When you create a course in Teachery you have two course template choices:
Minimal Template: A more sleek, simple, and modern course layout
Sidebar Template: A boxier, more conventional course layout
👉 Both course templates have the SAME features and the differences are mostly cosmetic and layout.
There's no wrong choice when it comes to picking which template to use! You can actually switch back and forth between templates in the same course to figure out which one suits you best.
✨ Meet our default course template: Minimal Template
The Minimal Template was actually the second course template created in Teachery but it's become the most popular and has since been set to the default template when a new course is created.
If you're looking to learn more about how to add content to your course or learn how Teachery works, you'll want to read our Getting Started help doc.
This is the public view of a course using the Minimal Template:
This is what the Teachery course editor looks like:
🔍 CLICK HERE to view a live demo of a course using the Default Template
🙂 Meet our second course template: Sidebar Template
The Sidebar Template is the original Teachery course template. It was born one evening when I (Jason Zook, the founder of Teachery) couldn't find a course platform in 2013 that I could customize. So, I busted open Photoshop and our first course template design was born!
It's had a few tweaks and updates over the years, but people still love the Sidebar Template so it's not going anywhere any time soon.
This is the public view of the SAME course you saw above, only switched over the Sidebar Template:
And here's the course editor view, which looks almost exactly the same as the Minimal Template editor view:
🔍 CLICK HERE to view a live demo of a course using the Default Template
🔀 Want to switch Course Templates? If you want to change the template of an existing course, it’s super easy!
Select the course you want to edit from your Courses page
Inside the course editor scroll the left sidebar to Course Settings > Manage Options
Scroll down to the Course template section and choose your template
Make sure to hit Save at the bottom of the page ✅
NOTE: When you hit Save on the Manage Options page, it will switch your template automatically. Make sure to check the Style Editor to see if you need to update any styles as each template will have its own unique set of styles.
🖼 Think of our Course Templates like WordPress Themes
If you’re familiar with WordPress, our two course templates are going work similarly (without the installation headaches you get with WordPress!)
The content you add to your course: Header image, Lessons, Sublessons, Lesson Content, Payment Pages, etc. All of that good stuff gets applied to whichever course template you choose, with no extra work on your end.
Where the course templates have a life of their own, is in the course styling. Much like a WordPress theme/template, you can switch back and forth between the Sidebar Template and Minimal Template and your course can look very different, but the content will always be the same.
👋 NOTE: The separate course templates have their own set of styles. You can switch back and forth between the templates and they’ll both retain their unique styling settings you've customized.
Read our Styling Your Course help doc to learn more about customizing your course!
✨ MINIMAL TEMPLATE EXAMPLES
☝️ This course example has a TON of custom CSS added. We wanted to show you an example of how crazy-custom you can go!
🙂 SIDEBAR TEMPLATE EXAMPLES
🙏 A big thank you to Paul Jarvis for inspiring the layout and design of the Minimal Template
The Minimal Template wouldn’t exist without Paul Jarvis’ design talent, and his willingness to share that talent. We are stoked to be able to offer this theme at no extra charge to our customers!
We can’t wait to see what you do with the Minimal Theme. 👍👍👍