How to set up your blog and content pages
Last checked against Splash 1.0.0 / 2026-08-15
The blog listing and the blog post have a handful of settings each. Plain pages have none, and the 404, password and gift card pages are edited outside the theme editor entirely. This page says which is which, so you do not go looking for a control that does not exist.
The blog listing#
Open Online Store, then Themes, then Customize. Use the template picker at the top of the editor to open one of your blogs, then click the Blog section.
| Setting | Values | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Articles per page | 6 to 24, in steps of 3. Default 12 | How many article cards appear before pagination starts. A blog with more posts than this gets Previous, numbered pages and Next under the grid. |
| Show author | On or off. Default on | Prints the post author's name after the published date on each card, separated by a middle dot. Off leaves the date on its own. |
The page above the grid prints the blog's title and its article count. The grid is three across on a desktop, two from 750px, and one on a phone.
What each card is built from#
Everything on a card comes from the blog post in Shopify admin, not from the theme editor. Open Content, then Blog posts, then the post.
Featured image
Fills the card's image well, which is fixed at 4:3 and cropped to fill. Upload 1600 x 1200 and it lands as shot. A portrait photograph loses its top and bottom, because every card in a row keeps one baseline whatever ratio you upload.
Tags
The first tag becomes the small all-caps topic line above the title. Only the first. Any other tags on the post appear nowhere in the blog layout. A post with no tags has no topic line.
Title
The card's only link. Two lines of room are reserved for it, so the date below starts at the same height on every card in a row.
Published date and author
The date is always shown. The author follows it when Show author is on.
Excerpt
The post's excerpt, cut to 28 words. If you have not written one, the opening of the post body is used instead. Write the excerpt in the post's content editor to control what a card says.
A post with no featured image shows a labelled empty slot in place of the picture, reading Article photograph and 1600 x 1200px. It is a dashed frame, so it never reads as a finished panel, but it is visible to shoppers. Upload an image or expect to see it.
A blog with nothing published shows one line, "No articles have been published to this blog yet.", and a Home button, rather than a title over bare page.
Blog posts#
In the template picker, open a blog post, then click the Article section. These settings apply to every post that uses this template.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Show author | On | Prints the author's name in the byline under the title, between the date and the read time. Off leaves the date and read time. |
| Show sharing links | On | Master switch for the share row at the foot of the post. Off removes the row and every network in it, whatever the toggles below say. |
| On | Links to Facebook's own share page with this post's URL. | |
| X | On | Opens a new post pre-filled with the post URL and title. |
| On | Pins the post's featured image with the title as the description. Dropped on any post that has no featured image. | |
| Off | Links to LinkedIn's share page. This is the one network that is off out of the box. | |
| On | Opens the reader's mail client with the post title as the subject and the URL as the body. | |
| Copy link | On | Copies the post URL to the clipboard, swaps its icon for a tick for about two seconds, and announces "Link copied" to screen readers. |
The four network marks open in a new tab. None of them loads a third-party script and none of them shows a share count, so the share row costs the page nothing.
Note Copy link is hidden until the browser proves it can write to the clipboard. Not seeing it in one browser is expected, not a fault. It never appears as a control that does nothing.
The read time#
Every post prints a read time in its byline, after the date and author. It is calculated from the body at 200 words a minute, rounded down, with a minimum of one minute. There is no setting for it: it cannot be changed or turned off.
The featured image on the post itself#
The post page shows the featured image in full, inside a hairline frame, at whatever ratio you uploaded. It is not cropped here. The 4:3 crop applies only to the card on the listing, which is why 1600 x 1200 is the size to aim for: it suits both. A post with no featured image shows the same labelled empty slot the card does.
The "In this article" contents card#
The sidebar builds a numbered contents list from the Heading 2 elements in the post body, and links each one to its place in the text. Nothing else is scanned: Heading 3 and below are ignored.
Requires At least one Heading 2 in the post body. Set it in the post's content editor with the paragraph style menu. A post with no Heading 2 shows no contents card at all, rather than an empty box.
The card also needs JavaScript. It ships hidden and is revealed once headings are found, so a reader with scripts off sees the post without it and never sees an empty panel.
Products in the sidebar#
Under the Article section, add up to four Product blocks. Each one draws a small card in the sidebar under the heading "Products in this article", showing the product photo, the title, the value of your Spec 1 metafield, and the price.
A quote-only product prints "Price on request" instead of a figure. See quote-only products for how a product becomes one.
Requires A Spec 1 metafield with a value on the product, if you want the specification line. It is named in Theme settings under Product specs, and the theme reads only the value, with no label beside it. A product that does not carry the metafield drops that line and keeps the rest of the card. See show your specifications.
Limit These blocks are section settings, not per-post settings. The four products you pick appear in the sidebar of every post that uses this template. To vary them, create a second blog post template in the theme editor's template picker, set its own four products, and assign that template to individual posts under Theme template in the post's admin page.
A block with no product chosen renders nothing on the storefront. It stays visible in the editor so you can fill it in later.
On a phone the sidebar moves above the post body, so the contents list and the products come before the first paragraph rather than after the last. On a wide screen the sidebar sits to the right of the text and stays pinned as the reader scrolls.
Comments#
Comments are a blog setting in Shopify admin, not a theme setting. In admin, open Content, then Blog posts, then Manage blogs, then the blog, and set its comment option.
Comments disabled
The theme renders no comment list and no form. Nothing appears at the foot of the post.
Comments allowed
Published comments appear in a ruled list, ten to a page, under a Comments heading that carries the count. An "Add a comment" form follows, with Name, Email and Comment fields. A successful post shows "Your comment was posted."
Comments moderated
The same list and form. A successful post shows "Your comment was posted and is awaiting approval." instead, and the comment stays off the page until you approve it in admin.
You can also add a set of questions to the blog listing and to every post from one place. See add FAQs.
Plain pages#
The Page section has no settings, and that is deliberate. It prints the breadcrumb, the page title on a ruled row, and the page body written in Shopify admin under Content, then Pages. The body is held to a comfortable reading measure of about 68 characters a line rather than stretched across the full page width.
To build something richer than a title and body copy, use a custom page template instead of looking for controls here:
- In the theme editor, open the template picker, choose Pages, then Create template. Name it, and base it on the default page template.
- Add sections to it the way you would on the home page.
- In Shopify admin, open the page under Content, then Pages, and choose your new template under Theme template.
The theme ships two page templates already built this way: contact and quote. The quote template is covered in build the quote request form.
Pages the theme editor cannot change#
Three pages carry no theme-editor settings at all. Their wording lives elsewhere, so this is where to look when a control seems to be missing.
The 404 page#
Fixed layout: the numeral 404 in large figures, a heading, one line of explanation, a Browse all products button, a Home button, and a search field. There is no breadcrumb, because a URL that resolves to nothing belongs to no trail.
All of the wording is translation text. In Shopify admin, open Online Store, then Themes, then the Actions menu on your theme, then Edit default theme content, and search for the strings you want to change. The shipped wording is "Page not found", "The page you're looking for doesn't exist or has moved." and "Browse all products".
The password page#
Shown while your store is password protected. It renders with no header and no footer: your logo alone above a single panel, or your store name in letterspaced capitals if no logo is set. The panel holds a heading, your message, and the password field.
Requires The message comes from Shopify admin under Online Store, then Preferences, in the password protection settings. The heading above it, "This shop is private", is translation text under Edit default theme content.
The logo is the one in Theme settings. See apply your brand.
The gift card page#
The page a gift card recipient opens from their email. It is a Liquid template with no sections, so it does not appear in the theme editor and cannot be rearranged. It picks up your logo and your colours and nothing else.
What it shows: your logo or store name, the balance in large figures, the card code in its own field, a QR code for scanning in store, an Add to Apple Wallet button when Shopify supplies one, a Print button, and a link back to the store. An expired card shows a status badge in place of the expiry date. The QR code is drawn by script, so a browser with JavaScript off shows a short line saying so, and the code and balance remain readable.
The wording on it is translation text, under Edit default theme content.
The Custom Liquid section#
Custom Liquid is how you put your own markup, or an app's Liquid snippet, into a page without touching theme files. Add section, then Custom Liquid, on any template that takes sections. Drag it to the position you want, and paste into the single Liquid code field.
The theme gives it the page container and the vertical spacing between sections, and applies no styling of its own to what you write. Whatever you paste arrives with the page's base typography and nothing more, so an app snippet renders exactly as the app intends it to.
Limit The gift card page has no sections, so Custom Liquid cannot be added to it.
Consecutive top-level elements in the field are given the theme's standard spacing between them, so a run of paragraphs or divs stacks without collapsing together. View the page on the storefront after adding a snippet rather than judging it from the editor alone.
Something wrong here If a step does not match what you see, say so and it gets fixed. Documentation goes stale, which is why the line under the title carries a date.