Prevent Auto Layout Changes!

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Background: I have complex layouts on dynamic pages which took ages to structure & align

Issue: Whenever I open its editor page, cuz the placeholders are different from my final design, the layout messes up, misaligning everything. This happens EVERYTIME that editor page is freshly loaded. Fixing it takes a long time, & whenever it happens I’ve got to REPEAT this. This means I have to REDESIGN THAT PAGE EVERYTIME IT LOADS on editor, though I’ve made NO CHANGE. One shouldn’t have to redesign pages multiple times a week just cuz the site breaks itself just by existing. Across the duration of the site build the time wasted on this redundant process has accumulated too much, & I’m very frustrated.

Attempts so far: The current TEDIOUS workaround is, in each of those many pages, manually selecting each element (of which there are dozens) & copying their dimensions & positions & keeping them in a note, for when those multiple pages mess up by themselves. & each time it does, restructuring & aligning each & every one of them.

Q: 1. How to better prevent/fix this currently?

  1. I’m aware that there’s a feature request for locking layouts, maybe it’s been years? & it’s still collecting votes. Can this be expedited?

  2. Re that current workaround which has its other uses, is there another way to copy a page’s elements’ dimensions & positions?
    Very related to this issue, as well as a broader question; can all pages’ text & elements’ info & layouts be backed up in some way? This part is related to this forum post How to get & maintain a comprehensive blueprint of EVERYTHING that makes my site

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My alignment vs result after each load of breaking
My alignment vs result after each load of breaking701×394 18.4 KB

A root cause I’ve found was a collapsible text element. I’ve isolated this & recorded to demonstrate to you.

On my dynamic item page that loads by default, it doesn’t have text that need expanding, so it should just show its 1 line with no expand button.
But when it loads, that element briefly loads its default mode with the button, then goes back to its designed state, but breaks its position while returning.

I tried this with just the collapsible text element & it did preserve its positions when returning. So it happened when it also had that icon element next to it.
Grouping only partially solves it.
I only edit & align on that 1 dynamic item page I keep as a main design page. I set up its cms data so things that load on that page would be consistent with the basic alignments & won’t break it, but this brief load does break it.

With these findings, I look forward to people’s tips to solve this, & for the Wix team to fix in the future @noahlovell

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The general recommendation is to edit the placeholder content of text. e.g. disconnect it from the dataset, and change it to something like “Text” - which is short, and stops moving elements when switching between dynamic pages in the editor.