Sitecore XM Cloud Editor: A Deep Dive into Features and Functionality

Sitecore has consistently stood out as a powerful and versatile platform for editors. The choice between Sitecore Experience Editor and Sitecore Pages can significantly impact their editing workflow efficiency and content creation experience.

What is Sitecore Pages?

In short, Sitecore Pages is Sitecore’s new editing experience introduced with XM Cloud. It is a fully SaaS front-end application that you use to build pages. The benefit for marketers is that it makes your content creation and editing experience easier, faster, and more consistent.

Sitecore Pages: Unraveling the Advanced Editor

Unlike Experience Editor, Sitecore Pages takes the editing experiences to another level by providing editors with a dynamic and structured content creation environment.

Benefits of Sitecore Pages

Structured Content Authoring: A Foundation for Consistency

Sitecore Pages offers a structured approach to content creation, allowing editors to define content components and layouts in a modular fashion. This structured approach enhances consistency across a website and ensures a cohesive user experience.

You can use the predefined layouts and components that come with Sitecore Pages or customize them to suit your needs. You can also use the Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) modules to introduce additional functionality, such as variants or advanced styling.

Content Reusability: Enhancing Efficiency

Editors can create reusable content blocks and templates, promoting consistency throughout the website. This feature is particularly beneficial for large websites with multiple sections and pages, ensuring uniformity in design and messaging.

Creating Modular Content Components:

Sitecore Pages allow editors to break content down into modular components. These components can range from text blocks and images to interactive widgets. By creating these modular pieces, editors can assemble them like building blocks, ensuring uniformity and consistency across the website. This modular approach simplifies content creation, enabling editors to focus on crafting compelling narratives without getting bogged down by repetitive tasks.

Designing Customizable Templates:

With Sitecore Pages, editors have the flexibility to design customizable templates. These templates serve as frameworks, defining the structure and style of content. Editors can embed various content modules within these templates, tailoring them to specific needs. This customization empowers editors to maintain brand coherence while adapting content for diverse purposes, whether a product description, a blog post, or a landing page.

Enabling Global Content Localization:

Sitecore Pages' content reusability capabilities extend to localization efforts. Editors can create content modules that are language-neutral and culturally adaptable. These modules can then be repurposed for different regions or target audiences, allowing efficient localization without compromising quality or consistency. This feature is invaluable for businesses aiming to connect with diverse audiences on a global scale.

Integrated Digital Asset Management: Streamlining Multimedia Content

Sitecore has bridged the gap between content creation and asset management by integrating Sitecore Pages Editor and Sitecore Content Hub (note: Content Hub is a separately licensed product), particularly its Digital Asset Management (DAM) module.

Sitecore Content Hub’s DAM is a centralized repository for multimedia assets such as images, videos, and graphics. By seamlessly integrating with Sitecore Pages Editor, content creators can access this rich media library directly from the editing interface. This direct access eliminates the need to switch between different platforms, streamlining the content creation process. Editors can simply drag and drop high-quality assets from Sitecore Content Hub into their pages, ensuring a visually engaging user experience without the hassle of manual uploads and downloads.

Content creators can use intuitive search functionalities to locate specific assets based on metadata, keywords, or categories. This rapid access to the right visuals enhances productivity, allowing editors to focus on crafting compelling narratives rather than spending valuable time searching for suitable media elements.

Versioned Editing: Collaborative Content Development

Sitecore Pages introduces the concept of parallel versions, allowing multiple editors to work on the same page simultaneously. This groundbreaking feature enables collaborative content creation without the risk of overwriting each other's changes. Editors can initiate parallel versions, ensuring that their modifications remain isolated until they are ready to be merged into the main version. This collaborative framework enhances team productivity and facilitates real-time collaboration among editors.

Through a clear version history, reviewers can track changes, comments, and annotations made by multiple contributors. This transparent approach to version management enhances communication, ensures accuracy, and expedites the approval workflow, saving valuable time and minimizing errors.

Sitecore Pages' Versioned Editing capabilities include efficient rollback and revision control features. In the event of errors or unsatisfactory changes, editors can easily revert to previous versions, restoring the content to its desired state, allowing editors to experiment with innovative ideas while knowing they can effortlessly revert to a known, stable version if necessary.

Driving Innovation in Content Management

Sitecore Pages, with its array of innovative features and capabilities, represents a transformative step forward in the realm of content creation. Its structured content authoring, content reusability, integration with Sitecore Content Hub, and Versioned Editing make it an indispensable tool for editors striving to deliver exceptional digital experiences.

From creating modular content components to streamlining multi-channel publishing, from centralizing asset management to enabling version control and collaboration, Sitecore Pages empowers content creators with efficiency, precision, and the ability to craft outstanding content experiences.