# Digital signage templates: fill in a form > Use ready-made ScreenTinker templates: a menu board, guest Wi-Fi, opening hours. Fill in a form, get a widget, add it to a playlist. Installing explained. Source: https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-templates ## Digital signage templates: fill in a form A template is a ready-made screen: a café menu board, a guest Wi-Fi sign with a QR code, opening hours with "Open now", a happy hour offer. You fill in a short form with your own words, prices and colours, watch the preview change as you type, and get a widget you can put in any playlist. This guide covers the Templates page: using a template, putting the result on a screen, and, for whoever runs the server, installing more templates from the library. ### Before you start - **Templates is in Advanced view.** It sits under **Create** in the sidebar, and new accounts start in Simple view. Switch with the **Simple / Advanced** buttons at the top of the menu. In Simple view, the **Make a sign** task shows the same templates under **Community templates**. - **Anyone who can edit the workspace can use a template.** Members with view-only access can look, but cannot create a widget. - **Installing is a server administrator's job.** A template installed on the server is available in every workspace on it. On screentinker.com that is done for you; on your own server it is you (see [Install more templates](#install)). ### The Templates page Choose **Templates** in the sidebar. The page has two tabs: - **Installed**: the templates you can use right now. Each card shows a picture, the version, a short description and two badges. - **Library**: everything in the template catalog, installed or not. A number on the tab counts templates that are new or updated since you last looked. The Installed tab. Use the search box and filters to narrow a long list. The two badges tell you what kind of template it is: - **Slide**: a slide layout with spaces for your words and pictures. No code from the template's author runs anywhere. - **Code**: the template brings its own small web page, which runs on your screens in a sandbox with no access to your dashboard. The card says **Makes no network requests.** or lists the sites it connects to. - **Verified · ScreenTinker** means the template comes from a signed catalog this server trusts. **Unverified import** means someone imported it by hand and nobody has reviewed it. There is also a line at the top, **Built-in designs are always available, offline**, with a **New from template** link. Those are the simpler sign designs built into ScreenTinker; this page is for the template library. ### Use a template - On the **Installed** tab, press **Use…** on the template you want. - Change the **Widget name** if you like. This is the name you will see in your playlists, for example "Counter menu". - Fill in the template's own fields. Every template has different ones: a title, menu items and prices, colours, a logo. Help text under a field explains it. For a picture, press **Choose…** to pick one from your content, **Template image** to go back to the template's own, or **None**. - Watch the **Preview** on the right. It updates a moment after each change. - Press **Create widget**. The form for the Menu board template. The preview on the right is what the screen will show. No passwords in a code template A code template can read everything you type into its form. The form says so: "Do not put passwords or keys in it." A guest Wi-Fi password you want guests to see is fine; an admin password is not. Some templates show a time, a date or the weather. A time zone field set to **The screen's own timezone** follows each screen. A language field left empty uses the screen's language. A weather or menu template can read from a data source: if the field says **This workspace has no data sources yet.**, make one under **Data Sources** first. ### Put it on a screen When the widget is created, the form tells you so and offers to add it to a playlist straight away: - Pick a playlist under **Choose a playlist…**. - Press **Add to playlist**. The message says "Screens show it once you publish the playlist." - Press **Open playlist**, check where the widget sits, and press **Publish**. After Create widget: add it to a playlist now, or later from the playlist editor. Remember to Publish Adding the widget changes the playlist's draft. Screens keep showing the published playlist until you press **Publish**. You can also skip this step, press **Done**, and add the widget later from the playlist editor, like any other widget. ### Change it later, or make another - **To change the words or prices**, open **Widgets** in the sidebar and press **Edit** on the widget. The same form opens, with your values and the preview. Press **Save**. - **To make another one**, for a second screen or a different offer, press **Use…** on the template again, or duplicate the widget on the Widgets page. Each copy is edited on its own. The card on the Installed tab counts them, for example "In 2 widgets". ### Install more templates Only a server administrator can install, update or remove templates, because an installed template is available to every workspace on the server. For everyone else, the **Library** tab is a catalog to browse: if you find one you need, ask whoever runs your server. An administrator sees extra controls: **Import…** and **Settings** at the top, **Uninstall** on each installed card, and on the Library tab an **Install** button and a tick box on each template you can install. The Library tab for an administrator. The status filter can show only **Not installed** or **Updates available**. - Open the **Library** tab. Search or filter: by status, by type (**Slide** or **Code**), by **Landscape** or **Portrait**, or by tag. - Press **Install** on a template. The window names the version and the catalog, and for a code template says which sites it may contact. - Press **Install** again to confirm. The template appears on the **Installed** tab. Installing a code template. The window always says what kind of template it is. To install several at once, tick them and press **Install selected**. When the catalog has a newer version of an installed template, its card says **Update available**; press **Update**, or **Update all** for every one. Updates are never installed by themselves. Widgets made from the template keep their values after an update. **Uninstall** removes a template from the server. It is refused while any widget still uses it: the window lists those widgets, in every workspace, so you can delete or change them first. On a self-hosted server The first account on a new server is its administrator, so you can install. Your server does not contact the template catalog until you allow it: the Library tab says "The community library is switched off". Press **Enable community library**, or tick **Community library (fetch the template catalogs)** in **Settings**. The server then downloads the signed catalog when it starts and once a day, and **Check now** fetches it at once. A server with no internet access can still use the library. Download the offline catalog bundle (a .zip) on another computer, press **Import…**, tick **This is an offline catalog bundle** and choose the file. The templates then appear on the Library tab, ready to install. Import a newer bundle to get updates. **Import…** also takes a single .sttemplate file. Template settings, for server administrators only. Two more settings are for special cases. **Allow unsigned code templates** lets you import code templates nobody has signed; leave it off unless you wrote them yourself (you must type a sentence to turn it on). **Add a catalog** adds a second, signed catalog, such as your company's own; only add a key from someone you trust. ### FAQ #### Why don't I see Install or Settings? Only a server administrator does. On screentinker.com, use the templates on the **Installed** tab. On your own server, sign in with the administrator account. #### A card says "Withdrawn by its catalog — no longer usable". What now? The catalog has pulled that version, for example because it was broken. Its widgets show a black screen until an administrator installs a newer version from the Library, or you change those widgets to something else. #### Do templates work when a screen is offline? Yes. A template becomes an ordinary widget in a playlist, so screens keep showing it like the rest of the playlist. ### Try it on your own screens Start a 14-day Pro trial on hosted ScreenTinker: up to 15 screens, every feature, no credit card. [Start your free trial](https://screentinker.com/app#/login) Or host it yourself, free and open source: [self-hosting guide](https://screentinker.com/guides/self-hosted-digital-signage.html) · [GitHub](https://github.com/screentinker/screentinker) ### Related guides - [Content and playlists](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-content-playlists.html) - [Widgets, layouts and transitions](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-widgets-layouts-transitions.html) - [Users and roles](https://screentinker.com/guides/digital-signage-users-roles.html) - [Self-hosted digital signage](https://screentinker.com/guides/self-hosted-digital-signage.html) - [All guides](https://screentinker.com/guides/)