Create Demos – Part 2: Create & Share Templates

Overview

Templates are the foundation of demo creation in Walnut.

They give you a reusable starting point for capturing screens, structuring your story, applying edits, collaborating with teammates, and creating demo instances later. Once your template is ready, you can use it to publish and share demos without rebuilding the same experience from scratch.

This guide walks through the core template workflows in Walnut, including how to create templates, edit them, organize them, collaborate on them, and manage common library actions.

In This Guide:

Create Templates

There are two main ways to start a template in Walnut:

• Create a template from your own captured screens
• Start from a Walnut mockup and replace the default media with your own content

Many teams use a mix of both depending on the story they want to build.

Create a Template from Your Own Captures

This is the most direct way to build a template when you want to capture your own product flow and edit it in Walnut.

1. Navigate to My Library, click New, and select Template.

   

2. Name the template and optionally add a tag.

3. Click Done.

   

4. Add a short description if helpful.
5. Click Capture with Walnut to open the capture extension and begin capturing screens.

Once captured, your screens open in the template editor and are ready for guides, variables, edits, and additional structure.

Create a Template from a Walnut Mockup

Walnut mockups can be a fast way to create a polished screen layout when you want to place static media into a desktop or mobile frame.

To create a new template using a Walnut mockup:

1. Navigate to My Library, click New, and select Template.

   

2. Name the template and optionally add a tag.

3. Click Done.

   

4. Click Import from Templates.

5. Open the Screens Library and select the mockup you want.

   

6. Choose the screen or screens you want to add, then click Done.

7. Select whether you want to start from scratch or use generated starter guides.

   

8. Click the imported screen to open the edit toolbar.

   

9. Click Change Media to replace the default mockup image with your own media.

You can also insert Walnut mockups into an existing template.

1. Open the existing template and click Insert screen from the left pane.

   

2. Open the Screens Library.

   

3. Select the mockup screen or screens and click Done.

4. Click the imported screen to open the edit toolbar.

   

5. Click Change Media to replace the mockup with your own image or media.

Edit Templates

To edit a template, open it from My Library or its folder location.

Once inside the editor, you can update screens, add guides, manage variables, open settings, preview the experience, and create demo instances from the template.

Options in the Settings Pane

The Settings pane controls template-level behaviors and appearance.

Depending on your setup, this pane may include sections such as:

• General
• Guides
• Custom Code
• Display Options

These settings can affect interaction behavior, demo styling, guide presentation, and viewer-facing display behavior.

The Right-Click Menu

The right-click menu gives you fast access to common element-level actions while editing a template.

Common actions may include:

• Duplicate element
• Hide element
• Reset changes
• Blur element
• Edit source
• Select parent element
• Pin to element
• Delete

Select Parent Element

1. Right-click the element and select Select Parent Element.
2. Walnut moves selection to the next higher-level parent element.
3. Apply your edits at that level.

Pin to Element

Use pinning to keep an element positioned relative to another element.

1. Right-click the element and select Pin to Element.

   

2. Select the location to pin the element.
3. Click Done.

Release Pinning or Delete an Element

To remove pinning, choose Release pinning. To remove the element entirely, right-click and choose Delete.

Add Collaborators

Collaborators let other users access, review, or edit the template depending on their permissions.

1. From My Library or the template location, open the three-dot menu and select Add collaborators.

   

2. Add the relevant users or groups and assign access.

   

3. Click Add.

Use Multi-Edit

Multi-edit allows teammates to work inside the same template together in real time.

This can make collaboration faster and reduce handoff delays when multiple people are contributing to the same build.

Manage Tags

Tags help organize templates and make them easier to filter, group, and find later.

1. From My Library, open the three-dot menu and select Manage tags.

   

2. Select one or more existing tags or create a new one.

Add Sections

Sections help organize screens inside a template so your story is easier to manage and navigate.

1. Open the template in edit mode.

2. Go to the bottom of the left pane and click + Add.

   

3. Select Add Section.
4. Add screens or import screens from another template.
5. Click Done.

Library Actions

Walnut gives you several ways to organize and manage templates in your library.

Move Templates

1. Open the three-dot menu for the template.
2. Select Move to.
3. Select the destination folder or create a new one.

Duplicate Templates

1. Open the three-dot menu.
2. Select Duplicate.
3. Choose where to store the duplicate and confirm.

Rename Templates

1. Open the three-dot menu.
2. Select Rename.
3. Enter the new name and save.

Archive Templates

Templates are archived rather than permanently deleted in the main library flow.

1. Navigate to the template location.
2. Open the three-dot menu and select Archive.

Restore Archived Templates

1. From Home or Library, filter by Archived.
2. Open the three-dot menu for the template and select Restore.

Add Templates to Favorites

1. Open the library where the template is located.
2. Mark the template as a favorite.
3. Use the Favorites filter when needed.

Track Template Details

Walnut includes template-level details that help teams understand ownership, edits, and collaboration history.

1. Click the template to open the side panel.

   

2. Review the available tabs, which may include:
   • Details: creator, last modified info, demos using the template, description
   • Edits: changes made with guides, variables, and other editing tools
   • Comments: comments left by collaborators

Find & Replace Text

Find & Replace helps locate repeated text across a template, including text that may be difficult to edit directly in the front-end view.

If needed, you can undo recent changes with Command + Z on Mac or Ctrl + Z on Windows.

1. Click the Find & Replace icon in the right-hand toolbar.

   

2. Enter the text you want to find and press Enter.
3. Review the results in the Screens tab.
4. Enter the replacement text and click Replace All when ready.

Replace Demo Screens

If you want to keep the structure of a template but swap in different screens, you can remove the existing screens and import new ones from another template.

1. Open the template with the screens you want to replace.
2. Delete the old screens.

3. Use the left pane to add or import new screens.

   

4. Use Import from template to select the replacement screens.

   

5. Select the source template and choose the screens to import.
6. Click Done.
7. Preview the template and confirm guides and links still behave as expected.

Summary