Hidden Gem: 4 Reasons You’ll Love Squarespace’s Saved Sections
Do you know about Squarespace's Saved Sections?
In my own web design practice, I can’t imagine not using Saved Sections.
And yet, I’ve noticed that many of my clients don’t know that this small but powerful feature exists.
Which is why I want to share how I harness Squarespace’s Saved Sections, and how this feature can help you build your website faster and better.
But first…
What are Saved Sections?
Saved sections are a Squarespace 7.1 feature allowing you to reuse page section layouts that you’ve created. It works for both Fluid Engine and Classic Editor sections.
To save a section, hover over it and click the heart icon.
Adding a saved section to your page is easy:
Hover over your page, then click Add Section where you wish to insert the section.
You’ll find Saved sections as an option on the left of the popup window.
Click the saved section to add it to your page.
You can store up to 50 saved sections.
Reached your limit?
From the Add a Section popup window, you can delete the saved sections you no longer need. Check the box in its top left corner to reveal the trash icon.
Here are a few of my favourite ways to use Squarespace’s saved sections:
You can easily move/copy sections across pages
What do I do when I want to add a new section to an already published page?
If I build it directly on the page, I can’t hit Save until I’m done with my design… That’s risky if I need to spend extra time on it or if I have to return tomorrow to finish the layout.
With Saved Sections, I love that I can build my section on a disabled, hidden page of my website and copy it over to my live page once it’s ready.
Design a portfolio page without draft mode (a workaround)
Alas, there is no draft mode for Squarespace portfolio pages, which makes it a bit cumbersome when you want to modify a published portfolio item.
How you can get around this is by designing portfolio sections outside of the portfolio page itself—doing this on a regular, disabled page.
Then, simply move your finalised sections over to your portfolio item with Saved Sections.
Saved Sections can also help you out when you need to:
Archive a portfolio item: Use Saved Sections to move your portfolio sections to a disabled page before deleting the portfolio item.
Move/duplicate a portfolio item between portfolio pages: Save your portfolio section layouts and reuse them on a different portfolio page.
You can create layout templates
A principle of good web design is consistency.
You don’t need to create a unique design for every page section of your website. 1) It’ll exhaust your creative batteries, and 2) you'll end up with a site that lacks visual coherence—and worse…
…turns off your site visitors.
Use saved sections as design templates and you’ll save time simultaneously.
I also like saving sections for my clients before I hand over their site.
That way they won’t need to build from scratch.
Save multiple design iterations
When I’m in the early stages of designing a Squarespace website, I’m still figuring out what its visual identity will be.
Saving sections creates a “snapshot” at the time of saving.
So if I’m liking a design layout, I’ll save it before making further changes to the original page section. Modifying the OG section won’t affect the Saved Section.
In this way, I can create several design iterations without cluttering my page and creating distractions while I work.
Such a simple feature. So many useful applications. Next time you’re working on your website, give Saved Sections a try.
🎁 Are you building your own website? Grab my free Squarespace website template for filmmakers.
