Editing your Webflow site

All you need to know about editing your Webflow website using the CMS editor

Web Design 2

July 1, 2022

Accessing the Editor from your live site

You can access the Editor for your website by adding /?edit to the end of your website URL in the browser address bar (e.g., yourwebsite.com/?edit). Once you log in, you can access your website in Editor mode.

When you return to the site later, they may see the “Edit site” button in the lower right corner, which you can click to hop into Editor mode.

Note: you will need to set your browser to accept cookies from all third parties to use the Editor — otherwise, you may see an error message when trying to log in to the Editor.

The Editor toolbar

When you access the Editor, you’ll see your live website with the Editor toolbar (the gray bar) collapsed at the bottom of your screen. Through this toolbar, you can access the various Editor panels to manage page settings, dynamic content, forms, and your Editor account. You can also see and publish the changes you make through the Editor.

The Editor toolbar features the following tabs and icons:

Menu - Use this menu to go to the Dashboard, your Project Settings, or the Designer.

Pages - opens the Pages Panel, which lists your site’s static pages and dynamic Collection pages. From here, you can browse for a page, click to view the live page and manage the settings of any page.

Collections - opens the Collections Panel, which lists all your Collections. Clicking on a Collection opens a new tab in the toolbar, which opens the Collection items’ panel listing of all the items in that Collection. Here, you can edit any item or create new ones.

Forms - opens the Forms Panel where you can see and download form submissions made on the site.

Account Settings (icon) - opens the Account Settings Panel where you can edit your Collaborator account info and upload a profile image.

Help & Support (icon) - opens the Help and Support Panel, where you can find answers to a few common questions about using the Editor.

Log out (icon) - logs you out of the Editor after confirmation.

Back to live site (button) — Switches from Editor mode to Live-site mode, which allows you to view your site as your site visitors will see it.

Saving/Saved - all changes are saved automatically in the Editor. The Saving... and Saved status at the bottom left show this.

Changelog - this shows the number of unpublished changes next to the publish button at the bottom left. Clicking the changelog reveals a list of items and pages with unpublished changes, and you can see which Collaborator made them.

Publish (button) - allows you to publish all the changes you make when in the Editor.

On-page editing

Editing right on the page is pretty intuitive with the Editor. As you hover over various elements, an edit icon will appear to the upper right of editable elements. To edit any of these elements, simply click the icon.

Step one on the left, click on the edit icon on the right side of the text box. Step two on the right, add the word "Outdoor" in front of Photography.

Step three on the left, click on the edit button on the top-right of the camera icon image. Step four on the right, replace the camera icon image with the outdoor photography icon.

Some styling and custom code will not show as they should appear on the published site. That is normal behavior when you’re in the Editor.

Editing and formatting text

When hovering over editable text elements, you’ll see a light-gray outline around the text element and a pencil icon in the upper right. You can edit the text by clicking into the box.

A paragraph of text is outlined with a light-gray rectangle with an edit icon on the top-right.

You can also format words or phrases by selecting them and choosing the formatting from the floating toolbar that appears. Read more about inline text formatting.

The floating toolbar includes the following formatting options: Bold, italics, insert link, wrap with span and clear formatting.

For Rich text elements, you can do more: add media, create lists, style, and format your text further. Learn more about rich text elements.

The word "paragraphs" is highlighted in a paragraph within a rich text element. The floating toolbar includes bold, italics, insert link, H1 through H6 and block quotes.

Replacing images

You can also replace images right on the site. Just hover your cursor over the image you want to replace, then click the picture icon. This will allow you to select and upload a new image from your computer.

An image of a night sky full of stars has an edit icon on the top-right corner.

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Any visual styles you’ve created for an element in the Designer, such as solid color overlay, border color, or shadow, will automatically apply to any image or background image you replace through the Editor.

Editing buttons

To edit a button element, hover your cursor over the button and click on the Settings icon that appears in the upper right.

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You’ll see two options:

Edit link settings - lets you update the link of the button
Edit text - enables you to change the button text

The edit button drop down menu includes two options: edit link settings and edit text.

Managing page settings

From within the Pages Panel in the Editor, you can manage vital page settings like SEO meta title and description, Open Graph title and description, and Open Graph image. You can also manage page password protection settings for static pages and RSS feed settings for Collection pages.

The Pages tab is highlighted in the Page settings page within the Editor. — *Managing page settings in the Editor*

To access the settings of a page:

Open the Pages tab in the Editor panel
Hover your cursor over a page in the list
Click on the Settings button that appears

There are six different blog post pages. The settings button for a blog post page is highlighted on the first page titled Ecommerce product photography tips: a beginner’s guide.

You can also search for pages by name using the search bar.

The search bar called “search pages…” is highlighted in the pages top bar section. There are five team member pages on this collection.

Clicking on the page, instead of the Settings button, will close the Pages panel and open the corresponding page.

Creating and managing dynamic content

If you have Collections in your project, you can access them in the Editor through the Collections tab. The Collections Panel lists all your collections. Clicking on a collection opens a new tab titled the name of the collection. This tab contains all Collection items within that Collection.

A new tab called Blog Posts has been added to the tabs section in the editors toolbar. This tab is highlighted among the other five tabs.

Creating and editing content

You can edit existing items by clicking on them or creating new items by clicking the + New button and filling out the item’s various fields.

A green “new blog post” button is highlighted on the top right corner of the collection page called Blog posts. There are six pages already created and published on this page. — *Create a new Collection item in the Editor*

When you’re done entering content or updating fields, you can choose to:

Create a new item or save an existing item. It will be staged to publish and go live on your site next time you publish it.

Publish your item right away (without waiting for the next site-wide publish to take place).

Save as Draft if you aren’t quite ready for the item to go on the live site.

Cancel to discard changes.

A green “create” button is pressed with a dropdown menu including a publish, save as a draft and schedule option. This dropdown menu is highlighted in the collection page “My amazing blog post” settings page. — *Publish an individual item in the Editor*

You can view the Collection page for that item by clicking the icon to the right of the item name. This collapses the panels to show you the page for the item you’re currently viewing right in the browser. If you’d like, you can edit it there, instead of in the panel.

The collection page toolbar includes a icon to the right of the page name which is for navigating to the detail page. This icon is highlighted on the top bar.

To go back to the Collection item's list, click the Back (←) button.

The left arrow icon is highlighted on the collection page top bar. Next to it is the collection page name “My amazing blog post.”

Managing content

In the Collection Panel, you can see all your Collection items and their statuses. You can delete, archive, or change the status of several items all at the same time. To do that:

Click the Select... button
Select the items you want to manage
Choose the action you want from the top toolbar

The select button on the top-right of the Blog posts collection settings page is highlighted between the search bar and green “new blog post” button. There are six published collection pages already published. — *Managing Collection items in the Editor*

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To close the Collection tab, click the close (x) button in the top right of the tab.

A collection page called Lessons includes a gray x icon in the top right of the page tab. This icon is highlighted.

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Viewing and publishing changes

After making all these changes, you will want to view them, make sure they're saved and ready to be published before clicking Publish.

Viewing changes on the live site

While working in the Editor, the Editor panel covers most of your website. To collapse the Editor panel and view your website, click the View Site button at the top.

The View Site button is highlighted in its position above the editor tool bar.

In this view, you can browse your website just like you usually would, and make or view changes to any page.

Publishing

The changes made in the Editor won’t be made on the live site until you either publish the edited item(s) individually or press the Publish button to publish all staged changes. You will need to confirm that you want to publish all changes before the site is actually published. The green Published button will confirm this.

The green Published button has been clicked and a notice has appeared saying Publish successful and “You published 1 change to your site.” There is a check mark indicating the changes have been saved next to the Back to live site button.

Accessing form submissions

If you have any forms in your website, the Editor will include a Forms tab. Here, you’ll be able to view some basic information from forms people have submitted, but it’s most useful as a place for you to download the complete form data. In the downloaded CSV file (a format that works with all the major spreadsheet apps), you’ll be able to see all the submitted info.