now our newly created page has four Web Part zones as in the following figure.