Changing the template of a post has inconsistent and confusing menus for beginners.

[beckej13820]

What problem does this address?

Recently, I was teaching a student about WordPress Templates, and showing how to create a new custom post template, and swap that template from the Post Editor.

Although we were able to figure it out, I wanted to share my experience, and suggest that the Template menu should change in the post editor.

The issue:

• Currently, the Template menu changes, depending on 1. What template is currently selected and 2. How many non-default templates are available.
• For example, if you are working in the Twenty Twenty Five theme, there are two templates. The (default) Single Posts Template, and a custom template we created that I will refer to as "Banner Image with title"
• In this scenario, if you have the default "Single Posts" template applied, when you click on the Template Menu, you are given a menu with 4 options 1. Edit template, 2. Swap template, 3. Create new template, 4. Show template. (Screenshot)
• If you select Swap Template, you arrive at the template chooser, and are only given one option "Banner image with title" with a preview of that template. The default template is not shown on this screen as a option. (Screenshot)
• To see the next issue, select the custom template "Banner image with title."
• With a custom template enabled, if you click the template menu again, your options will have changed. Now the template menu will have 4 options: 1. Edit template 2. Use default template 3. Create new template 4. Show template (Note: Swap template, which we just used is missing from the menu. This was confusing to us in the moment, because if you changed something using one menu, we assumed you would be able to use the same menu to switch back. Of course, we figured it out, but it was disorientating)

What is your proposed solution?

I think that three things should change:

1. I believe that Swap Templates should remain available even if the only other template is the default template. This would mean in the workflow above, that to switch my site back to default, I could use the same method that I used to change it.
2. I believe that the default template should be available on the swap template screen, and from this screen you should be able to see your current template and the possible options.
3. I believe that the Swap Templates screen should have a button to create a new template from that view, so if you look over all the templates available and don't see what you are looking for, you can choose to create your new template from that screen.

Thank you.

[beckej13820]

This experience was with WordPress 6.7 RC-2 with the Twenty Twenty Five theme enabled, although I believe the experience would be the same with any block theme with only two templates, a default template and a secondary template.