Classic Editor vs Fluid Engine - The Differences Explained
If you’re fairly new to the Squarespace world you may be wondering what people mean when they refer to ‘Classic Editor’ or ‘Fluid Engine’. These refer to two different versions of content editor used within Squarespace with Fluid Engine being the newer of the two.
I’m going to cover the differences between Classic Editor & Fluid Engine, how you can still add a Classic Editor section to your site, and where on your site Squarespace will still default to Classic Editor.
What is Fluid Engine in Squarespace?
At the time of writing Fluid Engine is the default editor you will use when adding a new Section to your site. It is built up of a 24 column grid of which you can freely place blocks within, even overlapping them if you’d like!
Fluid Engine has a separate mobile editor, here you can further customise the mobile view and rearrange blocks to your liking. Its important to remember to check the mobile view after making changes in desktop to ensure everything is still looking good, which is something that can slip your mind when you’re so used to the older Classic Editor.
Fluid Engine Editor
What is Classic Editor in Squarespace?
Classic Editor is built up of a 12 Column Grid in which you can drag and drop blocks to sit above, below or alongside each other. When hovering over a section you’ll see ‘plus’ icons within a blue circle, if you click on these the Blocks Menu will appear. From here you can click a Block, and it will be placed where you clicked the Plus icon, or you can drag the block into the grid, positioning it based on the blue guidelines.
The Mobile view is automatically created based on the order of the blocks on Desktop, there isn’t a way to specifically alter the mobile layout.
Classic Editor
Main differences between Classic Editor & Fluid Engine
The main difference between the two systems is the increased flexibility and freedom you have with placing blocks in Fluid Engine. Its much easier to adjust the sizing of blocks & create whitespace between blocks as you no longer need to use Spacer Blocks. The ability to overlap blocks is also a big change.
The addition of a Mobile Editor is a huge perk of Fluid Engine, sometimes you’d want to adjust the order of content on mobile, and without good knowledge of CSS you couldn’t do this in Classic Editor.
How to add a Classic Editor Section to your site
There may be times you’d still prefer to use Classic Editor, maybe Fluid Engine’s looking a little funky when you’ve got a plugin activated or you want to provide the simplest option to your client. To add a Classic Editor section you can select the ‘Add Section’ button and then scroll to the bottom of the menu that appears. You will then see an option to ‘Add Blank Classic Editor’.
Where Classic Editor is still used
There are a few areas within your site where you’ll find Classic Editor is still being used, one of these is Blog Posts. When you add a Post to your site and click in to edit it you’ll notice you don’t have the option to use Fluid Engine, you’re working with the 12 column grid and cannot overlap or freely position blocks. However, if you do want the ability to use Fluid Engine or add additional sections to your Blog Post you can link it to a standard page using the Source URL, you can find out more about how to achieve this here. The Product Additional Info section also still uses Classic Editor, and I don’t believe will be changing anytime soon.
Which should you use?
After testing both out you’ll likely have a preference between the two editors. Whilst it took me a while to get used to it mine is certainly Fluid Engine, the freedom in placing blocks and the mobile editor are now must haves when I’m creating sites and Classic Editor now feels so limited.