Global Settings hold what applies to every grid of the site, where the grid editor holds what applies to one grid. Open them with Settings in Essential Grid’s top bar.
The rail on the left has seven pages: General, Content, Images & video, Fonts & icons, Custom fields, Search and Performance. Below them, Add-ons lists the settings of each installed add-on (“off” beside an add-on that is switched off). The page’s head shows the save state (All changes saved, Unsaved changes) and Save; Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac) saves too. Leaving with unsaved changes asks first.
As in the grid editor, every setting has an i with its help and its place until 3.2, a changed value has a coral dot, and ↺ sets it back to its default.
Find a setting
Search settings above the rail (or the / key) finds a setting by its name, its help or its old name, add-ons included. A result names its page and, for a setting that moved, where it was (was: …). Choose it to go there.
The search finds global settings only; a grid’s own settings are found with Find a setting in the grid editor.
The seven pages
General
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Who can use Essential Grid | Who sees the Essential Grid menu and can create and edit grids and skins: Administrators, Editors and administrators, or Authors, editors and administrators. Only administrators can change Global Settings. |
| Box on posts | The Essential Grid box below the editor of posts and pages (Posts, pages and custom post types). |
| Grid ID and alias | Shows each grid’s ID and alias on its card in Grids. |
| Help on hover | Shows the help of an i when you point at it. Off, click the i to read it. |
| Group add-ons | Lists the Essential Grid add-ons under Essential Grid on WordPress’s Plugins screen. |
Content
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hidden post types | Post types Essential Grid leaves out: the grid editor does not offer them, and grids no longer show their posts. |
| Example post type | Adds “ESG Posts”, a post type with its own categories to try grids with demo posts; Import demo posts fills it after you save. |
| No matching items | The message when a visitor’s filters find no items. |
| All items loaded | The text on the Load more button when nothing is left to load. |
| Error message | What a grid shows when it has no items or a feed cannot load: Default, Hidden or Custom. |
| Advanced › Query method, Post dates | How grids ask WordPress for posts, and which stored date skins show. Change them only when told to. |
Images & video
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Lightbox | Essential Grid‘s own lightbox, or Another plugin for lightbox links (Click: lightbox and Ajax content). |
| Fallback image | Shown in items without an image of their own, in every grid. |
| Cross-origin images | For images from another domain, such as a CDN, that requires it. |
| YouTube privacy mode | Plays YouTube videos from youtube-nocookie.com (Video in grids). |
| Cache video thumbnails | Stores YouTube and Vimeo thumbnails on your server. |
Fonts & icons
The icon fonts that skins use, each loaded on the site and in the admin, in the admin only, or not at all (Fonts, colours and icons).
Custom fields
Custom fields are your own fields for posts and items, such as a price or a photographer. Each has a Name, a Handle, a Type, a Sort order and a Default; New custom field adds one. Skins show them, and visitors can sort by them. Their values are filled in the Essential Grid box of each post, or with the cog of an item in the grid editor.
References to other fields lets skins use a field of WooCommerce, an events plugin or your theme: give it a Handle and its Original field key. Its value is still edited where it was before. New reference adds one.
Search
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Extended search | A grid’s search also finds categories, tags and custom fields, not only titles and text. |
| Search from your theme | A click on an element of your theme, such as its search icon, opens a search overlay whose results show in a grid you choose. Each New rule names the element (Click on (CSS selector)), the grid (Results in grid) and the Overlay. |
| Search shortcodes | A search field or button of your own, placed anywhere with a shortcode, with its results in a grid you choose; New search shortcode adds one. |
Performance
Grid cache with Clear grid cache, Load scripts in the footer, and Troubleshooting for conflicts with themes and caching plugins (Loading and performance).
Good to know
- The settings of an add-on are in the rail’s Add-ons group, and the add-ons that belong to a page are listed at its end.
- Coming from Essential Grid 3? The old tabs and their new places: Where did my setting go?