Selecting 7.0 vs 7.1 for Blog + Photography

I have a long track record with SQSP but with the help of others. I am launching a new personal site that will be blog and photography. No commerce.

I envision some galleries of images (although i also have galleries on Zenfolio). I would like images and blog entries to be tagged (like Categories).

I am leaning towards 7.0 as I think it would give me more flexibility in integrating my images and blog posts together in interesting ways.

1. Any long term risk (1-2 years) of 7.1 having some breakthrough features, or has the deployement of new features slowed on 7.1? I assume 7.0 has stopped development

2. Is my assumption above on track — more flexibility with 7.0?

3. Anything else I should consider in my choice? (I have been through the help pages)

If someone has 7.1 sites that mix photography and blog, i would love samples! 

Any other advice welcome.

Thanks,

Rob.

I prefer 7.0 myself. I have two  professional photography sites, using Wexley. I have my own blogging/photography site purely for pleasure built on Avenue. Its five years old and I don't feel the need to change templates at all, not yet anyway. I see no long term risk staying with 7.0 It is a large platform with many template families, Brine template family  has over 40 starting designs,   where 7.1 is just one universal template with 18 different starting designs. There is quite an investment in 7.0 so I don't see anything happening to it. Wells, Carson, York, Wexley, Avenue all great templates for photographers, some with a slightly more classic look, some a bit more flamboyant like York or Momentum, for the lack of a better word

Here is one built on Wexley, and my own site on Avenue. 

Christine Gregory Photography

my random views derrick Lee parker

Thanks Derrick!

When you load photos into a (7.0) gallery, can you then access them from a blog post you create, or do you have to re-upload into the blog entry?

I thought I read that is a difference between 7.0 and 7.1 that you could do that in 7.0 but not 7.1.

I want my blog and gallery to be integrated to the extent possible, i.e, someone might start on a blog, click the picture and be in a related gallery then could peruse pictures and then end up back in a blog entry, fairly seamlessly.

Any thoughts from Derrick or others?

 If you have images in your blog and you want that image to go to a gallery that includes that image then the easiest way is to post a gallery in your blog, not redirect to a seperate page. I do that a lot:

https://myrandomviews.com/stories/2017/5/20/month-2-3-4 

I could post an image block  with a single image in the blog and clicking the picture take me to a seperate gallery page if I wanted to. And I could set that gallery to click back to the same blog post (can't use lightbox however) or different one. So you can go back and forth so to speak.  Also if the image you want to post in your blog has already been uploaded somewhere on your site, it is available to link wihout uploading it again. There is a search function and thumbnails of your pictures are there so you can choose to post an image multiple times with one upload. 

Derrick, I am in the same place as Rob, trying to decide between 7.0 and 7.1. Do you know if Squarespace is planning to build future development on 7.1 or is it almost like an additional template (like Brine) with some different features? I am also at a junction of doing a major build on our site which is currently on the Basil template (Brine family). We are about to add a lot of content, so it would be a good time to consider whether we should move to 7.1 or dig deeper into Brine.

If Squarespace is planning on building many new features and starting points with 7.1. It may be worth the move. I have less 85 URL slugs to deal with and no blog posts yet. My site is www.lifeapp.ca. I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestion as to which direction you would take.

Right now, if I were building a new site for myself based on how I use it, I would still use 7.0. As far as any major updates to 7.1, until this world settles down I don't see it. One does not make major changes just for the sake of change, there has to be a good economic and marketing reason to do so and right now I think Squarespace has more to offer than most website hosting companies. They have good choices for personal sites, commerce and someone who combines both. And they have a choice for the advanced builder and someone making their first site. It is my opinion that if things are added to 7.1 it will be things that are already in the Brine family like parallax scrolling, landing pages, etc.  I do think there could be some things added that will show up in both platforms like some file management enhancements, maybe offer some optional plug ins things like that. 

I am still using 7.0 Avenue which is one of the oldest templates that SS has, and yet with a few style tweaks, taking advantage of new things, like a landing/cover page,  and some code, I have managed to make it look quite different, and in my opinion, better looking,  than when I first built it. 

On 12/22/2020 at 9:23 AM, derricksrandomviews said:

 If you have images in your blog and you want that image to go to a gallery that includes that image then the easiest way is to post a gallery in your blog, not redirect to a separate page. I do that a lot:

https://myrandomviews.com/stories/2017/5/20/month-2-3-4 

I could post an image block  with a single image in the blog and clicking the picture take me to a separate gallery page if I wanted to. And I could set that gallery to click back to the same blog post (can't use lightbox however) or different one. So you can go back and forth so to speak.  

Thanks for posting, I think this is what I have in mind yes. Now just need the time to process images, write blogs, and post both!

I appreciate you answer... based on this, experimenting, and input from others, I went with 7.0. Hopefully can post it here in the future!

On 12/22/2020 at 9:23 AM, derricksrandomviews said:

 If you have images in your blog and you want that image to go to a gallery that includes that image then the easiest way is to post a gallery in your blog, not redirect to a seperate page. I do that a lot:

https://myrandomviews.com/stories/2017/5/20/month-2-3-4 

I could post an image block  with a single image in the blog and clicking the picture take me to a seperate gallery page if I wanted to. And I could set that gallery to click back to the same blog post (can't use lightbox however) or different one. So you can go back and forth so to speak.  

Okay, maybe I spoke too soon. I went to your example, and there does not seem to be a click through to a gallery. I see how you posted one picture, and I see how you embedded a gallery with arrows, but in neither case do they "click through to a gallery". Am i missing something from your example?

Thanks,
Rob.

Sorry I set it up on a different image, but the link will do something now ( I choose a random image gallery) The clickthru works from the blog post itself, from the blog page listing,  and if I wanted to it would work from a summary block as well. You can click back from a gallery page image to a blog post or where ever,  if the  image gallery is a wall or grid, not a slide show, and you might need to add the click thru to each image. Best thing is to put the link back to the blog in the gallery page description which is very easy to do. 

You do not have to upload the same image muliple times to post it multiple times with some exceptions. Every time you add an image block or gallery block you have the option to search for an image, your own or a getty image. Becuase of a very customized image management program that I use, I do upload multiple times just because for me personally it is much faster and I may edit it differently for each upload. 

This should explain the Squarspace Image seach function:

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542377-Reusing-images

Hello everyone, I've been off SS for a couple of years now, and would very much like to make a comeback! i was using the Momentum template since i very much like the horizontal-only scrolling, and the bottom bar: though I've noticed the new templates and can't find any similar to momentum, can anyone share some knowledge on a template that would work similar to momentum?

thank you so much in advance.

Momentum is a unique template. Forte also has horizontal scrolling set up by default look at the beast page.  

Forte

On 3/21/2021 at 9:04 PM, derricksrandomviews said:

Momentum is a unique template. Forte also has horizontal scrolling set up by default look at the beast page.  

Forte

thank you for all your feedback Derrick, very useful! we really need more options for Momentum, such as

- option to circle around the images w/o forcing the timed autoscroll [had to set mine for very long still]

- option for a thumbnail gallery to access galleries

- and to have it uodated for 7.1...! not forgotten