CMS 3 Online Editor

Elements CMS
1

I think I may be missing something?? Is it possible to start creating a new blog and set the status to draft so that it does not get published until finished and once finished change the status to publish. I dont appear to be able to see anyway within the online editor to do this. Thanks

2

@philG, You’re not missing a publish button you’re supposed to see — Elements does support drafts, but it’s driven by the post’s frontmatter status, and the online editor doesn’t always make that obvious.

Yes, you can start a post as a draft and only show it when it’s ready.

In the post metadata (YAML at the top of the Markdown file), set:

status: draft

While you’re writing. When it’s finished, change it to:

status: published

Collections default to showing Published only, so drafts stay off the live blog list until you flip that.

If you can’t find a Status control in the online editor, try editing the frontmatter in Elements on the Mac (or wherever you can see the raw Markdown metadata). That’s the reliable place to set it. Once it’s published, republish/sync as you normally would and it should appear.

Bonus tip: future date values are also hidden by default, so you can use that for scheduled posts as well.

3

Hi - Sorry im using the cms3 online editor. Is the info you’ve posted relevant to that or for the actual elements editor within the elements program? As you can see that’s all I see when creating a new post. thanks

CleanShot 2026-08-07 at 09.24.01@2x
CleanShot 2026-08-07 at 09.24.01@2x3310Ă—1764 187 KB

4

Yes — that applies to the CMS 3 Online Editor as well. Draft isn’t a separate Publish button; it’s the frontmatter field status.

The free Online Editor UI usually only shows title/date/tags/author, so you won’t see a Status dropdown.

Switch the post to Markdown/source view and add status: draft under the other metadata at the top. When it’s ready, change it to status: published.

Example:
-–

title: My post

date: 2026-08-07

author: Phil

status: draft

-–

Collections show Published only by default, so drafts stay hidden until you flip that.

5

If that does not work

  • Edit that .md file once in editor on your machine (or see a template post that already has status: draft) so the field exists.

  • Or, on Pro, use Custom Frontmatter to add a Status field to the editor UI (Online Editor pricing/features).

  • Workaround without status: set a future date — Collections hide future-dated items by default.

6

@philG,

You can configure the Frontmatter fields, so it’s a drop down select and by default it’s set to “Draft”, I recorded a quick video showing how to do it.

7

Perfect thank you so much