Items in Content Workflow are quite different from a traditional document, so it can be useful to know some of the details before you get started.

To add content to an item, the item first needs a structure or template. If your item doesn't yet have this, check out our article on adding structure to an item.

When your item has a structure or template applied, you'll notice that the item is broken down into a series of fields. This is where you create your content. Each field has a label, some field guidelines, and may have a word or character limit. This helps authors write the content you need in the format that's needed.

The field type and field label let the author know what content is required to be added to this field. Instructions underneath a field provide extra clarity.

As you type, the content is regularly being saved. You can see this at the bottom-right of the item.

You will be able to see who made the content edits, what content has changed and when the change was made in your revision history.

1. Open the Revision history of an item, by clicking the Settings menu.

By default, you'll see the most recent changes on the item, which are contained in the latest revision.

2. Click the time and date of the revision you'd like to see the changes for.

Note: Depending on which plan you subscribe to, you may only be able to see limited revision history. For details on that, you can check our pricing page here. If you'd like to upgrade to access unlimited revision history, here's how to do that 👍

Each revision shows the changes between the selected version, and the earlier save version. Changes made by one person will be shown together in one revision entry. You can see who made edits as part of a revision by the users' avatars. You can also see the workflow status of the item at each save point, indicated by the status' respective colour.

Changes between the two versions will be highlighted to make it easier to see what’s been edited. Removed content or assets will be highlighted in red, and content or assets that have been added will be highlighted in green.

Content style changes will also be highlighted in purple. Comments count as content style changes due to the yellow mark tags that are added, so any comments added will be shown as purple in the revision history.

You may exit the revision history view (and head back to the item itself) by pressing the 'back' arrow in the top left.
​

You can collaborate on an item in real-time with your team. If anyone else is editing the item, you'll see their circular avatar shown at the top right.

The coloured circle around their avatar will also be visible by their pointer, which will show that person's location on the page, so you can keep track of any edits they're making.

Assigning people to an item is a good way of letting them know they are responsible for it. People assigned to an item will receive notifications if it is nearing its due date (or if it's overdue) and will by default be selected to be notified when its status is changed.
​
Items assigned to someone will be displayed on their project overview page and will be highlighted in the content hub.

1. From inside the item you want to assign people to, click the People dropdown.

2. Click the plus icon to add someone and use the search box to find them. Assign them to the item by selecting their name.

Select the items you want to assign people to. They should appear highlighted once selected.

​Tip: You can hold 'Shift' on the keyboard to select multiple items.

From the toolbar at the bottom of the page, select 'Assign people'.

Choose the people you want to assign, or search them by name. Click 'Assign' to save.

1. From inside the item you want to unassign people from, click the People dropdown.

2. Hover over the name of the person you want to unassign, and click 'Unassign'.
​

Here's how you can remove all assignees from multiple items at once:

1. Head to the content hub.

2. Select the items you want to un-assign people from. They should appear highlighted once selected.
​
You can hold 'Shift' on the keyboard to select multiple items.

3. From the toolbar at the bottom of the page, select 'Assign people'.

4. Click 'Remove all' to remove all assignees.

Here's how you can copy an existing item in Content Workflow. These can be kept in the same project, or copied to another in your Content Workflow account.

1. From the content hub, select the item you want to duplicate by clicking into it directly.

2. From inside the item, click the settings menu (three dots symbol).
3. From the list, select 'Duplicate item'.

The page will be re-loaded and you'll be inside the duplicated item. The item's content will be duplicated, but any comments from the previous item will not be.

The duplicated item will be located immediately after the original item on the content hub and will be in your first workflow status.
​

1. Go to the content hub in the main navigation.

2. Select the items you'd like to copy. They should appear highlighted once selected. You can hold 'Shift' on the keyboard to select multiple items.

Tip: If you want to do this for ALL items in a project, click on the 'All items' folder on the left sidebar. Select an item, and then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Then click 'Select all' from the toolbar.

3. From the toolbar at the bottom of the page, select 'Copy items'.

4. Choose the project from the dropdown box, that you'd like to copy these items to. This can be another project in your Content Workflow account.

5. Press 'Confirm' to copy the items.

You can format your content in rich text fields (not plain text fields). You can find the formatting toolbar at the top of the content editor.

Tip: You must be active in a field before you can apply formatting.

The formatting toolbar contains all the formats you'll need to craft your item. You can select different heading styles and block quotes, as well as bold, underlined, italics and strikethrough. Bullets, ordered lists, tables and hyperlinks are also accessible from the toolbar. There's a clear formatting option to remove any currently applied styles.

Any content that you paste into a Content Workflow field will have the unnecessary styling removed, so you're left with content with clean HTML applied to it, ready for export into another system.

Tip: Add en and em dashes to your content by typing two hyphens (--) and three hyphens (---) respectively.

You can add a hyperlink to text using the formatting bar. Links will be applied to any selected text. Alternatively, if you have no text selected, you'll be given the option to add text when creating a link. This new text will be inserted at your current caret location.
​
By default, links will be set to open in a new tab/window. You can turn this off by clicking on the 'new window' button. All hyperlinks should be added with a http(s):// at the beginning e.g. https://mylink.com

Tip: Hyperlinks set to open in a new tab/window will have target=“_blank” and rel=“noopener no referrer” attributes in the HTML. These have been added to strengthen the security of the target="_blank"attribute.
​
If you prefer not to have these attributes added to the HTML, we recommend making your hyperlink open in the same tab/window instead.

Once a link has been set, you can click on it to edit it. You'll be shown the URL that has been set, as well as if it opens in a new tab/window. You can also quickly copy the URL to your clipboard.

You can view and copy the HTML of content fields in an item, or for the whole item, to edit later on when adding this content to your CMS.

1. From within the item, click the Settings menu.

2. From the dropdown, click 'View HTML'.

3. You have two options of HTML to copy: 'Copy raw HTML' and 'Copy formatted HTML'.

Click 'Copy formatted HTML' to make your HTML output easier to read. The HTML will contain additional lines around new tags, and each field is separated.

Tip: We recommend that you make any edits to the HTML in your CMS.

You can view the shortcuts by clicking the keyboard icon at the bottom left of an item page.

At the bottom of your item, you'll see the word or character counts. To change between words and characters, click the current word or character count to switch between them.

Tip: If you want to know how to set a word or character limit for a field on an item, check out this article.