Using proposal blocks

Blocks are reusable sections you can drop into any template or proposal. An introduction, a reviews section, an FAQ, an explanation of how one of your services works.

They are also the top level of the page layout. Each block holds rows, each row holds columns, and the columns hold the elements. So a block is both a section of the page and something you can save and use again.

Adding a ready made block

In the hovering side menu in the Proposal Builder click the block icon and open the block menu, which sits alongside the elements menu.

This holds blocks you can drop straight into the design. Some are prebuilt for you, and any blocks you have created yourself appear here too.

Drag the one you want onto the canvas. Inserting a ready made block is usually faster than building a section element by element, because you are adjusting something that already has its rows, columns and spacing worked out.

The block menu

Click a block on the canvas and its menu appears in the top right.

Block settings cover the styling and the layout options for that whole section, including padding, margin, height and width. Because a block is the outermost level, this is where you control the space around a section and how much room it takes up on the page.

The same menu lets you move the block up or down the page, duplicate it, or delete it.

Moving blocks is how you reorder the proposal itself. If you decide the reviews should come before the quote rather than after it, move the block rather than rebuilding either section.

Editing a block versus editing the block template

This catches people out, so it is worth understanding before you start editing.

Once you have inserted a block into a template or a proposal, editing it changes that copy only. Your other templates and your saved block are untouched.

To change the block everywhere it is used, go to the Blocks page and edit it there. That is where the master version lives.

So if you are making a one off change for a particular customer, edit it on the page. If you are fixing something that is wrong every time you use it, fix the block on the Blocks page.

Creating your own blocks

Build a block when you find yourself building the same section for the third time.

The obvious candidates are the parts of a proposal that never change. Your introduction. The answers to the questions you get asked every time. A section explaining how a particular service works. Anything with your contact details or terms in it.

Once it is a block, every proposal after that gets it in one drag rather than a rebuild.

Why blocks are worth the effort

The saving is not really in the building, it is in the maintaining.

If your FAQ answer lives as a block, changing it means one edit on the Blocks page. If it lives as typed text in four different templates, changing it means finding all four, and finding three of them is how templates start contradicting each other.

Blocks are also what keep multiple templates consistent. If you run different templates for different types of enquiry, sharing the same blocks between them stops them drifting apart over time.

Where to find and manage your blocks

Blocks have their own section in the Proposals area, alongside Proposals and Templates. That is where you create them, edit the master versions and manage the ones you already have.