Blocks
The body of a page or post is a stack of blocks, top to bottom. The Content section of the edit form is where you build it. Reusable blocks are built the same way.
Working with blocks
Section titled “Working with blocks”Add block opens the list of types. Blocks start collapsed, showing a summary such as their title or “12 image links”; click one to open it. Drag to reorder, or use Collapse all and Expand all. Nothing is live until you save the page.
Showing a block on some sites
Section titled “Showing a block on some sites”Every block has a globe button. Its tooltip says Shows on every site, or Only on and the sites it is limited to. Click it and tick sites, then Apply. With none ticked, the block shows on every site. The button turns coloured when a block is limited.
This is how one page serves several sites with small differences: put in two versions of a block, one ticked for each site.
Options many blocks share
Section titled “Options many blocks share”| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Background colour | The band behind the block: Default, Primary, Secondary, a light band or Grey. The colours come from the site’s theme, so the same choice can look different on each site |
| Block style | A different look for the same content. Blocks with a choice of styles are listed below |
| Call to action | Buttons. Each links to a page, post, post category, product, product category or a typed URL, with a Button label, a Button style (Primary, Secondary, Transparent or Link, each with or without a chevron) and Open in new window? |
| Image position | Left, Center or Right |
| Image width | Full, 3/4, 1/2, 1/3 or 1/4 |
| Image conversion | Crop cuts the picture to the block’s shape. Contain aspect ratio keeps its whole shape |
| Image title | Used as the image’s alt text |
Any image field can take a new upload, or Choose from library (see File library).
Most text boxes in blocks have no picture button: use Text (+ image) or Image to add a picture. The exceptions are the Description of an Overview list, FAQ or Products block, FAQ answers and a Form’s Intro.
Links in blocks only show what the site being viewed carries. A button to a product a site doesn’t carry has no link there, and the listing blocks leave those items out. So the same page works on any site.
Text and media
Section titled “Text and media”A title and rich text. The everyday block for paragraphs and headings.
| Block style | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Default | Ordinary text |
| Intro | A centred heading and lead text, to open a page |
| Section | A centred heading above full-width text |
| Columns | Text in two columns |
| Panel | Text on a rounded light panel, to stand out |
Text (+ image)
Section titled “Text (+ image)”A title, rich text (required) and a picture beside it, with up to two buttons. Use it whenever text and a picture belong together. Options: image title and copyright, position, width, conversion, background colour, and Anchor.
Anchor lets a link jump to this block: enter step-1, and a link ending in #step-1 lands here.
| Block style | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Default | Text and picture side by side |
| Slant | The picture fills the band’s height, with a diagonal edge |
| Intro | Opening copy beside a photo, with a rule under both |
| Icon | A small icon beside the copy |
One picture on its own. Options: image title and copyright, conversion, position, width and background colour.
Paste a video’s address (Media url, for example from YouTube or Vimeo), and optionally an Overlay image to show until someone plays it.
A quote and its Author, with an optional picture (title, copyright, position). Use it for a testimonial. Options: background colour.
Hand-written HTML, for an embed no other block covers. It is shown as typed, so check that it is safe and that its styling won’t break the page. It is a last resort: anything you put here has to be maintained by hand.
Banners and buttons
Section titled “Banners and buttons”A banner across the page: a Heading, Text and up to two buttons, over a Background image that fills the band. The image is anchored to the right, so keep its left side calm for the text. On small screens it sits below the text. The Background colour shows wherever the image doesn’t.
Heading level matters to search engines: choose H1 (the page heading) when the layout shows no title (Canvas, the usual front page layout), and leave it on H2 (a section heading) otherwise. Add Image alt text to describe the picture.
Call to action
Section titled “Call to action”A title and text with one to three buttons, and an optional picture. Use it to ask the reader to do something, such as at the end of a page.
Lists of things
Section titled “Lists of things”A row of cards you write by hand, with an optional overall title. Each card has a Card title, Card text, Card image, up to two buttons and a Highlight, which fills it with a brand colour in styles that support that (Icon). Options: Number of columns (1 to 4), background colour and image conversion.
| Block style | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Cards | Image, title and text |
| Image Tile | The title over the image |
| Image Link | The image only, linked, with the title as its alt text: logos or category pictures |
| Feature | A small icon beside the title and text |
| Numbered | Text cards with a number on top |
| Steps | How-it-works steps: icon, numbered title (from the card’s position) and text, in columns |
| Icon | An icon above a centred title and text, on a card |
| Plain | Image and text with no card: logos with a line each |
Icons in the Feature and Steps styles can be SVG files, which are kept as uploaded.
Overview list
Section titled “Overview list”Cards that come from your content, so you don’t retype them. Pick items (pages, posts, post categories, products or product categories): each shows that item’s title, a short summary and its overview image, as they are on the site being viewed. An item the site doesn’t carry is left out. Options: Title, Description, Number of columns and background colour.
| Block style | Shows |
|---|---|
| Overview Card | Title, description and image |
| Image Tile | The title over the overview image |
| Team | A headshot from the overview image, the name, and the item’s role custom field, if it has one |
Products
Section titled “Products”Hand-picked products as the catalog’s product cards, in the order you list them. Search by name to add one; at least one is required. Options: Title, Description and background colour. Block style: Grid or Slider (a scrolling row with arrows). A product the site doesn’t carry is left out on that site.
Questions and answers. Options: Title, Description and background colour. Each Question and Answer is required, and there must be at least one. The block also tells search engines these are frequently asked questions.
| Block style | Shows |
|---|---|
| Default | Questions in a list |
| Columns | A centred heading, with questions in two columns |
| Open | Every answer shown, marked Q. and A. |
Downloads
Section titled “Downloads”A list of files to download, such as price lists, spec sheets and artwork guides, each with its name, type and size. A Title, an Intro, the Files (at least one; drag to reorder) and background colour. It takes PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, ZIP and images (JPEG, PNG, WebP).
The link text is the file’s name, so name the file well before you upload it. See downloads for how these relate to the library.
These three are made for the blog home, but work on any page. They are described with it in The blog.
Featured post
Section titled “Featured post”One post given pride of place, with a list of the newest posts beside it. Post (empty, or a post the site doesn’t carry: the newest), Label, and under Beside it a Label, Title and Newest posts listed (0 to 5). Options: background colour.
Latest posts
Section titled “Latest posts”The newest posts as cards. Label, Title, Intro, Category (empty: all posts), How many (1 to 12, 6 if left alone) and background colour. With a category, it links to that category.
Post categories
Section titled “Post categories”Categories as tiles, row, cards or a bar of links. Label, Title, Intro, background colour, and Categories, each with an optional Label in place of its name. Left empty, it shows the top-level categories with the most posts first.
Everything else
Section titled “Everything else”A form from Forms, with an optional Title and Intro. Block style: Default, or Panel to put the form in a box. See the form block.
Reviews
Section titled “Reviews”The Reviews.co.uk carousel, anywhere in a page. Reviews.co.uk store, Heading, Intro, Reviews shown (4 to 20), Fewest stars shown, and Background (Soft or Brand colour). Reviews with no comment or below the star limit are left out. The first time a page asks for them they are fetched in the background, so the block shows nothing until then. The same thing is available as a widget for a theme’s widget areas.
Reusable Block
Section titled “Reusable Block”Shows a block set from Reusable Blocks: pick it under Block. See reusable blocks.
Template
Section titled “Template”A ready-made section from the site’s theme. Pick it under Template:
| Template | Shows |
|---|---|
| Order steps | The five-step order process strip, linking to the Order Process page when the site carries one |
| Categories A to Z | Every product category the site carries with something to show, by first letter |
| Locations | The location pages as a grid of badges |
| Example | Nothing: an empty starting point for developers |
Templates are added by a developer. Use one for anything built from live data that no block can do.