Take an editable copy of any HomeRunner page-section template into its own folder so you can customize it by hand, and keep that customization even after HomeRunner updates.
What it does #
Every part of your HomeRunner site, the booking widget, the checkout page, the property page, the guest dashboard, is built from a set of default page-section templates that ship with the HomeRunner plugin. If you ever need one of those sections to look or behave differently, editing the HomeRunner file directly is not safe: the next plugin update overwrites it and your change disappears without warning. Template Customizer solves that by giving you your own copy of any template, held in a separate folder that HomeRunner’s updates never touch, along with a built-in editor and a backup system so you do not lose that copy either.
What you can do from this screen:
- Browse every template HomeRunner ships, organized into categories: Booking Widget, Checkout, Property Display, Reservations, User Dashboard, Property Explorer, and Authentication. Anything that does not fit a named category lands under Other Templates.
- See at a glance whether each template is still the HomeRunner default or already Customized, plus an Available / Customized count at the top of the screen.
- Take your own copy of a single template, or of every template in one category, so it is ready to edit.
- Edit that copy directly in your browser with a built-in code editor. No theme editor or FTP client needed.
- Activate every section you have not yet customized across the whole site in one click, without touching anything you have already customized.
- Back up everything you have customized into a downloadable ZIP file, and restore from a backup, or from a ZIP you upload, if you need to roll back.
The moment a template is synced, HomeRunner automatically serves your customized copy on the live site instead of its own default. There is nothing else to switch on, and nothing to configure in your theme.
Template Customizer requires the main HomeRunner plugin. It edits HomeRunner’s own templates, so it is not available if you run Conversion Kit on its own without HomeRunner active.
How to turn it on #
Template Customizer is not a feature you switch on. It is always available as its own screen inside Conversion Kit, ready whenever you need to customize a template.
1. Open Template Customizer #
Go to HomeRunner -> Conversion Kit in your WordPress admin, then click Templates in the left-hand navigation. This link only appears when the main HomeRunner plugin is active.
2. Browse by category #
Across the top of the screen you will see an Overview tab and one tab per category, each labeled with how many templates it contains. The Overview tab also shows a summary table (Category, Templates, Customized, Actions) with a View link to jump to that category and a Sync All button for it.
3. Customize a single template #
Open a category tab. Each template is listed with its label, its file path, and a short note on where it appears on your site. A template still on the HomeRunner default shows a Sync & Customize button; click it to take your own copy. Once a template is customized, that button is replaced with Edit and Delete. Click Edit to open a built-in code editor for that file, make your changes, and click Save Changes.
4. Activate every section at once #
On the Overview tab, the Activate All Templates card has one button: Sync All Sections. Click it to stage the HomeRunner default for every template you have not yet customized, section by section, in a single pass. Anything you have already customized is left exactly as it is and reported as retained rather than overwritten. A results table appears afterward showing, per section, how many templates were activated, retained, or failed, with the specific error for any failure.
This is different from the Sync All button next to a single category in the Overview table: that one resyncs every template in that one category from the HomeRunner default, including any you have already customized, so it overwrites edits in that category. Use Sync All Sections when you want to fill in gaps without disturbing your existing work, and the per-category Sync All only when you deliberately want to reset a whole category back to HomeRunner’s defaults.
5. Back up your customized templates #
Scroll to the Template Backups section, always visible at the bottom of the screen. Under Create Backup, keep or edit the label (it defaults to the current date and time) and click Create Backup. This builds a ZIP of everything currently in your custom templates folder and lists it under Existing Backups, where you can Download, Restore, or Delete it. Restoring, whether from a listed backup or from a ZIP you upload under Restore from Uploaded ZIP, overwrites your current customized templates, so Conversion Kit automatically saves its own “pre-restore” safety snapshot first.
6. Reset everything (optional) #
At the bottom of the screen, the collapsed Danger Zone holds Delete All Customized Templates. This deletes every customized template and reverts your entire site back to HomeRunner’s defaults. It asks for confirmation first and does not touch any backups you have already created.
Settings #
Template Customizer is built around actions rather than persistent settings. The table below covers every control on the screen.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sync & Customize (per template) | Copies the HomeRunner default for that one template into your custom templates folder so you can edit it. Only shown for templates still on the default. |
| Edit (per template) | Opens a built-in code editor for a customized template. Save Changes writes directly to your custom copy. |
| Delete (per template) | Removes your customized copy and reverts that template back to the HomeRunner default. Asks for confirmation. |
| Sync All (per category, Overview tab) | Copies the HomeRunner default for every template in that one category into your custom templates folder, overwriting any customizations already made in that category. |
| Activate All Templates / Sync All Sections | Copies the HomeRunner default for every template, across every category, that you have not yet customized. Templates already customized are left untouched and reported as retained. Shows a results table of activated, retained, and failed counts per section afterward. |
| Backup label | The text appended to a backup ZIP’s filename. Defaults to the current date and time; edit it to add context, such as “pre-redesign”. |
| Create Backup | Builds a ZIP of everything currently in your custom templates folder, stored under wp-content/uploads/hrck-template-backups/, and adds it to the Existing Backups list. |
| Download (per backup) | Downloads that backup ZIP to your computer. |
| Restore (per backup) | Overwrites your current customized templates with the contents of that backup. A “pre-restore” safety snapshot of the current state is taken automatically first. |
| Delete (per backup) | Permanently deletes that backup file. Does not affect your live customized templates. |
| Restore from Uploaded ZIP | Restores from a backup ZIP you upload, for example one downloaded from another site, the same way as restoring a stored backup, safety snapshot included. |
| Delete All Customized Templates (Danger Zone) | Deletes every customized template and reverts your site back to HomeRunner’s default templates. Existing backups are not deleted. Asks for confirmation. |
Tips #
- Sync All Sections never overwrites work you have already done. If you run it and a section you had already customized looks unchanged, that is expected: it is reported as retained, not resynced.
- Be careful with the per-category Sync All button in the Overview table. Unlike Sync All Sections, it resyncs every template in that category from the HomeRunner default, including ones you have already customized, and there is no separate warning at the point you click it.
- Run Sync All Sections right before you create a backup, especially after a HomeRunner update that may have added new templates. It guarantees every section has a file staged in your custom templates folder, so the backup ZIP is a comprehensive copy of your whole site’s templates rather than only the sections you remembered to sync one at a time.
- Editing a template means editing raw PHP and HTML in the built-in code editor. If that is not your comfort zone, have a developer make the change, then hand the file back to you (or them) through this screen.
- A restore is itself reversible. Conversion Kit always takes a “pre-restore” snapshot before overwriting your customized templates, so look for that entry in your backups list if a restore does not go the way you expected.
- New to Conversion Kit? Start with Conversion Kit: Overview to see how Template Customizer fits alongside the other tools.