Once you know what Power Pages is for, the next question is how a site is put together. A Power Pages site is built from two ideas: pages, the individual screens a visitor navigates between, and templates, which control the layout and look applied across those pages.
- A page = one screen, one URL, one spot in the site hierarchy
- A template = the shared header, footer, and layout wrapped around a page's content
- Many pages can share one template
- Update the template once, and every page using it updates automatically
Pages: one screen, one URL, one place in the hierarchy
A page is a single screen a visitor lands on, with its own web address. A customer portal might have:
- A Home page
- An "Order Status" page
- A "Submit a Request" page
- A "Contact Us" page
Pages sit in a hierarchy — every page except Home has a parent page above it. That's what lets Power Pages build a sensible navigation menu and a predictable URL structure, with child pages nested under the sections they belong to.
This works like any ordinary website: a "Support" section might contain child pages for "Submit a Case," "My Open Cases," and "FAQs" — nested under one parent, the same way folders nest inside folders.
Templates: the frame around the content
A template is the layout and styling shell applied to a page — the header, footer, and overall structure wrapping whatever content that page shows. Multiple pages can share one template, which is the point: define the look once, and every page using it inherits it automatically. Change the template, and every page built on it updates together.
A picture frame you don't rebuild each time
A template works like a picture frame: the frame stays the same while you swap the photo inside it — a family photo today, a certificate tomorrow.
Ten pages across a portal can share one template — the same header, footer, and visual frame — while each shows something different inside it: a welcome message, a list of open cases, a form to submit a new request.
Why this separation matters
Keeping layout (templates) separate from content (pages) is what makes a site manageable as it grows past a handful of screens. Without it, every new page means rebuilding the header and footer from scratch, and every visual tweak means touching every page individually to stay in sync.
With it, adding a tenth page just means pointing it at an existing template and filling in its own content — the frame is already built, waiting for a new picture.
| Concept | What it controls | Frame analogy |
|---|---|---|
| Page | One screen, one URL, its own content | The picture |
| Template | Shared layout and styling across pages | The frame |
This chapter stayed at the conceptual level — how the pieces relate, not a step-by-step design walkthrough. The next chapter covers the two building blocks that actually put Dataverse data onto a page: lists and forms.