In this text and video Quick Guide, we teach you how to show the WordPress template file being used on a given webpage on your site, using the Show Current Template or Which Template plugins.
Why Show Current Template is Useful
WordPress uses its template hierarchy to dictate which PHP template files will control the display of which webpages. Understanding how the template hierarchy works is the first step, but even with that understanding in place, it can still be difficult to know which template file in your theme is actually being used on specific page.
Fortunately, there are two great plugins that can help answer this question. The video below covers the use of Which Template, and a very similar alternative that works great is Show Current Template.
To the video:
And here’s a text explanation describing how to see which template file WordPress is using:
The official registered plugin “Confirm theme structure” will show you your database and WordPress information in addition to the template information!
Aren’t you concerned that the Which Template plugin hasn’t been updated in four years? The Show Current Template plugin was last updated two months ago by contrast.
Shameless plug alert: my “Simple Debug Info Panel” plugin also includes this functionality, plus a little bit more (post/page ID, page type, current window size, etc.) It’s in the WP.org repo.