Get Early Access
Skip to main content
Welcome to The Bookshelf Support Center
< All Topics
Print

Outline Tool

Posted
Updated
ByChelsea Morning

The Outline tool is located in the left-side menu of the Page Builder, and it shows a structured, hierarchical view of all the Elements on your page in basic text form. Think of it as a “table of contents” for your page layout—it helps you see everything at a glance and understand how the sections, rows, columns, and all Elements within them are organized per page of your site.

Screenshot example showing Outline tool selected and open inside website builder, with a section of books selected in the builder's previewer window.

How the Outline Works

Every section, row, column, or Element on the page you currently have open in the Builder appears as an individual item in the Outline. Nested elements (for example, a paragraph inside a column, which is inside a row) are displayed as indented items underneath their "parent" container. Anything listed as indented and underneath their parent container can be considered "children" of that parent, and are labeled as such:

Screenshot demonstrating how the Outline hierarchy is organized, with a sample Row selected to show the Row's associated Children, which are two headings, a paragraph, and a column element.

Clicking on an item in the Outline navigates you to and highlights that Element directly within the page you're editing. That way you can locate and select any Element quickly and with ease.

In order to edit the selected Element in your Outline, click the kebab menu next to the name of the Element, then select Edit. This will take you out of the Outline and into the Edit tool instead so you can make your changes:

Screenshot demonstrating how the kebab menu next to any element listed in the Outline can be clicked to open the Edit option for that element.

Best Ways to Use Outline

Though you can't (yet!) click and drag Sections or Elements in your Outline to move those same sections or Elements on the actual page of your website itself, the Outline is still a great tool for understanding and organizing the entire hierarchy of your content at a glance. It also helps you navigate to certain parts of your page quickly by jumping directly to any selected part of a page without scrolling.

The Outline tool can also help to select those Elements that may be harder to hover over and click with with your mouse in the viewer itself, such as background images or parent containers hiding behind lots of other Elements. So if you're trying to edit something that you just can't seem to land on, head to the Outline to access it in a different way.

By working on your site at this bird's-eye level, you can also more efficiently find, duplicate, and delete Elements or entire sections. To delete or duplicate a selected Element, you'll click on the corresponding icons that appear in the upper right corner of the Element when it's selected within the viewer.

Think of the Outline as a handy additional tool to your site Builder. While not necessary to use to achieve your preferred customization, this "map" of the page you're currently working on will help you to keep everything organized, easily accessible, and can help make any editing you do both faster and less error-prone.

Table of Contents