Craft CMS 5.5: Draft Mode for Nested Content and Media Previews
Craft CMS 5.5 introduces draft mode for nested elements, audio/video previews, and status indicators for unpublished changes - improving content review workflows.
Craft CMS 5.5 arrived this week. The standout change fixes something that quietly caught editors out on complex pages — plus there are media previews and a couple of small comforts.
Drafts that cover your whole page
The biggest change in 5.5 is how edits to nested content are handled. Previously, editing a block inside a flexible page — a testimonial, a feature panel — saved straight to the live entry, even while you were still working. In 5.5, editing one of those blocks creates a draft of the whole page instead.
For an owner, this closes a genuine risk: half-finished edits going live before anyone signed them off. Now a landing page full of testimonials, feature blocks, and product modules can be edited and reviewed as a complete draft, and only published when it's ready. Blocks with unpublished changes are flagged, so you can see at a glance which parts of a page still have edits waiting.
Audio and video previews
You can now play audio and video assets directly from edit screens instead of downloading them or opening another app. A quick way to confirm you've uploaded the right version before it goes out.
Smaller refinements
- Tidier cards — element cards with thumbnails look cleaner and more consistent, which is worth noting for sites that lean on card view for portfolios, team directories, or product catalogues.
- Sidebar stays put — a collapsed sidebar now stays collapsed between pages and slideouts. Small thing, but editors who prefer the extra screen space will appreciate not resetting it constantly.
Sources
Andrew is Technical Director at Mutual, a Craft CMS Partner agency. He has been building with Craft CMS since its public beta in 2012 — working through every major version from Craft 1 to Craft 5 — and has delivered over 100 sites for clients including Apple, Transparency International, and Arts University Bournemouth.
He writes about Craft CMS on the Mutual blog and has contributed to net Magazine. At Mutual, he leads development of Mutual One, a marketing platform built on Craft CMS as its foundation.
He has spoken about Craft CMS to undergraduate students at the University of Brighton and Canterbury Christ Church University, and appeared on the Devmode.fm podcast. He has also trained development teams at other agencies in working with the platform.
