origomedia Once i figure it out will I only need to do it once or will I have to do it fro every menu item that I have set as a single article?
I think no, Jim.
It will depend on the layout you're using, if you have special page with special layout, you can duplicate the current layout so you can use 1 special layout for that page and set a default layout for all other pages. Like we have 'home' layout for homepage, 'default' layout for all other pages.
With being said, when you use default layout for these menu items, it will inherit the same layout, no need to do it for every menu item.