---
title: "Placeholder"
source: https://dev.pageseeder.com/reference/glossary/placeholder.html
description: "An inline placeholder element that displays metadata property values directly in content, enabling single-location editing with multi-location display across publications and component documents."
last_updated: 2026-09-05T17:35:22+10:00
tokens: ~236
---

# Placeholder

An inline [\<placeholder\>](../../psml/elements/element_placeholder.md) element that displays the value of a metadata property directly in content. This allows content (text, date or datetime) to be edited in one location, but shown in multiple. Because the property can belong to the [publication](publications.md), the same [component document](component_document.md) can display different content in different publications. 

Also, the creation and resolution of placeholders are accessible to anyone that has permission to edit the document.  Both can be dynamically created, populated, and resolved by users with no need to modify the [document template](document_template.md).

## Configuration

Metadata properties for placeholders don’t require any specific configuration, but they can only be mapped to [single value properties](../../psml/elements/element_property.md) with a type of: `text`, `date`, or `datetime`.