Will the Squarespace 6 Import/Export Support Your Site?

Many Squarespace users are excited about the upcoming release of Squarespace 6, the intuitive web publisher's next generation platform currently in beta testing. Squarespace website owners wonder if they'll be able to export content off of their old site and import it into Squarespace 6. I've had a chance to test out the import/export features of Squarespace 6, and I'm happy to share the details with you.

Importing Content from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 6

As a beta tester for Squarespace 6, I've been keeping an anxious eye on the progression of the import features in the new platform as the Squarespace team releases ongoing updates. I've been trying to import my blog on BigPictureWeb.com to my beta site since the Holidays, but I until recently I was met with bugs that would cause my import to crash. 

Last week I tried to complete my import again and had complete success! Sure enough, I was able to import over two year's-worth of blog posts onto ContentScientists.com (my Squarespace 6 beta site).

The import worked very well overall. Entire posts came across, along with images, styling, and comments. The import wasn't yet perfect, but I believe the Squarespace team will polish out the quirks in no time as they ready Squarespace 6 for launch.

Squarespace 6 Import/Export Support Plans Outlined

In addition to the abilty to import content from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 6, the company plans to support many forms of import and export with the new Squarespace 6. Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena has confirmed in an email that Squarespace 6 will support:

• Squarespace 5 blogs and pages
• Galleries are not possible right now, but it's easy to re-drop images on Squarespace 6 galleries.
• Support for Wordpress blogs and pages
• Tumblr, including most post types
• Dropbox (Casalena reports this will work more like a sync)
• Plans also exist for Blogger and photo services

Casalena's email update was music to my ears. The Squarespace team realizes platform mobility will be a huge factor in the success of Squarespace 6. Curious Wordpress, Tumblr, and Blogger users, which combined make up the vast majority of Internet bloggers, will be more likely to try out Squarespace if they don't feel trapped. I'm sure many of them will never look back to their old systems once their content has been imported to Squarespace 6.

How important is the import/export features of Squarespace 6 to you? Are you more likely to start new projects on Squarespace 5 knowing that the import is working so well in the Squarespace 6 beta? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Strut Your Stuff with the Squarespace Websites Show-and-Tell

Squarespace users everywhere like seeing other Squarespace websites. Designers and developers look for new ideas, while non-designer customers simply like seeing what else they could do with their Squarespace website. Knowing this information, this week we begin yet another initiative to service the Squarespace community: the Squarespace Websites Show-and-Tell.

The Squarespace Websites Show-and-Tell will be a monthly series where I'll share with you a handful of new Squarespace websites in each installment. You'll get to see an expanding variety of new Squarespace websites so you'll never be at a loss for new design ideas and best practices.

How do you submit a website if you'd just design oned? Starting today, you'll notice a new area within the Squarespace Resources section of the right navigation of BigPictureWeb.com. Simply fill out the brief web form and you're set! 

Designers, turn this great service to the Squarespace community into an opportunity for new business. Submit your new sites frequently.  If you're picked, I'll feature screenshots of your new beauty with this blog's audience once a month in a Squarespace Show-and-Tell Round-Up. Squarespacers get inspiration. You get new business. What's not to love?

How Squarespace 6 Mobile Sites Will Make Your Life Easier

As the Internet becomes available on a greater number of screens, the necessity to develop mobile versions of our websites has introduced even more complexity to web publishing. A full 8.5% of the world's Internet traffic is now mobile. Squarespace 6 mobile sites will be nothing short of amazing because they'll look great on any screen without extra effort on your part. Take a peak at Squarespace 6 and the future of mobile websites in this week's post.

Squarespace 6 and Responsive Design

Squarespace 6 utilizes responsive design, a progressive development approach where the content and presentation of the website change automatically based on the device being used. You won't have to build different mobile versions of your website for each device. Squarespace will adjust seemlessly to look great across computers, tablets and smartphones alike. This cuts down on time and effort for you, and improves the experience for your visitors.

Squarespace on Desktops, Tablets, and Smartphones

Let's take a look at responsive design in action. Below are three screenshots from the same URL, a blog post on ContentScientists.com, my Squarespace 6 beta site. Each screenshot is taken from a different device: a laptop, an iPad, and an iPhone. Notice how the content automatically changes to fit the device. This is responsive design in action, and why Squarespace 6 mobile sites will be amazing.

Squarespace 6 on a Laptop:

Squarespace 6 on an iPad:

Squarespace 6 on an iPhone:

Each device displays the content brilliantly, and with no additional effort on my part. I love responsive design, and I can't wait for Squarespace 6 and mobile sites powered by it. Hats off to the template designers at Squarespace!

Squarespace 6 is still in beta, but as you can see from the screenshots, the new platform is well on its way. This level of sophistication shows that the Squarespace development team is aiming for perfection with Squarespace 6. 

What do you think of the screenshots from ContentScientists.com and Squarespace 6? What questions do you have about Squarespace mobile sites on v5 and/or Squarespace 6? Let's chat mobile in the comments.

Embedding Tweets on Your Squarespace Website

At the end of 2011, Twitter quietly announced the capability to embed tweets on blogs and websites. Embedding the new Twitter tweets in Squarespace is a relatively simple process, and enhances the experience of your blog's readers. Today's post will enable you to embed these new interactive tweets on your Squarespace website (or any other site, really).

Installing New Twitter Tweets in Your Squarespace Blog or Website

I first used the new embedded Twitter tweets on a recent post about Squarespace and SOPA to highlight questions to Squarespace on the company's stance on the now-shelved anti-piracy bill:

@squarespace Does Squarespace support SOPA? Can we get a statement on where the company stands on this important issue?

Josh Braaten (@jlbraaten) December26, 2011

This new embed code featured reply, retweet and favorite functionality, as well as the ability to follow the author of the tweet, all from within the page on which the tweet is embedded. But when I went to follow the instructions on how to embed tweets, I found it didn't work as advertised, so I had to do it by hand. To embed tweets on your own site, start with this embed code.

Sample Code for an Embedded Tweet:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@squarespace Does Squarespace support SOPA? Can we get a statement on where the company stands on this important issue?</p>Josh Braaten (@jlbraaten) <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/JLBraaten/status/151341195191259136">December26, 2011</a></blockquote>

You'll notice there are a several parts to this embed code. You'll need to find the URL of your tweet by viewing it directly on Twitter.com, and then copy/paste parts of the tweet according to the following screenshot. 

The Anatomy of an embedded Tweet on Squarespace:

It's a pretty simple process. Carefully contruct your embed code by copying/pasting information from the tweet you want to embed. Double check for accuracy and then copy the entire chunk of HTML embed code.

From there it's just a matter of cracking open your Squarespace web page or blog post, and using the Insert Code Block feature from the WYSIWYG editing interface.

The new Twitter tweets are an easy way to add an interactive element to your Squarespace blog or website. These types of embedded tweets allow your website visitors to complete their Twitter-related tasks without having to leave your site.  Consider using one the next time you want to highlight tweets on Squarespace!

Squarespace 6 Update from Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena

If you've been looking for an official update on Squarespace 6, look no further. Friend and Squarespace designer Jason Barone tweeted last week a link to a post on the Squarespace Developer Forum by Squarespace Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena. Since the dev forums aren't exactly seen by everyone, I thought you might like to see some of the highlights.

Squarespace Founder Anthony Casalena Speaks on Squarespace 6

In his update, Casalena goes into the progress of Squarespace 6, the ongoing beta efforts, and a response to those looking for a date when they'd close the beta and release Squarespace 6. Here are some of the highlights.

Do you have a schedule for the beta ending?

No. We will know when it is ready when we see the right level of customer responses and we are internally proud of it. [...] Squarespace 6 is not late either, it is simply still under development. - Anthony Casalena, Squarespace Founder/CEO

Should I wait for X (where X is a feature, Squarespace 6, or anything else)?

"No. Please do not. [...] For those of you following us for some time, we will always be the sort of company that attempts to release products of quality, and that naturally means things take more time for us." - Anthony Casalena

How's the beta going?

We're pleased with it so far. We've got a lot of invites out (though not as many as we hoped to have at this point), and are getting many more out shortly. - Anthony Casalena

Why is there a Squarespace 6 Beta? Why even talk about it?

The purpose of the Squarespace 6 beta is to help us test and prepare a monumental product release for public launch and get real customers into the R&D process. [...]

Squarespace 5 is an excellent platform, 6 will be even better, and we will continue to put all of our efforts into getting this right. - Anthony Casalena

How Will Customers Respond to the Squarespace 6 Update?

It's hard to say how customers will take the news that there remains no specific goal for when Squarespace 6 will be released. Personally, I think people just want to know where Squarespace is in the process. Customer experience is more about dialogue and acknowledgement than it is about a constant stream of new features.

Casalena's post will go a long way to contribute to that communication - I just wish he'd do it more often. On the topic of more frequent Squarespace 6 updates, Casalena says:

Squarespace has tens of thousands of customers. A percentage of them are waiting for Squarespace 6 [...] We will continue to publish to our blog and talk about things happening at the company -- because the topic you were looking for wasn't addressed in a particular post doesn't mean we don't care or it's off our radar, there are simply many things happening at once.

Here's where I think Casalena is a bit off. I can only imagine how much he has to be aware of as the Founder and CEO of the company, but if you look at all blog posts published on the Squarespace Blog in the last year, the most popular articles by far have been about either Squarespace 6, or new releases of Squarespace v5 features. As a scientist of web content, I put together this basic blog audit to demonstrate popularity of Squarespace's own blog by way of comments, links, and social media activty:

It looks like Squarespace 6 and new v5 features dominate what's popular on the Squarespace blog. I say give the people what they want.

What did you think about Squarespace founder and CEO Anthony Casalena's Squarespace 6 update? Are you content to wait for perfection or have you been putting of a big project(s) until Squarespace releases their next generation platform? Your thoughts are most welcome in the comments section below.