How to Customize Individual Elements in Squarespace 7.1

Feb 12

Ever looked at your Squarespace website and wished you could change just one specific thing without affecting everything else? You're not alone! This is actually the number one question I get asked in the comments of my CSS tutorials, and today I'm sharing my favorite technique for targeting individual elements on your Squarespace site.

The Challenge with Custom CSS

When you're customizing your Squarespace website, you might want to change the font of just one heading, the color of a specific button, or add a special effect to a single image in your gallery. The challenge? Traditional CSS selectors often apply changes to all similar elements across your site. But don't worry – I've got you covered with some powerful solutions!

The Secret: Block IDs and Selective Targeting

Here's the game-changing truth about Squarespace: every content block has a unique identifier (Block ID), and every section has its own Data Section ID. Once you know how to use these IDs, you can customize literally anything on your site and in this tutorial video, I’ll show you how 😎

Let's Do This Step by Step!

Alright, friend - let's walk through this process together! I'm going to break everything down into super manageable steps. Even if you've never touched CSS before, you've got this!

Step 1: Find Your Way to the Custom CSS Panel

First things first - we need to get to the right spot in your Squarespace dashboard. Here's how:

Click on "Pages" in the left sidebar of your dashboard
Look for "Website Tools" (it's usually toward the bottom)
Click on "Custom CSS" - this is where the magic happens!

You should now see a blank panel where we can add our custom code. Don't worry if this looks a bit intimidating - we're going to fill it with something amazing!

Step 2: Get Your Secret Weapon - The ID Finder

This is honestly my favorite part! We're going to install a super helpful free tool that makes everything so much easier:

Head over to the Chrome Web Store and search for "Squarespace ID Finder" by Will Myers (I'll pop the link in the resources section below)
Click "Add to Chrome" - it's totally free!
Once installed, you'll see a little icon in your Chrome toolbar

Think of this tool as your personal Squarespace detective - it helps us find the exact elements we want to customize!

Step 3: Find Your Element's Unique ID

Now for the fun part! Let's find the specific element you want to change:

Make sure you're in preview mode on your site
Click the ID Finder extension icon in your Chrome toolbar
BOOM! 🎉 You'll see a bunch of numbers and letters appear on your page
Hover over the element you want to change
Look for either the "Block ID" (for individual content blocks) or "Data Section ID" (for entire sections)
Copy that ID - it's like your element's fingerprint!

Pro Tip: Don't worry if you see lots of IDs everywhere - just focus on the one for your specific element. It might look something like "block-yui_3_17_2_1_1234567890123"

Step 4: Write Your Custom Code

Okay, this is where we put it all together! Think of this like giving your browser specific instructions:

Start with your Block ID (paste the one you copied)
Tell it what type of element you're changing (like h3 for a heading or button for... well, a button!)
Add your style changes

Here's what it looks like:

#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1234567890123 h3 {
    font-family: serif;
}

Let's break that down:

The # tells the browser "hey, look for this specific ID"
The Block ID tells it exactly where to look
The h3 says what we're changing
Everything inside the { } is our style changes

Think of it like giving your browser a treasure map - we're saying "go to this exact spot and make these specific changes!"

I know this might feel like a lot at first, but I promise it gets easier with practice. Remember, you can always undo changes in your CSS panel if something doesn't look quite right. That's the beauty of custom code - it's totally flexible!

Example:

Creative Codes for List Sections

In the tutorial video above, I used some custom code to change the look of my list section. Here are those codes, along with a few other ideas for your Squarespace site:

/* Hover effect for list items */
.list-item:hover {
    background: yellow !important;
}

/* Custom styling for bold text in list section titles */
.list-section-title strong {
    font-family: serif !important;
    color: red !important;
}

/* Button hover effects with shadow */
.list-item a:hover {
    background: purple !important;
    border-radius: 0 !important;
    box-shadow: 0 5px 15px rgba(0,0,0,0.3) !important;
}

list section