topic Re: The localization of the global content in staging sites in CMS Development

The localization of the global content in staging sites

HWu6 — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 08:56:51 GMT

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a website redesign/localization project using Content Staging, but I've run into two technical hurdles regarding Global Content and Rich Text formatting. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Q1: Localizing/Editing Global Content in Staging without affecting Live Site My primary goal is to localize Global Content (headers, footers, etc.) within my staging environment so that these changes remain isolated from the live site until I’m ready to publish.

The Issue: When I try to edit Global Content in the Staging editor or Design Manager, the changes seem to sync globally.
What I've tried: I created a Child Theme and updated the templates in Staging to use this Child Theme. However, I’m still unable to edit the inside of the Child Theme's Global Content versions, even though I can add icons outside the child theme header.
Question: Is there a best practice for "cloning" Global Content specifically for a Staging site or Child Theme so I can work on localization without any risk to the live production site?

Q2: Table and Text Alignment within a single Rich Text Module On my staging pages, I’m struggling with alignment consistency inside a Rich Text Module.

The Issue: I have a table and several paragraphs of text within the same Rich Text area. I want them to maintain the exact same horizontal alignment (e.g., perfectly centered or aligned to a specific margin), but they often appear slightly offset or inconsistent in the staging preview.
Question: Is there a recommended way (perhaps via Source Code or specific CSS classes) to force a table and the surrounding text to follow the same container alignment rules within one module?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Re: The localization of the global content in staging sites

BérangèreL — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 11:11:27 GMT

Hi @HWu6, welcome to the HubSpot Community, we are delighted to have you here! 🤗

Thank you for your detailed questions, these topics will be helpful to others working on localization and design in HubSpot as well.

Hey @TomM2, @ScottPennwood and @evaldas would you be willing to share your experiences with content staging to help out @HWu6? Your insights would be much appreciated!

Thank you so much and have a wonderful day! 🌞
Bérangère

Re: The localization of the global content in staging sites

RubenBurdin — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:10:31 GMT

Hi @HWu6 , both of these are very common pain points when doing localization with Content Staging, so you’re not missing something obvious. This is more about how HubSpot’s CMS is designed to protect production consistency.

For Q1, the important thing to know is that Global Content is global by design, even in staging. Content Staging lets you stage pages, not global modules. A global module has a single source of truth across all environments, themes, and stages.

Creating a child theme doesn’t clone the global module content itself, it only changes the template structure. That’s why edits inside the global module still propagate. The usual workaround in 2025 is to duplicate the global module itself and use a non-global version for staging or localization work.

You then conditionally swap which module is used at the template level for staging pages, or maintain separate headers per language rather than one truly global header. HubSpot confirms that global modules cannot be isolated per stage today (https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-and-landing-pages/redesign-and-relaunch-a-site-with-content-staging )

For Q2, Rich Text modules are flexible but a bit deceptive. Tables inside Rich Text don’t always inherit the same box model as surrounding paragraphs. The most reliable approach is to wrap both the table and the text in a shared container via the Source Code view, then control alignment with a custom class.

Alternatively, for anything layout-sensitive, using a drag-and-drop module with a Rich Text module plus a custom HTML module for the table gives you predictable alignment. HubSpot also recommends custom CSS classes over inline styling for consistent rendering (https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-pages/edit-content-in-a-rich-text-module )

One clarifying question: are you localizing by language (multi-language pages) or by region with different structural headers? The recommendation changes slightly depending on that. Hope this helps.

Re: The localization of the global content in staging sites

GRajput — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 08:24:07 GMT

Hi @HWu6

Q1: In HubSpot, Global Content can’t be edited independently in staging; it will always sync. The safest approach is to duplicate the global module/partial, remove its global status, and use that version only in staging or a child theme. This allows localization without impacting the live site.

Q2: Rich Text tables often include inline styles that cause alignment issues. A reliable fix is to wrap both the table and text in a single container or apply the same custom CSS class and control alignment through CSS rather than the editor.

I hope this will help you out. Please mark it as Solution Accepted and upvote to help another Community member.

Thanks!

Re: The localization of the global content in staging sites

HWu6 — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 08:33:57 GMT

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!

To answer your question: I am localizing by language but also need to make some structural adjustments for the specific region's staging site. I have tried cloning the global modules and swapping them at the template level as suggested. However, when I right clicked, it did not show the "clone" option, only containing " Clone to child theme" option.

I still managed to resolve the problem by changing the template my staging sites are using. By altering to another template that is not used by my live site, I can edit those global contents without changing the live sites. I really appreciate your guidance and merry Christmas in advance!

Re: The localization of the global content in staging sites

HWu6 — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 08:54:19 GMT

Thanks for the reply! Q1 has resolved, and for Q2, I have put the text and table in the same container, at first it is still in different alignment, but after I changed the template it magically had the same alignment. I guess that in the new template they go the same inline styles. Additionally, I checked out the custom CSS class you mentioned about. It seems that the custom CSS class is supposed to be written codes in the design manager first, and then applied in staging site? I unfortunately did not figure out where is the custom CSS class in staging sites edit pages.

Thanks again for your guidance and help!

Re: The localization of the global content in staging sites

Anton — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 09:17:01 GMT

Hey @HWu6,
As others already commented, the RTE (Rich-Text-Editor) is most times to flexible and working in the source-code is not recommended for many different reasons.

Also using tables is something I wouldn't recommend as tables are not that responsive and will most likely break your mobile view.

Something I recommend is:

Create a custom module with a column repeater and a nested row repeater, put text inputs into it and create CSS classes and styles to let it be fully responsive.

Just an example:

<div class="table-wrapper"> <div class="table-inner"> {% for column in module.table_columns %} <div class="table-column"> {% for single_row in column %} <span class="cell-input">{{ single_row.some_text_field }} {% endfor %} </div> {% endfor %} </div> </div>

A css could look like this (not tested, but it should give you a good start):

.table-wrapper{} .table-wrapper .table-inner, .table-wrapper .table-inner .table-column{ display:flex; flex-direction:column; } .table-wrapper .table-inner{ gap: 32px; } .table-wrapper .table-column{ align-items:flex-start; gap: 8px; } .table-wrapper .table-column .cell-input{ padding:8px; } @media screen and (min-width:768px){ .table-wrapper .table-inner{ flex-direction:row; gap: 48px; } }

Best,

Anton