The edit form

The edit form is where the content of an item is written and changed, in every tab of the administration: Content structure, Media and Users. It opens when you press Edit on an item's page, choose Edit in in an item's menu, or create a new item. This page describes its parts from top to bottom. The steps of editing are in Editing content.

Every time the form opens, Exponential makes a draft: a new version that only you see. The site keeps showing the published version until you publish the draft. See Versions and drafts.

The top of the form

• The buttons: Send for publishing checks the fields and publishes the draft; Store draft and exit keeps the draft and leaves the form; Discard draft throws the draft away, after you confirm. The buttons are repeated at the bottom of the form.
• The title line names the item and its type, for example Edit <Effective Training Techniques ...> (NG Article), and the language you are editing.
• Exponential Intelligence, where the writing assistant is switched on for your site and your role: a box that fills the fields from a short description, and buttons at each text field. See The AI assistant in the editor.
• The field bar: one button per field; a click jumps to it. A red * marks a required field.

The fields

Each field is a card with its name, a short help text where the site has one, and its kind in the corner: Text, Rich text, Image, Relation, Tags and so on. What you can do depends on the kind:

• Text: one line. Pressing Enter in such a field is the same as pressing Send for publishing.
• Rich text: formatted text with the online editor, TinyMCE 8 or Tiptap. See The online editors.
• Image: the current image, a new file to upload, Choose an existing image, and the Alternative image text. See Images and files.
• Relation: links to other items, with Add existing objects, Upload a file and Find objects. See Relations.

The fields a type has, their order and their help texts are set up by an administrator in the content type (the class). Large types group their fields; see the setup pages of this manual.

The left column

• Object information: the item's ID, when it was created and last modified, the number of the published version, and Manage versions.
• Current draft: the draft you work on, its version number and dates, and Preview, which shows the draft as the site will. See Previewing content.
• Existing translations: when you translate, choose under Base translation on the language to show next to the fields, and press View. See Translating content.
• Section: the section the item belongs to. It can be changed here only for an item that has not been published yet.

When a field is wrong

Send for publishing checks every field first. If a required field is empty or a value is not valid, nothing is published: the form comes back with the message The draft could not be stored. Required data is either missing or is invalid, followed by the field and the problem (for example Title: Input required.), and the field itself is marked in red. Correct it and publish again.

The bottom of the form

Below the fields are the Related objects box, for relations that are not tied to a field, and the buttons once more.

Saved while you work

The form saves the draft by itself every few minutes, and when you leave a field you changed. The bar of buttons says when the draft was last saved. See Autosave.

What can go wrong

• You closed the browser or pressed Back. The draft is kept. The next time you press Edit, Possible edit conflict offers it to you. See Dealing with edit conflicts.
• A field is grayed out or missing. Your role may not change it, or the field cannot be translated and is edited in the main language only.
• Edit is grayed out on the item's page. Your role may not edit this item or this language. Point at the button to read why.

Read more

• Creating and editing content, in the help center.
• Publishing, versions and the trash
• Creating help texts and Grouping attributes, for administrators who set up the form.