Squarespace New Features Roundup: Summer & Fall 2022

Squarespace has been busy this year. They've added 12 updates big and small to the lineup. In this post, I'll provide a quick look at them and how to find them, plus some quick tips to help you get started using them. If you’d like to read all about the previous round of Squarespace Updates head to this post, Squarespace New Features Roundup: Fall & Winter 2021-22.

1 | Scrolling Block

One of the first features Squarespace came out with since my previous roundup is such a good one! Scrolling Text Blocks are finally here for all of us as of early April 2022.

Before April, the only way to create scrolling text was to apply custom code to your site. I for one, am excited to have scrolling text built in! It is a great feature that allows you to add dynamic, attention-grabbing elements to your website. This new block is available on both 7.0 and 7.1 sites.

When designing your website, keep in mind that motion can make some people feel seasick. Making your website accessible is important. You can find accessibility motion settings in your computer or browser settings. (If you add a scrolling block and it's not working, check these settings first). The scrolling text block does respond to the accessibility motion options.

Squarespace's Demo shows different uses of the scrolling block. Be forewarned: Do not visit this if you are sensitive to motion. Check out their scrolling block demo. It is everywhere and way over the top for anything you'd want to add to your own website.

My recommendation:

Use the scrolling text block one or two times per page. Do not have scrolling blocks moving in opposite directions within the screen. Only use it on a few pages of your website. Remember, to achieve impact it needs to be unique!

Examples:

I used the scrolling block in two places on the Chouteau County Library website. First, on the homepage, I use five one-word statements that describe activities you can do at the library. See this example in action here.

Second, on the contact page below the header image. The statement scrolls "Do you have questions? We have answers!" Beneath it are six buttons with individual questions and links to answers. Below that is a full FAQ section. See the contact page example here.

Troubleshooting:

You may have checked the accessibility motion option. When checked scrolling blocks will not work. The settings override the design feature. If you are still having trouble, make sure to update your browser, clear your cache, and allow cookies. I'd love your feedback on this feature. Do you love it or hate it?

2 | Weglot Extension

Released mid-April, this extension helps to make a website multilingual. Weglot works on 7.1 sites and allows you to edit and manage translations on their dashboard. Features include: excluding certain content, creating a subdomain for your translated language(s). and displaying a language switcher in the header.

Weglot currently doesn't translate commerce emails, scheduling, email campaigns, third-party integrations, or 7.0 sites. For 7.0 sites you can add-it on to 7.0 sites. See Weglot Features).

To access the Weglot extension go to Settings > Language and Region > Site Languages

Weglot is free to use for the first language up to 2000 words. This makes Weglot a great option to get started on your multilingual site. Here's the Squarespace Guide to help you with all the details.

Sound amazing? It is! If you foresee needing more words translated check out Weglot pricing. Currently, the plans range from 9.90 to 499 euros for 10,000 to 5 million words translated.

Here are a few sites that are using the extension so you can see it in action:

DVI Legal Clinic

Lenity

Saint Peter's Church

Urgency of Normal

3 | New Button Styles

New Button Styles are now available! Rolled out late May 2022, it’s another nice addition with many customization options. To access go to Settings> Site Styles > Buttons.

You'll find a top menu with Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary options. Within each main button option, you'll find: Text, Shape, and Outline settings. You'll also have vertical and horizontal padding options.

In Text Settings, you can customize the Font, Style, Weight, Size, Spacing, and Text transform. Shape options include: Fill / No Fill. For No Fill, you can choose the weight of the outline. Shape choices include: rectangles (with sharp, rounded corners, or rounded ends), ovals, underlines, petal, and custom corners.

Example:

On the Chouteau County Library Website, we used the petal option for our buttons. The primary buttons use the No Fill option (with Fill on hover) and the opposite on the secondary buttons.

4 | Scale Text

The Scale Text was released in late June 2022 for 7.1 only, but both Fluid Engine and Classic Editor. This feature is a fantastic way to make your headlines stand out. You'll find the new button on the text toolbar.

The best use case for this feature is short titles and headlines. You will still want to use the correct heading or paragraph tag to insure the proper hierarchy for SEO. The font size will scale to the size of the container. In the classic editor, use the section width and alignment selectors in the edit section menu. The example above is using the large-width settings. In Fluid Engine, drag the text box to the desired size.

Scale Text feature styling options only include bold, italics, strikethrough, and color. Bulleted lists and pull quotes are not compatible/useful with Scale Text.

I can’t wait to experiment more! This is one of my favorite new features!

5| Fluid Engine Drag & Drop Editor

This is the biggest update for Squarespace since rolling out 7.1. Fluid Engine was first released in mid-July, 2022. I was lucky enough to be able to test the new editor before its release.

There is a bit of a learning curve and some glitches that came with the initial release of the update. Yet, I can say after using it now for several months I'm enjoying the new builder.

The major difference between the two builders is how you align elements on the page. The classic layout editor uses a 12-column layout. You used the columns to align different elements across the page. To align elements on the page you use spacer blocks above the elements.

The new fluid engine editor uses a 24-column grid layout. This allows you to move an element anywhere on the grid. You can drag and drop items and they will snap to the closest grid block. The grid makes overlapping elements so easy and is one of my favorite features.

How do you know if your using Fluid Engine? There’s a quick way to check this. All new websites started on or after July 12, 2022 will automatically be in Fluid Engine. You’ll see the add block button on the top left of each section.

If you are still using a Classic Editor Section, you’ll see an upgrade button in the upper left corner of each section. You’ll also add buttons with a blue + button at the top and bottom of each block.

If you want to upgrade, click upgrade.

If you’re not sure, duplicate the section first, upgrade the copy and then test it out.

If you do not want to upgrade, do not click the button, there is no way to undo this!!!

Another major difference between Fluid Engine and the Classic Editor is the ability to adjust the mobile layout. The separate mobile layout option increases layout possibilities, which is great. But this also forces you to edit, not so great! You have to go in and edit or your design will not make sense. I've found that it can take significant time to re-edit your layout for mobile.

A note of caution: there's no tablet view and breakpoints built-in. Sometimes the designs that you build, will look great on the desktop version. You can now edit the mobile version to make it look great too. But for those in-between sizes, sometimes things overlap in a weird way and there's no built-in way to test this.

Quick TIP: Right-click on your mouse and select inspect at the bottom of the list. On the top left, click the down arrow next to Dimensions Responsive. You’ll see a list of options to test view your website. Click on one to try it out! Don’t be intimidated by all the code on the right side, you’re just looking at the left side!

6 | Website Pinning

Website Pinning is a Circle member-only feature. It was released the same day as Fluid Engine in mid-July 2022. This feature allows Circle members to pin up to 10 websites to the top of their dashboard.

To find the pin feature, hover over the far right column and click the push-pin icon to pin or un-pin. You can also click the three-dot icon and pin/unpin as needed.

I love this little update. Pinning is a great timesaver. I love not having to scroll all the way through my dashboard to find your current projects.

Are you an aspiring web designer or managing three or more websites? You can learn more about Squarespace Circle here. When you have three sites under your belt you are eligible to join.

7 | Marketing Kit - Auto generated posts, stories and reels

August 2022 saw many updates to Squarespace. The first, The Marketing Kit, was released mid-August. The feature is for Commerce and Business plan subscribers using the Squarespace iOS App. When in the app you can generate marketing at the click of a button based on the products in your store.

There are options for:

1. Stories, Reals & TikTok

2. Social Posts

3. Email Campaigns

4. Video Ads & YouTube

Find this feature in the app by clicking the Marketing tab in the center. The marketing tab has replaced the Pages tab as the center spot. You can still find the pages tab, look under the More menu.

You can also access this from the Commerce tab by clicking Promote at the top right.

At present, the feature is in English only. I'd love to know if you've used this feature and what you think.

8 | Mobile Image Upload

Another mid-August release is Mobile Image Upload. It allows you a way to get photos from your phone directly into your website. This feature has great potential.

To find this feature click on add an image to a Fluid Engine section. Click the + icon and select Upload From Mobile New - Select an image from your phone or tablet. This will send a push notification to your phone. Once you see the push notification on your phone, click it. You'll see a prompt to allow Squarespace to access selected photos, all photos, or none.

(When testing, I chose 'selected photos' and picked only one. But, if you ever want to use more than one photo, select 'all photos.' I then had to go into my phone settings to change the setting in the Squarespace App to have access to 'all photos.)

Next, select the image and click upload image. The first several time I tried, I got error messages. (I have spotty internet at the moment, so I tried several more times and it worked). It took about 5 seconds the time to work.

I'm looking forward to testing this more as I use an iPhone and an HP laptop! I've been envious of AirDrop for a while now.

9 | Scheduling Invoices

If you are a Squarespace Scheduling or Acuity user as of the end of August 2022 you now have the ability to create invoices.

Invoices include your logo or business name, email address, line item charges (description, price per item, and quantity), the total amount due, and a payment area. Optionally, you may include a message to your client and taxes (tax, subtotal, and total due).

To find the feature, in Scheduling, click invoices and click create invoice.

You also have the ability to manage and search your invoices. You'll be able to see the status (draft, canceled, or link created), date, ID, Client name, payment, Due date, and total Amount Due.

Quick note: the feature is not compatible with HIPPA-enabled settings.

For all the details check out the Squarespace Guide here.

I don't use Scheduling right now so I don't plan to test this anytime soon. If you have any experiences good or bad, we'd love to know!

*Update: In late October Invoices on the Scheduling mobile app became available.

9 | Video Block Updates

Also released on the last day of August were updates to the Video Block. Most of the changes are to the user interface.

Many extra options and controls have been requested in the Circle forum so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the next update.

For more details about using video on Squarespace read this blog post Squarespace Feature Spotlight: Video.

10 | Cart Styling

A simple and stylish update was released in late September 2022. The new cart styling options allow you to select icons or text.

When selecting an icon you can now choose from 21 icons including carts, baskets, and bags. You can change the size of your icon from 25-40px.

Next, you can choose solid or outline. Solid will fill in the shape while outline places a border around your icon or text. With the outline option, you can choose square, rounded corners, or rounded end shapes. You can also select the thickness of the outline between 1-5px.

When selecting the text option you can type up to 10 characters. Keep in mind the text will not be visible on mobile.

11 | Shape Blocks

Another new Fluid Engine block type dropped in Mid October 2022, the Shape Block.

To find the shape block, click add block and scroll to the bottom of the Basic section. There are 29 shapes to choose from so you'll likely find something to love!

Next, you can choose to toggle Stretch on or off, customize the color, transparency, and even add a drop shadow.When you toggle on the drop shadow, you'll have more options to customize including angle, distance, blur, and color.

I can think of so many possibilities.

With a quick test, I see a lot of possibilities. With everything in Fluid Engine, you must adjust the mobile option. Different elements will scale differently on mobile. If you're ok with this run with it. If not, proceed with caution, Canva or code may still help you achieve the exact look you want.

12 | Custom Merch - Printful integration

If you are looking to design and sell custom merchandise Squarespace rolled out an integration with Printful. You'll need a business or commerce plan to sell the products you create on your website. However, even on a personal plan, you can try out designs.

For more details see this blog.

Wow! That was a long list of updates! I think you’ll see so many creative uses in the coming months as well as more updates coming out from Squarespace. I’m just now starting to think about updating the Sisu Site Shop website with Fluid Engine. Reimagining what it could look like will take a bit of time. Part of that time will be spent pondering what direction I want to focus on in the next year of my business.

What is your favorite update? What are you most excited to try?

Squarespace New Features Series:

Squarespace New Features Roundup: Fall & Winter 2021-22

Squarespace New Features Spotlight: Auto Layouts

Squarespace New Features Spotlight: Hosted Background Video + Video Pages

Recent Launch Day Posts:

Launch Day for Chouteau County Library - New Semi-Custom Website

Launch Day for Wedgewood Cove - New Custom Website

Know someone who could benefit from this article? Please share it with them:

Hej! Thanks for stopping in! Sisu Site Shop is an online business strategy + custom brand and web design studio. We sell Squarespace 7.1 templates, offer VIP Days for brand + web design + Dubsado setups for small businesses including Artists, Educators, and Hospitality Professionals. We serve clients worldwide from our current home base in Montana. We help you start, organize, and modernize your business, brand, and website so that you can sell, serve, and stand out online. If you have a project in mind we’d love to learn more about it!

When you’re ready here are three ways we can help you:

1. Template Shop & Semi-Custom Website Design: Our custom Squarespace 7.1 templates provide a professionally designed foundation for you to build upon and customize! You can even upgrade to a semi-custom service and we’ll customize the template with your brand and photos.

2. Online Business VIP Day: Our Online Business Intensive can help you create a strategy, build a simple website, or knock out admin to-dos!

3. Custom Brand Identity, Website, & Automation Design: Truly elevate your online presence & processes
   for Squarespace 7.1 & Dubsado. We will partner with you to craft a brand & website you can’t wait to share!

We also have many tips and resources about strategy, design, and starting an online business. If we were chatting face to face, we’d offer you some tea and invite you to hang out for a while. Please consider this invitation to explore our site and learn more about our journey with the same intention!

When you’re ready to start your journey, build your business, and find your freedom, fill out our application to get started!

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