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Navigating Directus

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the Directus dashboard. Here’s a quick tour so you know where everything is.

[SCREENSHOT: The Directus dashboard with the left sidebar visible and arrows pointing to the Content and Files icons]


The menu on the left is your main navigation. The two areas you’ll use most are:

IconNameWhat it’s for
Grid iconContentAll your website sections — home page, about page, services, settings, etc.
Image iconFilesYour media library — where all uploaded photos and videos live

Everything else (settings, users, etc.) is for your developer and you won’t need to touch it.


A collection is a section of your website. Think of it like a folder — each collection holds content for one part of your site.

To open a collection:

  1. Click the Content icon in the left sidebar.
  2. You’ll see a list of all your collections.
  3. Click the name of the collection you want to edit.

[SCREENSHOT: The Content area showing the list of collections with labels]


After you click a collection, you’ll see a list of entries (items) inside it.

  1. Click on any row to open that item.
  2. You’ll see all the editable fields for that item.
  3. Make your changes, then click Save (the blue button in the top right corner).

[SCREENSHOT: An item open for editing, showing text fields and a Save button]


Some collections have only one item — these are called singletons. When you click on a singleton, it opens the item directly instead of showing a list first.

Examples of singletons (only one item each):

  • home — your English home page
  • home_es — your Spanish home page
  • about — your English about page
  • settings — global site settings

Other collections have multiple items. For example, services has one item per service you offer, and services_page has one item per city.


Many fields on your site exist in both English and Spanish. Inside Directus, you’ll find a Translations section within certain items. It has two tabs — one for English (en-US) and one for Spanish (es-MX).

[SCREENSHOT: The Translations section inside an item showing EN and ES tabs]

Always check you’re on the right language tab before typing and saving.


All your photos and videos are stored in the Files area.

  1. Click the Files icon in the left sidebar.
  2. You’ll see all uploaded files.
  3. To find your gallery images, look for the folder named “gallery”.

You’ll use this area to upload new photos and videos to the Our Work page. See Uploading Photos for step-by-step instructions.