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Whilst Squarespace doesn’t have an inbuilt backup function, you can duplicate your site to create a full copy prior to making significant changes and/or giving access to someone else (perhaps me!). It’s a simple process which is done via your Squarespace Dashboard.

Accessing My Dashboard

• Sign in to your Squarespace site
• From the Home Menu scroll down til you see your Avatar at the bottom of the list
  
• Click on your avatar to navigate to the My Dashboard page which lists all your sites (you may only have the one!)

Duplicate your site

• Click on the three dots next to your site and select DUPLICATE WEBSITE
• You’ll be prompted with a confirmation, click DUPLICATE to continue

  

• You’ll see the duplication steps above your list of sites
  
• When complete, you’ll see the duplicated site listed as Your Site Name (Copy)
  
• Hey presto, you have a backup!

Squarespace has evolved over the years … and each version works differently! Before you begin working with me, I’ll need to know which version your site is built on, and if it’s 7.0, what template you are using.

How to check your site’s version

• Login to your website
• From the Home menu, click Help:
  
• Scroll down to the bottom of the sidebar and you’ll see the version number and if it’s 7.0, the name of the current template:
  

Accordion Blocks allow you to add information as a list of titles with clickable expandable text. They are an excellent way of displaying a lot of information in a small space, think FAQs, tech specs, and a variety of other lists.

Add an Accordion Block

• Insert an Accordion Block by clicking the plus icon and selecting Accordion from the list:
  
• By default, the Accordion block with have three items:
  

Edit your Accordion Block

• Text is added directly into the Settings window (not like editing a Text block!)
• Click on Accordion Item 1 to edit to first section
  • Enter your Title
  • Enter your Description
  • Click BACK to return to the main Content window
    
• Repeat for each section
• Delete a section by clicking the red trash can icon
• Add a new section by clicking ADD ITEM

Design your Accordion Block

• Click on Design to edit the design of your Accordion Block:
  
• In the Design tab you can adjust the following settings:
  • Style for Title and Description
  • Expand the first item and/or allow for multiple items to be open
  • Turn Dividers on/off, set thickness and opacity
  • Change the icon image, style and placement
  • Adjust the row padding

At some point you may want to give someone access to your Squarespace site. For example, if you’re working with me, I’ll most likely ask you to add me as an Administrator. Inviting a contributor is better than giving out your personal login details for a number of reasons, the main ones being no need to give out your password, and when you’ve finished working together you can remove them quickly and easily.

Permissions

You can set different permissions for contributors:

• Owner
• Administrator
• Billing
• Website editor
• Analytics
• Comment moderators
• Store manager
• Email Campaigns editor
• Viewer
• Scheduling administrator
• Scheduling view & edit
• Scheduling view only

More info here: Squarespace permissions explained

Inviting a Contributor

To invite a contributor, you must be an Owner or Administrator of the site. Once logged in to your Squarespace site:

• Click on the Settings cog icon in the bottom right corner of the sidebar
• Click on Permissions & Ownership
• Click on Permissions & Ownership
• Click the INVITE CONTRIBUTOR button
  
• Enter the name and email of your Contributor
• Select the appropriate permissions
• Click the INVITE button
  

Let your contributor know they will receive the following Contributor Invitation from Squarespace (make sure they check their Junk mailbox too!):

Edit Contributor Settings

Once the invitation has been sent, you will see their details on the Permissions page:

At any time (even before they have accepted the invitation) you can click on their name in the Contributors list and:

• Update their permissions by turning toggles on/off
• Copy the invitation link and send it to them manually (this is useful if your contributor didn’t receive their invitation):
  
• Cancel their invitation by clicking the three dots next to their name (before they’ve accepted the invitation):
• Remove permissions, and/or remove them altogether by clicking the three dots next to their name (after they’ve accepted the invitation):
  

Using a different website platform?

• Add a new user to your WordPress site
• Add a collaborator to your Weebly site
• Add a collaborator to your Wix website

An anchor link is a link (or button) that allows you to jump to a specific section of a page (whereas a regular link will take you to the top of a page). It’s relatively easy to set this up, once you know how!

In this example, we’ll be making an anchor link to point to This section here on the Services page www.yoursite.com/services:

Set your anchor link

The first step is to create the anchor. To do this, you’ll need to add a little piece of HTML code … don’t fret … it’s very easy!

• Navigate to the spot you want to link to (the anchor)
• Insert a Code Block above the block you want to link to (in this case, above the Text Block containing the “This section here” heading)
• You’re going to add an empty <a> tag (which means it won’t display any text) that looks like this:
  
• You’ll replace “this-section” with something that is meaningful to what you are linking to … don’t use spaces though! The name and id tags should be exactly the same. So your code might look like this:

<a name="myitem" id="myitem"></a>

• Click outside the Code Block to save it

Set up your link or button

Next you’ll create a link using text or a button. For this example, we’ll create a button.

• Navigate to the spot you want to add your link (it could be a different page)
• Insert a Button Block
• In the Link field, first select the page your anchor link is on by typing  / and selecting, in this case, /services
• Next, you’ll add a hashtag # and then the name of the anchor link you created earlier (without the quote marks), for example, this-section
• Your link should look like this:

/services#this-section
OR
/services#myitem

• Click outside the Button Block to save it’

That’s it!

Auto layouts allow you to display content in columns, rows, carousels, or slideshows. Add your content, then choose your layout!

NB: Auto layouts are Page Sections, not Blocks.

Add an auto layout

To add an auto layout section:

• Click Edit to edit your page
• Click Add Section
• Choose a List, People, or Headlines section, then look for the i icon in the right corner of the sections (the i indicates an auto layout!)
  NB: It doesn’t really matter which auto layout you choose, as you can edit the design to suit your needs, but it does help to start with something close to what you’re looking for
  

  

  

  

NB: All auto Layouts are added with dummy text

Edit an auto layout

• If you’re not already editing your page, click Edit
• Click the Edit Content button next to the standard section icons in the top right corner to add/edit auto layout content
  

Elements

Use this tab to toggle on/off what is displayed for the section and individual items.

• Section – Title display a main section title above the individual items
• Section – Button display a button for the whole section below the individual items
• Items – Show Image display an image for each item
• Items – Show Title display a title for each item (different to the section title)
• Items – Show Body display body text for each item
• Items – Show Button display a button for each item (different to the section button!)

Content

Use this tab to add/edit the content for the section as well as each individual item.

• Click Title to add a section title
• Click Button to add a section button
• Click an item in the list to add/edit content
  NB: if you’ve disabled an element, you won’t see it in the editor
  • Upload an Image
  • Set Image Alt Text
  • Add a Title
  • Add a Description
  • Add Button Text
  • Add a link for the button
  • Click < BACK to save the item content

   

• Repeat for each item
• Click ADD to add a new item
• Click the Bin icon to delete an item
• Click and drag the 6 grey dots to the left of the item to reorder items

Design

Use this tab to change the design of your auto layout. Choose from one of three layouts:

• Simple List displays items in a row from left to right. You can set the number  of columns which may shift some items to subsequent rows.
• Banner Slideshow displays one item at a time with elements overlaying the main image. Visitors click arrows to scroll through each item.
• Carousel displays items in a row from left to right, in a rotating carousel. Visitors click arrows to scroll through each item.

Each layout has its own settings allowing you to customise the display further.

coming soon …