# Alternative post templates
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [February 25, 2025, 7:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340 "2025-02-25T07:19:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@trusktr](https://meta.discourse.org/u/trusktr)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 7:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340/1 "2025-02-25T07:19:05Z")
Having some alternative views/layouts for posts could be nice, like what WordPress has. Essentially templates based on post type.
The feature could allow posts in certain categories (or other criteria), or category pages themselves, to have unique layouts/templates other than the default.
Plugin authors could then publish alternative layouts.
The only issue is they might not fit with an overall theme. Eh well, win some lose some.
The use cases could be interesting: for example a category page for geolocated posts could be a map instead of a list of posts.
WordPress started as being for βblogsβ but the flexibility really makes it usable for just about anything. So likewise with a few more similar features as custom post templates, Discourse could be molded more easily for unique purposes.
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340/2 "2025-02-25T07:42:41Z")
You can achieve quite a lot with CSS.
Perhaps the future Glimmer update will allow for more β¦
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340/3 "2025-02-25T18:50:01Z")
> [@trusktr](#):
>
> category pages themselves, to have unique layouts/templates other than the default.
Have you seen the landing page of #Customization > Theme? That kind of design change can be achieved with theme components like these:
- [Topic Cards](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-cards/296048)
- [Topic List Thumbnails](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-list-thumbnails/150602)
And for topics, there are things like:
- [Blog Post Styling](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blog-post-styling/110841)
But I totally agree it would be great to make these kinds of options more powerful and more discoverable π―
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340/4 "2025-02-25T18:54:43Z")
Oh I got thrown by βpostβ: where you referring to the Topic List @trusktr ? Or the layout of a Topic and its Posts?
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340/5 "2025-02-25T18:56:27Z")
Yeah I think the question was mostly about posts/topics themselves. But I jumped on the
> [@trusktr](#):
>
> category pages themselves
which is something we have more powerful options for at the moment π
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternative-post-templates/354340/6 "2025-02-25T18:57:53Z")
Let me jump on this one then:
> [@trusktr](#):
>
> for example a category page for geolocated posts could be a map instead of a list of posts.
This already exists π
Check out the [Locations Plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742) π