New symbols ❤️ not editable for Editor Role !?

Hey guys,
I’m not sure if this is a new thing but I can’t remember ever having had this problem:

The editor role can’t edit the contents of symbols. In this case it’s the USP section “Warum Vilgertshofer & Bona?” just before the footer.

Is this an actual issue or is there a new permission I’d have to set?

Thanks a lot!


https://vilgertshofer.webflow.io/

Here is my site Read-Only.

Have you manually ticked the “collaborators can edit this element” box, in the element’s settings?

image

I haven’t tested it myself, but upon looking at my projects it seems that anything within a symbol is unticked by default.

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Yes, spot on @Andy_Vaughan, this has been noted in our team so that we can review feeedback.

The reason for this is to make it clearer which elements have overrides, and which elements contain static content. If an element does not have an override bound to it, one can assume that a designer wouldn’t want to allow the element to be edited.

It would likely be confusing for a content editor to edit some text on their site, and see that it updates everywhere (static element) and then update some other text (overriden content) and it only changes that one instance.

We’re happy to hear to feedback on this, as of course we’re still in the BETA phase of symbol overrides.

To confirm, even if an element had the “Collaborators can edit this element” checked, once it’s converted or added to a symbol, then it’s unchecked.

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OK, thanks for the update @magicmark.

Just asking: Was there a note anywhere about this? I tend to follow your news closely but this seems new to me.

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One more thing:

I think the better (also kinda obvious) solution (instead of disallowing by default) might be a little note for the editor, that they’re about to edit a symbol, which will reflect its changes on pages A, B and C.

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There was a “Since you’ve been gone” note about the symbol overrides being launched, but not specifically around the checkbox.

I agree with @Tobi_Huber, it might have been clearer to keep the same behavior… and have the designer just uncheck the symbol edition if he doesn’t want the editor to go crazy on content edition.

Quick question, does that mean all symbols, on all sites previously developed have now this behavior? Because I’ve been using symbols to let editors edit all sorts of usually unaccessible content in the editor… This would mean I need to go check on all those sites and check the box for each element contained within a symbol ?

Thanks for your advice on this

In my experience: YES. I have the same problem now.

:sob: this is going to be amazingly time consuming.
For most of my clients, they have a dashboard in a draft page to edit all symbols… Some containing insane amounts of items… :sob:

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And don’t forget: There’s not ONE checkbox for the whole symbol… you have to check every editable item separately … have fun!

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@magicmark is there anyway that webflow would correct this ? or at least allow for the checkbox to work for a whole symbol in that case ? Changing stuff like that is actually a huge deal… for the designers and the clients they design for.

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This caused an issue for me today. I had trained the client in a certain case to make the update in one place and expect to have it change all instances. A public survey was set to end today and the client was unable to make the needed edit to close down access. Thankfully it was a fairly easy fix for me in this case but would be a real bummer to have many symbols and nested elements to go and fix.

Is there any more information on when this is getting fixed as, like @pepperclip, this is a huge deal for me too.

Symbols are awesome. Thank you @Andy_Vaughan .

This override box is quite hidden, under element settings at the very bottom. I hadn’t a clue this was even an option until a client found they couldn’t edit something. It’d be great if it where designed and / or positioned somewhere designers would know about from the start.

Thanks @magicmark !

WHAT!? While I see it’s purpose, it’s a huge obstacle in so many cases.

This explains why my client still can’t edit despite having checked that box…seems I did it for the div and not the whole symbol as I’d assumed. This is not a great system.

I have checked this box and still cannot edit the symbol content in the editor. I have my client’s hours of operation in the footer which is a symbol and she cannot go in to edit the hours on her own. This seems a bit silly.

Hi @kyleP89

Can you try unchecking the checkbox, checking it again and re-publishing? This temporary workaround should solve the editing issue.

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I ended up having to check every individual element that I wanted editable. Not a big deal at all. Just a little ambiguous to find the solution. Thanks!

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I have still an issue how to make a form button and input editable within a symbol, there is no checkbox like with other elements. Any ideas?

Suggestion: give us a global setting to choose between the two options.

I can see my projects fall under both scenarios depending on the design.

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