Learn how the legacy Editor lets you edit content, publish changes, and manage teammates.
The legacy Editor is a simplified interface that lets teammates update and add content to your site without touching the Designer. From here, you can edit text, swap images, manage Collection items, publish changes, and control who has access to your site's content — all in one place.
Note
Webflow Localize features are not supported in the legacy Editor.
Accessing the legacy Editor
You can access the Webflow Editor after publishing your site (either to the http://webflow.io staging subdomain, custom staging domain, or a custom domain). It allows you to edit the content on your site directly on the page or manage pages and content through the legacy Editor panel.
Access the legacy Editor through Webflow's interface
You can access the legacy Editor from:
- The Site menu in the Dashboard
- The top toolbar in Site settings
- The Webflow menu while editing a site in Webflow
Access the legacy Editor from the live site
Teammates can access the legacy Editor for their website by adding /?edit to the end of their website URL in the browser address bar (e.g., http://yourwebsite.com/?edit). Once they log in, they can access their website in the legacy Editor.
When they return to the site later, they may see the "Edit site" button in the lower right corner, which they can click to hop into the legacy Editor.
Let your teammates working in the legacy Editor know that they'll need to set their browser to accept cookies from all third parties to use the legacy Editor — otherwise, they may see an error message when trying to log in. Learn more about troubleshooting legacy Editor login errors.
Supported web browsers
The legacy Editor is supported on the last three major versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.
The degree of browser support depends upon features used (e.g., filter has partial support in Edge). For features that have limited support in some browsers, additional details can be found in their associated articles:
Webflow does not support Internet Explorer. While sites made in Webflow will continue to support all industry standard features supported in modern web browsers, Webflow can't guarantee that sites will function correctly in Internet Explorer. Learn more about sunsetting Internet Explorer support.
Pro tip
You can determine your browser and operating system version with What's My Browser.
Switch between the legacy Editor and the live site
When you open the legacy Editor, you'll be able to explore the site in preview mode or "live site" mode. To switch to the legacy Editor, click the "Edit site" button at the lower right of the page.
Go "Back to live site" when you want to see the site in preview mode.
Troubleshooting the legacy Editor login errors
If you, your Workspace members, or your teammates working in the legacy Editor see an error message when trying to log into the legacy Editor, try one of the following fixes:
Note
If you have custom code on your site, it may affect the legacy Editor. This happens because the legacy Editor renders over the published site. Try removing or disabling your custom code.
Multi-user collaboration
The legacy Editor allows multiple team members to edit static and dynamic site content at the same time. If two people are editing the same content at the same time, the last edits "win," so you'll still want to coordinate editing times with your teammates. The legacy Editor also provides a Site activity log so you can see who edited your site, and what edits they made, before publishing your site.
When you access the legacy Editor, you'll see your live website with the legacy Editor toolbar (the gray bar) collapsed at the bottom of your screen. Through this toolbar, you can access the various legacy Editor panels to manage page settings, dynamic content, forms, and your legacy Editor account. You can also see and publish the changes you make through the legacy Editor.
The legacy Editor toolbar features the following tabs and icons:
Menu — use this menu to go to the Dashboard, your Site Settings, or while editing a site in Webflow. This button features the Webflow logo.
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 all the items in that Collection. Here, you can edit any item or create new ones. This is very similar to the CMS panel in Webflow. Read more about the CMS panel.
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 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 legacy Editor.
Log out icon — logs you out of the legacy Editor after confirmation.
Back to live site button — switches from the legacy Editor to the live site, which allows you to view your site as your site visitors will see it.
Saving/Saved — all changes are saved automatically in the legacy Editor. When you make a change to your site, you'll see either a "Saving…" or "Saved" status.
Changelog — 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 teammate or Workspace member made them.
Publish button — lets you publish all the changes you make when in the legacy Editor.
On-page editing
You can edit right on the page with the legacy Editor. As you hover over various elements, a "pencil" icon or "picture" icon appears to the upper right of editable elements. To edit any of these elements, click the icon.
Note
Some styling and custom code won't show as they should appear on the published site. That's normal behavior when you're in the legacy 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.
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.
For Rich text elements, you can do more: add media, create lists, style, and format your text further. Learn more about rich text elements.
Replacing images
You can also replace images right on the site. Hover your cursor over the image you want to replace, then click the "picture" icon. This lets you choose and upload a new image from your computer.
Note
Any visual styles you've created for an element while editing the site in Webflow, such as solid color overlay, border color, or shadow, automatically apply to any image or background image you replace through the legacy Editor.
To edit a button element, hover your cursor over the button and click the Settings "cog" icon that appears in the upper right.
You'll see two options:
-
Edit link settings — lets you update the link of the button
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Edit text — lets you change the button text
Managing page settings
From within the Pages panel in the legacy Editor, you can manage page settings like SEO meta title and description, Open Graph title and description, and Open Graph image. You can also manage RSS feed settings for Collection pages.
To access the settings of a page:
- Open the Pages tab in the legacy Editor panel
- Hover your cursor over a page in the list
- Click the Settings button that appears
You can also search for pages by name using the search bar.
Note
Clicking on the page, instead of the Settings button, closes the Pages panel and opens the corresponding page.
Creating and managing dynamic content
If you have Collections in your site, you can access them in the legacy Editor through the Collections tab. The Collections panel lists all your collections. Clicking on a collection opens a new tab titled with the name of the collection. This tab contains all Collection items within that Collection.
Creating and editing content
You can edit existing items by clicking on them or create new items by clicking the "New" button and filling out the item's various fields.
When you're done entering content or updating fields, you can choose to:
-
Create a new item or save an existing item — it's staged to publish and go live on your site the next time you publish it
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Publish your item right away, without waiting for the next site-wide publish
-
Save as draft if you aren't quite ready for the item to go on the live site
-
Cancel to discard changes
Learn more about creating and publishing Collection items.
You can view the Collection page for that item by clicking the "page" 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.
To go back to the Collection item's list, click the Back button.
Managing content
In the Collection panel, you can see all your Collection items and their statuses. If you work with a large database of content, managing your Collection items can save you time when deciding what to edit. You can do this by:
Read more about managing Collection items.
To close the Collection tab, click the "close" (X) button in the top right of the tab.
Viewing and publishing changes
After making all these changes, you'll want to view them and make sure they're saved and ready to be published before clicking Publish.
Viewing changes on the live site
While working in the legacy Editor, the legacy Editor panel covers most of your website. To collapse the legacy Editor panel and view your website, click the View Site button at the top.
In this view, you can browse your website just like you usually would, and make or view changes to any page.
Publishing
The legacy Editor toolbar shows the total number of unpublished changes staged to publish. These staged changes include work from all teammates, not just the one who clicks Publish — so take a moment to check what's ready to go before you publish. Publishing changes made in the legacy Editor also publishes any changes made in Webflow, so review everything that's staged before you continue.
Teammates working in the legacy Editor with the Can publish toggle turned off can only publish single Collection items, through single-item publishing and scheduling.
To publish your entire site from the legacy Editor:
- Click Publish to preview a summary of your changes
- Click Publish changes to publish all changes and updates
Important
When you publish from the legacy Editor, your site publishes to both the webflow.io staging domain (or your custom staging domain) and any custom domain(s) you've added. To publish only to your staging domain, publish from Site actions or Site settings instead.
Pro tip
Communication is key. Since a collaborator working in your site can inadvertently publish legacy Editor works-in-progress (and vice versa), make sure everyone communicates about upcoming publish events.
If you have any forms in your site, the legacy Editor includes 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.
Legacy Editor settings for elements
By default, you, Workspace members, and teammates working in the legacy Editor can edit all content on the live site using the legacy Editor, but you can make elements uneditable for teammates if you'd like.
- Open the site in Webflow
- Select the element you want to make uneditable
- Go to Element settings (D)
- Uncheck "Collaborators can edit this element"
You can also toggle teammates working in the legacy Editor on a selected element using Command + Shift + L (on Mac) or Control + Shift + L (on Windows).
Important
CMS elements are always editable in the legacy Editor.
Good to know
The ability to manage User Accounts users and settings isn't surfaced in the legacy Editor. Instead, you'll need to access the site in Webflow or the API.
Legacy Editor branding (whitelabeling)
By default, the legacy Editor is branded with the Webflow logo. For sites on Growth or Agency Workspaces, you can whitelabel the legacy Editor with your own branding.
Important
Whitelabeling the legacy Editor isn't supported for Ecommerce sites.
Add your own Editor branding
To upload your own logo to the legacy Editor, go to Site settings > Site access > Branding and click Upload logo.
Reset or replace the Editor branding
You can reset to the default Webflow logo at any time by going to Site settings > Site access > Branding and clicking Reset logo. You can also replace your custom logo by clicking Replace logo.
Manage legacy Editor teammates
Reset a password for teammates
Teammates can reset their password by opening the legacy Editor (i.e., adding ?edit to the end of the site's URL, e.g., http://www.your-site.com/?edit) and following these steps:
- Click Forgot it? on the legacy Editor's login page
- Type in your email address in the Email address field
- Click Send reset email
- Check your email for a "Reset your password" email
- Follow the instructions in the email to change your password
Publishing permissions for teammates
You can only restrict publishing on sites in Growth, Agency, and Enterprise Workspaces. To adjust full-site publishing permissions, use the Can publish toggle.
Remove teammates from your site
You can remove teammates working in the legacy Editor from your site at any time. Once removed, they'll no longer have access to the legacy Editor.
To remove a teammate from your site:
- Go to Site settings > Site access > Editor access
- Click the more options icon next to the teammate you want to remove
- Click Remove from Editor