Craft CMS 5.6 launched this week with features particularly useful for multi-site installations and content teams managing complex projects. The standout addition is the ability to copy field values between sites - a seemingly simple feature that solves a genuinely frustrating workflow problem.
Copy Content Between Sites
For multi-site Craft installations (sites serving multiple regions, languages, or brands from one CMS), content often needs to flow between sites with minor adjustments. Maybe you’re managing UK and US sites with mostly identical content but different spellings, or running multilingual sites where some content is universal.
Craft 5.6 adds “Copy value from site…” actions to custom fields. You can now pull content from one site into another field-by-field, rather than manually copying and pasting or recreating content entirely.
This is particularly useful for:
- Translatable content with common elements: Product descriptions that are mostly translated but share technical specifications
- Regional variations: Marketing content that’s similar across regions with localised references
- Brand variations: Shared content foundation with brand-specific messaging
The field action menu also includes “Edit field” and “Copy field handle” options, making it faster to jump to field configuration or grab technical identifiers for development work.
Smarter Content Filtering
Element condition rules - used for filtering content and controlling what appears where - got significantly more capable in 5.6. You can now specify multiple elements in “Related To”, “Not Related To”, “Author”, and relational field conditions.
This means you can filter to show entries related to any of several categories, authored by anyone in a specific team, or connected to multiple projects. Previously you’d need separate filters or complex queries to achieve this. Now it’s built into the interface.
The new “Field” condition rule replaces the older “Matrix field” rule and includes a “has a value” operator. This makes it straightforward to find content where specific fields are populated or empty - useful for content audit and quality control.
Improved Visual Elements
Colour fields with predefined palettes now primarily display as dropdowns rather than colour pickers. This change makes it faster to select from your brand’s colour system without dealing with colour picker interfaces.
Inline code fragments and attribute previews in card view both received visual improvements, making the interface cleaner and easier to scan. These small refinements accumulate to make daily work more pleasant.
Better User Management
For installations with user account systems, Craft 5.6 adds an “Affiliated Site” condition rule and a “Credentialed” attribute for user cards and tables. This makes it easier to manage and filter users based on their site association and authentication status - particularly useful for larger installations with complex user structures.
What This Means for Multi-Site Operations
If you’re running multiple sites from one Craft installation, the content copying feature changes daily workflows considerably. Tasks that required manual copy-paste or content recreation can now happen with field-level precision and speed.
For content teams managing regional or multilingual sites, this saves substantial time during content updates and maintains consistency across sites more reliably.
Field Management Becomes More Efficient
The ability to jump directly to field editing from content pages, copy field handles for technical work, and transfer values between sites makes field management more integrated into content workflows. You spend less time navigating between settings and content areas.
Staying Current With Regular Releases
Craft 5.6 represents the kind of focused improvement that arrives regularly. You’re not getting wholesale changes to the platform, but rather thoughtful additions that solve specific workflow problems. The value comes from receiving these improvements consistently over time.
Through our website maintenance support packages, we ensure client sites receive these updates monthly. When new capabilities like cross-site content copying arrive, you get access to them without managing the update process.
If you have a Craft site - particularly a multi-site installation - and want help staying current with releases like 5.6, or if you need support managing complex content across multiple sites, email us at hello@mutual.agency.
Content management systems should adapt to your workflows, not force you into rigid processes. Craft 5.6’s additions to multi-site content management and field handling make the platform more flexible for complex publishing operations.