New "Smart" Editor

I think the current editor is very limited in how it works. It is missing a lot of critical features and actually isn't that helpful when adding new content.

I think there is a difference between the CMS collection "data" and the "content" that can be created in a Rich Text Block. Ideally, anything could be put into a Rich Text Block. Maybe it then becomes a Rich Content Block.

The goal for a new editor could be to create a sort of Medium-style writing experience where the content block being written for could insert any type of content you've already defined. In this style of writing, you could do things similarly to how Medium works.. Update text (h1, h2, h3, bold, underline, etc.) and add images, videos, but also add in components from Webflow that you've already created.

Wouldn't it be ideal to just type the content and components based on labels that each component is given (h1, h2, h3, bold, underline) and images, videos, or symbols? That way we don't need to place the content in the same order for all of the CMS items.

This would allow for unique CMS item order, where you are putting in content to one of these blocks and it gets designed based on the UI components that you have already created in your Webflow site's style guide.

This would also make it more enjoyable to write in Webflow, keeping designers and marketers on the site instead of using Google Docs or some other tool to do the writing first.

This would also streamline the publishing process because people could make their edits and re-order content without needing to change the CMS template.

The way you could add symbols or other CMS content would be to "reference" the other fields anywhere in your current CMS (this item or other items).

For example, if I'm using a Rich Content Block.. I might reference the "title" of my post using "@title" where I can actually get a "dynamic field insertion" into my Rich Content Block. This would allow me to easily update the "title" attribute at any time and my Rich Content Block would also update every instance of that reference.

This could be tremendously scalable if you are referencing a global attribute many other blog posts. You could simply select that attribute by using the @ symbol. It would then allow you to look up content anywhere across your CMS. In that item or globally through a simple search. It then binds the reference after you select it.

Other related wishlist items:

- Basic text options - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-127 | https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-489

- Code blocks - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-894 | https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-5 |

- Better URLs (/admin, /edit) - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-907

- Better UX - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-1247 | https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-999

- Undo/Redo - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-194

- Scheduling - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-485

- Reference Lists - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-1127

- PDFs, Images - https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-725

Thanks guys!

Cameron

  • Cameron Roe
  • Jun 24 2018
  • Hrishi Mittal commented
    16 Nov, 2023 02:17pm

    Some great ideas in here and much needed for any serious website. I'm building a power editor for Webflow CMS. If you want to try it out, please sign up here - http://pencms.com/

  • Craig Arnatt commented
    26 Sep, 2023 07:11pm

    The current marketcap price for Webflow is $4B and these idiots can't allow us to paste markup text from ChatGTP to Rich Text. What a bunch of clowns. Anyone reading this not on Weblflow, go somewhere else. These guys are all lazy and don't care about us. It's been four years.

  • Erik Fossum commented
    3 Sep, 2023 03:57pm

    Four years and you still can't paste text from Word into the rich field editor without losing spaces. It's absolutely ridiculous.

  • Filip commented
    10 Jan, 2023 07:20pm

    The CMS rich text editor has some bugs that makes editing really not pleasant. For example pasting bulleted lists does not render the list items as lists and the editors need to edit each item again.

    It is the single most common reason for us to consider other alternatives to Webflow.

  • Petr Hejtmánek commented
    6 Dec, 2022 03:11pm

    Not having the word copy-paste resolved already is really messed up...

  • Ingrid Ødegaard commented
    10 Aug, 2022 12:35pm

    The fact that there are no extra levels on lists.. How is this not in place to copy/paste from documents and get the correct formatting.

  • Dylan Colby commented
    21 Jun, 2022 04:05pm

    We NEED dynamic page zones like this to create custom page layouts in the CMS. This is CRUCIAL to Webflow.

  • Garret Voorhees commented
    9 Jul, 2021 11:34pm

    Still running into copy/paste bugs when pulling in content from Word, in addition to general bugginess when trying to update lists and headers. I hope that this is being prioritized soon!

  • Kori Eames commented
    19 Jun, 2021 01:18pm

    I can't believe there is still no table support in the rich text editor for doing blog posts. I can't recommend Webflow for serious use without this. This is such a fundamental feature.

  • Pratik Kanodia commented
    28 Mar, 2021 10:38am

    Still facing this. Love webflow but if the rich text editor is broken, and I can't copy paste things, then how is any work going to ever get done? Pasting as plain text removes all styling (duh), making the process of adding a simple blog really cumbersome.

  • Tomas Ferezou commented
    11 Mar, 2021 11:45am

    I agree, it is a nightmare and needs improvement.

  • Connor Chatting commented
    20 Jan, 2021 05:38pm

    Please get this improved, it's such a bad UX for us Designers and our clients

  • Valentin Steber commented
    13 Jan, 2021 11:08am

    That would be fantastic!

  • Rosa M. commented
    28 Dec, 2020 03:44am

    Ditto Shaun's comments below.

    The Editor needs so much help. I was so underwhelmed when I came across Webflow's Editor. I'm sure it'll be a source of pain for clients. :( I hope they improve it drastically.

  • JM Kriz commented
    16 Dec, 2020 02:11pm

    Would you believe the issue where you paste something into a Rich text field and spaces are randomly removed between words STILL hasn't been addressed? The workaround is to paste as plain text and then format, seriously hampering the actual functionality of a Rich text field.

  • Shaun Johnson commented
    13 Nov, 2020 03:59am

    Just moved across from WordPress to Webflow. Whilst this has been good for the static pages on our site I have to say I was shocked at how bad the CMS capabilities are in Webflow. As in there's pretty much nothing you can do other than basic text. I'm not looking for advanced features just the ability to format the text in different ways.

  • Ana Villarama commented
    23 Sep, 2020 02:06pm

    Highly agree. It would be AMAZING to create templated blocks of content in a webflow styleguide that content editors could then choose to add in and order it as they please. If not that, I would just like the option for one of the CMS fields to be "image OR video".

    I'm creating a portfolio site where the each project might showcase any number of videos and images in varying orders. Having to add "image 1" or "video 1" and "image 2" or "video 2" and so on is really cluttering up the editor.

  • Nicholas Lorenson commented
    15 Sep, 2020 01:15am

    I just found out that the rich text editor doesn't actually support typical features of the rich text format.

    I'd like to be able to center text.

    Sery Lee's comment is apt. The rich text editor for this comment widget would work.

  • JM Kriz commented
    1 Jul, 2020 03:40am

    The comment below this comment is fantastic.

  • Sery Lee commented
    17 Jun, 2020 11:21pm

    I think it's enough said when this comment HTML editor is way more advanced than Webflow Rich Text. My client is not very happy that you can't even do a simple bullets followed by another sub bullet

    What Webflow can do

    1. numbers

    2. and

    • Bullets

    • that's it

    What this comment box can do...

    • You can bullet here

      • and sub-bullet (which Webflow Rich text does not do)

        • and another sub-sub bullet

          • and more (can we at least put this HTML editor in webflow)

            1. and I can switch to numbers. how amazing

              1. and letters

                1. more letters.

    You

    can

    put this

    amazing

    table

    as well

  • Load older comments
  • +383