Editing content

This page explains how to change an item that already exists: open it, edit it in the edit form, and publish the change. Creating a new item works the same way and is explained in Adding content.

Drafts: nothing changes until you publish

When you start editing, Exponential makes a draft: a copy of the published version that only you see. The site keeps showing the published version until you publish the draft. The version before it is kept, so you can always go back. See Version management.

Open the edit form

1. Open the item, from the tree, a list of sub items, a search or your bookmarks. See Navigating the node tree.
2. If the item exists in more than one language, choose the language in the list next to Edit first.
3. Press Edit. The edit form opens with a new draft.

Other ways to the same form:

• In the tree, click the icon in front of the item's name and choose Edit in and the language.
• In a Sub items list, tick one or more items and choose Edit selected under More actions. Several items open in one form and are published together.
• On the public site, when you are signed in, the website sidebar has Edit for the page you are looking at. See The website interface.

If you or someone else already has a draft of the item, the page Possible edit conflict appears first. You can continue one of your own drafts, start a New draft from the published version, or Cancel. See Dealing with edit conflicts.

The edit form

From the top:

• The buttons: Send for publishing publishes the draft; Store draft and exit keeps the draft and leaves the form; Discard draft throws the draft away, after you confirm, and leaves the published version as it was.
• The title line names the item and its type, for example Edit <Fitness> (Landing page), and the language you are editing.
• Exponential Intelligence, when the writing assistant is switched on for your site: its box at the top says which service it uses, and each text field gets buttons such as Write, Rewrite, Translate, Suggest and Improve. Nothing changes until you accept a suggestion and store the draft.
• The field bar: one button per field; a click jumps to that field. A red * marks a required field: the draft cannot be published while it is empty.
• One card per field, with its kind in the corner (Text, Rich text, Relation ...).

The left column of the form shows the item's numbers and dates, the draft you are working on with its Preview button, Manage versions, the existing translations and the section of the item.

Rich text

Fields of the kind Rich text, such as a description or the body of an article, are edited with the online editor. Its toolbar has the paragraph styles, bold, italic and underline, lists, alignment, links and anchors, embedded objects such as images, tables, special characters and the source code. Which editor you get is chosen by the site: a new installation starts with TinyMCE 3, a site can choose TinyMCE 8 instead (the pictures of this manual show it), and Tiptap is offered only where the extension exp_oe_tiptap is installed. Where the site offers more than one, Editor below the field switches between them; switching keeps what you typed. See The online editor.

The editors are described in The online editor.

Publish, keep or discard

• Send for publishing: the draft becomes the published version, and the item's page shows the new version number. If your site uses approval, the draft waits under My pending items until someone approves it.
• Store draft and exit: the draft is kept for later. Only you see it, under My drafts on the dashboard. The form also saves the draft by itself every few minutes while you work.
• Discard draft: the draft is thrown away after you confirm; the published version stays exactly as it was.

To see the draft as the site will show it before you publish, press Preview in the left column of the form. See Previewing content.

What can go wrong

• The Edit button is grayed out or missing. Your role may not edit this item, or not in this language. Point at the button to see why, and ask an administrator.
• The form comes back with a message. A field is empty or wrong. The message at the top names the field, and the field itself is marked.
• You left the form with the browser's Back button. The draft is kept. Open My drafts on the dashboard to continue it or remove it.

Read more

• Creating and editing content, in the help center.
• Publishing, versions and the trash
• How do I find and finish my drafts?