Layout item order
When a child template is created in “ProPhoto > Customizer > (toggle top-left switch to “Design”) > Templates > Manager”, the new template will initially look exactly like it’s parent. The order and arrangement of its layout items will also be the same. Any change to the order or arrangement of blocks, rows, columns and widget in the parent template, will show up in the same way in the child template. This layout item inheritance is indicated by the gold bars around each type of layout item.
Blocks, rows, columns and widgets are all inheriting their order from the parent template.
It’s very common to add a new block to a child template because a new layout is normally the goal. New blocks are added to the bottom of the template and then can be moved. Click to unlock the blocks and then add a new one.
Any time you add, delete, or reorder blocks in a child template, this breaks block order inheritance for all blocks in the template. To show this the block bar will turn green. Similarly row, column and widget order can be unlocked. All rows in a single block are unlocked at once and columns are unlocked for single rows. When columns are unlocked, so is the widget order. This allows you to keep order inheritance for some layout items while breaking the connection for others. When inheritance is broken the gold bars change to green, blue or gray.
The block, row, column and widget here are not inheriting order from the parent template as shown by the absence of gold bars. Compare to intact inheritance shown above.
Inheritance tip
Widgets in new child templates
What about widgets? When a child template is created, the widgets displayed are shared between the child and parents. As far as ProPhoto is concerned they are the same widgets displayed in two separate places. This sharing is indicated by a gold triangle. The number inside shows how many templates share the widget.
If you edit one of these shared widgets those edits will show up in every template sharing it. This is handy if you want this widget to be the same between templates. But what if you want to change that widget for only one child template? You have two options.
- First, you can simply delete all the widgets, blocks, rows and columns you don’t want in the child template. Then you can create the blocks, rows, columns and widgets that you have planned for the template.
- Another option copy and paste the widget to create an independent (non-shared) widget. Then delete the original. It will only be removed from the child template.
After you refresh the page the new widget will no longer show as being shared. The green check means it only exists in the current template. 
Copying and pasting a column, row or block will also create independent widgets. All the widgets in the new layout item you created will have independent widgets.
Anytime a new block is added in a parent template, the new block is added to the bottom of one of its child templates.
Blocks are added at the bottom of the layout
This is true even if block inheritance in a child template has been broken after adding, deleting or reordering blocks. If you need to drag the new block to somewhere else in the layout, you’ll need to drag it in place in the parent and (normally) in all its children.
An example is helpful here. It’s common to want a menu block to be the same for every template, and for all the edits of that block in the base template to inherit equally everywhere. If you realize that somewhere along the way you edited this block in various templates such that you now have to make the same change in multiple templates, you might be interested in restoring it’s inheritance. Here’s how you do that.
- Edit the base template in “ProPhoto > Customizer > Layout”
- Copy the block you are working with by hovering the top left side of the green block edge.
- Go down to the bottom of the template to paste the block.
- Drag the block up to the top of the base template. This is made easier by collapsing the blocks using the icon in the upper right of the template.
- Delete the original block and rename the new block.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 in each child template.
- Only make edits to this block in the base template in the future. This way, all changes to the layout and style of this block will flow through to all the child templates.
Customizations in “ProPhoto > Customizer > Layout > Template (blue toggle)” in a parent template will inherit into all child templates. These are not settings that apply to layout items but to the entire template. A blue edit icon in a child template means that particular setting is overriding the inherited parent template setting. Grey means it is inheriting. Click a blue icon to revert to the parent level setting. 
Customizations to template style when clicking the template gear icon in a parent template will inherit into all child templates.
Settings in these areas will serve as the default template level settings in the child template.
These are both settings that apply to templates as a whole and not individual layout items. An overridden setting can be restored to the previously inherited one by clicking the blue icon to make it gray.
Child templates always initially look exactly the same as their parent. For many layout items the style settings in the child will reflect that settings that were made at the template level in the parent. These settings apply as the defaults at the template level for the child and then trickle down to the blocks, rows, columns and widgets in the layout. If an override style setting is saved, this breaks the connection between this area and the corresponding area in the parent template.
Consider an example. Imagine a base template that has set the vertical widget alignment to “top” in the “Customizer > Layout > Template > Column Appearance > Widget spacing”.
This setting will inherit in the child template in the same place. Inheritance is shown by the grayed out edit icon.
This template level “column appearance” setting is passed on down to all individual columns in the child template.
If this setting for vertical widget alignment is changed in a specific column in a child template, then any changes to the same column in the parent/base template will not be reflected in the child. The first override setting you make in a layout item in a child template, breaks inheritance for that entire area. 
So in this example, all column appearance settings for this column no longer inherit from the base template. However, font settings for the column still inherit because that is a different customization area.
Inheritance tip
In the course of setting up a parent template, it may be necessary to override a template level setting for a single layout item. This is commonly done when building a header and footer area in the base template that will be the same in all the child templates. Customizations of the style of layout items in the base template will carry through to the same areas in the child template. The visual cue that tells you this is happening is the gold color in the layout editor of the child template. 
If you need to make a change to a locked customization area in a child template, you certainly can. First you’ll need to click the lock icon to unlock it. You’ll see a message like the one shown below explaining what you are about to do. When you unlock layout item customizations in a child template, you break the connection of that area with the parent template.
In the example above, if I unlock customizations for this row and save a change, the entire “row appearance” area no longer is connected to the parent template. It’s its own thing now! Any change you make to this row’s appearance in the parent template will not manifest in this child.
Inheritance tip
One can make style changes that affect all the blocks, rows, columns or widgets in a template by editing the template directly. The screenshot below shows how you do this. Click the gear icon next to the word “template”. Then you can set default style settings for fonts as well as the three layout item types. Typically, this is first done in the base template. 
This value will automatically apply to all rows in the block. When you edit a row in that block (shown below) the background color will be set already. The grayed out edit icon means the setting is inherited. 
Every row has the option to override this setting for that particular row only. Simply click the grey icon (which will turn blue) and change the color. To revert to the higher level setting, click the blue edit icon so that it turns grey.
