On all my sites (as a Site Admin/Manager), I’m not able to access the new Edit Mode. There is no “Edit” option in the dropdown on the top-left of the Designer; I only have “Design” or “Build”. I do not have an “Editing” or “Designing” dropdown options on the top-right of the Designer (as shown in the WebFlow Tutorials).
If I give myself a “Content Editor” role in Site Settings then I’m able to view in “Edit Mode”
I’m so confused, how do I test if things are working for Edit Mode if I can’t access it as a Site Admin?! Do I have to switch my role back and forth just to test Edit Mode?
I believe you can go to Site settings and you will find a button in the top right side as “Editor” which you can click to go to the Edit view for the site accordingly. Hope this helps.
I’ve just raised this question with some of my dev friends in Webflow.
First, you’re probably looking at old videos, that mode control is now top left.
Yes it’s a bit odd to me that the Site manager and Designer roles can only see Build mode, and not Edit mode. I think the idea is that Build mode does everything edit mode does, plus offers the page building functionality.
Here you can see Edit mode is distinct, and intentionally hidden from higher level roles.
In general, Build mode should work well for your testing, I think it does everything Edit mode does, plus a bit more. Key differences I notice are in Edit mode there’s no left nav at all. Everything is really done on the canvas, and there would be no “marketer role” features like build a new page from a page template. Simply editing text, links, images…
That said I’d like to see Edit mode accessible to Site managers, so that I can do videos for clients and show them the mode they’ll actually be working with.
Thanks for your thoughts—I agree 100% on all fronts. As you say, would be nice to be able to show clients during training what their experience may be if they are using the Editor. One idea I have is to create a ‘dummy’ Content Editor role on my workspace and log into that as needed—not ideal but one work around I guess!
You should be able to preview exactly what a client editor will see in edit mode, especially as the legacy editor is soon to be dropped (delayed to 2026).
The additional permissions/features in build mode make it unclear what exactly an edit mode user will be able to control/see.
Any updates or statements from the Webflow devs on this oversight? Because I’m stuck with the same grievance that others have been stuch on, trying to preview the Edit Mode for a client, but not being able to because I can’t access it as a Site admin.
I’m guessing the workaround here would be to use the CMS Plan to add an editor? Or am I overthinking this? What would be the best way to preview the actual Edit Mode that clients will face, when I haven’t even transferred the site to the client?
Ideally, I would want to capture a video or craft and overview before doing that, so that the client can immediately start with the CMS content or add items to it.
Any workflow or plan that enables that? I’m open to just paying a month of a plan for my specific site, just so I can simulate the client editing experience.
Because additionally, I’m trying to figure out what Plan gives me the ability to add content editors, information that states the CMS Plan gets 3 content editor seats is already outdated from a year ago.
Because all it says on the pricing page is, I get 3 legacy Editor users. Which probably refers to these 3 Content Editor roles I mentioned earlier. So where can I get insight into what I have to do (or pay) to add a content editor with access to the new edit mode to my CMS Plan site?
At this point limited seats are what you want- the half-price ones.
You could purchase a limited seat, connect it to a different email, then login to capture your videos from a separate browser Chrome profile.
Then downgrade your temp account to Reviewer when you’re ready and invite your client using that same limited seat. You can reassign them pretty easily.
You won’t need that limited seat anymore once Webflow releases client seats, so you can tell your client it’s a short-term additional cost.
ALSO
Your CMS site plan will have 3 legacy seats, but if you use them then they will all get converted to limited seats once limited seats is launched.
OPTION 2
Setup a separate workspace for your client’s site, and invite yourself as a freelancer/agency guest. You’ll have full access and they’ll also have a full designer account.
This is the old way of doing it, and has advantages and disadvantages. Just make sure your client has already paid you,and that you keep a backup of the site in case they destroy it inadvertently.
@memetican Thanks for taking the time! So to access the new editor experience, I have to add a limited seat if I understood that correctly? Or is that new editor not accessible by regular folk yet?
Because explaining the new editor right away is making the most sense to me. To not create two seperate explainer videos for both the Legacy Editor and the new Editor simultaneously. That will overwhelm new users pretty fast.
That’s the easiest way, but you might contract support. I know that the Webflow team is working very hard to ship the client seats feature as soon as possible, so if you did a limited seat you wouldn’t need it for long.
Definitely setup and configure your standard legacy seats though that you want, so they get migrated when client seats is launched.