Don't be afraid of Dev Tools, they can help you greatly in building Squarespace websites.
Granted it is daunting at the beginning but in this video i cover some devilishly handy tips for better builds.
This video was recorded using Firefox on Mac, but Chrome and Windows machines are very similar.
Right Click then "Inspect Element" is the easiest way to open Dev Tools.
1. Finding large files that could be slowing your website down
In the Network you can see the largest files on your site. It's quite common for a client to upload large files and then wonder why their sites has slowed to a hault. If you filter the results by "Transferred" you can see every file that your Squarespace site loads. You can filter size and see the largest at the top. Very useful!
2. JavaScript errors.
Even with minimal JavaScript it's very easy to go wrong. In the console tab you can see the errors in red. You want to avoids errors at all costs.
3. Adjusting pixel by pixel
The way most people edit sizes and all other values is in the Squarespace design editor. It's much easier and quicker to edit the values which you use the up and down keyboard shortcut to change the value, pixel by pixel. Then take the value you are happy with over to the CSS panel in Squarespace and you have saved yourself a lot of time!
4. Mobile view
The mobile view in Squarepace is limited compared to Dev Tools options. In Dev Tools you get many different preset screens sizes for all popular devices including an iPad. You can choose your own defaults and sizes and save them for future use. I'd still recommend test your sites in real devices. Whislt in 99% of instances the DevTools render is correct you can run into issues. Test and test a lot is the magic sauce.
Browser & Platform | Mac | Windows |
Firefox | ||
Chrome |
I hope you enjoyed the video and/ or notes, if you have any questions whatsoever, leave a YouTube comment.