In this article, we will introduce you to all the notions you need to know in order to manage the Webflow CMS. You will then be able to start creating your collections, your items and your dynamic pages.

Understanding the general settings of the Webflow CMS

In this part, we will introduce you to the main notions of the Webflow CMS to understand the general parameters of the tool.

Webflow CMS

First of all, let's start by defining the term Webflow CMS. It simply means the Webflow visual content management system. It can be accessed from the Webflow dashboard by clicking on the CMS button in the site settings. The editors of your Webflow project can contribute to the development of the CMS through the editor mode.

CMS Settings

The CMS Settings tab is where the CMS administrator can add and remove content editors.

CMS Administrator

The CMS administrator is the only person who can invite and remove content editors. The administrator is the person who owns the site in his Webflow account.

Editor Panel

The Editor Panel is the area of the Webflow CMS that appears at the bottom of the site that editors can use to manage collections and create new collection items.

Collection

A collection is a type of content (e.g. blog post) represented by a number of fields that you define. Once created, you can add custom collection items.

Item Collection

A collection item is an individual item within a collection (e.g. 1 blog post).

CMS Collection page

A dynamic page that Webflow automatically creates for each item in the collection. When you design a collection page, all the pages that are created for each item will have the same template, but different content. For example all blog posts will have the same page structure, but not the same content.

Learn how to manage the Field Collections

Let's now go a little more into the heart of the matter, by presenting the different elements to be set up in the Webflow CMS.

Field Collection

A Collection Field is an individual field in a collection. You can customise the fields you wish to have in your collection.

Required Field

You can set any collection field as "mandatory", which forces content editors to fill in that field.

Basic Info

The basic information in the Webflow CMS are fields that must be entered. These are the name and the slug of the collection.

Plain Text

The Plain Text field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to insert basic textual content.

Rich Text

The Rich Text field is a Webflow CMS field that allows you to insert long content with paragraphs, media files, links etc. It also allows you to customise the text (bold, italic, etc.). This is the type of field used to insert article content for example.

Image

The Image field is a CMS Webflow field that allows images to be used as a dynamic element.

Multi-Image

The Multi-Image field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to add a maximum of 25 images to display them as a gallery.

Video

The Video field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to insert videos via a link (e.g. YouTube or Vimeo video embed).

Link

The Link field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to insert a hyperlink to another web page.

Email

The Email field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to insert an email address. Clicking on the email address will send an email from its email address.

Phone

The Phone field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to insert a phone number. Clicking on the number will allow you to call it.

Number

The Number field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to insert an integer with or without decimals.

Date/Time

The Date/Time field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to display a date and time.

Switch

The Switch field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to filter your items. For example a Switch "Featured" field will highlight certain blog posts if the field is checked.

Color

The Color field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to add a colour to a collection to style the text, background colour, etc.

Option

The Option field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to choose a value from a predefined list. This list is presented in the form of a dropdown list.

File

The File field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to insert files (pdf, doc, ppt, jpg) that users can download.

Reference

The Reference field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to link to another collection in your project.

Multi-Reference

The Multi-Reference field is a CMS Webflow field that allows you to establish links with several other collections in your project.

Now you know how to build your collections and items in the CMS of your Webflow project. Knowing all these notions will allow you for example to create a blog part to your website or a Team part. Do not hesitate to consult our YouTube videos to learn more about Webflow or to consult our article on how to build a page in Webflow thanks to the items.