Suggestion: Edit Global Widget from My Library

[paulherzlich]

My suggestion is to make a global widget editable from My Library like page or section templates are editable.

There seems very little technical difference between a global widget and a template. Both end up in the template library. Obviously there are different use cases where you might use one or the other, but you seem to be able to do almost the same things with them.

In the end, the biggest functional difference seems to be that you can’t edit a global widget from the template library (My Library). I wonder why. Why should it not be editable just like a page or section widget (on a kind of single post page of its own)?

To get around the editing restriction, I have created a section template containing just the global widget. So there doesn’t appear to be any technical impediment. In fact, on a big site, in usability terms, it would be useful not to have to track down an instance of a global widget on page, in order to edit it.

[arielk]

It's a little tricky, because a widget is in a context of the page, section and column, so we need to add different capabilities for it. But this is definitely something that we plan to add in the future, so I tagged this issue for the future.

Thanks for your feedback!

[cavalierlife]

At the very least, the library should list which post or page contains the widget, with a link, so we don't have to dig through every page and post on the site to remember where we first placed that widget.

[HelmutGoebel]

What about implementing after 9 month waiting?

[carlosnpz]

What about enable renaming global widgets?!

[black-eye]

+1

[pako69]

+100 ;-)

[gfdesign]

I want to change the name of some of my global widgets. Is that possible?

[mwittmann]

When you click on a global widget, the editor in the left pane gives no clue about what the name of the widget is! Please show the global widget's name in the editor.

I discovered you can right click on the widget to see the name (truncated if it's longish...) -- but there's no reason not to show it in the editor too. ;-)

[ynot729]

bump. Functionality of the global widget is great but limiting to only editing through an instance of it is very limiting.

[EricJammin]

+1, should be able to create / view the name of global widgets

[MAthez]

I need to insert a form in a tab, so I used a global widget for the form and call the shortcofe in the tab. But then UI really have noo idea where to edit the form, because it is not available to edit in the library. So +1 for this suggestion!

[wp-xpert]

yes the feature would be nice

[MB8862]

I see that a lot of people already requested for this feature to be added and I would like to add myself in the mix.

I recently did a change to my site and added Global Widgets. There were a few times when I needed to change a widget's name and there was no way to do so, so I had to create all the widgets all over again.

Giving us an option to edit widgets names would be a beneficial and time-saving feature for us all!

[pensierinmusica]

@arielk please enable global widgets renaming!! :)

[m0rg5]

+1, another, obviously missing feature. What IS the suggested workflow now? (Pro user)

[lelas]

+1

Elementor Pro customer here. I can't for the life of me figure out how to edit a global widget (specifically a menu mini cart I created). I understand that they get locked, but the instructions on how to edit them is seemingly useless. "Click the handle": Where? There's no "handle"/edit icon anywhere, the widget title is not a clickable link (in Saved Templates > Global Widget).

[bkwineper]

+1 It is a confusing way to organise global widgets as it is now - that you have to find an active instance and edit from there.

It seems that now they are listed in Templates > Saved Templates > Global Widgets but you cannot edit them from there. You can only View and Trash.

[thomasmalley]

Any news regarding this feature labeled as "request/enhancement" @arielk ?

[pierrehansen]

+1 Please improve global widgets. Quite incomprehensible why after 2 years there isn't any progress. Global widgets are highly impractical when it comes to renaming / editing.

[webdesign-emediastudios]

A solution is to create a new page, edit with elementor, drag the global widget in, edit it and save. My global widget was in the footer so that was my work around.

[MB8862]

A solution is to create a new page, edit with elementor, drag the global widget in, edit it and save. My global widget was in the footer so that was my work around.

That was my solution as well and I had to do that to 200+ pages. That's not a good solution. The purpose of this widget is to shorten the work time and not create more work.

[webdesign-emediastudios]

As long as you keep it as a global it will update on all pages wouldn't it? I'm new to Elementor, first build.. If I find a better solution I'll post it.

[redbarndesign]

Seriously? Is it still not possible in 2020 to modify a global widget and have it update every site instance... instantly? This basic "include" functionality has been around the internet since I started developing sites in 1997. Am I missing something here, Elementor?

/scratch that/ Here's the solution... https://docs.elementor.com/article/100-global /scratch that/

[ghost]

Still need this!

[RickMyles99]

I would like to rename global widget and also open it up to edit independent of any page.

[ghost]

We've been wanting that for a while now :c This suggestion is from 2017 and it's still not a thing. Angry!!!!

[richardaubin]

I started using Elementor Pro 3 days ago after migrating from Divi and already I'm finding that I need this functionality as well with global widgets.

[bkwineper]

Just a comment for everyone who wants this:

An easy work-around is to create a Section as a template that contains the global widget and nothing else. Then you can edit the global widget without opening a post. You just go into the Section Template that contains the widget. Not perfect, but it works better than having to do it through a post. Exactly like paulherzlich suggests in the initial post. (Just in cased you missed that part of his message.)

[lordloadalot]

No workarounds any more !! I had to build an extra private page with all widgets and "headlines" above to recognize them in order to edit them. it's enough now - it is a shame, really ...

[ghost]

Yes it is a shame. It makes me wonder why I am paying for Pro, which should be not only for the stability and security of the product, but for innovation and enhancements too, when requests for "basic" functionality like this have not been implemented. This request is from 2017 and I wouldn't be surprised if there are ones from earlier. Might convert to free.

[ob2a]

We all need to edit global widget with overrides, such as Sketch do.

[ArdentVerve]

Please, please, can you make Global Widgets have the ability to be renamed? I'm running across the necessity for this quite often.

Please, please, pretty please... with a cherry on top. :)

[wildmercury]

Any chance of getting this functionality (edit + rename global widgets) into the new theme builder section? Global widgets seem to have disappeared completely from the "Site Parts" listings.

[cavalierlife]

@wildmercury You'll find global widgets in Templates > Saved Templates, not in Templates > Theme Builder.

[hiproductions]

June 2021 and I still can't see any way of changing the name of a global widget in Elementor Pro. I see the "nest in section template" workaround above but that is so messy and counter-intuitive. Can we pleae get this very very simple edit request added after 4 years of clients, former clients and future former clients requesting it? Thanks a bunch.

[lioncatde]

Please make the globald widget exportable!

[AskClaireGuiot]

+1 Please make it so that we can rename global widgets

[tekonemedia]

Ya. would sure be nice ti edit global widgets directly from the templates panel. This would also allow us to give clients access to edit certain global widgets without having to give them editor access to one of the entire pages where the widget exists....

[4evermaat]

Approaching March, 2022....and no simple way to edit global widget name.

Luckily I only create 2 global widgets and have not really used them yet. But imagine if I use them heavily first....and then want to change the name.

[starshunter88]

+1

[Brink67]

Do you guys ever plan to make global widgets editable from the saved templates area of the admin dashboard? I keep running into the need to do this.

Most recently, just now. I moved a global widget to the trash temporarily and then restored it. I failed to consider that restoring it would bring it back as a draft. As a draft, it can not be added to a page. Also as a draft and being a global widget you have no ability to edit it from the dashboard and can not change it's status from draft to published.

So effectively, if you trash a global, it is toast for the average user unless it already exists somewhere on a page or post. I know that I can recover it by doing a mysql manual edit of the status, but I should not have to do that.

I can't see why we can't simply edit a global from the "saved templates" area (or library if you will). It would be much easier to change globals than locating and editing a page that contains it. The whole point of a global is to make edits in multiple locations easier right? Warn us that this is a global that we are editing and then allow the edit outside of the page.

It is shame that we are still asking for this 5 years later on a product that we are paying for every year.

[tekonemedia]

Ya we still really need this. Extremely inefficient as is.

[Brink67]

How is it inefficient? I would like to understand if there is a real reason that it is not like that already other than "need to protect global edits from accidental edits". I try to understand reason. Is there a reason other than the mentioned?

[inspiredearth]

What's going on there at Elementor dev department? For years people have been requesting something as simple as renaming global widgets. Oddly, simple requests such as that one (e.g. here) were merged into this thread, which is asking for something far more complex (namely, the editing of widgets from the Library side of things).

Surely a simple rename feature is hardly rocket science?

[Brink67]

When asking why in the Elementor Facebook group, someone pointed out to me that there is a "template" widget. I was unaware of that.

It allows you to place the widget on any page and then set it to load any template from the elementor template library. If you do this anywhere you want a particular template to appear then that template becomes effectively "global" and IS editable directly from the library. Just don't use global widgets, use template widgets instead with a naming convention in the library that lets you know which templates you are using as global placements.

[lordloadalot]

To keep an eye on all those little abandoned issues I createt a List. Editing Global Widgets was one of them. It still costs me lots of hours when working with Custom Fileds in the Backend and Global Widgets forwarding dynamic values e.g. within Sliders. https://twitter.com/ElementorBugs/status/1497927010739494913?s=20&t=syOsh5IZR5Phj4TJKw0v1w

[hvorrath]

Another vote for this one. By accident I have two Global widgets with the same name. Doesn't seem to be any way to delete one of them, or to change the name. Very frustrating as it will make maintenance a pain.

[Matherone]

It appears that while Elementor promotes the use of global widgets, there still is no way of renaming them.

It looks like users can end up with a large number of global widgets that share same name and that cannot be renamed.

This deficiency in Elementor makes it difficult and error-prone to work with global widgets.

• Would you please enable renaming global widgets?

[Brink67]

When the "Template Widget" was introduced it effectively made global widgets obsolete. I doubt that we will see any further improvements to the global widget. It remains in the code for backwards compatibility so that websites that are using them will continue to work.

You can create a template in the template library and name it whatever you want (or export a part of a page as a template and name it). Make it a regular template, i.e. not a global. Then anywhere that you want to use it like you would use a global widget, simply use the "Template Widget" and set its source to use the template that you previously created.

Now your template has a name and can be used anywhere just like a global.

[Matherone]

@Brink67 - Thank you, your reply is helpful to me and others.

I was wondering why Elementor is offering both global widgets and templates, when templates seem to be a more capable, but if it's for legacy compatibility reasons, as you indicate, then that makes sense. I should try using only Templates going forward.

But what about other users? It is far from obvious from the Elementor UI that using templates is the preferred way forward. So I guess users will keep adding global widgets and prolong Elementor compatibilty issues indefinitely.

Something similar, perhaps, holds true for designing using Flexboxes versus Sections-and-columns?

Backwards compatibility appears to be a major problem for Elementor (and other page builders) - old bad code is reapplied on new sites, the garbage piles up, the house never gets clean.

Even if I build a new website from scratch – how am I as an average user supposed to understand which Elementor features and widgets are inofficially deprecated, and which are preferred for the future? They look the same to me.