I need to create both page and post templates that will allow me to show different ads and sidebar content depending on the type of page or post it is.

And I need for the different templates to be shown as options in the creation or even editing phase, in the dropdown. I was able to do this using the Proximity theme, but because Atahualpa uses just the one index.php file, I can't figure out how to do it.

Help!

You could copy index.php as my-xy-template.php, edit it, and at the top of the file paste

PHP Code:

<?php
/*
Template Name: My XY Template
*/
?>

and upload it as /wp-content/themes/atahualpa/my-xy-template.php.

Then it would be listed as available page template once you go to the post or page "add new" or "edit" page in the site admin

The sidebars are in header.php and footer.php though

You can turn sidebars ON/OFF at Atahualpa Theme Options -> Sidebars. These settings would work on your my-xy-template.php, too

OK, thanks. I will try that. I have found TS Custom Widgets which lets me assign different text widgets to different pages or posts, even to tags and authors, so that adds a lot of flexibility too.

Update: That worked fine! Thank you so much! Now the Obituaries page has a banner ad for a funeral home, because that's the sponsor of that section. Excellent! Now I need to figure out how to get the general ads in the right sidebar off of just the obit page.