Site layout: default, boxed, or wide

The site layout decides how wide your pages run and what sits around them. Pick it before anything else, because everything else lines up against it. It's at AppearanceCustomizeGeneralGlobal, under Site Layout.

#Pick one of three layouts

Default

Content sits in a centered container with a maximum width, and thin guide lines run along its left and right edges. This is what you see after installing.

Wide

The container drops its width limit, so content runs the full width of the screen, less a small offset at each edge.

Boxed

The whole site sits in a centered frame, and the area around the frame shows a background you choose.

The widths themselves are at AppearanceCustomizeTheme StylesLayout. Content Width is the container, Boxed Content Width is the narrower column used by boxed and editorial layouts, and Content Side Offset is the space kept at the screen edges. Style kits never touch this tab, so trying a kit won't move your layout.

#Set up the boxed frame

Choose Boxed and a Boxed tab appears next to Global. The other two layouts hide it, since they have no frame.

The area outside the frame is the site background. It takes an image or a color from the standard WordPress Background image and Colors sections of the Customizer, or the pattern from the toggle above.

#Choose the background pattern

Several theme surfaces can carry a subtle pattern: the area around a boxed frame, the space behind a single post, and the content zones. Which pattern they use is set once, at AppearanceCustomizeTheme StylesGeneral, under Background Pattern.

The choices are diagonal, vertical, and horizontal lines, a grid, crosshatch, small or large dots, checkerboard, zigzag, a solid accent, the secondary surface color, or none. Diagonal lines is the default.

#Two more site-wide switches

These sit on the same Global tab as the layout.

Scroll-to-Top Button is on by default. It appears once a page is at least two screens long (change that with Minimum Page Length), and Show On picks the screen sizes. Scroll Progress Counter shows reading progress on the button as the page scrolls.

Reveal Animations is off by default. Turned on, the theme's own zones animate into view as the reader scrolls. Page builder sections and editor blocks have their own reveal setting, so this switch doesn't move them. Disable Reveal on Mobile keeps phones still.

I switched to Boxed and nothing seems to change

The frame and the background are the same color. Set a background color or image, or turn on Frame Border or Background Pattern on the Boxed tab.

Can one page use a different layout?

No. The site layout applies to every page. With Pro, each page gets its own layout field for its content area (default, canvas, or boxed). See Page fields and per-page layout.

Last updated 24 Sep 2026