Request: Variables and 'template' areas

It would be SO nice to have variables implemented in to Webflow. Instead of having to change the color of a bunch of different elements, just changing the variable color would be AWESOME. I realize I could just do a class for that color- but thats cumbersome if I want to target different elements, like background color, text color, etc.

Also, template areas that can be used in different pages. Just recently I edited a nav bar on my home page but it does not change on all my sub pages. Is there a way that I can do this now?

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Yeah @MikeStvnsn we’ve been thinking of that on day one! We’re thinking about calling them Global Swatches or something like that. But the idea is to make swatches a lot more useful.

Also, template areas that can be used in different pages. Just recently I edited a nav bar on my home page but it does not change on all my sub pages. Is there a way that I can do this now?

We’re actually releasing this feature soon.

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@thesergie - Ok, I’m tossing off this related thought admittedly without thinking it through to see if it actually even makes sense, but… have you thought about what a SASS implementation might look like in webflow?

@ramatsu SASS and LESS make web design so much faster with the use of mixins and variables. We’re always thinking about ways to incorporate similar concepts into Webflow to make web design faster than ever.

@thesergie - glad to hear you are looking at that, it’s hard to imagine building any significantly-sized “production-ready website” without SASS or LESS.

I hope that your eventual solution uses actual SASS or LESS vs. building similar capabilities into a proprietary Webflow format, so that when exporting a site it’s production maintainable out of the box. (Oh, and just personal preference, if you launch with just one at first, my vote is for SASS :slight_smile:

And now that I’ve had a chance to think about it, man - Webflow would be the ideal SASS realtime compiler!

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Just checking on this. Any update on “global styles”? It would be heavenly to be able to change one color variable and have it modify multiple locations across a site. A user interface for SASS/LESS… Oh yes.

+1 on that, it would be really helpful for all of us. @webflow can you guys throw some light on any progress on this feature? It’s being requested for a long time in a few places, not only here. And yes, your product is still awesome :smile:

First-class CSS Variables are coming now. They are already supported in the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

LESS and SASS are both nice, but even if it were just a Webflow-only feature compiled to plain CSS (without real support for SASS or LESS), I would be really happy. I don’t personally care about LESS or SASS per se, just about the support for variables and parameterized styles (via mixins). A supercharged swatch feature seems like a great way to implement that!

Even though the generated CSS might be more complex, you would only deal with that if you used that advanced feature. Then when variables and mixins have reached broad enough support, Webflow can just use the native solution and the generated code will get cleaner almost for free.

Cheers, and thanks for all the great updates so far!