Build brand-consistent pages faster with page templates, plus an update on page building mode

Page templates in Webflow will allow designers to speed up static page creation with the ability to templatize page structures that they build often.

Today we’re giving designers the ability to speed up static page creation with page templates, available on all Site plans. Now you can create a brand-consistent template for pages that you build often – event page template, product page template, etc. – to give you and your team a consistent head start.

Today’s update will allow you to standardize the structure and style of pages that you create frequently so you don’t have to start from scratch each time. The introduction of page templates is also an important piece of the puzzle as we continue work on making page building for less-technical users in Webflow a reality.

Progress towards page building mode for marketers and clients

In addition to how page templates will help designers today, it’s also a crucial stepping stone towards something we’re working to bring you later this year – page building mode.

We hear often from our customers that they want to be able to empower their marketing teammates or clients to be able to safely build brand-consistent landing pages on their own, using page templates and designer-approved building blocks.

Page building will empower marketing teammates or clients to be able to build landing pages on their own.

Page building will empower marketing teammates or clients to be able to build landing pages on their own.

Page building will help design and marketing teams deliver on the following:

  • Marketers get more autonomy to execute on campaigns by being able to self-serve their own landing pages in a safe environment where they can’t break the designs, which will allow them to increase speed to market while maintaining brand consistency.
  • Designers maintain control over the designs and frameworks for the website by providing their marketers and clients with the building blocks they need, which allows them to spend more time working on more strategic projects and less time on simple landing page creation.

We can’t wait to share more on page building with you later this year, and we’re excited to get page templates into your hands today. For more details on how to start using page templates today, check out our Webflow University article.

3 Likes

Hey @matthewpmunger
I think this is actually a huge step of Webflow to make it a real competitor to CMSs like Typo3, Drupal etc.
Its really important for clients to be able to create new pages and fill them with pre-designed components.

I have a question/concern I want to talk about though:
I think it will be crucial to have a “dynamic navigation”, where we can create a navigation that automatically creates a new link in the nav when you create a new page as an Editor.
→ Are you people at Webflow already thinking about something like this?

My concern is that even if the feature-set of page templates is very good, if there is no dynamic navigation, it will remain basically useless for clients who use the Editor mode to create new pages on their website. Because they will still have to call our agency just to create a new link in the navigation.

I know that a dynamic navigation can be quite a complex thing to create for Webflow, but I think it will be very important for the success of page templates.

I’m very excited to see more of this later this year!
Best regards – a longstanding Webflow fan :sparkles:

2 Likes

That’s a good question/topic. While there is no planned “dynamic navigation” element as you’ve described it, there is a way in the near future to design this workflow for a client with a combination of Page Templates, Page Building mode (upcoming), and Component Slots (upcoming, you will be able to create a way for clients to handle updating the navigation.

Example:

  • Client uses a page template to create a new page in page building mode.
  • Client adds a navlink (component) to a component slot in the navigation
  • Client edits link and text label props on the new navlink to point to the new page
  • Client publishes site to push the new page and navigation live

Your suggestion for a Dynamic Navigation advanced element is an interesting one and reminds me of how some website builders for DIY (do it yourself) business work.

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I agree with @Schuschi_Eyes without dynamically populated navigation this moves the ability of Editors to create pages from ‘great’ to ‘kinda, ok’… The biggest hurdle for most design agencies in getting clients to switch to WebFlow is the inability for clients to do things almost all other CMS’ do (.e.g build pages) without needing to learn the Designer. Every platform I can think of (from Squarespace and Wix to WordPress and Drupal) has dynamically populated navigation. I’m not sure why WebFlow seems to move so slowly on tools that would help design agencies move clients away from other platforms and onto WebFlow.

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Hi @matthewpmunger
I was just working on a project and while working on the navigation, your post came back to my mind.

I tried to use the Slot element to make adding/removing nav-links easier. I realized though that when I add a nav-link-component into the slot, then of course it will not be synced/added to all the other navigation instances.

Do you have an idea how I could handle/solve this?
(or should I wait for october 15th to see more on this? :wink:)

Unfortunately looks like there’s still no dynamic navigation. I’ve received lots of work-around suggestions (components/slots, CMS, etc) but they all seem unsustainable or awkward/cumbersome (especially for clients used to other CMS’ where this has never been an issue). How does it make sense to add Page Building but no easy way for ‘Marketers’ to add the pages they’ve created to a site wide nav?

This is the last barrier for us in getting clients to switch to WebFlow, but based on progress to date I fear it won’t be coming soon. But I’ll keep pushing for it :)

Not sure why folks/WebFlow feel this is so complicated or difficult to build into the nav element when it’s been standard across numerous other platforms for decades. Could even make it a new Element option (Dynamic Nav) while keeping the existing manual version as well.

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Yeah I guess we have to wait at least half a year to hear something new on this :frowning:
Lets just hope this will not be the CMS-Slider scenario 2.0 :joy:

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I’m going to keep on pushing for it via the Forum, Wishlist, and email… hoping WebFlow folks will eventually catch on!

1 Like