Manage projects

In this module, you will learn how to use the Projects feature in Optimizely CMS to manage publishing workflows across multiple, related content items. You’ll explore how to associate content with a project, work in project mode, collaborate with reviewers, and publish or schedule all project items together.

After completing this module, you should be able to:

• Understand what a project is and how it helps coordinate multiple content items
• Activate or deactivate a project, and understand “None / use primary drafts” mode
• Associate content items automatically or manually with a project
• Manage the project overview (edit, set ready to publish, remove items)
• Publish or schedule the whole project
• Use comments and collaboration tools within a project
• Understand versioning behavior in project contexts

What a Project Enables

The Projects feature lets you group related content items—like landing pages, blocks, or products—and coordinate their publication as a unit. Projects support multi-language versions, so you can handle translations in context.

When a project is active, content creation or updates are automatically associated with it, except for some actions (e.g. moving pages, changing access rights) which remain outside project scope.

Activating & Using the Project Bar

A project bar appears at the bottom of the CMS window when Projects is enabled. From there, you can choose a project to work within or switch to None (use primary drafts) to operate outside any project.

While a project is active, most edits (creating pages, blocks, etc.) will automatically join that project. To stop associating content, you must deactivate the project.

Associating Items with a Project

Content may be associated with a project either automatically (via editing in project mode) or manually, by dragging items into the project overview.

Be cautious: some actions—like reassigning access or changing languages—do not automatically associate items. If items are incorrectly part of a project, they must be removed manually.

Project Overview & Item Management

The Project Overview view presents all items in the project, showing status (draft, published, etc.), content type, and last modified date.

Using the context menu on each item, you can:

• Edit the item
• Set it to Ready to Publish
• Remove it from the project

You can also operate on multiple items at once (e.g. bulk remove or bulk set to ready). From Options, you may publish all items that are marked as ready or schedule them for a future time.

Projects in Navigation Pane

If you add the Projects gadget, you’ll see a Project Items tab in the navigation pane. Double-clicking an item brings it into edit mode, and context menu options mirror those in the project overview.

Selecting multiple items is possible in this view as well, with sorting and refresh options available when multiple collaborators work on the same project.

Versioning & Projects

When using projects, version handling adapts:

• Each version of a content item is linked to a project or not.
• The project overview shows whether the version is Published, Draft, Previously Published, etc.
• If a content item is published outside of any project, it may get a “Previously published” status in the project view.
• Only one published version can exist at a time; publishing a version not associated with the project may change which version the project sees as active.

For more reference, see the official documentation: Manage Projects – Optimizely Support