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dotCMS Launches Real-Time Canvas for Faster, In-Context Visual Editing

dotCMS

The release targets the editing friction that slows content teams down: layout changes that require a separate tool or a developer ticket, simple updates that mean opening a full content form, and editors that offer no way to zoom in on dense components or pull back for a full-page view. That friction compounds — editors who find the tool cumbersome publish less, iterate less, and defer more to developers, slowing go-to-market across the organization.

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What's New

  • Layout management inside UVE. Through the Content Palette's Layers panel, editors see the full hierarchical structure of a page — rows and columns — and drag to reorder sections visually. Content and widgets drag from the palette directly into containers. Layout work that previously required separate tools or developer involvement is now available to content authors in the same environment where they edit.

  • Quick Edit panel. A lightweight sidebar surfaces the most frequently edited fields — title, image, caption, links — without opening a full content form. On headless pages, changes appear in the canvas immediately as you type, with a debounced auto-save writing to the backend. The full editor stays one click away.

  • Canvas Zoom. Editors can scale the canvas from 10% to 300% — zooming in for precision work on dense layouts, zooming out for full-page composition review. Collapsible panels maximize canvas space, and the current zoom level is always visible in the toolbar with a one-click reset.


Why It Matters

The target edit time with the Quick Edit panel is under 8 seconds for common updates, compared to 45 seconds with the previous workflow. For content editors, layout and content work now happen in the same place at a noticeably faster pace. For designers, canvas zoom means layout iteration at a comfortable scale without losing context. For teams managing high-volume page production, fewer reloads and faster editing mean more throughput with the same people.


Availability

The UVE Real-Time Canvas has shipped and is now available to dotCMS customers.


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