---
title: "The page editor - Lentil docs"
description: "Edit text and photos right on the page, add ready-made sections, ask the AI for changes, preview on any device, and undo or restore earlier versions."
url: https://uselentil.com/docs/edit-and-publish
updated: 2026-11-13
site: "Lentil"
---

[Docs](https://uselentil.com/docs)

### Docs menuThe page editor

# The page editor

Change the words, photos and sections of a page right on the page, or describe the change and let the AI make it. Every change is saved as a draft, can be undone, and only reaches your visitors when you publish.

## Open a page

1. Open **Pages** in the sidebar of your site.
2. Press **Edit** on a page, or press the page's card or row. On the **Canvas** view, double-click a page.
3. The editor fills the window and shows the page the way visitors see it. Everything you need floats around it.

Screenshot: The editor on the Rosa's Bakery Home page with its bars and the AI chat.

The editor: the page in the middle, the controls around it.

| Where | What is there |
| --- | --- |
| Top left | The back arrow (**Back to pages**), the page name (press it to jump to another page), the page's state (**Draft**, **Published** or **Unpublished changes**), the save status, the **Visual** and **Code** tabs, and **Preview**. |
| Top right | The preview size (**Desktop**, **Tablet** or **Mobile**), a sun or moon button to see the site in light or dark mode, **Versions**, the publish button, and a **More page actions** menu. |
| Bottom left | The panel bar: **Pages**, **Add**, **Layers**, **Media**, **Brand** and **Page**. Next to it, **Undo** and redo. |
| Right | The AI chat. Press its close button to fold it into an **Ask AI** button at the bottom right, and press that button to open it again. **Versions** takes its place while it is open. |

On a narrow window, such as a phone, the panels become one slide-over with three tabs: **Edit**, **AI chat** and **History**.

## Change things yourself

Click anything on the page to select it. A small dark toolbar appears over it with **Edit text**, **Properties**, **Ask AI** and a **More actions** menu. Press **Esc** to clear the selection.

### Edit text

1. Select a heading, paragraph, button or link and press **Edit text** on its toolbar.
2. Type right on the page.
3. Click outside the text to save it. Until then the top bar says **Editing - not saved yet**.

### Properties

Press **Properties** to open the details of the selected element. What you see depends on what you selected:

- **Text**: a box with the element's words. Change them and press **Save text**. Press Ctrl or Cmd and Enter to save from the keyboard.
- **Image**: **Replace image** opens your media library, where you pick a photo or upload a new one. **Alt text** is what screen readers read aloud and search engines use, so describe the picture and press the check button to save it.
- **Link**: **Link to** takes a page path like `/contact` or a full address like `https://...`. Tick **Open in a new tab** if you want one, then press **Save link**. The editor warns you when no page exists at the path you typed.

### Move, copy and delete

The **More actions** menu on the toolbar has **Duplicate**, **Move up**, **Move down** and **Delete** for the selected part. **Layers** in the panel bar shows the whole page as an outline: click an item to select it on the page, or drag items to reorder them.

### Photos from your library

Open **Media** in the panel bar to see your photos. Select an image on the page and press a photo to swap it, or drag a photo onto an image. **Upload** adds new ones (see [Media](https://uselentil.com/docs/media)).

Screenshot: A selected heading with its toolbar and the Properties box.

Select something and its toolbar appears right over it.

## Ask the AI for a change

The AI chat on the right changes the page the way you would describe it to a person. It saves its changes as a draft, shows what it did, and every change can be undone.

1. Type what you want in the box at the bottom of the chat, for example **Make the headline more specific**. Press Enter to send, or Shift and Enter for a new line. A request can be up to 4,000 characters.
2. To change one part only, select it first. Its name appears as a chip above the box (for example **Hero heading**), and the AI works on just that part. Press the cross on the chip, or **Esc**, to go back to the whole page.
3. Watch the reply. It shows the steps the AI took, and for text changes the before and after wording. Press **Show steps** for the detail.
4. Under the reply, press **Looks good** to keep it, **Try another** to get a different take, or **Undo** to take it back.

On an empty chat, one-tap starters such as **Make the headline more specific**, **Make this page easier to scan** and **End the page with a clear call to action** get you going. You can also press **Ask AI** on the toolbar to ask about the selected part without opening the chat first.

### What the AI can change

- Text, sections, images and links on the page, or a whole new page layout.
- The shared header and footer, which then change on every page.
- Your site's colors and fonts (see [Design and theme](https://uselentil.com/docs/design)).
- It can find a photo in your media library or make a new image for the page.

### When a request does not finish

If the AI could only do part of it, stops, or hits a problem, the reply is a card that says what was kept and what was not done, with buttons such as **Try again**, **Finish the rest**, **Keep going** or **Undo all of this**. **Undo all of this** puts the page, header and footer back to how they were before the request. Color and font changes stay as they are. It is refused, changing nothing, when someone saved the page, header or footer again after the request.

One request at a timeThe AI works on one request per site at once. While it works, the box says so and a stop button replaces send. If it is editing another page of your site, wait for it to finish. Press the stop button to cancel a request. The reply then says what was already changed.

CreditsAI requests use AI credits from the workspace. When credit limits apply to you, each reply says how many credits it used and the chat warns you when the balance runs low. Editing yourself, previewing and publishing never use credits. See [Plans, billing and credits](https://uselentil.com/docs/billing).

Ask your assistant

```
On the Home page of my Lentil site, change the main headline to "Sourdough baked fresh every morning" and add our new Saturday hours (7am to 2pm) under the opening paragraph. Show me a screenshot of the page when you are done. Do not publish.
```

Uses `list_pages`, `get_page`, `edit_page`, `get_page_thumbnail`. [Connect an assistant](https://uselentil.com/docs/ai-assistants)

## Add sections and elements

Open **Add** in the panel bar for the section library: ready-made blocks that use your site's colors and fonts, with placeholder words for you to replace.

1. Optionally select the part of the page you want the new block next to.
2. Press a block in the panel. It is added and selected so you can start editing it.
3. Replace the placeholder words and photos with your own.

A section goes after the section you selected (at the end of the page when nothing is selected, and at the top of the page when you selected the shared header). An element goes right after the part you selected. Undo takes either back.

| Block | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| Hero | The opening section: a headline, one line of text, two buttons and an image slot. On a page that already has a main headline, the new headline becomes a section heading. |
| Services | A heading, an intro line and three service cards. Add or remove cards as you need. |
| Google reviews | Three review cards with star ratings and a link to your Google reviews. Replace the placeholders with real reviews only. |
| FAQ | Questions that open to show their answers. |
| Contact form | A contact form that sends messages to your inbox. It counts against the site's limit on forms (see [Forms and inbox](https://uselentil.com/docs/forms-and-inbox)). |
| Service area map | The areas you serve as a list beside a map image, with a directions link. |
| Text, Button, Image, Call button | Single elements. **Image** asks you to pick a photo first. **Call button** dials your business phone, so it is greyed out until you add a phone number in [Business profile](https://uselentil.com/docs/business-profile). |

Where a block has an empty image slot, select it and press **Choose image** to fill it from your library.

### Describe a section

At the top of the **Add** panel, **Describe a section** asks the AI to build one in your site's style. Type what you need, for example **FAQ about prices**, and press send. The panel says **Building your section...**, and the new section appears at the same spot a library section would go and is selected. This uses AI credits like any AI request.

Screenshot: The Add panel with the Describe a section box, the section tiles and the elements.

The Add panel: pick a ready-made block, or describe the one you want.

Ask your assistant

```
Add an FAQ section to the bottom of my Services page with four questions about pricing and booking, using the facts in our business profile. Do not publish.
```

Uses `list_section_library`, `get_business_profile`, `edit_page`. [Connect an assistant](https://uselentil.com/docs/ai-assistants)

## Header and footer

The header and footer are shared: you build them once and every page shows them. Open **Pages** in the panel bar and look under **On every page**. **Edit** selects the part on the current page. A part you have not set up yet says **Not set up yet**, and **Add** puts a ready-made request for the AI in the chat (for example to add a header with your logo, a link to each page and a call button). You read it and press send.

Header and footer changes are live straight awayUnlike page edits, a change to the header or footer, and a change to the colors and fonts, goes live on every published page right away. It does not wait for you to publish. The editor tells you so with a message such as **Header updated on every page**.

## Undo, redo and earlier versions

Every change you make creates a saved version of the page, so nothing is ever lost.

- **Undo** and redo sit at the bottom left, or use Cmd and Z (undo) and Cmd Shift Z (redo). They cover your edits, AI changes, and header and footer edits made in this editor, up to the last 50 steps.
- **Versions** at the top right lists every saved version of the page as a timeline, newest first. The one you are on says **Draft** (or **Live version** when nothing is waiting), and the one visitors see has a **Live now** badge.

### Bring back an earlier version

1. Press **Versions**.
2. Press **Preview** on a version to open it in a new tab and look.
3. Press **Restore** on the one you want. It becomes your draft, and the restore is added to the history as a new version. History is never rewritten.
4. Press **Publish changes** to make it live.

Restoring the live version is different: it throws away your draft changes and leaves the page with nothing to publish.

Screenshot: The Versions panel with a timeline, a Live now badge and Preview and Restore buttons.

Versions: preview any earlier state and restore it as your draft.

## Preview your page

- Press the **Desktop**, **Tablet** or **Mobile** buttons to see the page at 1280 pixels, 768 pixels or 390 pixels wide.
- Press the sun or moon button to preview the site in light or dark mode. This changes only what you see, not the site, and not the editor's own colors.
- Press **Preview** to use the page like a visitor: clicks follow links and forms behave normally. Press **Edit** in the same place to go back.
- Open **More page actions** and choose **Open preview in a new tab** to see the saved draft on its own, or **View live page** to see what visitors see now.

## Page settings and code

**Page** in the panel bar opens the page's settings: its **Page title** (used in navigation and, unless you set one, in search results), the **SEO title**, **Meta description**, **Page type**, **Social image**, and a box to hide the page from search engines. Change what you need and press **Save**. The fields are explained in [SEO and AI visibility](https://uselentil.com/docs/seo). The same panel has **Set as home page** on any page that is not the home page (see [Pages and redirects](https://uselentil.com/docs/pages)).

The **Code** tab next to **Visual** shows the page's HTML for people who know it. Edit it, then press **Save** (Cmd S); saving creates a new version. While you have unsaved HTML, the AI, page settings and publishing are paused: save or **Discard** first. Custom code that applies to the whole site is in [Advanced: code, tracking and CSS](https://uselentil.com/docs/advanced).

## Who can use it

- Owners, admins, members and clients can edit pages and publish them. A client can do this on the sites shared with them. See [Team and roles](https://uselentil.com/docs/team).
- Changing the shared header and footer and the brand colors and fonts needs the permission to change site settings, which all four roles have.
- Everything on this page works on both the Free and the Pro plan. Adding a Contact form block is subject to the plan's limit on forms, and AI requests use AI credits. See [Plans, billing and credits](https://uselentil.com/docs/billing).

## Limits and edge cases

- The save status in the top bar reads **Saving...**, then **Saved**. **Not saved** means the last change did not go through: try it again. **Not saved - page changed** means someone else, or an AI request from another window, changed the page: reload to get the latest version before you keep editing.
- A request to the AI can be up to 4,000 characters. Only one AI request runs at a time on a site, and it is paused while you have unsaved HTML.
- Undo and redo keep the last 50 steps while the editor is open.
- Photos you upload from the **Media** panel can be PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, AVIF or SVG, up to 10 MB each.
- A page title can be up to 120 characters, and so can the SEO title. The meta description can be up to 320 characters; search engines usually cut it off after about 160.
- When your site has other languages, a language switcher joins the top bar. Translated pages follow the English one, so in a translation the **Code** tab, the AI and the page settings are switched off. Switch back to English to use them. See [Languages](https://uselentil.com/docs/languages).
- If the page is deleted or your access is removed while you are in the editor, a notice says so and offers to copy any text you typed that was not saved.
- A page cannot be deleted while an AI request is working on it.

## From an AI assistant

An assistant connected to Lentil edits pages with the same rights as you. See [AI assistants](https://uselentil.com/docs/ai-assistants) to connect one. Everything it does to a page is a draft until you publish.

- `list_pages` and `get_page` read your pages. `get_page` returns the page's HTML with a `data-bid` id on every element, and the `currentVersionId` the assistant must pass back as `baseVersionId`, so it never overwrites a newer version.
- `edit_page` changes up to 20 elements at once (set text, replace, move, duplicate, remove, insert, set a link or an image's alt text) as one version. `replace_page_html` replaces the whole page body for large rewrites.
- `list_section_library` returns the same blocks as the **Add** panel, so an assistant adds a Hero or FAQ the same way you do.
- `list_page_versions`, `get_page_version` and `restore_page_version` are the history. `get_page_thumbnail` shows how the page looks.
- `update_page_settings` sets the page title and SEO fields. `edit_shared_part`, `get_shared_part` and `restore_shared_part_version` work on the header and footer, and `update_theme` on colors and fonts.

Safety rules: an assistant publishes only when you clearly say so (`publish_page`), and deleting a page asks you first. The header, footer and theme go live the moment they are saved, so a good assistant tells you before it changes them.

**Still have a question?**Write to us from **Help & support** in the app's account menu, or from our contact page.

[Contact support](https://uselentil.com/contact)

Updated 9 November 2026