Define and reuse custom blocks
Building a page block-by-block is based on reusing predefined blocks. Every website or information portal is a gallery of repeating HTML templates. In order to speed up website development and layout makeup, one just needs to define the required set of templates and then simply insert them and adjust for the best fit.
Define block
So, to make sure a template suits for reusing, it must be versatile. A template like that is easy to modify.
Let's switch to the Custom grid section and select the required Number of columns, for instance, 2. The Filling for our future template is selected depending on what type of content it should hold.
Lifehack: the Placeholder option is the most universal one.
You can select the required widget with one click when editing such a block.
You can also set your own filling by selecting one of available widgets. To do this, switch to the Placeholder tab and select the required widgets from the list of widgets. For example, Image. This would be a pseudo-image, but it still reserves the space for the image that you can insert there in the future when you will be filling the template with content.
Here, you can also set the value of vertical margin to increase the distance between blocks.
Save block
Define any block you edit in WYSIWYG editor as a custom block and save it into your personal blocks gallery. To do this, click the "Save as template" button. The screenshot is generated automatically. When the block preview is ready, you can set its title. To quickly access the template in the future, assign it to some existing category or create a new one. Categories greatly simplify your work when you have a hefty list of templates.
When you use Custom blocks, you can modify and change them. To save changes in the current template, click the "Update template" button.
Manage custom blocks
So, you can create blocks from N1ED only. To remove them or to move them to different categories (or manage categories) please go to:
- N1ED configuration (the top right button on the toolbar of TinyMCE or CKEditor)
- or press "Edit" on the N1ED sidebar with the list of blocks
- or in your Dashboard. You can also export blocks from one website (API key) to another from here.
- or into CMS configuration (if N1ED configuration widget exists on your CMS)
All these ways produce the same results.
Sharing block templates
You can share your block templates between different websites (API keys) you have. This is useful when they have similar markup and content structure.
To copy one block template from one API key to another, go to Dashboard and click "Configure" near the "Bootstrap Blocks" icon. You should see the templates list. The "Export" button opens the dialog where you can copy this template to another configuration.
Conclusion
When you edit your content you can select some block (actually a container in Bootstrap terms) and create a block template from it. This block can be used for constructing content on any pages on your website.