Change Blog Entry Thumbnail Position - Blog Page - Brine Family

Site URL: https://funding.johnmillea.com/updates

There is no style option to allow me to chose where the thumbnail appears next to blog entries on the blog page. I want the thumbnail to be to the left instead of on the top. I'm a CSS novice, and I can't seem to figure out how to do it.

I've tried:

.BlogList-item-image {

float: left;

}

but nothing happens. I think the class (.BlogList-item-image) is correct, because I can manipulate the image in other ways, but the float command doesn't do anything.

Can you help me out?

The site password is: mendedstudio

@tuanphan any ideas?

Yes, if you want to control the blog list then the best way is don't use it as your main blog list. Use a summary block instead. Create one of them on a page and  pull content from your blog, and you can arrange the post items anyway you want, image on top, text on right or left. Lots of things. A summary block can have 30 posts per block where the blog itself is only 20 per page. Use the summary page as your blog on the nav bar, put the blog in the unlinked section of your site, you can use the same blog name for your summary page. You have to give the blog a new navigation name first, whatever you want, its not going to show anywhere.  Works great, take a look at mine, there is a button labled blog on the landing page which takes you to the "blog" page  with some special stories links that go to my Avenue 7.0 template's  normal looking  blog listing page (sorted by category) Remember I can switch the blog excerpts alignment around anyway I want, no code needed. I will switch some around to show you if you wish, just let me know. 

my random views

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206543337-Summary-blocks

Thank you @derricksrandomviews

That's a simple solution that I hadn't considered!

I, too, thank you @derricksrandomviews  . We wish to have a "blog" with our website www.cedarmountainfarm.com where we post stories and pictures about the farm. We would add a new story/pictures post every couple of weeks. Your idea of using a summary page and arranging them in any order we want looks perfect for our needs. I just started looking at the article about summary blocks. I am unclear about this sentence.  "Use the summary page as your blog on the nav bar, put the blog in the unlinked section of your site, you can use the same blog name for your summary page. You have to give the blog a new navigation name first, whatever you want, its not going to show anywhere. "

[Ok, so I am on old great gramma and a techie friend helps with our website. I'd like to learn to do the "blog" myself because (drum roll, please!) we got good internet, finally, with Starlink beta and can upload and download in a jiffy!]

If you have time to respond, will you tell me, please, the pages to set up (I do know where and how to do that). I understand to put the summary page on the nave bar (I like calling it stories; may we do that, too?). Then do I use an actual blog page (not a blog title page) for each blog entry? And just link those to the summary page? I understand not to link them to the nav bar. Additionally, can we then have as many blog posts ultimately as we want?

Thank you for your help.

Respectfully,

farmwife

You want viewers to visit  your blog page, your book of stories,  but only one  link to it should be on the NAV bar. The Blog summary becomes that link, the preview so to speak. Think of it as your book's visual table of contents layed out in front of them like a wall of pictures. You should  give the summary page its own title, and you can title each block on the page if you wish. Also, as I stated earlier, summary item layouts are much more flexible than blog page post layouts, more so depending on the template. Mine, Avenue, has no options at all, it simply lists them. 

When you create a new blog post, do it as you always do, post title, image, adjust the settings the way you want, give the post a category. That post automatically shows up in the summary block, as long as that block is not full. It shows up with a thumbnail, title, and excerpt and a read more button if you have that turned on.  Viewers choose the story summary item they want, click it and then end up inside your blog, which is now in the unlinked section,  at that post .

A summary block can be specifcally tied to featured stories, that toggle that is in a blog post settings. I love this feature. I have one block just for that and I can go to any post that I made at any time. Say I have a really good old one that no one has read in a long time and I think it deserves a new look. I turn that toggle on and there it is. I have this block at the top of my story page, and sometimes it may contain  as few as one or as many as four, but like any summary block it could have up to 30. The key to using this feature is don't turn it on for any post as a rule, until you want to well "feature" it, highlight it as it were. 

This design method I use  is flexible as you can see on my site.  I have summary blocks, but I also  have dropdown nav links that go directly to specific groups of stories in the blog page as well. And I have drop downs on the nav to a summary block containing my photo lesson posts. I mix things up like this, because its fun to do, and  to exhibit what a Squarespace site can do. Its part of me being the moderator here and also building sites. My site is personal for me and it also serves as a demo site.  

And yes you can call it stories. That word has a different meaning, a blog is not necessarily stories. My stories are not writtten in a conversational style, they are more essay like I think, including the short ones.  

Derrick.

Derrick,

You are my hero. Thank you, thank you, thank you. What an incredible help.

Blessings,

Daryl

I am always around if you have more questions about summary blocks, including how I use them with two blog pages cause I do. 

Derrick,

I made a new page using the summary block. I am storing it in the unlinked section for now since I didn't want it to show on the site yet. I figure I can move it to the linked section later.

I am ready to make the first "blog post" page. What is the title (type) of the page I should select for that, please?

If this isn't proper use of the forum, please educate me. 🙂

Thanks a million.

Daryl

Your first blog post title can be what you want it to be but some work better than others. I try to keep them short and sweet so to speak. In settings I change the  post url from that long assigned number  to reflect the title, then I post an excerpt from the blog and and a thumbnail image which matches the image on my post. I assign a category too for my search engine. I Check featured if I want to use that.   I don't publish it until its all done. Then I check the summary blocks or blocks (because I may have that post going to more than one) to make sure it is where I want it. Sometimes I have to adjust the summary block slider to allow more items to display, a new post will kick the oldest one off if the item number is too small. 

Derrick, I have come a ways. Here is the Stories page, which I think is a Summary Page.  https://www.cedarmountainfarm.com/stories 

I also have this page:

https://www.cedarmountainfarm.com/blog-title-page/kicking-the-leaves  I understand that is the blog title page that isn't supposed to be doing anything except giving me access to a blog. (Correct?)

If I click on either thumbnail (in the blog title page or the summary page), I go to the blog post, Kicking the Leaves.

I can't figure out how I am supposed to get the blog title page out of the way. So far the above pages are published, but not findable through the nav bar because I put them in the unlinked section.

I also can't figure out how to move the pictures in the gallery of the actual Kicking the Leaves post around. Which is ok, because they are pretty good just how they are. However, it would be a good trick to know! I read just drop and drag but that seemed to move the whole block of pics, not just one.

If I get to asking too many questions, please don't hesitate to stop the help. I appreciate you taking time for me.

Thank you.

Daryl

https://www.cedarmountainfarm.com/blog-title-page is the actual first page of your blog, it lists the blog posts which in 7.1 has a number of layouts, very much like a summary block but not as good. This goes in the unlinked section. The link you posted is the first post. I will get back to you about moving pics around, I will try it out in my 7.1 lab site that I have. 

The stories page you posted is a good start. It should eventually go in the linked section and any item clicked on will go straight to the post. The blog-title-page isn't going to get used all that much. My summary blog which is on the nav bar as blog (used to be title stores) has the url  myrandomviews.com/blogsummary. Not crazy about that ,  but i have a lot of links posted on the internet and can't change it without breaking them all. That being said since yours has not been out there for the public to see, I suggest you change the url of your blog page from blog-title-page  to cedarmountainfarm.com/storiespage or  something like that and when you create a post give it a good url name also, that goes with the story. 

https://myrandomviews.com/blog/ this is my blog page in the unlinked section

https://myrandomviews.com/blogsummary this is the summary blog/page on the nav bar as blog but of course it is not. (used to be called stories)

Once you move your summary page to the linked section, and it shows up on the nav bar,  the navigation will have a better flow and feel. 

Its hard to ask me too many questions. In my pre-retired life I owned my own comapany and was a trainer  for Quickbooks and other software, including how to use Windows, voice mail, and business telephone systems. 

 Squarepace's summary block functon for bloggers/story writers is a very powerful tool. It does a lot without the use of code, and our discussion here is being followed and should be helpful to many folks. 

Thank you. I think I may have used a gallery that was meant for 7.0. I didn't realize there were several galleries. (Oh, my!) Would that be what is fouling up the drop and drag to move the pictures around on the actual blog post?

If using a 7.1 gallery block in a blog post, you edit the block make sure its set for grid under content and you can move the images around in the edit panel. 

Summary blocks and how I use them came up again today in a message. I thought it would be good to post this thread again so others who want to know more about blog summary blocks can read it. I am also moving it to the blog help section of this forum.