Formatting text

You can format text in the same editor where you add text, like in text blocks or image block captions.

This guide reviews the different ways to format text, including setting header or paragraph text, creating lists, adding indents, and bolding or italicizing.

Tip: To learn about styling text—including fonts, colors, and spacing—visit Styling text.

Format text

You can apply formatting to text while you’re editing or adding it.

To format your text in text areas like the text block and image block captions,:

1. Highlight the text you want to format.
2. Use the icons in the toolbar to apply formatting to the text.

After using a text toolbar a few times, it might collapse into a condensed version. Click … to expand it.

Note that certain text areas, like those in panels and page settings, have different formatting options. For example:

• The color icon only appears in text blocks on version 7.1.
• The toolbar for image block text on version 7.0 includes icons to bold, italicize, link, paste as plain text, and clear formatting. Other formatting options aren't supported.
• The clipboard icon for pasting as plain text doesn't appear in areas that automatically strip formatting.

Use the sections below to review the specific steps for each type of formatting.

Align

In the text toolbar, click the paragraph align icon to align text to the left, center, or right.

Bold

In the text toolbar, click the B to bold text.

Note: If your font package doesn't include heavier font weights, the bold text may appear differently across browsers. To improve the consistency of bold text on different browsers, choose a font with more styles.

Code

The way that you display code depends on your site's version.

Headings

In the text toolbar, use the Format drop-down menu to create headings. The heading options are different depending on your site's version.

Tip: Create a pull quote by mixing heading styles and wrapping one text block around another.

Indent

In the text toolbar, click the increase or decrease indent icons to indent text to the left or right. Indenting will always indent the entire paragraph. It's not possible to only indent a single line.

Italics

In the text toolbar, click the I to italicize text.

Link

In the text toolbar, click the link icon. You can link to:

• An external page
• An internal page
• A file
• An email address
• A phone number

For detailed steps, visit Adding links to your site.

List

In the text toolbar, click the numbered and bulleted list icons to create lists.

Monospace or code text

Monospace text has the same amount of horizontal space between each character. What we call this text depends on your site’s version.

Paragraph or normal text

Format the primary body text on your site using the text toolbar. What we call this text depends on your site's version.

Paste as plain text

If you copied text from an external program, paste it into the block as plain text by clicking the clipboard icon in the text toolbar.

Quote

In the text toolbar, click the quote icon to add quote formatting.

Remove formatting

In the text toolbar, click the remove formatting icon to strip the text of formatting. This can be useful if you paste text from other sources, or want to start over. In version 7.1 text blocks, this also removes any custom text colors.

Scale

Scaling text is only supported in text blocks on version 7.1 sites.

To set text size to fill the width of the block without line breaks regardless of browser size, click the scale text icon in the text toolbar. This option is best for short titles or headlines; longer text may appear too small, especially on mobile browsers.

When text is scaled, other size settings won't affect it. You can use headings or paragraph formatting to match other styling, like fonts, and to optimize your text for SEO. You can still bold, italicize, and strikethrough text when it's scaled, and change its color, but options like lists and pull quotes won't work. 

Strikethrough

In the text toolbar, click the strikethrough icon to add strikethrough formatting.

Underline

Underline options vary depending on your site's version.

Troubleshooting

If you copy and paste content from programs like Microsoft Word or Google Drive, the text might carry over hidden styling that interferes with Squarespace formatting. If you have issues with spacing or headings in pasted text, visit Fixing text formatting for help.

Consider hiring an independent designer through Squarespace Marketplace to customize your site's text.