---
layout: step
title: Layouts
position: 4
---
Jekyll supports [Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax)
in addition to HTML when building pages. Markdown is a great choice for pages with a simple
content structure (just paragraphs, headings and images), as it's less verbose
than raw HTML.
Create a new Markdown file named `about.md` in your site's root folder.
You could copy the contents of `index` and modify it for the About page. However,
this creates duplicate code that has to be customized for each new page you add
to your site.
For example, adding a new stylesheet to your site would involve adding the link
to the stylesheet to the `` of each page. For sites with many pages, this
is a waste of time.
## Creating a layout
Layouts are templates that can be used by any page in your site and wrap around page content.
They are stored in a directory called `_layouts`.
Create the `_layouts` directory in your site's root folder and create a new `default.html` file with the following content:
{% raw %}
```liquid
{{ page.title }}
{{ content }}
```
{% endraw %}
This HTML is almost identical to `index.html` except there's
no front matter and the content of the page is replaced by a `content`
variable.
`content` is a special variable that returns the rendered
content of the page on which it's called.
## Use layouts
To make `index.html` use your new layout, set the `layout` variable in the front
matter. The file should look like this:
{% raw %}
```liquid
---
layout: default
title: Home
---
{{ "Hello World!" | downcase }}
```
{% endraw %}
When you reload the site, the output remains the same.
Since the layout wraps around the content on the page, you can call front matter like `page`
in the layout file. When you apply the layout to a page, it uses the front matter on that page.
## Build the About page
Add the following to `about.md` to use your new layout in the About page:
```markdown
---
layout: default
title: About
---
# About page
This page tells you a little bit about me.
```
Open http://localhost:4000/about.html
in your browser and view your new page.
Congratulations, you now have a two page website!
Next, you'll learn about navigating from page to page in your site.