Making basic edits in Contentful

We use a tier system to explain the types of changes that different teams are able to make to content in Contentful. At the moment, content managers are able to make tier 1 changes. These are usually simple tasks relating to content maintenance, but are further split into what we call tier 1A and tier 1B edits.

In the first instance, teams will have permissions in the CMS to make tier 1A changes, but are able to request the ability to make tier 1B changes if there is demonstrable need.

Below you’ll find a cheat sheet to explain how to make some of the most common tier 1A and 1B edits along with a few basics to bear in mind before you get editing.

Before you get started, it’d be worth reading:

1. our guide to creating content in Contentful for some technical information about how the CMS works

2. this explainer about content status, because all content in Contentful is reusable and if the page or component you’re changing is being referenced by another webpage, any changes you make (for example to an existing image or CTA button) will also make changes to that other page too, which isn’t always what we want!

The basics

• It’s incredibly easy to add and edit content in Contentful, but it saves everything for you as you work. This means if you accidentally change something, it will automatically be saved (although not published), so do make edits with care.

• Be descriptive when you name content. For example, 'Donation button’ would be an example of bad naming - just think how many donate buttons we have in the system that all do slightly different things - but ‘September 2024 appeal’ would be a lot clearer.

• Always check a component’s ‘Links’ section in the righthand sidebar. If there is any other content listed there, whatever you are editing is being used somewhere else and your changes will affect that too! If you don’t want to edit everywhere that this content is used, unlink the current component from your page and create a new one instead.

• You must clean any text that you are pasting into the rich text editor - this is especially important if your copy is coming from Word! This stops it bringing across any strange and hidden formatting that can affect the code and look strange in the front end when you publish your edits. To clean text, use CTRL + Shift + V on Windows or Command + Shift + V on a Mac when pasting it in. You’ll know it’s work as any formatting will disappear and you’ll have to add it back in manually.

• Preview your edits as you go by clicking the ‘Preview page’ button that sits under the ‘Full path’ field. Sometimes it can take a few minutes for preview to update and show changes being made.

Making common tier 1A edits

This covers making basic copy updates, making basic edits to components and assemblies, changing and adding links, changing and adding images, changing and adding PDFs, updating event info, and updating shop info.

Making common tier 1B edits

This covers adding new download components, adding call to action buttons, and adding videos into your content.