Webflow can do lots of things but it is – like most things in life - not perfect. There are is a long wish list of features users are keen to see implemented. You can find the official wish list here: https://wishlist.webflow.com/ And while Webflow works on big changes and improvements to their platform (some of the most recent feature announcements can be viewed here: https://webflow.com/blog/no-code-conf-2021-announcements), there are often little things that would make your life much easier while using Webflow. To alleviate some of these issues, a US company called Finsweet has now released a neat little Chrome extension which I want introduce you to in this article.
What is the Finsweet Chrome Extension?
The Finsweet Chrome extension is as the name says an extension you can add for free to your Chrome browser. It adds additional functionality to the Webflow Designer (Webflow's backend). You can download it for free in the Google Chrome Store.
What can I do with it?
I am not going to list all the available features and functionality here, but will highlight some of the items that are most beneficial to me and my work as a Webflow Designer:
- Unbind CMS bindings
Webflow has a fantastic CMS (content management system) which lets you easily update dynamic content on your page such as blog posts or team members. Oftentimes while building or upgrading your Webflow site you might want to make things easier for yourself and copy certain CMS collections from one CMS collection page to another page. For example you might want to also use your "related articles" collection on a separate page, not only on your blog template page. In order to do this you would need to first remove all the CMS bindings (references to content in your CMS collection) before you are able to copy the collection over. You will then need to reconnect all the CMS bindings again on your destination page. The Finsweet extension helps by unbinding any CMS collection with the click of a button. While you still have to reconnect the CMS items once you have copied them over, you save yourself lots of time by not having to dig into each element to disconnect it manually. This huge time saver was especially beneficial to me when working on sites with lots of CMS collections. You can find one such example in my portfolio.
- 301 Bulk Redirects
You might have to implement redirects when links on your site have changed and you still want users to find the site via external links such as on social media or Google search results. Previously you had to manually enter the redirect URLs to your site settings – with the Finsweet Chrome extension you are able to import a CSV file (which can be exported from Excel or a similar program) with all the redirect URLs, saving yourself a whole lot of time. Nice!
- Reorder items
Finsweet now lets you reorder your symbols, swatches, CSS styles and interactions inside the Webflow Designer. While this is a mainly cosmetic feature that doesn't actually change the functionality of your site, it can help you keep things organised and work quicker within Webflow's user interface.
- Remove breakpoints
Webflow made additional, larger breakpoints available, however to be honest, these are usually not something that is very practical in real life as you have to style them separately from your regular desktop, tablet and mobile ones. The problem however that presents itself at times is that you might accidentally activate those breakpoints at the top of the screen in the Webflow Designer and you are not able to remove these again manually. With the Finsweet extension you are able to do just that!
- Attributes
This is a treasure trove of extended functionality for Webflow. Finsweet's extension lets you implement custom scripts that help with things like allowing several nested CMS collections, easily creating next/previous buttons for CMS collection pages and more. Keep in mind that most of these features are driven through custom code (oftentimes JS), so there is the potential to interfere with other aspects of your site and to increase page load times.
Have a look through the Finsweet extension yourself (or ask your Designer to do so) and look at some of the features outlined above (and at some others I have not mentioned here), as it might actually save quite some time and make things easier inside Webflow. Questions? Want to work with me? Get in touch with me!
