Step-by-Step Guide: Building a Dynamic Slider with Webflow's CMS for Your Website

Hey there! I’m Anastasia, a Webflow expert and website templates designer from Elish. In this tutorial I’ll guide you on how you can build a slider using Webflow CMS (content management system) feature.

If you’re new to Webflow, I understand how you may feel overwhelmed by its rich interface. When designing a CMS slider, you may not know exactly how to approach it. And Webflow University resources say that at the moment sliders can’t be populated with CMS automatically. Although, there’s a workaround they suggest which exactly what we’re going to implement in this tutorial.

I think that building a slider using Webflow's CMS feature is a straightforward process that can be done by anyone, regardless of coding experience. All you need is to grab a cup of your favorite drink (I’ll have coffee ☕️) and follow this step-by-step guide. This tutorial will be helpful whether you purchased a template or started building your website from a blank canvas. So take a sip, and let’s get started.

Step 1: Set up your CMS Collection

The first step is to create a CMS Collection in Webflow if you don’t have it yet. To create, click on the "Collections" tab in the left-hand menu, then click the "Create new collection" button.

Give your collection a name and add any necessary fields. For a slider, you may want to include fields for image, headline, description, rich text, and a switcher for featured items.

For this tutorial, I created a CMS collection of services. I added Headline, Short description, and Image fields. Watch the walk-through screen recording video:

Step 2: Create your Slider

Next, add the slider element to your canvas. Give it a class name and style it as you want. Also, give the class name to the Slide element and style it.

The trick here is that each Slide will have its own Collection List. So you can start working with the first Slide and remove the other slide for now. Simply select the Slide 2 element and click Delete on your keyboard. We’ll add more slides later.

Step 3: Add CMS collection list to your Slider

Next, select the Slide element on your canvas and add the CMS collection list element from the Add menu. This will allow you to pull content from your CMS Collection. Select the source for your Collection list. Then design and style your Collection list.

When you finish styling, go to the Collection list Settings panel on the right-hand menu, scroll to Limit items, tick the Limit checkbox there and set ‘Start at’ 1. Here's the video on how to do that:

Yay, now you have a Slide template that is ready. And you’re almost done!

Pro tip: You can also add Slider change interactions to create a more engaging user experience.

Step 4: Add more slides

Once you have added content to your first Slide and styled it, you can now duplicate it. Select the Slide element, copy and paste it as many times as you need.

Then, open each new Slide and change the ‘Start at’ number of the Collection List for each Slide to the corresponding number, e.g. 2, 3, 4, etc. Check this video on how to do that:

Step 5: Publish your Slider

Finally, you can publish the website with your new CMS Slider by clicking on the Publish button in the top right-hand corner of the Webflow. Congratulations, your site is live! You can add new slides and edit contents any time now.

I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step guide. Now you can create a dynamic and engaging slider that will enhance your website's design and functionality.

Bonus: I created a free cloneable project for you! Feel free to clone it to your Workspace and use it the next time you want to create a CMS Slider for your website.

Please share this tutorial with people who you think can benefit from. Also, if you have any questions, hit me up with an email. Cheers!