How to Use the Substack Templates Tool and WHY You Might Want To

This is not the same as duplicating posts to copy the layout.

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of simple, practical tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks. This one is a FREEBIE…for now 😉

If you find yourself typing the same things over and over again on Substack, the Templates tool might become your new favorite feature.

Templates allow you to create reusable blocks of content that can be inserted into any draft with a couple of clicks. That could be a preamble, a disclaimer, a call-to-action, a section introduction, a signature block, affiliate disclosures, and…you get the picture.

Once you’ve built a template, you simply save it, give it a name, and pull it into future posts whenever you need it.

I use templates in my other publication, Homebody(ish) Magazine. Each section of the publication has its own introduction, so instead of rewriting the section descriptions every time I publish, I simply insert the appropriate template. It keeps everything consistent, saves time, and eliminates the little bits of repetitive work that quietly steal your writing energy.

Here’s a screenshot of one of my section intro templates, highlighted in orange:

Screenshot from Homebody(Ish) Magazine

The real benefit of templates isn’t just speed. It’s consistency. When readers see the same style of introductions, calls-to-action, and formatting throughout your publication, your Substack feels more polished and intentional.

Templates help you create that experience without relying on memory or copying and pasting from old posts.

Here’s another screenshot with an example of how you could use a post-footer template. “Home Away” is a tag that takes readers to a summary page of all posts using that tag.

By the way, to access ANY tag summary page, use your URL and then /t/tag name, like so: https://unstackit.substack.com/t/substack-video-tutorials

In the following 9-minute video tutorial, I show you how to create, save, organize, and insert templates so you can spend less time rebuilding the same content and more time writing the parts that actually need your attention.

That’s it for this week!

Have you set up and used your own templates using this tool yet? If not, will you get started now?

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