6 Squarespace Hacks You Should Know
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Squarespace is known for its ease of use and being friendly to the less technically savvy. And that's true - for the most part.
But there are some instances where the answer or how to do a specific 'something' aren't immediately obvious. So I thought I would show you 6 little hacks I always use when I'm designing website templates or working on my own website in Squarespace.
1. Decrease the white space on mobile view
I love the spacer block. I use it all the time on my sites to not only map out and design the site but also to create 'white' space' between elements. However, you may have noticed that sometimes when you use the spacer block, the design looks great on desktop view but there's just too much space on mobile view.
Ahhhh... It's so frustrating, isn't it?
All that time spent designing your website and now when you view it on mobile the spacing is all off.
Well this little trick will help you out.
Instead of using one spacer block - use two spacer blocks next to each other. It's a little known secret that two spacer blocks side by side next to each other, give you the same amount of space on desktop view but actually cancel each other out and disappear on mobile view.
For example: Instead of using one spacer block...
Use two spacer blocks...
Now when you view it on mobile the spacer blocks disappear. Cool, right?
2. Decrease the line break size
I have two words for you > shift + enter
This keyboard command is about to become your best friend.
I don't know if you've noticed it but Squarespace has a little quirk where a line break results in a paragraph break.
Whenever you hit enter in Squarespace to insert a line break, you end up with a lot more white space between sentences then you would like. And then your paragraph breaks don't actually have enough space. It's a little bit frustrating but that's where the the keyboard shortcut shift+enter come in - by using this shortcut instead of just hitting enter you create a line break and not a paragraph break - thereby decreasing your line break size.
It's a game changer, isn't it? Bet you're going to use that one a lot - I know I do.
3. The Escape Key takes you directly into the backend of your website
Did you know that you can hit the escape key at anytime while viewing your live website and you'll be taken into the backend of your site straightaway.
For example, you may have clicked through to view a page you have or to double check that a link works and as you're scrolling down the page you see a spelling mistake or a formatting issue. Simply hit the escape key and you'll be taken directly into the backend of your website. Not only that, but it takes you straight to whatever page or blog post you were looking at when you hit the ‘escape key’ so you can correct your whatever issue you noticed right away.
No need to write it down and try to remember it later - you can fix it right, as soon as you see it.
4. Adjust the focal point of your images
Instead of cropping your images outside of Squarespace (not including when you're resizing & compressing them for web size so your site runs faster) so that they fit perfectly on your website.
Just add the photo to Squarespace - hover over the image and a white circle appears, drag the circle to where you want the image focus to be and... viola! Squarespace adjusts so that what you've highlighted with the circle is now the focus point of your image.
Make sure to check both desktop and mobile view to make sure the placement looks right for both.
5. URLs automatically format
Did you know that the URLs in Squarespace automatically format with dashes between words when you copy and paste them to Squarespace.
For example you're writing a blog post and you need to add the URL then simply copy the title of your blog post and paste it into the 'Post URL' section and it will automatically format and add the dashes between the words.
So instead of this:
5 Reasons To Choose Dubsado As Your CRM
It will change it to:
5-reasons-to-choose-dubsado-as-your-crm
I don't know about you, but when I discovered this little hack - I was a happy camper. This tiny thing saves me so much time so I thought I would pass it along to you guys.
6. Creating blog post templates
One of my favourite time saving hacks is creating a blog post template that I can use again and again. Whenever I write a blog post I format them in the same way.
For example, for this blog I usually have my title at the top of the page, then a Pinterest sized graphic and then the text.
Since I format all the posts the same way, I don't want to spend my time creating the same thing every time I need to write a blog post. Instead I created a base template that I copy whenever I write a new post.
To do this - all you have to do is add a new blog post, title it 'Template' and then add your blocks as you usually would but don't add any content. So I add an image block, but I don't add a photo to the block. Same goes for the text block. Then save your template as a 'draft' and it will appear in your blog list. You don't want to save and publish it because we don't want this to appear on your website.
Now whenever you need to create a new blog post, all you have to do is look for your template in the draft list, click edit and then click the button at the bottom called 'duplicate' - next to the 'save' button.
Then all you have to do is add your new content and publish as normal.
--- Don't forget to change the url otherwise it defaults to your templates URL + some random letters and numbers at the end of it. Which you definitely don't want.---
Are there any others you would add? What's your favourite little hack you use on Squarespace? Tell me in the comments below.
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