The main purpose of a Blog block on the Builder is to display a collection of your Blog posts. Your chosen settings allow you to customize which blog posts are shown and how they are displayed.
How To Add The Blog Block To Your Website
STEP ONE
Log into your PhotoBiz account and click on the WEBSITE option in the left side menu.
STEP TWO
Click on the page name or add a new page you want to use a blog block on.
There are two ways to have an active blog block on your page:
- On the right hand side of your screen, you can click the blog icon and the blog block will appear at the very bottom of your page.
- The second option is to hover your mouse over the blog icon, left click and hold, then drag the block to your preferred location. When a teal colored line appears where you want the block, let go of the mouse button and the block will drop in that location. To move it, simply drag it up or down.
STEP THREE
Click or tap Click To Add Blog Posts to pull up the blog block editor. Under CHOOSE THE POSTS TO DISPLAY ON THIS BLOCK, select either display ALL of your posts, or display all posts tagged with. If you'd like to display a particular subject of blog posts using tagging, type in the tag you'd like to use, then click add tag. Repeat this process for each tag you'd like to display.
Note: This feature will only work if you have blog posts published with the tags you have chosen to display.
Click here to learn more about the purpose of tagging blog posts.
In addition to choosing what posts to display, you can also sort the posts on your blog block by selecting either most recent or most popular.
You can also choose whether or not to display your publishing date.
Once you've made your selections for the posts to display, make sure to click save changes.
STYLING OPTIONS FOR YOUR BLOG BLOCK
LAST ITEM LINK
The Last Item Link feature allows users to load additional blog posts if the number of posts exceeds the total rows and columns selected. You can also use this feature as a call-to-action link.
Here are the options:
- None: No link will be displayed.
- Yes, as a "Load More" link: Adds a link to load more items within the page. Customize the text under Link Text.
- Yes, as a "Standard" link: Links out to a separate page. Customize the text and choose what it links to:
- None: No link; only for visual purposes.
- External Link: Direct to a webpage outside your site.
- Page: Link to an existing page on your website.
- Form: Connect to a form from your FORM BUILDER.
- Marketing: Link to a Campaign or Landing Page from MARKETING.
- File: Link to a PDF, JPG, PNG, or GIF uploaded in FILES.
- Phone: Add a click-to-call option.
- Email: Open the default mail client to send an email.
- Address: Link to Google Maps for your location.
- Video: Embed a video from YouTube or Vimeo.
- Pop-Ups: Trigger a pop-up for promotions or newsletter signups.
BLOG BLOCK LAYOUT OPTIONS
You can choose from 8 different blog block layouts for how you'd like your blogs to be displayed in your blog block. The blog block layouts are the following:
- EDITORIAL CIRCLE: Blogs will display in circles with the number of rows and columns of your choosing. Your blog posts' title and date are shown below the cover images, without a preview of the text content.
- EDITORIAL SQUARE: Blogs will display as squares in a grid with the number of rows and columns of your choosing. Your blog posts' title and date are shown below the cover images, without a preview of the text content.
- EDITORIAL LANDSCAPE: Blogs will display horizontally in a grid of the number of rows and columns of your choosing. Your blogs will be cropped to rectangles, wider than they are taller. Your blog posts' title and date are shown below the cover images, without a preview of the text content.
- EDITORIAL PORTRAIT: Blogs will display vertically, taller than they are wide, in a grid with the number of rows and columns of your choosing. Your blog posts' title and date are shown below the cover images, without a preview of the text content.
- DESIGNER LANDSCAPE: Blogs will display horizontally in a grid of the number of rows and columns of your choosing. Your blog posts' date will show on the cover image. The title and a preview of the blog post are found below the cover image, the preview will show the first 250 characters of text content.
- DESIGNER PORTRAIT: Blogs will display vertically in a grid of the number of rows and columns of your choosing. Your blog posts' date will show on the cover image. The title and a preview of the blog post are found below the cover image, the preview will show the first 250 characters of text content.
- DESIGNER PINBOARD: Blogs will be arranged in a grid of the number of rows and columns of your choosing. Your blog posts' date will show on the cover image. The title and a preview of the blog post are found below the cover image, the preview will show the first 250 characters of text content.
- FEED: Blogs will display the post details and cover image follow a serpentine display, where the cover image alternates to be to the left or right of the post details from row to row. One post will display per row so you will not see a column selection for this layout. A preview of the first 500 characters of the blog post text is found below the post title and date. A button displaying "Read More" shows below the preview, which opens the entire post once clicked.
You can also control the number of rows and columns that display depending on the layout you've chosen. This will control how many blogs appear on screen when a visitor is looking at your blog block.
To choose your layout and apply it to your blog block, simply click on the SAVE button under the layout you wish to use.
PRO TIP!
The number of blog posts that will display depends on the number of rows and columns you select to show in the layout section. For example, if you have 30 posts total, and choose to display two rows and two columns, four of your 30 posts will show.
If you want a user to be able to load more posts, you can use the LAST ITEM LINK feature to load more of your content.
STYLING OPTIONS
The blog styling section gives you more control over how your blogs are displayed within the layout you've selected. By default, this section will use the styling and spacing settings in the global styling section of your website. You can override the global settings for your blog block within this area. The settings in this section can include any of the following items:
- Title Alignment
- Description Alignment
- Image Border Thickness
- Space Between Items: Controls the spacing between blogs using grid layouts.
- Space Below Blocks: Controls the amount of space before the next block begins.
- Space Inside Blocks: Controls the amount of space at the top and bottom of a block.
- Flushing: Controls whether the content of this block flushes to fill the screen width or remains contained in the center.
- Mobile View: Controls whether blogs on mobile and smaller devices display in one column or two.
COLORS
The blog color section includes five color options. These colors will override the colors for the blog that have been picked in the global color picker section under the DESIGN tab. Click on the color square or enter the HEX color code to customize the color for the following sections:
- TITLE COLOR
- TEXT COLOR
- BACKGROUND COLOR
- LAST ITEM TEXT COLOR
- LAST ITEM BACKGROUND COLOR
- BORDER COLOR
The customized flag will appear next to any color you've selected to override the global color picker for your website.
Click on save changes at the bottom to apply your color updates.
BACKGROUND
You can add a background image to display behind your blog block by adding a background image. You can upload your own custom background image or choose one from the Background Library. You can customize how the background image is displayed under the Background Settings.
If you upload a Custom Background or select a file from the Background Library, you can customize how the background image is displayed under the Background Settings from the following 4 different options:
- Tile: Will tile your image to fill the background
- Top Left: Will align your image to the top left
- Centered: Will align your image at the center of the available space
- Cover: Will scale your image to be as large as possible to completely cover the background
Click on Save Changes to apply your changes to the background settings.
FONTS
You can easily customize the fonts you're using on your blog blocks to override your global font settings. You can change the font, font size, letter spacing (kerning), and line height for any of the following items in your blog block:
- TITLE
- DATE
- LAST ITEM TEXT
Click on Save Changes at the bottom of the control panel menu to apply your changes.
ANIMATIONS
You can also add animation to your Blog block cover images and buttons depending on the layout you've selected.
This will override the global setting you've set for your image animations & button animations.
If you have any questions about the Blog Block, please give our Support Team a call toll-free at 866.463.7620 or send us a live chat from your PhotoBiz control panel. We're available Monday - Friday 9:00am - 6:00pm EST and we're happy to help you however we can.