---
date: 2016-03-29T21:26:20-05:00
menu:
main:
parent: layout
prev: /templates/views/
next: /templates/partials/
title: Block Templates
weight: 80
---
Go 1.6 includes a powerful new keyword, `block`. This construct allows you to define the outer shell of your pages in a single "base" template, filling in or overriding portions as necessary.
## Define the base template
Let's define a simple base template, a shell from which all our pages will start. To find a base template, Hugo searches the same paths and file names as it does for [Ace templates]({{< relref "templates/ace.md" >}}), just with files suffixed `.html` rather than `.ace`.
```html
{{ block "title" . }}
<!-- Blocks may include default content. -->
{{ .Site.Title }}
{{ end }}
{{ block "main" . }}
{{ end }}
```
## Overriding the base
Your [default list template]({{< relref "templates/list.md" >}}) (`_default/list.html`) will inherit all of the code defined in the base template. It could then implement its own "main" block from the base template above like so:
```html
{{ define "main" }}
Posts
{{ range .Data.Pages }}
{{ .Title }}
{{ .Content }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
```
This replaces the contents of our (basically empty) "main" block with something useful for the list template. In this case, we didn't define a "title" block so the contents from our base template remain unchanged in lists.
In our [default single template]({{< relref "templates/content.md" >}}) (`_default/single.html`), let's implement both blocks:
```html
{{ define "title" }}
{{ .Title }} – {{ .Site.Title }}
{{ end }}
{{ define "main" }}
{{ .Title }}
{{ .Content }}
{{ end }}
```
This overrides both block areas from the base template with code unique to our single template.