HTML & CSS · Grid Layout · Lesson 15 of 25

Grid Template Areas

Concept

Grid Template Areas

grid-template-areas lets you name regions of your layout and place elements into them by name.

Because the CSS literally looks like a visual map of the layout, grid-template-areas is often the easiest way to read and reason about a page's overall structure at a glance.

By the end of this lesson

Explain the core idea behind Grid Template Areas.
Predict output before running a change.
Test one realistic and one unusual input.
Use the result to make the next decision.

How to study this page

1. Read one concept.
2. Change the example.
3. Run, compare, and explain.
4. Complete the challenge below.

Syntax

.layout {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-areas:
    "header header"
    "sidebar main";
}
.header { grid-area: header; }

ExampleRunnable

.layout {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-areas: "header header" "sidebar main";
}

Try it Yourself »

Assigning elements to named areas

.header { grid-area: header; }
.sidebar { grid-area: sidebar; }
.main { grid-area: main; }

Self-check before continuing

Without looking at the example, describe what changes when you modify one input in Grid Template Areas. Then reopen the editor and prove your explanation with a small test.

You are ready to continue when you can predict, test, and explain the result.

Your turn

Sketch a grid-template-areas layout for a page with a header, sidebar, and main content.

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Console

Output will appear here...