17. July 2022 by Kamil Kuzminski Categories: Tips & Tricks, Useful extensions

Manage content in Contao faster

Tip #1: the best duo ever – mouse and keyboard

If you are, like me, tired of pointing the mouse cursor exactly over the small edit icon of each row, I have great news for you! In Contao, you can edit the record by clicking directly on it with a pressed [Control] key (or [Cmd] for Mac):

That would be the same as if you clicked the yellow pencil button on that row. If you click on a news article, it will take you to its content element list.

But what if you would want to change the news article settings? You can use the very same technique, but you have to press the [Control]+[Shift] combination ([Cmd]+[Shift] on Mac) while clicking on the row.

Tip #2: keyboard shortcuts

Contao has plenty of keyboard shortcuts built-in. They come really handy, especially if you are more used to your keyboard than your mouse. Our favorites are:

[Control]+[Option]+[n] on Mac / [Alt]+[n] on Windows – creates a new record;
[Control]+[Option]+[f] on Mac / [Alt]+[f] on Windows – opens the frontend preview;
[Control]+[Option]+[c] on Mac / [Alt]+[c] on Windows – saves and closes a record (edit mode only);
[Control]+[Option]+[n] on Mac / [Alt]+[n] on Windows – saves and creates a record (edit mode only);
[Control]+[Option]+[d] on Mac / [Alt]+[d] on Windows – saves and duplicates a record (edit mode only).

You can find a complete list of keyboard shortcuts in the official Contao documentation. Each browser and operating system handle the access keys differently; for more information, see the MDN docs.

Tip #3: override multiple records at once

You are most likely aware of the "edit multiple" option. But did you know there is also the "override multiple" option?

This is a fantastic yet under-estimated tool, which allows for quick overwriting of selected data in multiple records. For example:

add the same default image pixel densities for all page layouts in your system;
enable WEBP image conversion in all of your image sizes;
set the same (fallback) image for multiple news articles;
show/hide numerous content elements;
assign multiple members/users to the same group;
update various pages, so they are no longer visible in the navigation.

Override multiple would allow you to modify all of the desired records while setting the field value only once!

Tip #4: select multiple checkboxes at once

One of the lesser-known tricks in the Contao backend is selecting multiple checkboxes at once. Of course, there is a checkbox for that named "Select all", but what if you'd want to select only a range of checkboxes, say half of the list?

You can easily do that by:

clicking the first checkbox you want to select,
pressing and holding the [Shift] key,
clicking the last checkbox you want to select.

Here is a little demonstration:

Tip #5: edit content directly in the frontend

One of the best Contao extensions for content editing is definitely the RockSolid Front end Helper. It allows you to edit the content directly from the front end, so you no longer have to dig through site structure, articles, and content elements to reach the editor.

After you install it, you can go to your user profile settings and enable its features: