Craft CMS 5.4: More Inline Editing for Faster Content Updates

Craft CMS 5.4 launched this week with a focus on speed and efficiency. The headline feature is expanded inline editing - letting you update common content attributes directly from index pages without opening the full entry editor. If your team makes frequent small updates to existing content, this will save considerable time.

Edit More Without Opening Editors

Craft 5.4 extends inline editing to several frequently-changed attributes:

• Entry post dates: Change when content is published without opening the full editor
• Entry expiry dates: Update expiration times for time-sensitive content
• Entry slugs: Fix or optimise URLs directly from the entries index
• Entry authors: Reassign content authorship with a quick inline change
• Category slugs: Adjust category URLs without diving into settings

This matters because these are exactly the kinds of updates content teams make regularly. Publishing schedules change, you spot a typo in a URL, you need to reassign content to a different author - all common tasks that previously required opening full edit screens.

Now you make the change right on the index page, save it, and move on. For teams managing hundreds of entries, the time savings add up quickly.

Improved Content Filtering

Element conditions - the system that controls which content appears based on rules - got more powerful in 5.4. You can now filter content by “Not Related To” (showing entries that don’t link to specific other content) and by site group for multi-site installations.

These additions make it easier to find content that needs attention. For example, you could find all blog posts that don’t have a related case study attached, or isolate content for a specific regional site group. Better filtering means less time hunting for the content you need to work on.

Better Link Field Control

The Link field introduced in 5.3 gained new settings in 5.4. Administrators can now control whether root-relative URLs (/page instead of https://example.com/page) and anchor links (#section) are allowed.

This control matters for sites with specific URL requirements or style guides. You can enforce consistency in how editors create links without needing to document and manually check every link.

What This Means for Daily Content Work

Craft 5.4’s improvements are about reducing friction in content management workflows. When you can update entry dates, slugs, and authors without opening full editors, routine maintenance becomes faster. When you can filter content more precisely, you spend less time searching and more time working.

None of these are transformative features, but collectively they make the platform more efficient to use. That efficiency compounds over weeks and months of content management work.

Matrix and Addresses Fields Get Smarter

For sites using Matrix fields (flexible content builders) or Addresses fields, 5.4 includes a useful improvement: newly-created nested elements now appear immediately on first edit, rather than only after they’ve been fully saved.

This makes the editing experience feel more responsive. When you add a new content block or address, you see it right away and can continue building out your content without waiting for save operations.

Regular Improvements Add Up

Craft releases like 5.4 arrive every few months, each bringing incremental improvements to specific workflows. Individually, expanded inline editing or better filtering might seem modest. But across a year of updates, the platform becomes noticeably more efficient to use.

Through our website maintenance support packages, we ensure client sites receive these updates monthly. You get access to new efficiency improvements without managing the update process, testing compatibility, or handling deployment.

If you have a Craft site and want help staying current with releases like 5.4, or if you need support managing your content infrastructure, email us at hello@mutual.agency.

Content management work should be as efficient as possible. Craft 5.4’s expansion of inline editing and improved filtering removes small points of friction - exactly the kind of improvement that makes daily work noticeably better.