Frontpen – Front-End Editor

Description

Frontpen lets logged-in editors update paragraphs, headings and list items on the front end of the site, without opening the block editor. Click a piece of text, type your change, and it saves — the surrounding block markup, attributes and layout are left untouched.

It is built for content teams and copywriters who just need to correct wording, not rebuild pages.

How it works

• Editable blocks are marked up as they render, using a post-order index that the server reproduces exactly. This means editing works even for blocks nested inside Group, Columns or Cover blocks.
• Classic (non-block) posts work too: each rendered paragraph, heading, list item, table cell or caption is matched back to the identical element in the stored content, and only that element’s text is replaced on save. Text nested inside wrappers (such as a paragraph inside a list item, common in exported or AI-generated HTML) is found as well. Elements the server cannot verifiably match — theme or shortcode output, anything containing an image — are left alone rather than risk changing the design.
• Saves go through a dedicated REST endpoint that re-parses and re-serialises the post’s blocks server-side, so nothing about the block structure is lost.
• Every save is a standard WordPress revision, so you get a full history and can roll back at any time.

Features

• Inline editing of paragraphs, headings and list items on the live page.
• Classic content support — posts written as plain HTML (classic editor, imported or programmatic content) are just as editable as block posts.
• Block markup preserved — attributes, classes and layout survive every save.
• Native revisions — each edit is a WordPress revision, plus a one-click “Undo last save”.
• Autosave a moment after typing stops (configurable, or turn it off).
• Unsaved-changes guard warns before you navigate away with pending edits.
• Edit-mode toolbar — a small floating bar toggles editing on and off, so normal browsing is never disrupted.
• Reliable front-page control — authorized editors get an edit option on normal posts/pages; pages without supported blocks link to the standard WordPress editor instead of failing silently.
• Safe rapid editing — saves are queued to prevent simultaneous block updates from overwriting one another.
• Role and per-user controls — choose which roles may edit, always-allow specific users regardless of role, or block specific users entirely.
• Locking — lock a whole post from the editor screen, or exclude a single block by adding the frontpen-no-edit CSS class.
• Security first — every capability, lock and block type is re-checked on the server; the browser is never trusted.
• No build step, no page builder — plain PHP, CSS and JavaScript.

Who can edit

A user must (1) be logged in, (2) pass the access rules in the settings, and (3) already have permission to edit that specific post. The access rules combine roles with per-user lists: a blocked user can never edit, an always-allowed user may edit even if their role is not ticked, and everyone else follows the role list. Administrators can never be blocked. Visitors never see the editor or its markup.