How to Duplicate a Portfolio Collection in Squarespace Step-by-Step

Jul 8

Building and controlling a portfolio on the internet should be easy for anyone, especially designers, creatives, and businesses exhibiting many projects. But if you are on Squarespace 7.1, you might have run into an annoying limitation:

There is not currently a way to copy an entire Portfolio Collection.

This problem can limit you when you want:

Duplication of a Portfolio structure for another Service or Client Group
Build multilingual portfolio pages
Easily scale and manage your content across your site

In this guide, we will cover workarounds and best practices for professionals that will hopefully allow you to duplicate and maintain your portfolio collections effectively in Squarespace 7.1, even without a one-click duplication tool.

Why You Can’t Duplicate a Portfolio Collection Natively

In Squarespace 7.1, portfolio collections are made up of:

A parent collection page (the portfolio grid)
Multiple child project pages (each representing an individual project)

While you can duplicate individual project pages, there is currently no native option to clone the entire portfolio collection structure.

This is due to how Squarespace handles collections on the backend — they're treated as nested content, and cloning parent-child structures isn't yet supported in the UI.

What You Can Do Instead

Although you can't duplicate the entire collection at once, there are several reliable workarounds to achieve the same result:

1. Duplicate Portfolio Projects Manually

Squarespace allows you to duplicate individual projects within a portfolio.

Step-by-Step:

Navigate to Pages → [Your Portfolio Collection]
Hover over any project and click the ••• (More) icon
Select Duplicate
Rename the new project and update its content
Repeat for additional projects

Tip: Use naming conventions and structured tags to keep duplicate projects organized.

2. Rebuild a New Portfolio Collection

If your goal is to duplicate the entire collection layout, you can manually recreate it.

Steps:

Go to Pages → + → Portfolio
Name your new collection (e.g., “Web Design Projects” or “Portfolio – French”)
Manually add projects using the duplicate method above
Customize thumbnail images, titles, and layouts as needed
Link this collection in your site navigation or internal buttons

This approach is ideal for segmented portfolios (e.g., by language, service, or location).

3. Use Summary Blocks to Display Portfolio Projects Elsewhere

You can also repurpose portfolio content across your site using Summary Blocks.

Benefits:

Dynamically pulls content from existing projects
Supports filters by tag or category
Automatically updates when projects are edited

Example Use Cases:

Feature “Branding” projects on your homepage
Highlight “Web” projects on a services page
Create filtered project feeds without duplicating pages

Steps:

Assign tags to each portfolio project (e.g., branding, print, UX)
On any page, add a Summary Block
Select Portfolio as the source
Filter by tag or category
Choose layout (grid, carousel, list)

Tip: Match the visual style of your original portfolio grid using Site Styles.

4. Advanced: Duplicate Page Sections for Layout Consistency

While this doesn’t duplicate portfolio logic, you can ensure visual consistency by reusing section layouts across different pages or portfolios.

Steps:

Click Edit on the section you want to reuse
Open the section menu (•••) → Click Copy Section
Navigate to another page → Click + Add Section
Scroll to the bottom and select Paste Section

Great for recreating custom headers, calls-to-action, or testimonial blocks used alongside your portfolio.

**What You Cannot Do in Squarespace 7.1**

  
        Action
        Supported?
      
        Duplicate the entire portfolio collection
        ❌ Not currently supported
      
        Duplicate individual portfolio projects
        ✅ Yes
      
        Export/import collection data
        ❌ No built-in tools
      
        Clone portfolio layout settings
        ❌ Not automatic
      
        Display projects in multiple areas
        ✅ Yes, using Summary Blocks

Best Practices for Managing Portfolios Professionally

For more efficient duplication and rescaling in the future:

Standardize project templates across all portfolios
Use tags and categories to make your website easy to scan.
Create a reusable section design system (e.g., hero, intro, gallery, CTA)
I like to keep a content checklist: thumbnail, excerpt, SEO title, alt text

Managing multiple client or service portfolios? Use page folders and sub-navigation to keep things in order.

Final Thoughts

Although Squarespace 7.1 currently doesn’t allow for full portfolio collection duplication, there are still ways you can manage it, via: Manually copying projects using the right summary blocks, having a good structure for your content

These techniques allow you to:

Maintain visual consistency
Scale your creative output
Standardise layouts across services or languages
Reduce repetitive design work

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I copy an entire portfolio collection in Squarespace 7.1?

Nope, Squarespace 7.1 doesn't natively support duplicating a full portfolio collection (parent and child pages grouped) at the same time. You can only copy projects from Portfolio One one by one.

How can I copy a project within a portfolio collection?

Head on over to your Portfolio Collection → hover over the project → click on the ••• (More) icon → select “Duplicate” → modify the name and configuration of the duplicate project.

How do I make a new portfolio for another service or language, fast?

Create a new portfolio collection from scratch, and duplicate and edit the individual projects from your old portfolio. It’s a great way to build out segmented or multilingual portfolios.

Can I show the same portfolio projects at different sections of my website?

Yes. Pull and feature portfolio projects using Summary Blocks by tag or category. You can therefore show particular works on different pages without repeating them.

Will the Summary Blocks change if I modify the initial project?

Yes. Any changes to a project’s page will happen across all Summary Blocks that pull from the project, so you can keep your site consistent and simpler to manage.

Is there a way to duplicate portfolio items in Squarespace?

Currently, no. There are currently no native import/export features or functionality to duplicate entire collections in Squarespace 7.1. The only real solution is to copy-paste content yourself.

What are the most efficient ways to manage a lot of different portfolios?

Use consistent project templates
Tag & categorize all projects and filter projects by tags & categories.
Build reusable content blocks
Use a list for SEO guidelines, alt text, and layout consistency
Group favourites via folders or sub-navigation menus