Let’s Talk: SquareSpace Update 7.0 to 7.1
There’s a new SquareSpace Update and we’re here to tell you more about it!
What do we love? What could we do without?
Let’s dive in!
How did we get here?
Only approximately two years ago, 7.0 was the only utilized SquareSpace editor. Back then, different themes had different functionality. Certain design items could only come through certain CSS code in individual themes.
The shift from 7.0 to 7.1 lies in functionality for all users to customize their sites based on their exact preferences. However, this is all coming from one master editor. With that, all the other prior theme options that enticed users with their individual quirks went away, and the code instead became universal. Any CSS code for a 7.1 site is universal- no matter which site you’re working on! This is great for behind-the-scenes customizations to further tweak the site in a theme-specific way.
WYSIWYG
SquareSpace took a more competitive approach. When looking at other site builders like Showit, Wix, and page builders like Elementor, WP Bakery, Wordpress side…etc, well we call those WUSIWUG editors - what you see is what you get!
With these, you can basically drag and drop anything anywhere on the page. Yet as with Wix, just because you can doesn’t mean you should! Sure, it opens up the user being able to design their site however they want, but it does not implement best design practices. SquareSpace has added more complexity to their WUSIWUG editor with 7.1.
eGuide team member Andy was at the Launch Meeting with other Circle members to watch the update rollout. Getting a first-look tutorial/reaction to the update allowed for a real-time consensus with other members. Andy notes the disappearance of coding- a plus! This ties into the drag and drop feature, where previous SquareSpace site spacers were a pain; to get an idea to fruition required a lot of tooling around. A newer Wix-like experience is a positive plus and is much simpler especially for those less experienced.
Can we still utilze and edit sites built off older versions?
Well, we don’t think you can select the 7.0 Themes Editor anymore as a new customer. Legacy sites are supported on 7.0.
7.1 and 7.1b (Fluid Engine) are here to stay. In the Circle Meeting, SquareSpace was getting lots of requests from 7.0 users to update to 7.1, so SquareSpace mentioned it is going to make an automatic upgrade from 7.0 to 7.1. This is supposedly at the top of their to-do list. Perhaps a download or upload would be a huge, positive boost.
In sum: yes, you’ll still be able to access and edit your sites on older versions!
As history tells us, once we go deeper into the newer versions of things, the chances of functionality on older versions being supported properly becomes slimmer.
Part of the reason we at eGuide work at SquareSpace and Wix is because they apply so much development behind-the-scenes to stay updated and actively supported by the technology.
Even if you are a 7.0 user, we assume they’ll make this upgrade transition as easy as possible. One of the biggest caveats is that some of the 7.0 themes are very different in terms of CSS. There will probably be some compromise that needs to be made within that transfer.
Cons
What are we hearing from the community as room for improvements? Well, the grid doesn’t always line up. So close, yet so far, especially noticeable if slightly off-center. Our biggest takeaway seems like this was a rushed release. The Classic Editor has been around for 10 years, and the amount of adjusting that it's going to take to relieve frustrations might be large. For now, it helps to shrink the grid to work around the problems. However, these fixes are not as quick and easy as you may think or want. SquareSpace is listening to the community though! We expect more updates to come.
Editor Grid
Next up: the section editor grid squares can be spaced and resized. The Classic Editor has less options, making it a bit more streamlined. It’s great to have such fine-tune control in the new update, but it makes it a bit more important to follow sets of best practices. Going through each section to finesse the end product is more tedious than working from a template. So, this is a huge asset and a huge change! Edits can also be made solely on desktop and solely on mobile. Mobile view, however, takes things in order of how you drop them. So, it will ultimately need a lot more customization. It’s gonna take time and seem a bit screwy at first.
The balance of customization and tweakability is imperative to find your ease-of-use. Remember: just because you can layer 5 objects doesn’t mean it will look good! Wix uses enhancements to get to a better end goal, and we suspect SquareSpace will eventually do the same. Our ask of SquareSpace- leave Classic sections available in case we don’t need as much fine-tuning and finessing for a client project.
Conclusion
As we conclude, we recount that it’s easy to nit-pick everything, so, overall, we want to emphasize that we really like this update. Corners are cut (in a good way!) and the novice users can receive a built end-product and do well with it even after a handoff. Plus, the ability to highlight multiple objects and move them all is just *chef’s kiss*!
Check out a walk through from the eGuide team!
If you are ever using SquareSpace and need a hand or any kind of support, please reach out to us anytime at info@eguidetechallies.com or https://www.eguidetechallies.com/contact!]
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