Block settings

You are shaping one piece of the plan, so a block’s settings say what belongs in it, in your firm’s words, and whether Hazel must include it at all. Two places open them, with different fields.

• In Settings → Planning, the Plan layout card draws your design as a blueprint. Click a block chip or a tab name for a panel with three settings and a Done button. The top-level section bands are labels, not buttons, so a section’s own settings live in the editor.
• Open the layout editor with Design layout on that same card, then select anything on the canvas or in the outline. The right-hand rail holds those three settings plus a Heading and an Advanced group.

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What each setting does

Suggested (legacy) shows only on a block somebody set that way in the past. It lets Hazel skip the block freely and is being retired: switch that block to one of the other two and it disappears.

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Writing block instructions

Most blocks in Hazel’s default design arrive with instructions already: the summary’s Key numbers block, headed At a glance, says “Exactly four headline tiles”. Edit what is there rather than starting blank. Concrete and local ones work, like this Narrative block in Summary: “Three paragraphs. Open with whether they can retire on their stated timeline, then the single biggest risk, then what we recommend.” Weak instructions could apply to anything: “be clear”, “cover the important points”.

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Using “Leave out when”

A single condition, in your words:

• “The household has no dependent children.”
• “There is no restricted stock or option grant.”

Pair it with When it applies: the block lands when the household’s facts call for it, and your sentence names the case it stays out of. The layout editor drops the field on an Always block. The panel on the Plan layout card still shows the box there, so a condition typed on an Always block is not a reliable exemption. Two conditions joined by “or” usually means the block is really two blocks. Some default blocks arrive with a condition already written: the debt table is left out when the household carries no debt.

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The Advanced group

At the bottom of the settings rail sits an Advanced disclosure. Sections and tabs always have one; a block has one when there is something to put in it.

• Module. Which module this node is the home of, not editable. Removing the node removes that module from the plan. See Modules.
• Nav label and Nav icon on a section, Short tab name on a tab. How the item reads in the plan’s left menu, or on the tab when the heading runs long.
• Levers. On a Levers to try block only: the sliders the plan must offer, up to twelve. Each row takes a label, minimum, maximum, step, default, unit and note. Hazel may add dials of its own. The default design has no Levers to try block; add one from the Building blocks shelf in the layout editor.
• Calculation. A read-only note about the method behind a block’s figures, which none of Hazel’s designs carry. Where such a note and your assumptions disagree, the assumptions win.

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Sections and tabs

A section or a tab takes these same settings. Its Heading caps at 160 characters rather than 200, and it adds a Subtitle of one line, up to 240. See Sections and tabs.

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How the settings interact with strictness

Strictness is set once for a whole design, in the Strictness control on the Plan design card above the blueprint. It decides how literally Hazel reads the settings above. With no strictness chosen, the design runs on Flexible, so choose one before you lean on Always. See Strictness for what each mode is for, and for the Allow additions switch that Exact turns off.

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Where to go next

• Sections and tabs: the structure these blocks sit in.
• Modules: one level up from a block.
• Using the layout editor: where these settings live.
• Visual reference: what each block type renders.
• Instructions: the same idea at template scale.