Squarespace Fluid Engine Editor Tutorial
Squarespace has been making updates to their platform aaaaall year long but the introduction of Squarespace Fluid Engine Editor is HUGE.
This will replace the classic Squarespace editor and will affect all Squarespace 7.1 users. If that's you, stick around. In this video, I'll explain exactly what Squarespace Fluid Engine Editor is and what it means for you.
What’s is Squarespace Fluid Engine editor?
Squarespace are introducing a new Fluid Engine editor to replace the classic editor you’re used to. Fluid Engine editor turns your website into a drag and drop editor.
Now, you might be thinking, isn’t this what I’ve got already? Kind of but there are parameters. This is fully drag and drop.
You can:
Place content blocks anywhere on the section grid
Resize content by dragging corner handles
Layer content blocks
Drag and drop multiple items at once
Full bleed sections - you can add content to the edge of the page
Reposition elements on a mobile device
and I’m sure much more as time goes on.
Squarespace Fluid Engine has open users up to a world of creativity when designing websites.
What you can expect
If you have a Squarespace 7.0 website
If you are using Squarespace 7.0, this will NOT affect you. This only applies to 7.1 websites.
If you are setting up a new trial/website before public launch
The public launch is set for July 7th. It’s possible that this could change.
When you are signing up for a new trial, you may or may not see the new Fluid Engine editor. When it does release, the new editor will become available to you.
If you set up a new site after the public launch, you will only see the Fluid Engine editor.
If you are a Circle Member
If you are a Circle member, you got early access. Go to Settings > Circle labs and you’ll see the option available.
If it’s already been added to your website, as a circle member, you’ll have the option to opt-out of the new Fluid Engine editor until the end of 2022.
If you have a Squarespace 7.1 website
Your current sections won’t change and you will still be able to use them as you did before. You can duplicate these pages/sections if you want to keep using the current editor.
When you click into any section on the classic editor, you will see an option to Upgrade. This will convert your section to the new Fluid Engine Editor. Just keep in mind, once you convert a section to the fluid engine editor, you can revert back by clicking CTRL+Z but once you hit save, you cannot revert back to to the classic editor.
Does Squarespace Fluid Engine apply to blog posts?
Great question! Right now, Fluid Engine does not work with blog posts. The classic editor will remain on:
Blog posts
Event descriptions
Product additional information
Any blocks/sections added before Fluid Engine's release.
It will be interesting to see if this changes in the future.
Should you upgrade your Squarespace website to Fluid Engine editor?
It depends. This is the future of Squarespace so it’s not a matter of if you should switch to Fluid Engine Editor, it’s more a matter of when. For now, if you want to keep using the Classic editor, you can duplicate sections and pages you currently have in order to do so.
My recommendation would be to create a new page in your unlinked section, upgrade it and use it as a space to play around and familiarize yourself with the new editor before committing to it.
I also want to draw your attention to a few issues that will impact this decision.
A few Issues to be aware of:
Content is displayed mobile and for screen-readers is based on the order content blocks were added, not placement on the page. This means you will need to go in and edit the mobile version of this.
Even editing the mobile version, the tablet version of pages can be glitchy.
This is very new and it has been rolled out very quickly - over the space of the last month so it’s still buggy. Squarespace are likely to address these issues over the coming months.
It is something to consider before upgrading any section to new Fluid Engine Editor.
Squarespace just changed the game
As with any big update, Squarespace may change this up as users start actually working with the new fluid engine. I imagine there will be improvements over the next few months to make it easier.
It’s also a big transition for Squarespace educators, template creators, plugin developers and designers. We will all be looking at ways to adapt our offers to this new editor.
I know one question that I know I keep coming back to is whether templates or a course best serves you? If you could hit reply and let me know, I’d really appreciate that.
If you have any questions about this new Fluid Editor, feel free to share those too. I’ll try to help in any way I can.
