Improve Editor Access & Usability for Designers

I often switch between the Designer and the Editor in order to see how content appears, and edit it in the finished view.  This is especially important with CMS content, since the Designer does not allow editing it in-place, as it appears to the end user. 

The Editor is well-designed and does this well. However, currently there are significant limitations in how the editor can be accessed by Designers - which makes it difficult to use the Editor effectively.

Here are the 3 top places that the Editor can be made much more powerful to Designers.  

MAINTAIN THE PAGE AND CMS-ITEM CONTEXT WHEN SWITCHING BETWEEN DESIGNER & EDITOR MODES 

Switching between Editor & Designer modes currently forces you back to the Home page.

If the system maintained the Page and CMS Item context, it would be far more useful during the site development process. 

A hotkey to toggle modes would be fantastic, and a button next to the "Toggle Preview" button.

ALLOW DESIGNERS TO LOGIN TO THE EDITOR DIRECTLY

After a site is published, I frequently need to make small changes. I'll be looking at the finished site and want to adjust something, or add a new event to the CMS. 

Currently, I cannot just login to the Editor.  I have to go to the main webflow designer and navigate my way into the project, back to the Editor from there, and then find the correct page again on the website, before I can make a simple change.  A 10 second change turns into several minutes of clicking around trying to get into edit mode on the right page. 

REMOVE THE CMS ITEM LIMITS FOR DESIGNERS ON PRE-HOSTED SITES

Pre-hosting, when I'm editing websites through the Designer, I can create the CMS items I need.  In Editor mode, I get CMS limits error, which means a tonne of switching back-and-forth. I have to switch back to Designer mode, CMS, to create the new CMS item, and then switch back to Editor mode and navigate to that item in order to flesh out the content visually. 

  • Michael Wells
  • Nov 17 2017